Coaching the Girls How to Move as a Team

The concept is simple to me: If you back-pass to your left (facing your own goal), then after the pass you move to your left in anticipation of getting the ball back. If you're the back, the movement will be to your right, so take your first touch away from the pressure (to your right) and then put the ball out wide of the forward in the direction she's already running. To finish off the play, after the back puts the ball out there for the forward, she should "go" and get the "give and go" started. It makes for a beautiful game.

We worked on this a couple of weeks ago when we only had 4 girls at practice and things went very well. This week, with 4 different girls (and 4 others working on their own), things seemed much more difficult. I suspect the difference was me. Having done it before, I probably tried to move to quickly from a simple thing to a more complicated thing. I'm not good at teaching the same thing twice. The first time I coach a concept, we're discovering it together. The second time, I'm waiting for the girls to catch up. It's a different perspective.

In the end, I just asked the 4 to play 3 v 1 keep-away for a while and encouraged them to take the first touch away from the pressure and ask the other girls to give some good support with good off the ball movement. This was basically more fun, and there was clearly plenty to learn still. It also took a lot fewer words.

I have to constantly remind myself that if it takes more than a sentence to explain a concept, I should probably simplify it. Going in to tomorrow's practice, I will keep that in mind. Simplifying makes if more fun for the girls and the coaches. Soccer games are always better teachers than a soccer coach's words.