Passing in the Fast Lane

No, I'm not talking about driving. We played a new game yesterday that really seemed effective.

I like simple, self-correcting games that I can explain once and then let them play. In this one, I setup a "lane" 10 yards wide and 40 yards long. 3 girls started at one end and 2 girls we set to stop them. The object was for the 3 girls to dribble or pass their way to the other end without letting the ball get out of the "lane". Even though it was 3 v 2, they really struggled at first. However, with some tips on shielding the ball under extreme pressure and supporting your teammates, they got better. Then we pointed out that passes need to be to the side of your teammates away from the pressure. Then we talked about first touches away from pressure and even up the lane. We saw some quicker passes in a give-and-go situation. To top it off, we enforced offsides which made it really tough and certainly reinforced this tricky topic.

I really think they learned a lot. They had to be more precise and think quicker than normal. Hopefully, it will make the wide open space of the field seem slow and easy.

First Touch and Getting it First

I expect the girls' off the ball movement to improve slowly with our current plan. However, their first touch is still a problem. Also, while we still need a lot of work on seeing all the possible passes, we get miscommunications; one player will be looking for a through-ball and the passer will send it toward her feet. The result is the defender steps up and wins the ball. We're going to have to learn how to read the defense so we are all on the same page.

Even more importantly, our first touch still needs work. The ball is bouncing all over the place. To address this, I'm thinking of a game where players will have to keep it close and keep it safe from a defender. Perhaps a game where we have small boxes setup around the field and a player from each team in each box. The blue team will have to receive the ball without letting it rebound out of the box and at the same time shielding it from the opponent in her box. Then she needs to pass it to a teammate in another box. With these constraints, I think we'll be able to make the lack of first touch obvious to the players. However, I'm a little concerned that this drill may encourage them to wait for the ball rather than coming back to it. Hmmm.

Passing the Point

We have been working on "passing the point" and I like what I see. The girls started off real shaky, but got better quickly. It takes a lot of concentration to be working on setting up a contract to get the ball from one teammate and give it to another all while the ball is bouncing around you. They just want to watch the ball. It's hypnotic. We have to break that spell with a disciplined effort.

We simplified things by first just passing the point, no ball movement at all. After a few rounds of making sure everyone had both of their contracts, they got better at just this step. Then we had them pass the point and when everyone had their contracts, they passed the ball to complete the contracts. It took several rounds of this to get them in the habit of remembering who to expect to get the from and who they would give the ball to (pardon the poor grammar). After that, we tried getting the ball moving before all the contracts were complete. We still have a way to go. However, we now have a common understanding and a common language to describe this fairly complex topic.

Passing the Soccer Ball - Make a Contract

Passing the soccer ball effectively requires that you have a plan before you get the ball. While the technical skills to receive and pass the ball are certainly prerequisites, teaching the girls to stop ball watching and start thinking isn't easy. I tried out a new idea and it looked like it was working.

I first explained to the girls what a contract was - in our case, an agreement between players to pass and receive the ball. Each player needed to first get a contract from a teammate to pass the ball to them. Next to get a contract with a different player to whom they would pass the ball. That doesn't sound very simple, does it. A simple means of communicating this contract is the key.

Here's what we did:

• If you don't have a contract, raise your hand.
• A player who has a contract to receive the ball looks for a player with their hand in the air and points to that player. If a player points at you, you have your first contract.
• Now you lower your hand and point to another player that needs a contract. When that deal is done, you're ready to receive the ball.

In essence what happens is you "pass the point". The players will be pointed at and then do the pointing all before the ball arrives. Now you have player anticipating the action, watching off the ball movement, and ready to move the ball quickly to another player after receiving it. After the pass is made, she raises her hand again and tries to get a new contract.

This gets them thinking the right way, then you make sure they're moving to get open so the first pass is an easy one for their teammate. Just standing with your hand in the air is not the idea.

We'll keep working on this and see if it translates to the game.

The Coach's Vision for the Team

I wrote some recent articles on coaching good field vision in your soccer players. However, there is a different type of vision a good coach should have. I'll admit I'm weak in this area myself.

A coach should have a clear vision for how he wants his team to play. I personally have often focused more on the tactics and skills we need to improve on to make up for some gaps revealed in the previous match rather than having a long-term vision of what we should be working toward.

Of course, you need a little bit of both. However, having a long-term vision and making sure you're working toward it takes a bit more discipline. The plan I have to help me will be to:

1. Have a real vision. I mean a real picture in my head. In the case of soccer, more like a movie.
2. Try to find something measurable to help you gauge your progress toward that goal. If your vision is to look like Barcelona (a bit ambitious perhaps), should you count the number of successful passes? Is there a better metric?
3. Set incremental goals with dates. This will force you to prioritize the work necessary to reach your long-term goal. Since you have a metric, setting intermediate goals should be easy.

Finally, the coach's vision needs to take into account the strengths of his players. Forcing a square peg into a round hole is a hopeless task.

Another Soccer Vision Game

I mentioned earlier a game to improve soccer vision where a leader ensures the follower is dribbling with "eyes up". I just read about a different version of the game where both the leader and the follower have a ball. The rules are simple. The follower tries to tag the leader without loosing the ball. The leader tries to remain untagged without loosing her ball. When the leader is tagged, the players switch.

I'm a little worried about the leader being so "careless" with the ball that the follower doesn't really have a chance. However, we may be able to deal with this by limiting the space to a fairly small square or something like that. I'm pretty sure the kids will like this one.

Coaching your Soccer Kids to have Split-Vision

I was recently reading an article on coaching your players to have better vision on the field. "First touch" skills are, of course, a prerequisite to good vision and that's still an area where we need to work. Still if I can improve my players' vision with some occasional drills at the same time, I think it is time well spent. Some points in the article reminded me of a drill we ran recently that the girls really seemed to like. It was very challenging and there was lots of giggling to boot. (Our friend Sarah taught this drill to us.)

Here's the key steps of the drill:

1. Pair up the girls with each pair having one ball.
• One player is the dribbler.
• The other player is the leader.
2. The leader, while facing the dribbler, starts running backwards.
3. The dribbler must keep the ball as close to the leader as possible while maintaining eye contact with the leader. The challenge is to keep the distance between the dribbler and the leader to a minimum.
4. The leader varies her speed and changes her direction constantly.

The dribbler learns to keep the ball close (if she dribbles it too far ahead, it will contact the leader) while keeping her head up because she has to maintain good eye contact. If she looks down, the leader reminds her to look up.

Hopefully, this drill will build more self-confidence in the girls so they will take a look around and know they won't lose control of the ball.