First Travel Game

Comment

Comment by Tim Horton on September 27, 2009 at 3:37pm

Hi Sean,
our of curiosity what formation are you playing? I have a U10 Intramural team that plays 6 vs 6 and started of playing a 2-1-2 but had no success with that because to many players would be caught up field and would not retreat on defense. I changed to a 2-2-1 and this proved much easier for the girls to understand, allowed for more team defense as well as the midfielders getting into the attack. We did not score any goals in our first two games and this week we scored two goals. One also was a defender receiving the ball at half field and dribbling all the way to the goal and scoring. A great lesson to reinforce to the girls that when we have the ball, Everyone is on offense including defenders.

Have you had a practice or two yet that focuses on passing and receiving? Up to last week I had been focusing on dribbling skills such as change of direction and 1 vs 1. I introduced a passing and receiving practice with lots of repetition's on passing technique and receiving, turning and passing. During the scrimmage it was obvious they felt much more comfortable with passing and also their communication improved automatically now because they were asking the other girls to pass. So this also helped to improve team play. I also continue to ask them what moves faster, the ball or the player and if anyone says the player, we do a quick demo where that player has a race between a player passing the ball to me and they have to run and try to get to me first before the ball. They soon realize the benefit of passing.

My one word of advice is do not focus your activities on defending but make them more economical. That means you work on several things at once. So I would continue to focus on the attacking skills of playing 1 vs 1, 2 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 but you can introduce the concept of 1st defender and 2nd defender in those games and ask defenders questions of what would be the best position as a defender, how can the second defender help or support the 1st defender. This way you continue to focus on developing skills and creativity but can address defending as part of the activity.

Lastly, working on lots of small sided games that require cooperation such as 2 vs 1, 3 vs 1, 4 vs 1, 3 vs 3 and 4 vs 4 etc will help to introduce a lot of the defensive aspects and team work into practice because in those small sided games you cannot hide as a player and they present many opportunities for you to coach in the game or stop and paint a picture for your team.

Hope this helps.
Tim

Comment by Sean Kane on September 27, 2009 at 11:14am

Hi Tim,

We lost! Just what I expected. Our opponent played direct balls forward and then centered them to weak side attackers. Great football I guess, for 12 or 14 year olds. We're under 10. We dribbled. A lot. I thought many off our girls surprised with take on moves. Our girls have no defensive concepts. We tried letting anyone go forward, and having midfield captains recognize this and stay back. Didn't work out so well! But I hate 'planting defenders'.

1 v 1 Our girls had a great day. Team play? Not so good. In our second game this Saturday I played holding defenders, and team game improved. On the other hand, two of our best ball handlers reverted to kick it/clear it from the back no matter what we said. I really really agree with the idea of far less competitive games, and more practice at this age. I want to work 1 v 1 defending, 2 v 1 defending, 2v2... but I also have to throw them on a six a side pitch on Saturdays.

Any suggestions?!

Sean

Comment by Tim Horton on September 22, 2009 at 12:25am

So Sean, how did you team make out in your first couple of games?

Cheers
Tim

Comment by Sean Kane on September 10, 2009 at 9:53pm

Thanks Tim. I have to admit my only real worry is avoiding any kind of demoralizing score, on either side.

Sean

Comment by Tim Horton on September 10, 2009 at 9:36pm

Hi Sean,
I think these are great goals for your players and parents. All positive, encouraging creativity and no discussion about having to win. I like the message. Keep it up.

Cheers
Tim