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This week I discovered that the training session I did on give-and-goes helped my young players better understand how to stay onside. The coaching point for the wall passer is to stay on the shoulder of the defender. This creates an angle to receive and pass around the defender.

When one of my players was offside a couple of times during the game I told him to, ‘Stay on the shoulder of the defender until the ball is played just like in the give-and-go.’ You could almost see the light bulb go on over his head!

The rest of the game I could see the players watching the defender and moving to stay on his shoulder. They weren’t always able to say onside but they understood what they were trying to do.

The discovery of this ‘crossover’ effect was exciting because I would never spend a training session working on staying onside but being able to relate the work on give-and-goes to staying onside made that session more than twice as effective.

Adjustments to Small-Sided Game

Small-sided games are an important part of our training sessions. They help to create the link between the technical and tactical work we do with our teams and the games they play on the weekend. Using different rules and adjustments to your small-side games will help your players to focus on the aspects of the game you’re trying to teach. This week I share many of the ways that I adjust my small-sided games to get the most out of them.

Traditional Adjustments

• Limit Touches
  • Two
  • One
    •  One after Two
  • Fake Each Time
  • One/Two/Fake before Two
  •  Only Count One Touch
• Require touches
  • Five each time
• Dribble Forward – Pass Back
  • Anson Dorrance

• Sprint After Pass
  • Any Direction
  • For 1-2
  • For Overlap
  • Drop Off
• Match Up
  • 1v1
  • Sprint around
• No Talking

Shape of the Field

Tapered

Triangular

Short and Wide

Long and Narrow

Central Goal

Restarts

• a. Throw in
• b. Kick in
• c. Coach
• d. Balls on Cones
• e. Always with GK
• f. High Ball
• g. Corner
• h. Numbered Sprints

Unique Adjustments

• Different Ball
  • Soccer Ball, Futsal Ball, Kick Ball
• Colored Balls
  • Red-Two Touch
  • Blue-One Touch
  •  White-Unlimited
• Headbands Instead of Vests

Checkout Brazilian Training Games for even more great ideas for small-sided games.

Remember!

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In the Next Episode

I’m working on a number of topics for future episodes: Functional Shooting Exercises, The Keys to Coaching U8 and Below, Position Specific Possession and a follow up interview with Bob Warming about linking technical training to game play.

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