Coaching Soccer Weekly

Coaching Soccer Weekly

A Podcast that Shares Training Sessions, Interviews and Commentary from WORLD CLASS COACHING

March 25, 2016

#053 Agility and Competitive Shooting Games

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SAQLast week was spring break for the schools in Kansas. The spring time here means that we often alternate between 80 degree temps on one day and snow the next. It also tends to be very windy at this time.

I think the wind is one of the most challenging elements to train through. Especially when you’re on turf. It’s not just balls in the air that are affected but just dribbling and passing on the ground accurately becomes difficult.

Each spring we have a lot of players that travel for spring break but there are also many that don’t. Since our club trains all of the teams in the age group at the same time we’re able to combine our small groups of players into larger groups that create more energy and excitement in the training session.

AgilitywithoutBall

Four Station Agility Without the Ball

  1. Number 4 Sprint and Shuffle – Right
  2. Speed Ladder – Start Left
  3. Number 4 Sprint and Shuffle – Left
  4. Speed Ladder – Start Right

AgilitywithBall

Four Station Agility With the Ball

  1. Dribble and turn inside right
  2. Dribble and turn inside left
  3. Dribble and turn outside right
  4. Dribble and turn outside left

SprintTurnShootComp

Sprint, Turn and Shoot Competition

  1. First player
  2. Pass in front for one touch shot
  3. Other team retrieves balls
    1. If they run out of soccer balls
  4. One minute to score
  5. Switch roles

PowerFinesse

Power and Finesse

  1. Two teams
  2. The coach passes
  3. One long shot with power
  4. One shot closer with placement
  5. If you score one you’re safe
  6. If you miss both you’re out
  7. If you score both you can challenge a member of the other team who must make both

Coaching Points

  • Long Shot with laces
  • Focus on ‘Contact’
  • Place closer shot with inside of the foot

Variation

  • Close shot is a header

DifDistances

Shooting from different distances

  1. Two teams
  2. One goalkeeper for each team or one for both
  3. Start 25 yards away
  4. Move closer by 5 yards each round
  5. Team retrieving balls has 25 second to set soccer balls for the next round
  6. Game goes from focusing on driving balls to placing them

4v4Tourney

4v4 Small-Sided Games Tournament

  1. Multiple teams together
  2. Divide the player equally among four teams
  3. Play three games
    1. Three points for win
    2. One for a tie
  4. Top two teams play again in the final
  5. Chance for players of different levels to play together

This type of training session is not an ideal situation but there are times when you’ll be missing players for whatever reason and a practice like this will still allow the players who are there to get something useful done while also creating an energetic and competitive environment.

Printable Show Notes

053AgilityandCompetitiveShootingGames

The show notes for each episode are accessed through the WCC Training Center.

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In Future Episodes

Next week I’m going to describe a session that I’ve used with my players to help them improve their ability to control balls out of the air. I find that this is a topic that isn’t covered very often in most age groups but it’s especially important for young players now that heading the ball is no longer an option for them.

Comments

  2. Show notes link still doesn’t work. The link opens to image file and not a PDF. Please fix.

  3. Hi Tom,
    Seems the link still doesn’t work.

    Thanks for all your help with the coaching, much appreciated.

    Neil

    • I’ve done these games with teams as young as U8. The only exception is the Power and Finesse game. I haven’t used that with U8 or U9 teams. I suppose you could but I thought it was a little to complicated for my teams at that age.