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Last weekend was a busy one; I had six games between my four teams. The results were 3-2-1. The interesting thing was that the teams were 1-1-1 on Sunday and I LOVED the performance of my teams in every game. My approach was different with each group but I think it really matched with what they needed on the day a struck a balance between too much direction and not enough. Realizing that the balance needed by each team will be different and that sometimes even different for one team from one game to the next has been an interesting insight that I’ve come to after reflecting on each game.
This weekend I just have one game. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself although I’m sure my ‘Honey, do….’ list will fill my extra time.
The following weekend I have two teams playing their last tournament of the fall. That will be fun because one team is playing up that doesn’t usually and the other team usually plays up but isn’t for this tournament.
That will wrap up my fall schedule and then it’s time for FUTSAL!
Today’s question comes from Mike. He’s asking about teams building out of the back.
Mike says,
”My question for you deals with your experience in seeing other teams in your area build out of the back. I know this is something you try to do with your teams, but do you see many other teams in your area doing the same?
I recently moved to a major metropolitan area known for its soccer and have been shocked at how little I see building out of the back at the youth level (my experience here has mostly been with competitive U12-15 teams on the girls side). Game after game, team after team, most keepers simply punt the ball as far as they can whenever they get their hands on it.
So, is my experience here unique, or are you seeing this in your area as well? I was really hoping that most youth teams in the U.S. had evolved past this detrimental practice.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on this.“
Thanks for your question Mike!
I’m glad you enjoy the podcast and find it interesting.
Some teams do build from the back while others continue to just punt it up the field. There are a lot more teams trying to build that there were a couple of years ago so I consider that a good sign. I also see more young teams trying to keep the ball. As those players will have grown playing possession from the back my hope is that it will become the norm.
The older the team, the more likely they are to simply punt it up the field (in general).
In this Episode
Back in episode #144 I discussed starting practice with a small-sided game. At the time, this was my understanding of Play – Practice – Play. Since then I’ve learned much more about it having taken several of the online Grassroots courses. I’ve also been using the methodology with my own teams. Today I’ll review how my understanding of PPP has evolved as well as the strengths and limitations of the method.
Future Episodes
I don’t have a plan for next week. I have a couple of ideas. Let me know if somethings on your mind and I’ll add it to my list.
Some thoughts on play-practice-play – I concur 100% about the technical aspects don’t really fit in PPP as it is taught – you suggestions to gamify technical training into 1v1 is the right approach though to get the repetitions and give it some context.
I started myself with PPP four seasons ago – the first season I dabbled, the second season I got better, and the third season I went all in – 100% PPP. Sadly at the end of that season during field evaluations I could see that although my players had made some strides tactically and in reading the game their technique was worse not better.
This season I’ve adopted your idea – one practice a week is tactical focused and uses PPP – the other is technical and uses a more progressive style (simple to complex). That said I do try to gamify everything but in the desire to get repetitions I’ll sacrifice a lot of representative context – just trying to wire in a bit of that mind-muscle connection.
Next Spring I plan to take your idea of coming up with 1v1 games to bring out technical aspects of turns to help move the ball, turns to beat a player, receiving away from pressure etc. Hey it could be the basis of a great technical book for you – fun 1v1 games that help put technical training in a context.
Let me know if you come up with any really good technical activities that are game related. Maybe you’ll end up writing the book 🙂
Hello, I recently attended a Coach Educator’s course organised by CAF and facilitated by FIFA with the main emphasis on teaching and coaching methodology; the Global Form Model which I assume Is the same as the Play – Practice – Play model. Am I correct?
Please note that I would like to read more about this coaching model which is new to a lot of us. Can you kindly direct me to any resource on this coaching methodology because I ant to learn more about it and how to conduct training sessions.
Regards!!!
Kaelo,
I’m not familiar with the ‘Global Form Model’ so I’m not sure how much it’s like Play – Practice – Play. The Mass Youth Soccer Association website has a lot of great info about PPP. I’d suggest that you Google ‘Play Practice Play Training Session’ the Mass website will be one of the first results.
Tom
Tom:
I coach Middle School Girls’ soccer PLUS assist at Varsity and do Keeper work for both teams. I have been thinking of incorporating the FIFA 11+ warm up into a P-P-P FORMAT. We practice 4 days per week (nothing Wed because of religion classes) in the pre-season and a minimum of 2 practices during the season (depends on the League game schedule).
Our practices are 45-60 minutes long so I believe i have plenty of time to work on the objectives of FIFA warm up to prevent injuries, while being able to do P-P-P. I am new to the concepts of P-P-P. Our middle school girls are the feeder program for the Varsity team. For some of our girls the Middle School program is their first exposure to soccer– others come from a club soccer background. Any thoughts?
Kenneth,
I’m not sure what a combination of FIFA 11 plus PPP would look like. The PPP activities need to be game like and I don’t see how you can incorporate the FIFA 11 into a game-like environment. If you have a way to do it I’m all ears.
Tom