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Pre-season: practise set pieces
Set pieces are a vital part of your match day experience... often they present your team with a good chance to score a goal, and they are the key link to restarting the game when the ball goes out of play. They deserve to be practised!
Set pieces are a vital part of your match day experience... often they present your team with a good chance to score a goal, and they are the key link to restarting the game when the ball goes out of play.
Throw-ins, corners and free kicks all give an opportunity to score goals and goal kicks are the launchpad for a possession game that takes the ball up through the thirds and into dangerous areas of the pitch.
You also need to look at set pieces from the defending angle – organisation is key to making sure silly goals are not given away. This can be the winning difference for your team if they can get organised to cover the moves of your opponents.
Here are some ideas and sessions to help you get your team ready in pre-season to use set pieces effectively.
First of all, every one of your players should be able to take a throw-in – they need to be able to take long throws and short tactical throws. I use How to take long throw-ins which includes technique and a game, and Feet first which explains the best way to take short throw-ins.
For the younger age groups, my AskDave subscription question service is always getting questions about being organized at throw-ins – read my advice to the question “My team are disorganized from throw-ins”.
Goalkeeper kicking is always difficult right through to Under 18, but with the right technique, you can ensure your players don’t give the ball away. Use my EasiCoach Goalkeeper Kicking activity to give your players the correct technique for clearing the ball and try the game Goal Kick, which helps your players to get into the correct positions to receive the ball from the goalkeeper.
For corners, your team must be organized to defend opposition corners and to attack their own corners. The two best sessions are How to set up an attacking corner and How to defend at corners.
For free kicks, you should be experimenting with all sorts of different ways to create goals, but you can start with Unstoppable free kicks and develop your team’s ability to come up with different ideas from there.
How to take long throw-ins
Feet first (Short throw-ins)
My team are disorganised from throw-ins and we often manage to give the ball away. Do you have any quick tips to help us improve?
How to set up an attacking corner
How to defend at corners
Unstoppable Free-Kicks
Dave Clarke
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