Season’s Greetings to you – thank you for keeping in touch through my newsletter especially at this time of year when family matters become most important. Hopefully you have managed to come through a very trying year.
In a couple of weeks once the decorations have come down it is back to (hopefully) full time training again. One training position I think about at this time of year is the Christmas joker. It’s a very important position a bit like the star of the school play and it needs a player who is a big personality on the pitch..
You need a player who is switched on so they can catch the opposition out during transition or can be the player who creates goal scoring chances because he/she is less likely to be marked when the ball is transferred.
What this gives the joker is time to see a pass or make a late run into the box creating overloads in front of goal. For the coach it is important the joker understands his responsibility because they can carry this into matches and be the creative spark that is sometimes missing from youth teams.
It also gives them an insight into the importance of speed at the moment of transition. It is a key role and one that you should think about using at every training session.
Now I know some of you will be saying you only ever have even numbers – no problem, you can play for example 6v5 plus a joker where one team will have a two player overload in possession but equal players out of possession. It’s a great way to get your coaching sessions producing creative players.
Here’s how you go about it:
Start with explaining how players go about being creative – where they play, movement of team mates and how creative passing can split defences open. Use Play between the lines from my Soccer Tactics manual, which explains how players can make decisions that benefit the team.
Next, give the players a framework where they can practice being creative without being penalised for making mistakes. With the technical practice Try something different in the final third creativity stems from players being confident to try something even if they fail at it. It is a simple session that uses all of your squad and, best of all, requires no cones or equipment so can be set up by the kids and used as a pre-game warm up.
For the younger age groups, the best way to encourage creativity is to give them a fun game that stretches their skills. Tomb Raiders is perfect for this as it gets players using short passes, making interceptions and keeping possession with good decision making.
One of my favourite ways of giving players the chance to be creative is Creative in the final third (U14 activity). It uses overloads to put players in situations where doing something different will result in a goal.
Small-sided games are excellent vehicles for getting players to be creative – 6v6 to improve midfield creativity is a great way to round off a technical session and allows the coach to see if players are using creativity in the final third to make and take scoring chances.
This session is great for encouraging players to be creative in the final third which is one of the hardest things to achieve in your coaching sessions. Creativity stems from players being confident to try something even if they fail at it MORE
Help your players to hone their creativity with this game of possession versus attack. Players must keep the ball or take quick advantage of gaining possession with clever attacks. MORE
It is a very difficult time to be coaching our players around the world. So to help you I have created the Coaching Classroom where you can download lessons to give to your players online. Here I have focused on Compactness and Penetration MORE
I was out walking on the local golf course where I live this week and in the distance I saw a child running from what seemed miles away at top speed. As the child got closer I realised that it was someone dribbling a ball. Of course on the fairways it was like being at Wembley on a well cared for football pitch! It was great to see a child enjoying dribbling a ball, chipping over the bunkers and swerving around the patches of heather that catch out an unwary golfer. MORE
At the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention yesterday I was in the presentation by Dan Abrahams on performance of your team with well being in mind. He explored three environmental approaches and combines them to help you establish a healthy and safe coaching environment for players of all ages and levels. MORE
I'm usually high up in the sky on my way to the United Soccer Coaches convention in America at this time of the year – last year I was at the convention in Baltimore and there was loads of coaching education on offer. Yet it is still exciting to be entering the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention 2021 on my computer in the home office. MORE
Turning with the ball has always been a skill that draws names from the great players through the ages – think of the Cruff turn or Zidane spin turn. It used to make me wonder how players like Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Zinedine Zidane or Johan Cruyff could turn their opponents inside out, game after game – I now know it needs practice and from a young age. MORE
One of the ways to improve your team in 2021 is to get them communicating on the pitch. Players do this by verbal and non verbal actions, like pointing where they want a ball to be passed or calling for the ball when overlapping from behind like a fullback running outside a winger. MORE