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by Gary Rue
grue@mail.state.ky.us
 

      NOTE:  Gary did not write these exercises and tips with the idea that someone would publish them.  I subscribe to the Soccer-Coach-L e-mail list and Gary is one of the coaches that posts extremely well thought out replies.  These are some of Gary's posts that I collected for use in coaching my own teams.   I approached Gary and he was gracious enough to allow me to publish them here.  If you like what you see or have a question about one of the exercises you can reach Gary at grue@mail.state.ky.us  There are 20+ more pages of Gary's posts categorized at the Home Page of Exercises of the Day by Gary Rue. Click here and enjoy.

Practice Tip - Let Us Pray

      To reinforce the idea that your goalkeeper should never land on his elbow when making a dive, have your GK squat and put his hands together as if in prayer. Then have the GK drop his near hip to the ground, followed by his shoulder. Other than the shoulder, the rest of the arm should not be touching the ground. After a few times to both sides, have the GK do this holding a ball. The ball should be the first ground touch, followed by the hip, then the shoulder.

      Progress the session to a semi-squat, then to standing. When standing, the GK should take a short step forward and to the side, bending the knee and dropping the near side hip. Again, ball, hip, shoulder should be the order of ground touches. I've seen trained goalkeepers able to make high ball dives and make "soft" lands on hard floors.

Exercise of the Day - Passing Pattern #1

      This is the first of a couple passing patterns. These patterns do two things. First, with a definitive pattern, the players can work on their passing technique in a moving, but structured environment.

       Secondly, there are several concepts that the coach can reinforce in a structured environment.

       These patterns make good warm-up exercises, as well. Though they are a little difficult to explain in print, they really are not that difficult to set up. The patterns should be age appropriate for U12s and above. U10's may have a little problem with the structure at first.

• Pattern #1- Check/Drop/Through
  
• Setup: in a 15 x 25 yard area there is one player at each corner and one player in the middle. A sixth player is at a corner with the ball. If there are only 5 players, then one of the corner players has the ball. Conceptually, the players 15 yards apart are considered to be supporting backs and the players 25 yards away are the forward players. The middle player is checking midfielder. When the ball changes ends, then roles are reversed.
  
• Procedure: If there are 6 players, after a pass, each player follows his pass. Player 1 (see diagram below) passes to the middle player (2), who makes an angled drop to the passer's partner (3), who plays a long through ball (25 yards) to player 4; the next pass is to the middle (now player 1) who drops to player 5 and then plays a long ball to player 6 (who moved into the position vacated by player 1, who plays to player 4 that has moved into the middle, etc.
  
    6
     1,      3     6          2
      \     /|     |
        \ /  |     |          3 (moving to pos. 4)
         2   |     |      1
             |     |    /  \
             |     | /       \
    5        4     5          4
  
  
• If there are only 5 players, the least confusing way to exchange positions is just have the players exchange whenever there is a pass into the middle. For instance, 1 and 2 would switch after 2 receives from 1 and plays to 3; then 1 and 4 would switch after 1 received from 4 and played to 5.
  
• Switch directions after a few rounds.
  
• Coaching Points: The coach can stress two-touch or one-touch, working the technique required for each. Reinforce the concept of playing the ball in the direction you are facing when you receive it. Reinforce the long penetrating through ball after a couple of short passes. The middle player can delay his "check run" towards the ball, timing it with the long pass. Each player can "demand" the ball before the prior player receives it. Players checking to the middle should pause at the moment of the pass. If they are running as the pass is made, they may not be able to react laterally to a pass not to their feet.

Exercise of the Day - 3v3v3

This is a nice exercise to improve vision, adaptability and transition.

• Set-up: three goals, 2 yard cone goals or 3 full size goals with GKs set in a triangle. with the small goals, I use a 25 yard spacing between goals. With larger goals, I would look at 35-40 yards spacing. Each team of three has a different color pennie and guard one goal.
  
• Procedure: White team starts on defense with Red and Green teams attacking in a 6v3. If a player on the Red team loses the ball, Red must quickly defend it's goal as Green and White combine into the attack. Instead, if the Green team scores on the White goal, then Green must defend it's goal as White and Red attack. When a combined team scores, both teams get a point. The team with the most points wins.
  
• Variation: All passes must go to a member of the companion team. For instance, if Red and Green are attacking the White goal, the Red player with ball, can only pass to a Green player. The Green player in turn can only pass to a Red player.

Practice Tip - Trapping Drills & First Touch

       I've done a couple of things to assist the first touch.  If your players are at the high school level, you may have to incorporate this skill development in exercises where they don't know that's what they are working on.
       Set up random gates (cones 2 yards apart) in a large area. Break up the players into groups of two (or three). Every time a pass is made, the receiving player tries to guide his first touch through a gate.
      Play small sided games with those playground rubber balls that have lots of bounce.
       In a pass and change lines exercise, define the type of first touch you want. For instance, inside of foot, outside of foot, close enough to make next pass within a step, into space where the next touch is made several steps away. Run the passer at the receiver (or to one side of the receiver) to force the reception touch to go in a particular direction.
       Also, mandate, a minimum 2-touch in a keeper game to force a first touch reception.

Practice Tip - The White Stuff

       I recommend that you ask your team to come to practice in the same colored shirt or jersey. I prefer white. The players are not mandated to wear white, but they know it is what I prefer. Why do I care?
       When I break players into groups, often I will put pennies on one group and the other group will be white. You can't be as flexible when you have a plethora of colors. For instance, your team has the green pennies and you will be matched against the 2 blue, the black and the white shirted players. Also, the pennies stand out better when they are worn on white shirts.
       The coach should also want to be of different color than the players if walking through the group play. The coach may want to don a different colored pennie to be separate from the teams. This becomes more important when your players are nearly as big as you are.

Practice Tip - Crossing Point

       Other than those exceptional cases, the support foot should be pointed at the target when making a pass or taking a shot. This rule doubly applies for crossing the ball. As a player nears the goal line, the target of the cross should be behind the line of the ball. All too often, a player will hit the cross to the GK or behind the goal.
       The main culprit of this errant cross is the support foot. By turning the foot so that it plants pointing at the target area of the cross, the hips get turned and allows the leg to send the ball in the intended direction.
        For youth players, a last touch on the ball towards the inside will help align the body to make this cross. For older players, the technique of planting the foot at a ninety degree angle (or greater) to their running direction is something that needs to be worked on.
        Develop and reinforce this technique with a little footwork exercise.  The player(s) run at the goal line (for example) and plant and point their foot towards goal, swinging the outside leg around and make a kicking motion towards goal. Continue to develop this technique with increased speed and turning the foot to point between the top of the goal area and the penalty mark.
        Place a stationary ball on the goal line and have players run up and make a cross, emphasizing the support foot and where the ball should go. Proceed with the player pushing the ball out towards the goal line and making a cross off the slow rolling ball--allow them to push the ball slightly to the inside. Elevate the session to a longer dribble touch towards the goal line where the player must run further and faster to get to the ball and make the cross.
       Of course, you can use other players to make runs on goal, and this would be a great GK practice.

Under-Promise,  Over-deliver

       Team confidence is mandatory. A sense of reality is also mandatory. How a coach prepares the mental state of his players is critical as it is difficult to keep a high confidence level within the parameters of reality.
       One of the more successful U.S. college basketball coaches, Rick Pitino, had a knack for doing a reality check with his players (individually), then bringing them back up to where they thought they were invincible.
       The local paper would often report on Pitino's comments about how player A just didn't have the right stuff to beat player B out of a position. Then several weeks later you would read where Player A is not only starting, but the most underrated player in the American College scene.
        I've heard that after winning a big game, the players would be brought down off their high and told how piss-poor they were, then gradually by the time of the next game, their confidence level was sky-high again.
       The point I am making is that each individual and the team as a whole must have a high confidence level that they can compete, yet they can't go too far across the line of reality. In the case of the world cup, how you do this where there is great scrutiny and public awareness is extremely difficult. How as a player would you react if everything you read that your coach says is that you and your team are incapable of playing at some high level? Consistently successful players have to feel that they can be beat if they don't play at a certain level, but they have to know that consistent play at that level is attainable.
        Personally, I feel the coach that can adequately tap into his players minds will be more successful in the long run than the coach that is technically more knowledgeable.

"Those who triumph, compute at their headquarters a great number
of factors prior to a challenge. Much computation brings triumph. Little
computation brings defeat. How much more so with no computation at all!"
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Exercise of the Day - Recovery

• First rule of thumb--when a team loses possession, the immediate response of the players on that team (with the notable exception of the player pressuring ball) should be to run back towards the nearest goal post (central players or off ball players can use the center of the goal as their target). This is called defensive recovery. The following exercise can help improve the way your team recovers.
  
• Setup: At midfield, an attacker is near the touchline with a defender 5 yards inside, but level. A ball is served from between the defender and the attacker, down the touch. Note, for this exercise, it is important that the defender has a chance to recover before the attacker can get to the ball and turn it inside.
  
• Procedure: At the play of the ball, the defender is to start his recovery run to the post. As the defender draws even with the attacker, he may start veering out to the ball. The defender must get to a position along the line of the attacker and the ball. The defender must try to slow down the ball, keep the attacker wide and stop a crossing pass--in that order of priority. By recovering towards the goal and then out, the defender can cutoff the attacker's direct line to goal.
  
• Coaching Points: First, the coach has to determine whether he would prefer to allow the attacker to dribble to goal line (but be kept wide) or to keep the attacker as far away from the goal line as possible, but allow the attacker the ability to cut to the center. As a general rule, my preference is to keep the attacker out of the middle. If the defender has to give up something, then let the attacker move down the touch, even if it is to the goal line. If the ball is closer to the halfway than the goal line, then I would lean towards stopping the penetration, as long as the attacker can be forced horizontal.
  
• Players tend to have two specific problems when recovering. First their recovery angles are often too narrow. That is, they do not recover towards the attacker too soon. This gives the attacker an angle on goal. If a player recovers at too narrow of an angle and the two players are running side-by-side, then recommend a nice little shoulder charge, moving the attacker off the ball.
  
• Second, as the defender veers towards the attacker, the often overrun their defensive position and the attacker is allowed to cut towards the middle. All too often the defender is still in a running stride on the cutback. The defender must first get on to the defensive line to goal, then get into good defensive footwork to be able to adjust to the attacker's moves.
  
• Setup Variation: Set up a row of cones parallel with the touch, but 12-15 yards inside the touch. The row should extend out to 25 yards. At the end of the row of cones near the goal line, put a 5 yard gate (different cones or objects). The defender must keep the attacker from dribbling across the row of cones once they get past the 25 yard mark.  (The coach could allow the defender to string out the attacker towards the middle if it is before they reach the start of the cones.) If the attacker can get to the goal line, the defender must stop any pass or cross attempt between the gate.
  
• Progression: Add a second defender (near the center mark) to provide support to the first defender. Then add a second attacker (wide of the second defender). The second defender must now support the first defender and mark the second attacker (in that priority). A third defender could be added (near the second defender) as a true marker of the second attacker. The second defender's role become more like a sweeper.
  
• I hope your players can "recover" from this training.