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PAGE 42
by Gary Rue
garyrue@bellsouth.net
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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
garyrue@bellsouth.net
There are
50+ more pages of Gary's posts
categorized at the Home Page of Exercises
of the Day by Gary Rue. Click here and enjoy.
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Exercise
of the Day
Shooting, Forward Lockdown |
In this shooting
exercise, one of the forward players will run at, turn and
back into a defender, laying off the ball to a player making an crossing
run.
Setup: There are two lines of players. The first player in the A line (A1)
will run at a "dummy" defender (spare GKs or coaches work fine).
The player
will lockdown the defender by turning and backing into the defender,
maintain body contact. The next player in the A line (A2)will pass the
ball
to A1, as player B runs across the path of the pass. A1 flicks the ball on
as B takes the shot. By A1 locking down the defender, this helps to keep
the
defender from dropping off A1 and picking up B.
A2
o
\ A1
B
\ .
.
\ .
.
\ .
.
\ .
.
\
.
.\ .
b---a1 (flick on)
\ D
\
\ (shot)
|xxxx|
Note the flick on is probably not as square as it appears in the diagram
is
is more of a drop (towards A2's position)
/ pass or shot
- flick on
. runs
o ball
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Practice
Session - Double Teaming |
- Warm-up:
jogging, range of motion leg, hips and arm movements, static
stretching, dribble touches with defensive shadowing; two man serve,
receive and volley/head.
- Double team: 5-6
players dribbling in 12x12 with 2 defenders; defenders are
to work together to double team the ball on each of the dribblers.
Defenders
must gain possession or force dribbler to touch the ball out of the
grid.
After all dribblers dispossessed, two new defenders are identified.
- 5v3: two separate
groups of 8 players in 12x12 grids (if 18 players
available, then 3 4v2 groups); one group plays 5v2, after a minute the
waiting group plays 5v3. If short side gain possession, the large side
are
to regain possession immediately through a double team. Balls are
scattered around the grid to quickly restart play.
- 5v3 with GK: in a
large area with 2 small goals on the one endline and a
large goal and GK on the other, the 5 player team attacks the large
goal,
defending the two smaller goals. The 5 man team are to look for double
teaming opportunities when possession is lost.
- 10v6 with GK: using
the same area, play 10v6 where the 10 man team attacks the large goal.
Team shape can be set on the 10 man side. Again, there should be
plenty of opportunities for double teams out of the 10 man side.
- Shuttle runs: the
training session was ended with a conditioning set of
shuttle runs of 4 groups (1 work, 3 rest); channels were set up with 5
yard
gates for 25 yards. Players run to the first gate, back to the
start, to
the second gate, back to the start, etc. Players were asked to touch a
cone
on one side with their right hand at the first gate, then a cone on
the left
side at the second gate with the left hand. This forced the plant foot
to be
different each time. The second time through was the same, except the
players ran to the last gate first and worked back on each successive
trip.
The third pass through, the player was to touch a cone on one side and
shuffle sideways on back to the cone at the opposite diagonal until
they
reached the starting gate. This caused the players to do a drop step
at each
cone and change their shuffling direction.
- Abdominals and a cool
down stretching: 50 knee ups (legs straight out off
the ground, knees to the chest, then legs straight); 50 slow crunch
(hold
for count of one); 50 bicycles (elbow to opposite knee as other leg is
straighten).
- Session summary:
Though the focus was double teaming, in actuality, quick
defensive pressure and transition from attack into a defensive posture
were
the key goals--double teams were just the vehicle.
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Exercise
of the Day - Shooting, C Run |
- Setup: two lines,
wide of the goal about 40 yards out; every player with a
ball, except the first player in line A. A1 makes a wide "C"
out run as B1
plays a long diagonal pass. A1 runs onto ball and shoots for far post.
B1
now makes C out run as A2 plays a long diagonal pass. A1 goes to the B
line and B1 goes to the A line.
A2o
oB2
.A1
oB1.
.
/ . run 2
. run 1
/ .
.
/ pass .
.
/
.
/
.
/
. /
(a1)
\
\ shot
\
\
|xxxxxx|
- Variation:
Player receives ball, makes touch to inside then outside before shot;
touch
to outside, then inside prior to shot.
After B1 starts his run just after he makes his pass. By making runs
and
passes from both sides, the exercise stays active with maximum number
of
shots in a time period.
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Technical
Circuit #3 |
- Warm-ups of
individual dynamic stretching, leg isometrics, ball touches,
jogs, sprints and static stretching.
- Footwork using speed
ladders - incorporated ball touches on both sides off
drop step and cross over step maneuvers.
- Technical Circuit
(groups of 4 for 3 minute periods):
- weighted ball
throw-ins
- heading on goal
- check/turn/shot within
several large cones
- 4 man pass and move,
chipping for a header on every third pass
- dribble hurdle jump--dribble to the side of as player jumps 8"
hurdle;
hurdles are set in random zig zag fashion; 3" hurdles are added
beside the
larger hurdle as players are to flip ball over small hurdle and jump
larger
one. Imitates flipping ball over tackling foot and jumping over
defenders
leg.
- check into many random cones--players were asked to play ball around
the
outside if check run into the cones was not well timed.
- Tactical session,
check and spin:
Setup--4 players per group; two players (A & B) are square passing
as
forward C checks with defensive pressure (D); C receives from A drops
to B, spins away from his pass as B plays through ball for C to run
onto.
- Coaching points--spin
has to be away from ball, which puts player wide and
open to field. Defender must stay with attacker, else if he watches
ball, he
is dead. On bad drops, we asked the checker to follow his pass back
(recovering on defense in case of loss of ball); this opened up the
other
attacker (original passer A) to overlap into the space created by C
for a
long ball by B (who was able to recover the bad pass).
- Technical session,
shooting off the check:
- Setup #1--player check to A, receives pass, drops to B, spins and
receives
through ball for shot.
- Setup #2--same as above, except B plays ball over the top to A who has
overlapped; A shoots
- Setup #3--same as #2, except A takes long ball towards the corner to
the
goal line and lays off a back angle pass to B who has come forward
after his pass; this certainly could have been laid off to C as well.
- Full sided game,
looking for checks from the forwards.
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Another
Technical Training Circuit |
This was the
technical circuit we ran last night for a high school boys
team. We went through the stations twice, before going to a full field
scrimmage.
After individual
warm-ups, the team was divided into groups of 4 players
each.
- Foundation move on
poles--dribble, play the ball to one side of the pole
or cone, run around the other side, picking up the ball and dribble.
After a
couple times through 4 poles spaced about 15-20 yards apart, the
players did their own moves at each pole.
- Minefield
Check--many (15) large cones are interspersed into a 20x20
area; players check into the middle of the cones to receive a pass and
then
play the ball back out. The next check run is made before the player
on the
outside receives the ball. Play is with as minimal touches as
possible,
though the center check can turn and "beat" a cone if he
wants.
- Weighted Ball Throw-ins--distance is
the primary objective
- Heading on
Goal--two servers on the side of a flat goal, two players make
runs to each post. Light playground balls were used to encourage
technique. Serves were to be made to force the runners to adjust.
- Minefield Pass and
Move--many (10) large cones were interspersed in a
15x15 area. Pairs of players passed and moved between and around the
cones. They were to use the cones as defenders, making runs and passes
around and in-between these cones.
- Juggling--Brazilian ball(s) were used in 2 and 4 man group juggling.
Foot touches were encouraged above heading.
- Hurdle Jumps with
Ball Touch--6 small banana hurdles were setup about 18 inches apart.
The first time through a player would hop two footed over the hurdle.
A teammate on his right side would immediately touch a ball to be
played by the jumper with the outside of the right foot. On the next
jump, a teammate on the left side would play a ball to be touched with
the outside
of the left foot, alternating foot touches to the last hurdle. The
second
time through, the player did one footed jumps, touching a passed ball
with
the non-support or non-jump foot. The last time through, the other
foot was
used. (Note, when players completed this station, we switched. On the
second time through, they only did one footed hops, which shorted the
time at each station.)
- Speed
Ladder--players did what they wanted.
<Note: because of number of players, I did not use, but was
prepared to use the following.>
- Ring-a-ling--player sprints and stops
with specified foot in ring; as soon as player reaches the ring, a ball
is served from in front of player to one side or the other. After a
couple of reps, the player then runs to the ring (specified foot),
turning to face the server that is on one side and receives a pass. The
server moves to the other side. Then the sever moves behind the runner.
In this position, the runner must stop with the specified foot in the
ring, spin to face the server and receive the pass.
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Technical
Training Circuit |
- I described in a
prior post, a conditioning circuit. Tonight's practice included a
technical training circuit.
- Warm-ups including
jogging, skipping, and sprints, with lots of dynamic and
static stretching. A chain link fence was used to do isometric leg
strengthening exercises and stretching. The players did individual
dribbling
and two man passing and skill work, such as heading, chest trapping
and
volleying.
- The team was split
into two groups. The first group ran a course of hoops
set in a zig zag fashion. The players made forward and backwards runs
with a specific foot to plant in the hoop to emphasize a specific cut
to the next
hoop. The other group did speed ladder work. In this setup, two speed
ladders were set side by side for different types of maneuvers.
- After a water break,
the players broke into groups of 4 for the technical
circuit.
- Dribble between
cones--players were to do different ball touch and moves
- Pass amongst
cones--large cones were set in random fashion, players were on the
outside moving around; one player would check into the midst of the
cone, looking for a passing lane for the next pass, passing quickly to
another player on the outside and moving out. (see below)
Ao X
X C
X X
X D
X
X
X
X
X
X
B
- Medicine ball sit-ups
and twist tosses
- Drop, Drop, Long--A
plays long ball to C, C one touches to D (drop) and
moves off to the side, D one touches back to C (drop #2), and plays
long
ball to B (who had switched with A after A's long ball, C and D
switches), B
drops to A, etc.
B
1
A ......................................
D.......C
. 2 |
. |
3 .|
- 4 corner switch--4
players 20-30 yards apart, two balls; play goes clock-wise as players
receive ball across their body, and plays to next
player; play switches after awhile to other direction; works technique
needed to switch fields
- Rope jump/roll under
to served head ball
- 4 man combos--in a
12x20 grid, two players on one end play back and forth until player from
far end checks; different combos can be practiced from play to check
man; e.g., drop and long ball down the line, wall pass with initial
passer, flick on to overlapping player, dummy to deep player, etc.
- Players worked for 3
minutes at each station. Only one set was run.
- The rest of practice
was 1v1, 1v1 + 2N (with neutrals restricted to one
touches and positioned close to goal), 2v2, 5v5 (with three goals per
goalline). Goals were a large construction code that had to be hit
with the
ball.
- Practice was
completed with 8x120 yard runs within 17 seconds, and 45 second
recovery (60 second every 3rd run).
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Exercise of the Day
Shooting with Midfield Lateral Dribble |
The following shooting exercise incorporates a lateral dribble across the
midfield.
Setup:
Player A (wing halfback or wing back) passes to player B (center back); B then passes to player C (wing halfback) on the opposite touch; C
carries the ball laterally across the field; on the pass from B to C, A starts a run down his touch; C passes toward the line for A to run onto; A
carries the ball along the goal line and plays a back angle to C who has moved
on goal 12-16 yards out.
1 B
/ \ 2
/
\
A o
\
.
\
.
\
.
c + + + + + + + C
.
/ . 3
.
/ .
.
4 / .
.
/
c
.
/
/|
. /
6 / | shot
a
/ |
+
/ |
+ + + + V
5
/ pass/shot
. run
+ dribble
When a player can dribble laterally across the field, this often causes the
defense problems.
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