#149 Providing Useful Feedback

05/18/18 • 35 min

Coaching Soccer Weekly: Methods, Trends, Techniques and Tactics from WORLD CLASS COACHING

I had a huge tournament weekend a week ago. Having four teams in a tournament makes for a busy weekend but it’s the best way for me to give all of my teams a chance to play with the least amount of disruption to our league schedule.

This was the last tournament for one of my teams while the other still have one or two events to play. For those teams that are still playing, this tournament was a preparation for bigger events to come.

This year my teams have had trouble with Friday night games. I think it’s a combination a long week of school coupled with an unusual night game that always seems to find us having a slow start. We talked about it going into this tournament. We discussed what the issue could be and decided on ways that we could better prepare. It worked well because our performances were far better than they have been in the past.

This week’s question comes from Nancy. She’s asking about grouping players to play together.

Nancy says,

“My daughter plays on a u10 “A” team with around 14 kids on the roster for 7v7. The coach and program preach development over winning at this age which I agree with. However, he currently has 2 lines. The first line is comprised of the top players on the team and they start every game. He then makes wholesale line changes throughout the game. Playing time is even no issues there. However the 2 lines never commingle even in blowouts. Wouldn’t it benefit the players in line 2 to play with the top line every once in a while? When asked about this the response was the 2nd line can’t do things as quickly as the first line and the top kids would get frustrated. To me that sounds like winning over development rather then vice versa and that he doesn’t want to taint the first line with girls who aren’t as strong currently.”

Thanks for the question Nancy!

To me, this approach is about winning and showing that his top line is good so if the team loses it’s the fault of the 2nd line.

Two balanced lines (rotating who starts and which positions they play) would show more of a focus on development.

In This Episode

Today I talk about how we can provide USEFUL feedback to our players that will highlight what they’re doing well, give suggestions for WHAT and HOW they can improve as well as give them an idea of what may happen during the upcoming tryouts.

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Next Week

I won’t have a new podcast to release next week because I’m traveling with three of my teams to a tournament in Chicago. I’ve been taking teams to that area over Memorial Day weekend for a number of years but this is the first time attending this specific tournament. I’ll let you know what it when in a couple of weeks.

This week’s question comes from Nancy. She’s asking about grouping players to play together.

Nancy says,

Thanks for the question Nancy!

To me, this approach is about winning and showing that his top line is good so if the team loses it’s the fault of the 2nd line.

Two balanced lines (rotating who starts and which positions they play) would show more of a focus on development.

In This Episode

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Next Week

Previous Episode

#148 Focus on Technique Before Speed

Last weekend I feel like I coached three great game and one awful one. The players weren’t awful, it was me.

I have a team that’s playing up an age group and there were promoted to the first division after a very good fall season. The difference between DI and DII is substantial and it’s been a difficult spring for the team.

They played well in the first half this weekend and were up a goal at halftime. We talked about ways we could improve in the second half. Unfortunately, they had a tough time with their first touch and we couldn’t seem to put anything together. I started to get frustrated and the players could tell. As I became more frustrated they became more tentative. I didn’t realize it at the time but my reaction to their poor play was only making it worse.

In hindsight I see that I lost my perspective and stopped teaching and encouraging. I’m committed to reacting differently the next time I have a team that’s struggling and needs my help.

This week’s question comes from Joseph. He’s asking about encouraging players to be more assertive.

Joseph says,

“I am a volunteer coach of two Girls U9/10 travel teams at a regional club. Between the U9 and U10 groups, I have 19 girls all together. I train them together twice per week and then we split up for our League and Tournament games. As you know, the format change from 4v4 to 7v7 is quite a change for the kids to get used to.

I have really struggled with my U9 girls not being aggressive when playing with or against older girls. I think it’s a combination of the age difference and the new format.

We have adopted the Play/Practice/Plan training format. We typically have all the girls mixed up for the first Play section. We split them up by age for the practice portion since they are at different stages of development. Then we take some time to scrimmage at the end of training by mixing all the girl up to play a full 7v7 scrimmage.

Do you have any suggestions on how to encourage younger players playing with older players to be more assertive on the field?”

Thanks for the question Joseph!

I find that young players are going to be assertive in close proportion to how confident they are. Some kids are just naturally less assertive but I think that can be traced back to confidence as well. So I would be focused on what you can do to increase their confidence. Confidence comes from previous success and an expectation of possible (or even probable) success.

It could be that the younger girls don’t feel like they can compete with the older ones so they’re less likely to try their best. I might do more smaller-sided scrimmages before the 7v7 game at the end so that they can play with the kids their own age. If you see more confident and assertive play when their with their own age you can point that out to them and see if being aware of the difference helps them gain the confidence they need to play harder with the older girls.

In This Episode

Today I want to talk about a session that I’ve used in the past but I revisited it this week and found myself coaching it much differently than before.

Here’s the setup for the Tic-Tac-Toe Warm-Up game that I described.

Show Notes

Here’s a link to episode #010 Training Session to Break Lines of Pressure. The training session I talk about today is the same but what we focused on what different. The details are described on the podcast.

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Future Episodes

The next month is crazy. My teams have three tournaments in the next four weeks with one of them being State Cup. After that we start all over again with tryouts the first week of June. I don’t have any set plans for topics in the next few weeks but with that many games I’m sure something will come up worth sharing with you.

Next Episode

#150 Traveling to Tournaments

Last weekend I traveled with three teams to a Memorial Day Soccer tournament in Chicago so I didn’t release a podcast. I talk about the tournament and out of town tournaments in general later in the show.

Tonight I had my last practice of the year with the team I have playing Jr. State Cup this weekend. We had two training sessions this week. Yesterday we focused on shooting and finishing. Today we worked on building possession with a purpose and finishing on goal.

This was one of my favorite training sessions of the year because it combined so much of what we’ve been working on all year. I’ll talk about this in detail in the next few weeks.

This week’s question comes from Bobby. He describes a situation where a certain player keeps making the same mistake

Bobby says,

“I coach 04 and 05 girls on the academy side. On my 05s I have a 4/5 who loves to take a touch no matter the amount of pressure she is under, she also tends to receive in the back and dribble inside the box towards the 2/3 and then waits as long as possible before trying to play a safety ball out by just sending it for a speculative pass.
We talked at length about this and I have seen an effort to connect the first pass after winning the ball but no success so far. I remind her of all the hard work they do to win the ball, only to play a 50/50 ball back into pressure which often leads to putting us under pressure again. I am encouraging her and helping her find that first pass but it’s a struggle. Any suggestions on that?

Also, with both teams when trying to play a thru ball or a ball over the top, we have a tendency to want to hit it as hard as we can which typically ends up in the hands of the keeper. We like to try and keep possession and build as this is part of our philosophy but we want them to be free to pick the best option, if playing long it is, I want to help them develop that killer ball instinct. Any thoughts here as well?”

Thanks for the questions!

One of my favorite axioms in education is that, “Telling is not Teaching” or “Telling’s not Selling” in sales. My suggestion would be to set up your defensive and midfield lines and then play a ball into your 4/5 and have four players press them and see if your defensive group and build out of the back to dribble across the half line. As they get better at this then add more pressuring players.

This is an opportunity to work on your team shape and decision making while coming out of the back with the ball. The goal is to have the players learn how to beat the pressure in practice so that when they see the same situation in the game they know how to deal with it.

For teaching players how to find the correct weight of their pass I like to have three players make quick passes from the half line toward the goal. I have three defensive players simply stand in a line spread across the top of the field like a back three. The final pass should be a diagonal through ball that splits two defenders and is played into the path of an attacker to then finish on goal or cross for another player to finish. The standing defenders return to the half line while the players that were attackers become the standing defenders for a new group of three attackers. You can script the passes you want the players to make or you can allow them to pass freely.

These two solutions are related because they involve putting the players into positions like they find themselves in the game so that they can EXPERIENCE the solution not just talking about it.

In This Episode

Today I want to talk about my tournament experience this last weekend and my general suggestions for planning out of town tournaments with your teams.

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Next Week

I’m in the process of setting up an interview with the designer of a new soccer conditioning app, putting together my thoughts for an episode on how I go about identifying players during tryouts and I’m planning to talk about the session I did tonight on building possession with a purpose. I’m not sure which one will come out first but I’ll have those three topics coming out in the next three weeks.