The 10 Commandments for Attacking Soccer

1) Thou shall not spectate when thou should be playing. It is impossible to support your teammates on attack or when defending if you are watching play instead of adjusting your positioning each and every time the ball moves. A coaching phrase I use to remind players to do this is “When the ball travels, we travel!” It can be called, ‘When the ball travels” by a coach or player and answered “We travel” by the remaining team members

2) Thou shall check to the ball when winning loose balls and receiving passes. Waiting for a ball to come to you is inviting an opponent to win the ball. Perhaps even worse is running away from a ball thinking you are played through and allowing an opponent to step in behind you to win the ball. Inexcusable. We should never lose a possession due to not checking to the ball. Never.

3) Thou shall position yourself so your hips are open to as much of the field as is possible. If your hips are closed to the direction the ball is coming from, your play is predictable. Open hips to as much of the field as possible is a secret to successful possession. In this manner thou shall receive the ball across your body whenever possible. We call this being a back footed player. Receiving in this manner allows the player to stay in compliance with Commandment #3. Failure to comply with this commandment makes you a predictable player and one easily defended and dispossessed of the ball.

4) Thou shall make a safe pass upon winning possession of the ball. It is senseless to win the ball and attempt to advance into pressure. Make a safe pass and allow that receiver to establish the rhythm of the attack.

5) Thou shall not stop the ball between thy feet when receiving it. The path of the ball must be changed away from pressure when receiving it. This forces any defender in pursuit of the ball to change course thus buying the receiver space and time to play the ball. Failure to do so changes the pressure to make the play away from the defender and onto the receiver.

6) Thou shall support your teammates at proper angles. It is extremely difficult to make a straight pass, especially if the teammate is running away. This type of “vertical” support can devastate an attack. It is just as critical not to support the 1st defender in a vertical line as you offer virtually no support in doing so. The rule of thumb is 45 degree angles when defending and 45 degree angles or bigger when on the attack.

7) Thou shall not pass square in your defensive third nor in the middle portion of the field. Square passes are the easiest passes to cleanly intercept and immediately transition to attack on. Square passes tend to happen when there is a lack of diagonal support for the passer.

8) Thou shall play the way you face. This is a rule of thumb so there are exceptions. It holds especially true when you are under pressure. Drop or back passes are okay to relieve that pressure. Maintaining possession is what we want to do.

9) Thou shall not shoot from impossible angles. Intelligent defenses seek to deny shots in general and especially those from in front of the goal. Many defenses seek to limit shots against them to coming from a line that extends from the goal post to the corner of the 6 to the corner of the 18 or wider. Shots from those angles leave the goalkeeper with a greatly reduced goal to defend. You must seek to cross the ball when in this deep or take the ball to and along the end line for a cut back cross. Thou shall go to goal each and every time you get your inside shoulder in front of the opponent defending you. When you are breaking free and have the opportunity to eliminate the closest opponent to you, do so. It is not an option. It is mandatory.

10) Thou shall shoot the ball whenever in position to take a quality shot. When in front of the goal and from 25 yards in there should be no hesitation. No extra touch to set the ball up just right. No extra passes. Just put the ball on net. Toe pokes are fine. Knees are fine. Love headers for goals. Strike at the midpoint or higher on the ball to keep it low. Whatever it takes to get the ball on net. Just do it and do it at the first available moment.

From college to 5th grade all in one morning.

I began my morning working with college goalkeepers and finished it working with a 5th grade co-ed recreational group.  I enjoyed both experiences. All participants were engaged and eager to learn.  The standards of learning as widely disparate as were the ages. Measured success of each session was also gauged by different standards.

On a field adjacent to the one I was working with goalkeepers on another team was practicing and I on occasion got a glimpse of their goalkeepers being worked with.  At one point they were practicing full blown diving saves - both feet off the ground, laying out for a driven ball 4-5 feet off the ground that was barely within reach when service was good.  Matt, one of the goalkeepers I was working with asked why "we" never worked on full diving saves like that. I answered with a question of my own, have you ever had to make a full blown diving save like that? 

Matt replied, "Yes."

Were you successful?

"Yes"

"Why were you successful?"

There was a long pause.  I could see the Matt considering his answer. He finally ventured that he had been ready / prepared to make the play. I urged Matt to continue on with his answer.  " I was properly positioned on the ball line / angle arc. My feet were square to the action with toes towards the ball. I was in the correct ready position, I read the cues the shooter offered for when and how he would strike."

"Your basic fundamentals were excellent?"

"Yes."

"What do we work on in every session?"

"The fundamentals."

"How are the goalkeepers fundamentals on the team down at the other end of the pitch?"

So we watched the other goalkeepers train for a bit. Karl was the first to offer that fundamentals were not as sharp as they could have been. Missteps were causing them to miss plays. They were not getting both hands to the ball at or close to the same time. The ball was getting to their palms.  Matt concurred.  So, those goalkeepers were unable to make the routine saves on a consistent basis in practice. Yet they were training to make the spectacular save?

We went back to working on the fundamentals.

Later this morning I was working with the co-ed recreational group of 5th graders.  There were a fairly wide range of skill levels as is the norm in such situations.  In speaking with the gentleman who had worked with age group the previous week he related the need to work on ball control, push passing and basic tactics. The usual fare for this age group and recreational soccer. Being completely new to this particular group I began the session by asking the players names. I memorized them immediately and then asked each by name to demonstrate a basic foot skill. After a player introduced a foot skill the entire group performed the skill. This went on until no one had any more foot skills to share with the group. I did this to 1) connect immediately with the individuals of the group on a first name basis and 2) to bring myself up to speed with where the group was in terms of controlling the ball.

We next worked briefly on the speed dribble or running with the ball.  Again I demonstrated the proper technique. With this I provided a few visual cues to look for to be used by the players to coach themselves.

We then moved on to the basic push pass. I demonstrated the proper technique, then set them to working with a partner passing the ball back and forth. We had an odd number of players so I paired them up and then worked with the remaining player myself. Once again, I provided tips on how they could coach themselves by recognizing their own mistakes and how to correct these. I then rotated through working with each player. At a distance of 7-8 yards this went fairly well  Next we added passive pressure by having partners face one another at a distance of 3-4 feet. One player passed the ball through the legs of their partner who then turned, retrieved the ball and brought it back using the running with the ball technique. Then roles were reversed.  The passive pressure of performing a push pass in close proximity to another player added just enough difficulty to expose flaws in the players technique.

It was about this time, less that 1/2 hour in, that Kyra began asking about scrimmaging. This is a common occurrence as well. Kids want to play! Its what they do. 

We proceeded to a basic version on breaking lines while assuring Kyra that we were progressing towards playing a game / scrimmaging.  For breaking lines we focused on the push pass with only minor instruction on receiving the ball properly. In this case the added pressure was found in the demand for accuracy of passing. We discussed the necessity of preparing to play the ball in the sense that we had a designated player to receive from and play to.  I asked the players to play in the scan, touch, scan, play pattern to begin transitioning them from being ball watchers to becoming game watchers.

Again, Kyra asked about scrimmaging.

Were they ready to play a game?  From a skill perspective, no.  I knew before we started it would be bumble bee ball with a lot of mindless whacking of the ball. There would be more mistakes than correct plays. That's okay. Each mistake is a learning opportunity, a stepping stone on the way to success.

We progressed on to playing a basic version of the gates game.  It was bumble bee ball as anticipated. yet, with in the madness it could be discerned an effort to properly execute the push pass, especially at the start.  When the game began to really break down we paused and I asked the players to discuss what was working and what was breaking down the game.  They nailed it. They always do.  So, we set about putting it right. And they did in a relative sense.

We took a break and discussed the session / drills / game a bit more.  The discussion turned to playing fast. When allowed to figure things out on their own kids are amazing problem solvers. We discussed what was required to play fast. Physical speed was mentioned immediately, but Rose pointed to her head, her brain!  Soccer is a game played with the brain. We talked about Ronaldo being labeled fat and slow, yet how fast he played and how he is considered one the very best players in the world.

We played the numbers game to impress the need to be game watchers instead of exclusively watching the ball.  Slowly but surely they began to get the ideas associated with increasing the pace of their play. By the end of this portion of the session they were actually demonstrating some ability to play one-touch soccer with two ball active in the game.  When I stopped the exercise I had the players freeze where they were and look around. We had progressed from clustered bumble bee soccer to being spread out over the pitch.

Still Kyra wanted to scrimmage.

I finally asked her to talk about the session so far. Kyra began describing each exercise we had worked on. I asked her to grade our performance in each of these. The grades she awarded our group got better with each exercise.  I stopped her at one point to ask what grade she thought it would be necessary to achieve before we were ready to scrimmage.  The lights started to flicker on. When she arrived at evaluating the numbers game she decided we were ready to play.  I said, "if..."  and Rose spoke up to say if we don't slip back into bad habits. If we don't go back to being ball watchers and playing one decision soccer.  Bingo!

Again, in a totally different manner, the importance of technical excellence was brought to the fore.

As we finished the session with a shooting exercise that incorporated everything we had worked on today the pace of play was markedly improved and the kids were noticing this. They were recognizing their mistakes and beginning to correct themselves.  Not all the kids, but a majority for sure.

Quite the morning of emphasizing basic fundamentals to bring out spectacular plays and increase pace of play.  Soccer is a simple game with spectacular plays. The spectacular plays are based in the simplest of fundamentals.  Johann Cryuff said, "The most difficult thing to do is to play simply."  

Fundamentals of Team Attacking Play

There are 4 cornerstones needed in order to attain a consistently high level of team play - quality of first touch, purposeful passing,  intelligent support and communication. The four components are inter-related and as such the quality of your team's play is dependent on the ability to execute effectively in each area.

Quality first touch refers to a players ability to gain and maintain possession of the ball with his first touch of the ball. Although usually used in association with receiving a pass we also need to include the ability to gain possession of a loose ball or a contested ball in our definition. Therefore we can say a player executing a quality first touch will receive the ball under control and away from pressure utilizing his first touch to facilitate his next touch(es)on the ball.

If you can't pass, you can't play.

(originally published August 4, 2012)

I have at times referred to Graham Ramsay on this site. "If you can't pass, you can't play" is a phrase I have heard him utter often during the camps he has conducted for us. I have myself repeated it to players and teams I coach. It is a basic and simple truth of the game, but I have come to realize it is also much more and that players tend to receive different and varying messages from the phrase.

Technical excellence
Vision
Soccer IQ or Game Intelligence
The Will to Prepare
TEAM First attitude

The ability to pass begins with mastering proper technique and maintaining it at the highest level. "Toes up. Heels down. Strike with the ankle bone." is a mantra echoed during training sessions around the soccer world. Unfortunately for many coaches and players alike the process of passing begins and ends here when there are actually several other significant elements that go into being able to pass the soccer ball.

"Vision" is another word commonly associated with passing. Left to stand on its own "vision" implies "seeing the pass" within the context of the game about you. At first glance this seems like another basic and simple truth, but once again there are layers of complexity involved.  Every player has "vision" but what separates good passers from the rest is what they see and when they see it.

Soccer IQ or Game Intelligence are terms that apply to a players decision-making process.

When do I shoot?
When do I dribble?
When do I pass?
Which direction - diagonally, forward, backward, laterally - should I pass?
What do I do after having passed the ball?

The correct decision is the one that scores the ball or maintains possession of the ball for your team. In terms of passing the decision-making process is all about possession and creating scoring opportunities. What is the longest secure pass I can make?  How many defenders can I defeat with a single secure pass? What is the safest pass I can make to relieve pressure and maintain possession? What is my next movement after having passed the ball.

Timing is also a critical element in Soccer IQ. The timeliness of a players decision making often determines the success of failure of the action take. Too early or too late breaks the rhythm and flow of the game and can lead to lost possession.

Hall of Fame basketball coach Bobby Knight stated "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win."   Preparation is the king consideration to successful passing. Before your first touch on the ball, you need to have a plan for how you will play the ball.  EVERY option for play must be explored before your first touch - Do I shoot, dribble, pass? Which technique should I use to execute my decision? In what direction should my play be made?

A willingness to pass, a willingness to share the ball with teammates must also be in evidence. If a player is unwilling to pass he will soon find others are unwilling to pass to him. However, is a player truly unwilling to pass or is his decision-making process leading to the pass short circuiting? Is the player selfish or merely struggling with proper individual pattern of play?  It is important to analyze and work with the player to establish good on-field decision-making skills for these are the basis on TEAM play.

When any of the above facets are missing a players ability to pass is impaired. Aside from technical excellence a player must get in the habit of collecting all the information available concerning what is happening in the game.  Scan the field constantly and consistently, but especially before receiving or winning the ball. Secure the ball in a manner that leads into the play you will make based on your scanning of the game. Then look to the play you have decided to make and execute the correct technique.

What happens if part of the process breaks down or is skipped altogether?  

For instance, what if the player fails to scan the game before securing the ball?  The focus is on "winning the ball" and figuring out what to do with it after that fact?  "Win and whack" is often the result. A player "wins" the ball only to turn it over by creating another 50/50 ball when his winning touch is nothing more than whack the ball in whatever direction he happens to be facing. 

Or what if the player does win and secure the ball but has no plan for how to play it?  If he has space and time he may look up and find a quality play to make. If he secures the ball under pressure without a plan for play excessive touches will ensue as he attempts to find space and time to get his head up and find a play. Often times the player will eventually find the correct play but his excessive touches have broken the rhythm and flow of the game.  The timing that would have made the pass easy is lost. A success rate of late or mistimed passes is significantly lower than well timed, accurate and properly weighted passes. It is often the lack of preparation / vision / game intelligence that dictates success of a pass more so than a lack of technique. 

Once again, success is found in the details of the process.  No single detail of the process can be ignore or overlooked without impacting the quality of the process. "If you can't pass, you can't play" runs much deeper than imploring players to pass.  Is the player selfish, inept or does his thought  and decision-making process need a tune up?  As coaches we must be able to discern the root cause of a players struggles and do our best to help them fine tune their game. As it concerns passing, this can be a more complicated process than it seems at first glance, but since a player really cannot play the game without being able to pass effectively we must be diligent in improving our players ability to pass.

REACT & RID The push pass

REACT moment: Your Push pass is played lacking pace and accuracy.


Real Time: 
Was my plant foot pointed where I wanted the ball to go?
Were my toes raised and ankle locked?
Did I strike at the midpoint of the ball and on the ankle bone?
Did I follow through?

Immediate:

At the next dead ball opportunity take a practice kick (or two) on an imaginary ball using the proper techniques to reinforce correct muscle memory required to execute an effective push pass.

Delayed:

Practice against a kickback board or with a partner emphasizing proper execution of proper technique and reinforcing proper muscle memory.

One Touch Soccer

I was talking with a young coach before a training session one day this past June. He was extolling the skills of his team and how he hoped one day they would be capable of playing one touch soccer. I asked, "why not today?" This took him by complete surprise and immediately a stream of excuses were issued. We ended up with a friendly wager of an adult beverage should I be able to get his team playing one touch soccer by the end of that training session. He was feeling pretty smug as I had no time to plan for anything and limited knowledge of his team.  I knew this much, the team's technical skills were adequate and the only reason they had not been successful with one touch play to date was that no one had unlocked the secret for them.

Here are the keys to playing one-touch soccer..

1) Ball movement is predicated on player movement.

This is simple common sense. The player receiving the ball must know where he will play it next before his first (and only) touch.  Therefore, his teammates wishing to be played to must move to be in his vision early, before his head goes down to play the ball.

2) Prepare to play.

Whenever possible position yourself to receive the ball across your body. We call it being a back footed player. With your hips open to as much of the field as possible you should have a variety of options for play. Select the best one.

3) Play the way you face.

Follow Johan Cruyff's advice and just keep it simple.  This is difficult to do until we unlock the secrets. Then it is indeed simple... and a beautiful way to play.

4) Technical excellence.

You are only getting one touch on the ball so it must be a great one.  Toes up. Heel down. Strike through the ankle bone.

5) Intelligent support.

Move to once again position yourself in the vision of a teammate you expect will be receiving / playing the ball shortly.  It might or might not be the player receiving the ball next. You might need to read the game and anticipate 2 to 3+ passes ahead.

Once you get a team following these 5 steps one touch play can become a routine and normal part of your game. It often involves reprogramming a players thought process, but can be accomplished to a degree in relative short order.

Oh yeah, I enjoyed a Samuel Adams at my friends expense.  ;)    It wasn't perfect or even great but the progress made in one training session was significant enough to get the point across.

Player Development: What it does and doesn't look like.

Here are a couple of videos that demonstrate what player development should and should not look like.

Kick and run may generate wins at first,but development is needed to play good soccer and sustain results.

 

There is no real development without the ability to possess the ball.

The point of possession is to create

numerical advantage so as to attack the

opposition in a fashion that will lead

to a GOAL for your team.

Coaches need to pay attention to the details of the process too.

I am constantly reading, watching and learning about the game of soccer. Over and over again I am struck by the smallest of details in the process of coaching and playing the game. Today I want to look at the technical aspect of this by taking a well known exercise and tweaking it just a bit to enhance it.

I do not recall exactly when I first saw this exercise although it seems to me it was at a licencsure or diploma course from my early days in coaching soccer.  The exercise is typically called the Dutch Diamond and is employed as a warmup. It's the simple type of exercise that offers repetitive touches and serves to develop muscle memory.  Like any exercise worth the time to use it comes with coaching points. In this case, preparing to play, quality of first touch and the correct execution of a push pass.  There is also movement after the pass although it is not necessarily game related in the simplest version of this exercise.

Using four cones set up a 20 yd x 20 yd grid and divide the players between the four cones.
Begin with one ball being passed around the outside of the grid. 
The touch sequences are all 2 touch and begin coutner clockwise with right / right,  then right / left. Change directions to clockwise utilizing left / left and left / right touches on the ball.
Pass and follow.

Simple and useful exercise when executed properly.  The coaching points listed above can help improve upon it. The video linked below illustrates a very simple means to drive those coaching points home even more effectively.  It's a quite simple tweak of the exercise.

Breaking Lines  (Thanks to Randy at soundsoccerdotcom)

I add 2 cones to each corner forming a "L" or "V" shape dependent on abilities. In this manner we can perform all 4 sequences without resetting. By adding two cones to each corner a greater emphasis is placed on preparing to play (receiving across the body) and quailty of first touch (pushing the ball across and break the line to lead into the second touch)

The after pass movement portion is still not as game related as I would like it to be so I continued tinkering with possible progressions.  What I came up with was to have the passer make a diagonal run through the center of the grid instead of following their pass (a sometimes useful play in-game, but one we over-emphasize in skill exercises, imo).  For the purposes of this warmp exercise that the players will be merely exchanging positions between two diagonal corners as opposed to circling the grid matters little as the touches are the same at all four corners.

I need to work harder... and smarter.

Our U17 team got thumped 1-6 on Sunday.  The match was both closer than the score indicates and worse than the score indicates. How can that be?  Well, there were periods where we passed the ball well, built attacks and were dangerous. There were also times our defensive alignment was the best its been all year.  So, consistency was obviously a problem.

With a talented and deep roster "buy in" becomes a critical consideration and unfortunately not everyone has bought into the team style of play we are attempting to implement.  As a coach, little is as frustrating as having to correct the same mistake repeatedly. This is unfortunately the position I find myself in these past two weeks. Old habits can be difficult to break, but I expect effort in attempting to establish new, better habits.  That "buy in" to improve individual play for the benefit of the team has been lacking. It's my job to do a better job of selling sacrificing self for team.

As an experienced coach I know that sometimes team chemistry never does develop to an extent that allows collective achievement to rise to potential.  Some of the most talented teams I have ever been associated with have under achieved because some key players never came to appreciate and understand what it means to play for their teammates.  I'm not sure we are that point with this team, but we have a need for greater buy-in to a team first approach.

To date, I have started the best individual players with the belief that as they learned to play together they would develop a team approach to the game. Our practices are team oriented to re-inforce this. We don't do a lot of individual work. Almost everything we do is based in playing together as a team.  Support on offense and defense.  Sharing the ball ... or allowing the ball to do the work for us. 

Johan Cruyff once stated that "the most difficult thing is to play simply" and this is a message we need to heed. Too many lost possessions caused by taking on multiple defenders or by attempting fancy passes instead of a simple push pass.  Trying to be spectacular rarely works. The "Play of the Day" plays arise from making the simple play on a routine basis, then when extraordinary is called for it is based in simple fundamental play.

For the next match I will start the 11 that play best together instead of the 11 best players. A subtle difference at times, but success is found in the smallest details of the process.  The small details is where our process has faltered in recent days.  As a coach I must encourage paying attention to the details of the process. I must help this group of players develop individual and collective discipline where it concerns the details of the process. Once we re-establish that base I am confident we will regain momentum and finish the season strong.

Lots of work to do. 

Time to get started on it.

Summer 2013 Soccer Camps

Three of the approximately eight weeks of 2013 summer camps are already spoken for. If you are interested in hosting one, please contact us soon! We do team camps, small group clinics, GKer training and will for the first time be conducting a "How to" clinic in conjunction with a recreational league for new or novice coaches!  Contact us at 567-204-6083