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."  

Go to Goal!

Play the ball in behind the opponents backs and watch your teammate run onto it and go to goal!

This is direct play at its most extreme and often its worst.

Lionel Messi is considered one of if not the top player in today's game.  He's a terrific "dribbler."  That is, he runs with the ball extremely well.  This ability to run with the ball can pressure defenses to the breaking point. When Messi is on the run with the ball everyone rises to their feet in anticipation of something great about to happen.

A great ball carrier who can break down the defense is an extremely valuable commodity to have on your team, but only if he knows how to use his ability for the greater good.

At my last stop as a high school head coach I had a young lady who was a state qualifier in track and could run as fast with the ball as she did without the ball. She was stunningly gifted in this regard.  Unfortunately she never did learn to use her gift to the full benefit of her team. Kelly was content to break behind the defenders and go to goal. Taking a shot was the only thing on her mind. I have never witnessed more blown break-away opportunities than I did during her career.

Why?

The reason is found in how Messi plays. 

Messi carries the ball with the intent to engage defenders.  It's great if the only defender he must engage is the opponents goalkeeper, but more often than not it will be an opposing field player that must be engaged before a shot on goal opportunity arises.  Messi knows when to pass.  More precisely, Messi uses his run with the ball to set up the pass. He pulls players out of position to create numbers up situations with teammates and then utilizes a cross or combination passing to generate the shot on goal opportunity either for himself or a teammate.

There is a player on one of my son's teams who is good at getting played in behind the defenders.  Jonathon has had several opportunities running with the ball at goal.  Many of these occur with his path being from the corner, corner, post wedge.  In a sense, by going to goal,  Jonathon is engaging defenders and drawing them to him.  Invariably he ends these sequences with taking a shot from a nearly impossible angle... while one or more teammates are open in front of the face of the goal. I would like to see Jonathon more fully explore all options available to him. This will necessitate a change from being a ball watcher to being a game watcher. 

Kelly was never willing to make the transition from going to goal to intelligently and purposefully engaging opponents and incorporating teammates into attacking the goal. There's still time for Jonathon.  To develop game intelligence, one must become a game watcher.

And that is what makes Messi so great, his game intelligence.  When he carries the ball, Messi sees multiple options and chooses the one that best benefits his team more often than not.  There is an understanding of engaging defenders to set them up to be defeated with the help of one or more teammates.  Messi sees the broader game instead of just himself, the ball and the goal.  When Messi goes to goal he purposefully takes a mate or two long with the intent to increase the chances someone will score the ball!