Skills still come first for Girl Power.

     So why did I start the girls out in "positions" last night.  Am I finally going to start working with them on developing a passing game?  No.  Girl Power plays with a lot of skill but they still tend to crowd the ball and what I want to encourage them to do is to have a better sense of the whole field rather than simply being fixated on the ball.  I was hoping to use that "position" set-up as a way to force them to stay far enough away from the ball sometimes that they'd actually have a better view of what was happening all over the field.
     In the video above you see a recent match between Barcelona and Espanol. With Messi, Neymar and Suarez Barcelona have three of the best one-v-one dribblers in the world and you do see some of that skill on plain display when Messi takes that delicate first touch from Suarez' pass and with a little flick-on past the defender creates space for a shot where there had been none. We're used to seeing that from Lionel but what's fascinating here is that you see from all three players a brilliant display of awareness and anticipation. Neymar sees that Luis Suarez is in a position where a good pass to him will put him one-v-one with the right back. As the pass comes to Suarez he has so much space you might expect him to take on that back and go for the goal himself but he control's Neymar's pass so deftly that he has plenty of time to look up and assess his options. And what does he see? Messi, suddenly streaking toward the top of the box. Messi sees the possibility at the same time Suarez does and without hesitation Suarez makes that beautiful chip over a defender and right to Leo's feet. These are three of the most accomplished ball control players in the world and that control gives them the ability to look up from the ball and see the possibilities, to anticipate.
     In order to play cooperatively like that and to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves players must be able to assess the situations they're in.  They've got to see the whole field and know in an instant where they are, where their teammates and the opposition are.  What we see at the highest level in the game are players who have the experience and skill to act in concert.  We see the passing and, like an alley-oop in basketball, the effortless quality that sort of combination play has is just astounding.  But we must not take for granted what players need before they can get anywhere close to that sort of cooperative play.  They need ball skills, obviously.  But they also need vision.
     Many a coach get's enamored of that sort of combination play and they want their young soccer players to start passing right away to create that beautiful weaving of movement to the goal.  What they get is a lot of kicking instead and if you have a couple of stout defenders with big legs and at least one rabbit to play up top you can have some early, if ugly, success.  But a true passing attack is a tactic that requires a lot of individual technique to execute.  Without the technique (skills) tactics are pointless.  With the Legends approach we know that we can't put the cart before the horse.  First and most importantly we've got to put players on a path to developing their individual dribbling and ball control skills, a path that encourages creativity and fearlessness, that values effort and real joy in play over game outcomes.  With Girl Power I'm lucky to have the most committed group of dribblers and ball-hogs I've ever coached and do they love to play!  Last night's performance was really special.  I had asked them before the game to be sure to keep away from the walls and always try to dribble into open space in the middle of the field.  I suggested to them that to do that they would need to use moves other than the simple cuts and zig-zags I'd seen so much of recently.  "Get your foot on top of the ball and show me those Maradonas and play-behinds.  Show me those Cruyff turns."  Wow, did they ever come out ready to put on a show.
     On Eileen's first possession she started her dribble with a little carry-over touch coming from her right into the middle of the field.  As the first opposition player came toward her she quickly stopped the ball with her right foot then spun counter clock-wise to make a perfect little pull-back with her left foot that took her right past the defender.  After that great start everyone got on board and started trying all their skills.  Abby had some beautiful play-behinds but last night she broke out a new move, a sort of step-over, that she used to weave across and back over the field until she found a seam to exploit.  The pull-back and play-behind was Anna's move too and she used it to great affect repeatedly.
     Zoe and Ava were showing off the great Cruyff turn move they both have nailed down in practice.  My thought watching them both was "finally!" as they both can do that move so fast in practice but they rarely bring it out in games.  I assume that's because they don't always realize it when they are in a situation where that skill is just what's called for.  And that's why it's so important for me to keep encouraging them to attempt to use those skills and forget the score.  Only by trying the skills in a game situation can they develop a sense of when to use a particular move.  That was what I said to Emily as she took a break on the bench after making a great run where she did three Cruyffs in a row.  She actually does a sort of Maradona/Cruyff combo move where she reaches out to pull the ball back under herself then executes a quick left-footed pull-back to get turned around.  She didn't make much progress up field on that particular run as she went into the move each time a little early, before the defender was really engaged.  But she kept the ball, possessing it for at least five seconds.  If you watch a game closely to see how long any one possession lasts I can assure you that you'll see that anything over three seconds is atypical, even for a team like ours.
     I was really happy to see both Hailey and Ashley attempt some more complex moves in this game.  I've been a little concerned lately that the two of them have been too reliant on their current strengths; a delicate touch for Hailey and overwhelming speed for Ashley.  For both of them it can often seem that they don't need anything else.  Hailey can move so quickly with the ball and has such delicate control, even in a crowd, that she is often very successful taking a direct path to the goal.  Similarly, Ashley is so fast and so sure-footed on her shot (with either foot) that she can usually beat the last defender by making a big touch to one side and simply outrunning them to get to the ball.
     Last night both girls had moments where they not only changed direction but also changed pace, using moves that require them to actually stop the ball momentarily and hopefully what they learned was that in doing that you can use a defending players inertia against them, drawing them one way with speed then changing pace and direction to get them to over-run you.  That's how Abby's step over works.  She dribbles straight ahead then sort of runs past the ball and then turns full on it to reverse direction.  That step-over past the ball always tricks a defender into taking another step too and so when Abby turns back she's gained at least two steps of space.
    With all of the girls performances last night I think what was most apparent to me was that often unappreciated affect that using these sorts of "toe-on-the-ball" moves has: this type of dribbling requires patience and a willingness to take a longer path to the goal and so it usually results in longer stretches of tenacious ball possession.

   

The loss we'd been waiting for.

     That was a great game last night.  Really enjoyable, skillful soccer.  And in that game Girl Power finally got challenged by a team that had more than a physical advantage over them.  TC Fire played skillfully throughout and most if not all of their players showed a very good first touch on the ball and their movement up field was mostly achieved with very deft dribbling.  They passed the ball a bit more regularly than we would with only a few of their players seeming to look for one-v-one chances but those players were up to it and did win a lot of those match-ups.  And, of course, they had a couple of players who had real power in their shooting strokes giving them a real advantage in our half even as Girl Power valiantly repelled one attack after another. 
     I feel that our girls needed this sort of challenge.  They need to see a team that does everything they do in terms of commitment to skillful play and yet simply does it all a tick faster.  Our girls have played against weaker competition for so long that their dribbling has taken on a sort of languid pace.  They've spent so much time playing teams that won't vigorously challenge for the ball that they've always had time to work with the ball casually, and in those fall games when we did lose the ball it was always due to some wild, kicking sort of attack and the result of that was just that one of our girls farther back in the field would pick the ball up and start the whole attack over again.  What they saw last night were defenders who, like Girl Power themselves, go into challenges to steal the ball, to come away with it.  So, the girls faced the sort of defensive pressure they have only seen recently from the White Tigers but in this case from a team that had more sure footed finishers.
     This past fall was the first season in which Legends fielded select level teams.  The one that I coach, my son's U11 team, is made up of players who came out of their final season of U10 recreational (last spring) having reached a point in their development where few rec teams could challenge them.  Naturally most of my players came into their first select season with a mixture of excited anticipation of the new competition and confidence in their own abilities.  What they found at their first match was that the team we faced was playing at what seemed to my boys a bewilderingly faster pace.  My boys complained of being roughed up and pushed around.  They complained about the officiating.  But when the game was over and they'd calmed down I was able to explain to them that the other team wasn't really particularly rough, they just played the game faster.  They closed to challenge faster.  They closed on loose balls faster.  They got up to full speed on their dribble more quickly.  They pulled the trigger on their shots faster and earlier.
     By our very next game my U11 boys had begun to pick up their pace and adjust.  The pressure of better competition had very quickly started to help them find speed they didn't know they had and now that higher pace is normal.  I'm sure our girls will respond the same way.  They've been shown by another team that you can play with skill and speed and I'm sure that they'll simply accelerate to match that.
     As far as individual play, I can only compliment everyone on their performance.  My only post game note for the girls was that I'd like to see them using the "Cruyff" turn skill more and I'd like to see them get their foot on top of the ball while dribbling more often as well as more moves that involve that sort of touch (maradonna, pull-backs, etc).  Zoe was using that sort of "carry over" touch a lot and it was very effective.  Other than that what I saw was a lot of very good first touches, a lot of every effective basic dribbling and a much improved sense of how to cover the field.
And as for the TC Fire?  Well, I think we can get them next time.

What they're up to in Kansas City.

Coach Eric is out in KC hanging with other Legends coaches for an annual meeting and he sent back some video of one of the local KC Legends teams working out at their indoor training space.  Check out the mad skills on these U9 players!  And it's a co-ed team!

Oh, I see...I'm the crazy one.

 

     Back in late summer I spotted the sign above while at a driving range and it seemed to me that the advice it provides applies to any sport.  I especially like the first two points.
     Recently I've had some opportunities during training sessions to talk with players about the fact that as they continue to develop they have to become their own personal coach, a concept that was a favorite topic of Coach Jeremy when he trained our players.  The idea is that if you really want to improve you've got to be self-aware.  You've got to learn to really focus on your technique.  You've got to judge your own performance and be interested in and open to ways to improve that performance.  It's an attitude that is the exact opposite of that old characterization of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time."
     Following the season opener for the U11 boys on Tuesday evening it occurred to me that maybe I'm the one who keeps doing the same thing and hoping for a different result.  Obviously all we ever work on in practice is dribbling skill.  We find ways to combine that sort of work with practice on first touch and shooting but we never talk about tactical passing and we never talk about tactical play in terms of defense.  Not surprisingly our defense is terrible.  One player gets the ball and goes on a run and everyone else but the keeper drifts up field after them.  Our field awareness as a team is weighted heavily towards wherever the ball is and so every turnover turns into a counter attack.      We had the same problem outdoor in the fall and yet I was never willing to change our practice plan or to change my basic instructions to the team on game days in order to focus, even temporarily, on defensive shape or tactics.  I've been confident that if we just keep working on developing every player's ball control skills they would pick-up the basics of being more organized defensively by simple dint of playing experience.  Obviously I talk to players on all of my teams about how important it is to be aware of what's going on around you, to anticipate, and to remember that when you don't have the ball you aren't just doing nothing.  But I never force players to stay in any set "position" on the field.   I felt justified in the expectation that players will "get it" on their own with this minimal bit of guidance as my U8 girls team, my lab team, plays a wonderful flowing style of soccer where they defend smartly and build their attack right from that defense.
     My girls have great field awareness and know to rotate about the field to cover for each other and to find open opponents when we lose the ball.  I've had most of the girls in this group since U6, many since U4, and I've always encouraged them to possess the ball and dribble for a shot from anywhere on the field.  As they got older and started asking me what "position" they were in as they went onto the field I'd always say "figure it out yourselves."  Then I'd usually add the caveat "But remember, if one of  you is in the back and the ball comes to you, you have to dribble up and someone else needs to move back to cover."  Obviously I did that mainly because asking your defenders to clear every ball is a terrible waste of opportunities for them to get dribbling experience.  Over the long term though, I also wanted them to come to understand that "positions" aren't a matter of particular locations on the field, rather they're a matter of responsibilities and most of the responsibilities on the field can and should be shared.  It took them a while to get the hang of that, from their first year in U6 to their second season of U8 really.  But now it's how they play.  Possess, dribble, rotate.
    For the U11's though, that "global" sense of what the various responsibilities on the field are is slow in coming.  I'm still not going to move my coaching focus away from ball possession and deceptive dribbling.  But I am thinking about setting the U11 team up for their next game with specific instructions to play either up or back because it occurs to me that with everyone drifting into the attack all the time many of my players aren't actually getting enough game experience playing defense.  I don't mean playing defense in the 1v1 technical sense, but rather in the sense of having an understanding of how to anticipate and move into space to respond to a change of possession and how to see the opportunities the attacking team is seeing.  So what I'm wondering is would it be helpful to force each player on the team to spend some portion of the game in the backfield, force them to see the game from there for an extended period in hopes that they'll each start to get a better sense of how to occupy that space effectively?  What if I gave players a specific instruction to stay behind the attacking line no matter what?  Not as a tactic, mind you, but as an instructional exercise, like when we tell younger players they have to dribble back to our own eighteen then do a move before they can go up to have a shot.
     The team we played Tuesday night had a handful of players who were competent defenders in terms of their spacing and speed and toughness.  But they were also clearly specialists who weren't working on their ball skills very much and I don't want that for my players.  Basically I want them all to have the skill set of a central midfielder which means having the ball skills to possess and dribble for attack but also having the field awareness and soccer IQ to know how to work together to contain the other team.  With my U8 girls I've had the luxury of being able to work with most of the group for three straight years of outdoor and indoor sessions.  I feel like I need to find a way to help these older boys leap ahead a bit so now I've got to be willing to make some changes in some areas of my coaching in order to help them get there.
   

Indoor Season Begins for Girl Power

     It was so good to be back on the bench with my Girl Power squad yesterday.  Their enthusiasm for the game is just a delight every time we go into a match and yesterday they were all clearly thrilled to be getting back to playing.
     The new shirts looked great as they took the field and after a few minutes of calmly absorbing the ISC side's initial burst of energy they began pressing into the other half.  By the time Girl Power had scored their first goal it was clear they were going to dominate possession of the ball throughout.  The score was lopsided despite our playing down, first one player then two. 
     Our "Scout", Ava, wasn't feeling her best and that hurt us a bit.  A consistent characteristic of this team's style of play is an ability to build their attack patiently from their own defensive third and Ava is typically the leader in that respect.  With a skillful first touch on a loose ball or a deft tackle and steal Ava so often gets the ball and then thoughtfully makes a move into open space, finding a lane for herself or a smart pass.  A lot of our goals are the cap on sequences of possession that begin with Ava calmly retaking the ball.  It's one thing about this team that so impresses me, that at their age they've already realized how often their attack can and should begin with their defense.  All the girls could see that Ava wasn't at her best so it was wonderful to see them step up to cover for her with Emily and Zoe in particular doing brilliant work filling that sweeper role for us.
     Given that it was our first game in a while I'm happy with the level of dribbling skill we saw.  Not too many fancy moves, though Abby did bring out her scissors a couple of times.  Anyone watching the girls play can see that with each game they display more cooperative play, they pass the ball more.  I'm glad to see that but my point of emphasis when talking with them on the bench will still be to encourage them to take on their one v ones and to test their skill, to use dribble moves they aren't so confident with.  The ISC team we faced did have plenty of players who were attacking the ball quickly rather than giving us lots of space.  That's good but we'll eventually face teams that are even quicker to the ball and more forceful when they arrive.  I want to be sure that we are ready for that with a set of dribbling skills that is reliable under pressure.