PLAYERS NEEDS CHANGE WITH TIME

What we teach must resonate with the players by addressing their strengths/weaknesses they find in the game.

I have noticed that in the girls older age groups (U-16,17,18), they are lacking tremendously in basic skills like dribbling, passing, and controlling the ball. I am a firm believer that these are things that should be taught and developed at early years so when they are older the tactical game can be developed.

Well since these technical skills are lacking, how can I get the girls interested in working on them at home and in practice. U-11 and 12 girls think making a good pass and perfecting a new move is cool, while for older girls it’s tedious and boring. So basically my question is how to get these older girls working hard at practice and on their own, on these skills without being bored working on them???

First, coaches, let me applaud you for wishing to avoid boring the players as they work on skills. Dynamism is the key to learning soccer because we do not have closed skills as in bowling, golf, or archery. While one beautifully executed putt can mean thousands of dollars for a golfer, a soccer player can execute a technically perfect skill to no avail. Conversely, the ugliest toe-in can win a game.

A coach in Denmark once conveyed to me his belief that players adapt and use a functional skill. In other words, they use what works for them. The noted educational psychologist Erickson observed that learners can know perfectly well the correct way to execute, but under pressure succumb to their original method; which is, of course, wrong or why would we be teaching them? Clearly, if technical perfection is desired, we should provide players training in dynamic situations that build pressure to execute; then coach their adaptations.

Making dynamic training successful also means critically identifying the techniques needed during a game and weighing their importance. For example, a world champion U.S. team forward once admitted she really never did take headers. None of us would want to push the point and spend hours of training time perfecting that skill with her. Nor would we want to push speed dribbling for distance on her when the longest time she has with the ball may be three touches. What we teach must resonate with the players by addressing the exigencies they find in the game.

The needs of player change over time largely because the game develops more pressure. At eleven, a player does dribble- she sees space and takes the ball to it for seven to ten yards. Yet, at sixteen turning with the ball or holding the ball under pressure or feinting to un-weight the defender really become the dynamic skills adapted from dribbling. Similarly, trapping (controlling the ball) evolves into popping the ball off the side of the upper chest into usable space or using the outside of the foot to play the first touch beside a defender.

The ‘9-Step Practice’ allows coaches to develop skill and control the level of pressure. Because of the progression, players can translate initial success to performance under game-like pressure. As we coaches climb higher in the licensing program, we can identify better for ourselves the refinements of the basic skills that players adapt as they mature for their needs in the situations they face during a game.

For a sixteen year old, training on her own will take quite a bit of Imagination. Challenging herself to perform a skill at top speed takes motivation and vision. Players do it when they are inspired. For example, for a player to pick up a ball at full speed from just beyond the top of the circle, speed dribble diagonally to the left, imagine seeing a goalkeeper slightly out of position, then strike from 22 yards- she would need a World Cup tape of Zambrotta (Italy vs. Ukraine, 6th minute). That series is actually nearly a closed skill because Zambrotta faced only time pressure, so he executed at full speed.

That kind of imagination fueled the training for the U.S. during the lean years prior to team training camps. Players left college and had no real competitive options. Anson Dorrance would give them workouts with fitness and individual skill which they would execute, often alone, at parks or schools local to them. The secret, though, besides a little imagination, is to use a team training session to pattern the individual workouts and their pace. In another way, take one dynamic, but individual exercise they should be doing on their own, make it competitive and do one or two of them in each team session as an example. An exercise for dribbling could be for time between markers. For receiving or passing, the exercise could be from/to a partner with limited receiving space for number of repetitions. Doing the homework exercise as a competitive one in team training gives the motivation for perfecting the skill.

Coaching developing players has its challenges. Finding the motivational button is certainly one of them. But, with the proper adjustments in the ‘9-Step Practice”, we can address technical needs they face by learning the dynamic levels of skills and controlling the pressure under which they learn nuances. As we do that, we resonate with them because we can teach what they need to use when faced with pressure. It may not be the kind of isolated new skill we can easily identify for an eleven year old, but it becomes the adapted skill a sixteen year old truly uses.

Written for FUNdamental SOCCER By Coach Diane R. Boettcher, Former University, College, High School and ODP coach with coaching licenses from USSF, NSCAA, KNVB and the FA.

Final Notes:: Thank you for taking the time to read this article and sharing it with your soccer community. Please send your comments or questions on this theme to me at: [email protected]

Your FUNdamental,

Koach Karl (Karl Dewazien)

• Emeritus Director of Coaching - California Youth Soccer Assoc. 1979-2012
• Author - Internationally Published FUNdamental SOCCER Books Series
• Producer - highly acclaimed ‘FUNdamental SOCCER -Practice’ DVD.
• Clinician at: www.fundamentalsoccer.com