From the Director’s Box

October, 2010

Sideways on Exercises.

I often exhort coaches to consider soccer as a “Sideways on Sport” indicating that players will have much more success when they are able to receive the ball at an angle. Being sideways on allows players, in advance of the ball, to be able to see, peripherally, advancing defenders. The exercise in the Technical Area is an excellent one for developing this sideways on aspect of receiving and passing the ball. This aspect of play becomes particularly important when one touch soccer is required. Being able to have the body halfway turned enables attacking players to use a couple of maneuvers to get past defenders as shown in the technical area;

1. Play a 1-2- pass with the center forward and get behind the defender.

2. Pass to yourself. As the ball arrives and the defender approaches clip the ball around the advancing defender and go around the back or front. Helps if the defender is coming in too fast.

3. Double pass with passer and go behind the defender to get the ball back.

4. As the defender comes in to close down, the receiving player allows the ball to run between the legs and dodges around the opponent and gets the ball on the other side.

The practice game is played on a field with vertical corridors which the players must stay in, at least initially. Players are not allowed to pass the ball forward in the same corridor but must use an adjacent corridor. They can pass it backwards. At the end of each corridor are four yard wide goals and a ball retriever who plays the ball back in immediately a goal is scored.

Stages for this exercise are;

1. Stay in corridor. Cannot pass the ball forward in your corridor.

2. Players can move into any corridor but cannot pass the ball forward to a team mate in the corridor they are in.

3. Corridors taken a way. Let’s play.

One of the elements we are trying to encourage also with these exercises is the outside of the foot pass. This pass is a pass made with the forward foot almost as if the player is walking forward and the forward foot contacts the ball. This is an excellent way of disguising a pass. This is shown in the UTube video with two outside of the foot passes prior to Shevchenko receiving the ball.

The Bulletin Board posting from Master Coach candidate Gary Ross and comes from the recent Master Coach visit to England and Liverpool University where we had an outstanding presentation on hydration from Dr. James Morton of Liverpool University’s Soccer Science Department. The indication is that coaches should cut the length of their half time talks to allow players more time to warm up.

Enjoy your coaching,

Jeff Tipping

NSCAA Director of Education and Coaching Development