Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: Frank Lampard, long ball, shoot, Steven Gerrard, tackle
When you pick midfielders for your team you need them to be able to tackle well, hit accurate long balls and shoot at goal.
It’s a hard position to fill which is why players like Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are so important to their team.
You need someone who is more than just a link up player. They must be able to break up attacks and provide some level of defence for the players behind them. Youth teams are vulnerable to attacks through the midfield and must tackle to force play away and give defenders more space, and time, to see where the danger is coming from.
Watch these two clips of good midfield play, they play at different levels but both can do what you want to see in a midfielder.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: 1v1 goalkeeper, goalkeeper drills, goalkeeper warm-ups
Warming up goalkeepers and getting them ready for matches means spending time in training sessions working one to one with them.
But it’s no good just throwing or kicking the ball at them, goalkeepers need to be stretched in all directions. You are also risking either alienating your goalkeeper or boring them if you do a quick kick-throw activity with them during training.
For the most part you want them to be taking part in all the sessions you do with your players. A goalkeeper needs to use their feet a lot so they should be good at kicking and passing the ball.
However you do need to spend time on some specific warm-up and specific match day drills that will help them develop into good goalkeepers. Try to do this at least two or three times a month.
Watch this which has some good tips for warm-ups and match day drills.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: leeds, Liverpool, man utd, passing drills, passing exercises, Premier League coaches, simple passing
One of the things that I am always telling coaches is to keep passing exercises simple.
Young players will learn far more from simple passing using the correct technique, than complicated drills that confuse them.
I was coaching U9s with two simple passing moves and when they played the match afterwards they were making some great moves, all the way up the pitch. I was pleased at their progress and some of the parents commented on how well they were passing. One of them said they hadn’t realised how direct quick passing could be.
They were just playing a practice game gearing up for the start of the season but were keen to score goals. Simple passing sequences give players confidence in their own ability making it more likely they will do it under pressure in matches.
Watch this session showing simple exercises for passing training.
