Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training | Tags: charlie davies, fast feet, michael bradley, pierre barrieu, running with the ball, team usa, US national team
By Dave Clarke
Fast feet, dribble, pass then finish. Now that would be impressive, but follow my tips for giving players fast feet, then get them to do the drill at the end from Pierre Barrieu the fitness coach for the US national team and you will find your players are able to do this on match days.
1. Obstacles
Use cones, kit bags, flag poles, players bodies, tracksuits and balls. Put them all on the ground as alternatives to specialist ladders. Make the players move through these obstacles, making sure they do not step on any.
2. Fast feet adventure courses
Set up courses which require lots of different footwork skills. Each player can be timed over the course, with seconds added for failure to complete a section correctly. For instance station one could be jumping back and forward over a kit bag six times, followed by a zig-zag through cones, then running backwards through some poles.
3. Slow, fast, slow
Sometimes footwork can become repetitive, without challenging the player. Change the rhythm of the footwork session by changing the pace of the activity. A fast foot exercise can be made harder by using small hurdles or poles laid flat on the ground and players have to go at different speeds through them.
Watch this clip of Pierre Barrieu the fitness coach for the US national team, with Charlie Davis and Michael Bradley from the US team. You can set this up and play it with your team:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Barcelona, control and shoot, control in the penalty area, high ball control, shoot
By David Clarke
I’ve been focusing my young players on controlling high balls this weekend. It’s a skill that players need to set themselves up for a shot at goal. I can remember Eric Cantona of Manchester Utd and Leeds fame commenting that every night he threw balls high into the air and controlled them as they hit the ground.
At Barcelona they have a great drill that covers these points
Bringing down high balls
Close control
Setting up the shot
Accurate shooting
All you need are four cones a ball and a goal with target areas marked out. Put a couple of cones a few yards in from the posts on either side of the goal and call these the target areas. Put four cones in a 10 yard square around the penalty spot so the penalty spot is in the middle.
Players must start with their back or side to goal
Juggle the ball three or four times then kick high
Keep the ball inside the zone
Finish in the target areas either side of the goal
Watch how Barcelona coach it here:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: in charge on the touchline, manager, match day coaching, run the game
Being in control from the touchline is not easy for coaches of young players. But few coaches take as much care during the vital minutes of the match as they do with the pre-match preparation.
ON MATCH DAYS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
1. DO find the right moment.
Information needs to be given when players are most receptive, in other words when they can concentrate on what you are saying. That is not in the middle of the game. Talk to them at the half-time break. Youth teams suffer the most from parents shouting out meaningless parents, confusing the main message you want to deliver. Your team needs to avoid conflicting messages.
2. DON’T micro-manage the game.
Some coaches feel it necessary to talk players through every move. This is potentially destructive because it stifles their instinct for the game and stops them using their skills (which probably exceed the coach’s). Positive encouragement will give players confidence. Psychologists tell us that it is better to say “hit the target” than “don’t miss”.
3. DO break the game down into chunks with achievable targets.
No shots on your goal from the opposition for the next ten minutes, keep play in their half of the pitch.
4. DON’T get distracted away from the game.
Talk to spectators and the other coaches afterwards. Your players need your full attention. Create a bubble for you and your team. Make sure at half-time the bubble continues.
5. DO watch first, worry later.
Keep your emotions under control – panic, anger, frustration and fear are all mind killers. Players depend on the coach to be the coolest head on the pitch. Observing from as many different watching angles as possible will enhance your perspective on the game.
6. DON’T argue with the referee.
It distracts the players and draws attention to the possible shortcomings of one person rather than the game in hand. It is also unlikely to have a positive influence on the outcome of the game and is not in the spirit of the game anyway. Referees and umpires of all levels and abilities will rarely change a decision once it’s been made and it may even turn them against you.
7. DO create and refer to a checklist.
When the game starts, as a coach you should be able to read effectively the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses and alter your strategy accordingly. Use a simple checklist with the tactic you will apply to counter strengths or exploit weaknesses. For instance, identifying their best player may change the way they are marked, or noting whether that player is left or right sided.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer Skills | Tags: changing speeds, control, fitness, running with the ball
The lines on a soccer pitch can be used for more than just a match. You can make some great games up just by getting players to follow the lines and turn at right angles. Players have to control the ball running in straight lines on a pitch and it works well for your training sessions.
Check out this game, which helps players get used to changing pace and controlling the ball. It’s great fun for the players and good for their fitness too.
Watch the clip and get your players running around the lines:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: best football songs, best soccer songs, chris waddle, football chants, football songs, glenn hoddle, kasabian, lightening seeds, mas que nada, soccer chants, soccer songs, sony Kaka ad, sultans of ping, three lions
I’ve had such a lot of feedback since I did my original blog The six best soccer (football) songs ever that I’ve had to come up with another six just to keep everyone happy. And, yes I know, there are a lot more.
Comment below with your favourite and I may do more…
Anyway here they are:
1. Best song GIVE HIM A BALL AND A YARD OF GRASS by Sultans of Ping – nominated by my publisher Kevin Barrow
see video at the bottom of the blog and sample lyrics from it
2, Best song in an advert UNDERDOG by Kasabian _ nominated by coach Pavl Williams
Click here to watch the Sony Bravia advert with Kaka
Or watch the full version of Kasabian Underdog
3. Best World Cup Song THREE LIONS by The Lightening Seeds
Watch Three Lions by The Lightening Seeds
4. Best Crowd Song MAS QUE NADA by Sergio Mendes
Watch the Brazil team in the Nike ad with Mas Que Nada
Watch the official Sergio Mendes version of Mas Que Nada
5. Best Ex Player Song DIAMOND LIGHTS by Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle
Watch Hoddle and Waddle on Top of the Pops
6. Best Club Song A SONG FOR LEICESTER CITY – only because it mentions the best young English manager in the game: Simon Grayson and England hero Emile Heskey.
Watch a Song for Leicester City (Billy Joel style)
My publisher Kevin Barrow brought the Sultans of Ping song to my attention after I had done the first Best Soccer (football) song collection and I have to admit it is a classic
Here’s an extract from their lyrics:
“Give him a ball & a yard of grass
He’ll give you a move with perfect pass
Give him a ball & a yard of space
He’ll give you a move with godly grace”
Here’s their video:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: argentina, Manchester Utd, maradona, peru, sheffield wednesday, world cup 2010 qualification
As coaches we have all been through a period where we haven’t won for a few games and we begin to doubt what we have achieved. Losing is a part of sport that we all must accept and I include myself in that.
However hard we try to achieve a winning team you must be realistic and accept that losing is something that happens to most coaches. Remember that for every game you win opposite you is a coach and team that have lost, so try to respect that and not be over enthusiastic in your celebrations.
I know sometimes it isn’t easy to keep your emotions in check. I can remember after losing three games in a row how fantastic it felt to win again and so did my players. Coaches must try to set an example to their players in victory and in defeat because young players are easily influenced by your reactions.
Watching Maradonna when Argentina won a place in the World Cup in the recent qualifying matches diving full length onto the pitch is a good example of what you shouldn’t do. When my team won the U10 title having been second all season I could easily have done the same. Thankfully I can look back at the occasion and see photos of smiling coaches not idiots!
Watch these clips, one of Maradonna when Argentina beat Uruguay to claim a place in the 2010 World Cup against the odds, the second clip shows the moment Argentina score (goooooooooooooooooooooal!) and Sir Alex Ferguson when his team scored twice in the final minutes to help them on the road to winning the Premier League in England in 1993.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Champions League final 2008, Chealsea, John O'Shea, John Terry, Manchester United, outfield players in goal, Rio Ferdinand, stars in goal
Covering for the goalkeeper was brought sharply into focus on Sunday when our U14s ‘keeper felt ill at half time and said he couldn’t carry on. The game was a close one we were losing 2-1 but from my position as assistant referee (I get all the best jobs!) I felt it was certainly winnable.
We had therefore to change goalkeepers. My son used to play a lot as goalkeeper but hasn’t played in that position since the summer, but he was the best replacement. He was also instrumental in holding the ball on the left wing and playing it through to the attackers. The other thing he is good at is winning the ball off defenders high up the pitch which creates problems for the opposition, so to move him from there to goal gave two problems, filling that role and getting him to refocus on goalkeeping.
The match became difficult because the ball was quickly coming back at our defence with no one there to hold it up. Also my son was not coming out to get the ball like he would if he had been practicing more often.
The game turned when we went 3-1 down and there was no way back. There are a number of coaching points to be made here.
Make sure you give your reserve goalkeepers time in goal. With the U9s I play them in goal for a half every other game. It keeps them ready in case our main goalkeeper is unavailable or injured.
Goalkeeping gives central defenders a different view of the penalty area and makes them good at positioning themselves so that they can defend attacking shots if the goalkeeper has gone missing.
In this clip from the Champions League final 2008 between Chelsea and Manchester United, John Terry is in the ideal position to head the shot over the bar when his goalkeeper had gone to claim the ball and lost it. In the other clip Rio Ferdinand goes in goal and nearly saves a penalty after the Manchester Utd goalkeeper had been sent off. And another of Man Utd’s John O’Shea going in goal.
Central defenders get a good tactical view when they stand in for goalkeepers and it helps their defensive positional sense.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News | Tags: audi r8, bentley, football stars cars, manchester city, rich footballer soccer player, stephen ireland
Who says money can’t buy you taste? Imagine turning up to the next Clackton boys U9s match driving the car that English Premier League star Stephen Ireland drove home. You might get one or two comments from the opposition manager.
The 23-year old Irish midfielder wanted his girlfriend Jessica’s 24th birthday to be special and now that the Manchester City players are rolling in cash he decided to splash £264,000 on a nice little runner for her.
You’ll be able to spot her a mile off in the red and white Bentley GTC as she zooms around the lanes of Cheshire..
It has customised red leather seats with a romantic message stitched into them surrounded by a heart. At least £1,000 was spent to change the Bentley’s B winged insignia to Jessica’s initals JL.
The car boasts a 6-litre, 552bhp engine with a top speed of 198mph and can go from 0-60 in just 4.8 seconds. Ireland has a certain ‘taste’ when it comes to cars. He drives a £97,000 Audi R8 which he had resprayed in Manchester City blue and white colours.
His car has blue petrol cap shaped into the logo of Superman and number sevens on all his alloy wheels to match with his shirt number.
But where do they put all the muddy boots after a match in the pouring rain?
Filed under: Dave Clarke | Tags: abramovich, al-faraj, Chelsea, foreign owners, Portsmouth, southampton, Stamford Bridge
As more and more English Premier League teams fall under foreign ownership I have to wonder why are they doing it. Hardly any of these owners show up and when they do, like the owners of Liverpool, they look rather silly with new scarves and flags to wave. And, boy is it costing them a lot of money.
However I do think Roman Abramovich is beginning to behave like any football fan with a lot of money would. Go to every game, buy the best players in the world, sack the manager every time your team loses.
The latest Premier League owners are the billionaire Saudi Arabian oil-rich brothers Al-Faraj, led by Ali, who have completed the second takeover of Portsmouth inside 42 days.
It will be interesting to see if they act like Abramovich and take some time away from sailing the Med to have pie and chips at their local football ground. And how excited will they be if they draw Southampton in the cup?
I think Roman will enjoy these highlights more than Ali…
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training | Tags: how to take a penalty, jermaine beckford, leeds utd, penalty miss
By Dave Clarke
There is no reason for it, but how often do you see players who are scoring freely for the team run up and miss the penalty? It happens a lot in youth soccer, but it also afflicts the professionals.
Sometimes it’s the whole team that can’t score. Leeds United have missed 8 of their last 9 penalties using different players. Their leading score got 33 goals from open play but couldn’t score when put on the spot, this included a vital penalty in the play-off final against Millwall which Leeds went on to lose – watch the penalty below.
Penalties should be money in the bank, unless the goalkeeper makes an outstanding save players shouldn’t miss.
But now researchers think they may have an explanation for why the players miss them. A study shows players who ‘rush’ penalties have the biggest failure rate. Those who respond fastest to the referee’s whistle are much more likely to miss than players who pause briefly before starting their run up.
To work out why some players miss, researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences studied the time it took players to complete a kick. They found those who started their run up less than two milliseconds after the referees’s whistle scored only around 57 per cent of the time. A millisecond is one thousandth of a second. But those who took more than a second to respond hit the back of the net more than 80 per cent of the time.
Psychologists call this phenomenon ‘self-regulatory breakdown’. It is a natural form of human behaviour, where someone feels such intense distress from a situation that they do whatever they possibly can to end it _ even if it is harmful to their performance.
So according to the scientists it’s that easy. Take your time…
Tell this to your players it may help them to know that even the professionals are scared when they have to take one.
This is my penalty advice:
- Keep it simple
- Tell them to make up your mind early which spot of the goal they’re going to shoot at – and stick to it. Ideally take four to six steps in the run-up
- Disguise their intentions – for example, approach the ball as if aiming for one corner but strike the ball to the opposite corner
- Head down, eyes on the ball when taking the shot
- Body over the ball and non-kicking foot alongside to keep the shot under the bar
- Whether high or low, aim for the corners – a ball struck with enough pace will be unsaveable
- Hit the target – miss the goal completely and there’s no possibility of a rebound for the penalty taker or their team-mates
Watch this great penalty into the top corner by Digeo Forlan in the last minute of the Equador/Uruguay World Cup Qualifier. He had to score to keep Uruguay’s World Cup hopes alive. See where he puts the ball then watch these penalty misses, Beckford for Leeds and Robert Pires tries to be clever with Thierry Henry and causes a mix up for Arsenal:
