Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Alonso, Barcelona, iniesta, messi, spain, trtaining, warm ups, xavi
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: boanas, coordination, fun games, games, mind games, sessions, solving problems, thinking, warm ups
By David clarke
I was on a coaching course recently with Surrey County FA coach educator Keith Boanas. One of the warm-up sessions from Keith really caught my eye and I have since used it with my team – it is tremendous fun and brings coordination, communication and teamwork to the fore.
Fun team games are one of the treasures in any coach’s chest of exercises and drills, and this combines some great elements of physical and mental awareness.
This opposed warm-up is fantastic for coordination, whilst rehearsing players in seeing and assessing what is in front of them.
They are looking to solve a strategic problem whilst also staying aware of the movement of opposition players, just as they would do in a match situation.
Adding in a ball provides an extra challenge, so try this with your team to see if they can develop dribbling ability and mental agility in one exercise.
How to set it up:
- This opposed warm-up is played 3v3.
- You will need 11 cones and 12 bibs.
- Set up three lines of three cones, each five yards apart horizontally and vertically. This is your noughts and crosses playing grid.
- Add two additional cones at the bottom of the grid a further five yards back. This is from where each team will begin the exercise.
- Each player has a bib of his team’s colour in both hands.
Getting started:
- On your call the first player in each team runs and puts one of their bibs on a cone.
- They must run back and tag the next player in the team.
- Players must try to get three in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally, whilst looking to prevent the opposition team from achieving the same feat.
- Play three games making sure each player takes a turn being first in the line.
Developing the session:
- Progress this opposed warm-up by giving both teams a ball. Each working player must now dribble to his chosen cone before placing the bib over it.
- You can increase or decrease the distances between cones to alter the physical demands of the test – the greater the distance, the greater the challenge.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Barcelona, casillas, coaching, goalkeeper, Real Madrid, warm ups
There’s a lot to be said for watching others coach if only to get ideas for your own coaching. When I go to professional matches I always watch the teams warm-up and often come away with a good idea for an exercise or drill that I can use with my team.
Often it is the simple ideas you see players doing that work the best when I get back to my club and try them out with my team.
One of the hardest ones is working with my goalkeeper pre-match or warming them up in training. There are a great variety of ways to get goalkeepers to dive and to catch and generally get in the right frame of mind for the game ahead.
One of the best goalkeeping exercises I like to use before matches is one that Barcelona use to warm their goalkeeper up.
Click here to go to my blog and watch a video clip of the Barcelona goalkeeper warming up and one of the Chelsea goalkeepers before a match.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: indoor drills, indoor exercises, indoor games, indoors, training indoors, warm ups
Over the last month the UK has seen its fair share of bad weather and I’ve been forced indoors with my team. Even friendly matches which I have arranged around the squad have been called off due to the state of the pitches.
Indoors brings its own set of challenges, non more so than half my players arrive at the indoor arena and think they are going to a soccer party! The noise and the atmosphere is totally different to being outside so I come armed with a few exercises to get the players using up all that untapped energy.
Use this colour react exercise to channel players’ energy:
Get brains and muscles into gear
- Two groups of players on each side of a row of four different coloured cones fives yards away.
- The players must react to your call and move to the appropriate cones.
- The players must touch the cones in the order you call out, and then sprint out of the nearest end.
- Players then join the opposite queue.
- An example would be “White and Black” as shown in the diagram. Make sure you keep advancing the warm-up with combinations of colours so your players are thinking about what they are doing.
- Mix the colours around so they do not become familiar with the position of the colours.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: fitness, speed, step jump, warm down, warm ups
I’ve had to work hard this season on getting my U10s to play their best right to the end. Tiredness in the last 10 minutes has been creating stressful ends to games with us letting in late goals. Endurance is as relevant to your match play as scoring goals because you want your team to perform at their best the whole game.
If your players are fit and up to speed they will be able to put even the best teams under pressure. Don’t waste the speed of your players by letting them stay unfit, you’ll be surprised how much quicker you can make a young player simply by getting them fit.
Working on fitness can be done in small bursts during your coaching session. You can use the warm up time to put players through their paces with a fitness.
Try this simple step jump with your players.
- Stand beside a cone or soft object to be cleared.
- Bring knees up and jump vertically but also laterally off ground and over the marker.
- Land on both feet and jump back in the other direction.
- Ground contact time should be minimal – don’t dip into a full squat position.
- Repeat for 15 seconds and a total of 6 sets.
- Rest 30 seconds between sets.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: ball control, ball skills, goalkeeper, Manchester United, match pratice, passing skills, warm ups
I’m always telling fellow coaches and my readers that you don’t have to use complicated training drills to get your players using the right techniques and tactics that can give them the edge in matches. Often simple 4v4 games and simple exercises that get players kicking the ball and passing the ball work best with young players.
You don’t have to take my word for it. I spend hours watching training sessions with professional players. In that time there may be one small thing I can use with my team or turn into something I can give to my coaches to help them make their team play better.
Watching a session with Manchester United players training the night before a match it was very interesting to note the number of balls that are being constantly used so that players are getting one and two touches as they do their fitness training. There was nothing complicated about it.
The players were constantly moving – I didn’t see anyone waiting around for their turn, the exercises were designed so that the players are on the move as they are being coached. The repetitive one and two touch movement is very controlled and done at a slow pace.
You can watch part of the session in the clip below – watch how the goalkeepers train on the ground where they can only use their hands to catch or block the ball. All of these exercises are designed to maximise a player’s ability to react to the ball in the air or on the ground.
Watch it carefully and you can see all sorts of training going on, most of which is simple ball work:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer Skills, Uncategorized | Tags: Chelsea, how to coach, Manchester United, simple drills, simple warm-ups, soccer drills, warm ups
Sometimes I get really good ideas for my team warm-ups from just watching the professional players warm up at matches I go to. If you get to a game a bit earlier than usual you will often see the professionals warming up before the game.
I just sit there and watch them and take a few notes which give me some great ideas what to do with my own players at our next match.
It doesn’t matter what age you coach, all ages can warm up in the same way. When you go to watch your next game see how simple some of the warm ups are for even the most skilful players.
The superstars of the English Premier League warm up with simple runs, stretches and jumps.
Watch these clips taken before Chelsea and Manchester United games where the players are warming up before their matches.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Arsenal, coaching, Liverpool, simple, warm ups
Sometimes I think coaches can overcomplicate coaching sessions and warm-ups with young players.
Complicated pass, move around one cone then around another, up to the goal line…. you know the kind of drills I mean, just to get across a coaching point. And the same with warm-ups before a game – I’ve seen coaches spend 10 minutes describing and explaining the drill just to warm-up players.
Often what young players need are simple left foot/right foot passing moves. If you watch these clips of Liverpool training and Arsenal warming-up they show you how simple it all can be.
There are no complicated moves here, just simple left foot/right foot, jumping, running and passing.
It always serves as a good reminder of what young players need to accelerate their soccer education to check out what the big boys are doing.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Christiano Ronaldo, how to warm up, Ronaldo, Ronaldo free-kicks, warm up tips, warm ups
Watch the professionals warm up before a game and you can see the concentration and the effort they put in to make sure they are ready to do on the pitch what they practice in training.
Before Manchester United played Middlesborough the Sky Sports team were on hand to watch Christiano Ronaldo warm up for his skills and for his free-kicks.
When the whistle blows he will be ready – this is what coaches of young soccer teams must do. Don’t waste the time before kick offs with long speeches and boring jogging – get your players doing what you want them to be doing in matches.
Visit Better Soccer Coaching for some good warm up tips.
Watch Ronaldo warm up:
