You may have noticed that our winter training has very little scrimmaging. This is because our focus is on developing and practicing the fundamental and basic skills to become an excellent soccer player. The indoor games are where these skills can and should be practiced with the goal to improve the use of these skills in a live game situation. It's better to use the skill and fail (and learn from the failure) than to not use the skill at all, even if it means we don't win the game because of it. Now is the time to take risks, as the Canlan games have no effect on our YSSL and IWSL standings.
It's important to remember that the training drills and exercises are directly related to the game and have a powerful impact on how well you perform, both individually and as a team. You should train how you want to play in the game- if you don't take training seriously your performance in the game won't be as good as when you practice with purpose and intensity.
Here's how our training relates directly to the game and greatly improves player's game performance when practiced with purpose.
Ladders
There are so many advantages that this training does for a player beyond improving physical fitness and stamina. I like to say the ladders exercises work on our ABCs- Agility, Balance, Coordination and Speed. Improving all of these areas creates a better soccer player by providing an athletic foundation to build upon. Take this clip from MitsoJR for example, it explicitly states that Better Agility = Better Dribbling.
You can see that his recommended training drills for agility include ladder exercises.
Dribbling
There is no doubt that being able to dribble with the head up while maintaining control of the ball is required to play at the level of soccer we aspire to. The drills we do for dribbling go beyond the ability to just move around the field well with the ball, but to also improve a player's ball mastery skills (dribbling through cones, turning) and 1v1 skills (changing direction, feints). This clip from the same video shows how great agility and simple dribbling skills done at the pro level can get past 7 opposition players!
Passing & Receiving
While the basic skills of passing and receiving are required to play soccer, one of our main goals for this training is for combination play. This is where the team acts as a single unit and moves up the field together through the combination of passing and smart off-the-ball running. In order to be effective in combination play it's critical to be able to pass well (accurate, correct weight or speed of the ball) and receive well (get to the ball, trap the ball, first touch).
The ultimate outcome from repeated training may be the one touch pass that requires awareness on the field and quick action. Notice in this video clip where he says it requires a lot of training and good player chemistry to apply in game, this is what our training is aiming for.
2v1
Two attackers versus one defender is about the defender slowing down the attack in order to allow team mates to recover their defensive positions. The attackers have a chance in a competitive situation to practice their 1v1 skills (change of direction, feints, dribble or pass decision making) as well as combining with their counterpart to get past the defender.
The key to this training is for the defender to apply immediate pressure without over extending and letting the first attacker (player with the ball) sidestep and get behind the defender. The defender then needs to slow down the first attacker while maintaining an eye out for the support attacker and limiting both attacker's options to move forward. This coach explains the role of the defender in a 2v1 siutation.
The expectations of our players is to train on these fundamental and basic skills with focus and intensity in order to have the foundation to be an outstanding player and a reliable and capable teammate. Practice at home is also required because two hours a week is not enough to produce an adequate player, let alone a superstar.
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