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This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by
Dirk Bennett.
#1 – Speed. If you’re looking to increase speed of play/counter/surprise then the ball is closer to that foot and can be played quicker
#2 – When I’ve done this exercise, and players try to open up, it can mess with their balance, Some players even ‘whiff’ and miss the ball entirely (obviously less likely with good players). This is because when opening up and trying to one-touch, players are leaning away from the ball as they pass, which is not ‘proper’ basic technique. You usually want to step into your pass.
#3 – It’s mostly a trivial argument. In the more recent “lose-your-man” video Brian is asked that same question (Santa Clara clinic I believe). He didn’t have a huge issue with it being done either way.
I see it as if you’re taking a touch first, you should open up unless a defender is on that side of you. If you’re one-touching, it has more to do with speed and unpredictability (switching play to the ‘third man/runner”.
Hope that helps.
Lee, they were u12’s and we had limited space, being a crowded camp, but I believe we used a 20×30 grid
We mostly intended for it to mean ‘get yourself to the outside’, and demonstrated it ourselves to give them clarification. However, as you might guess, once the ball was safely retained, and players moved to the outside, the ball was soon to follow. When successful, they achieved good circulation around the area.
That’s a great techincal point to make. I think you’re spot on – as a defender, if I can keep you in my peripheral vision, I may not need to actually move and/or take my eye off the play. If you can make a defender turn their body and line of sight away from the play, you’ve done a service to your own availability, as well as the current ball carrier.
Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I thought I’d share something.
I introduced rondos to my high school girls team when our season started near the end of February. We’re a month and some change in now, and have had a very successful season so far. We’re 11-1 with 59 goals scored and 3 against. What’s more – at first we had to force girls to do the rondos in their different variations. Very very slow progress. Now, as soon as they get to practice, they get into groups and do circle rondos. They even do them during water breaks. I had one of them come up to me today at practice and tell me that she loves them and can’t wait to play them every day at school. I can’t help but feel a little pride when I hear that and see the progress they’ve made in such short time 🙂
Thanks Justin! We incorporated a few minutes of that into our warm-up tonight, along with a nice day of finishing yesterday at practice in between games. It really helped a lot (we also got to play on turf, a rarity around here, which helps our style of play immensely). The attacking patterns really shown through as we created 21 shots and won 4-0 in what was probably our best performance yet! Just gotta keep true to the formula and repeat!
In my experience, there are certain instances where receiving right and passing right (or left, left) can be beneficial. BUT, it is ALWAYS faster to receive with one and play with the other (across the body, of course).
The most obvious time when going right, right, or left, left would be when you are a right or left back and you’re receiving the ball wide on the touchline. IF and only if you have enough time (we’re talking half seconds here people) to receive and play with the same foot, the pass that results from that technique will do a better job of keeping the ball in play because it usually creates a bit of spin towards the inside of the field. This comes into play even more if you’re playing on a crowned surface, such as a football field. It also allows the wing back to use the foot that passes the ball to act as their plant foot and/or the first step in their run forward to over or underlap. Wing forwards may occasionally find themselves in similar situations.
It should still be noted, however, that receiving across the body and playing opposite foot is the correct form for most situations, and should ALWAYS be encouraged first and foremost in the 4v0/4v1 etc.
I just finished up my first week of preseason for the high school girls team I coach and have a few bits of advice. First of all, let it be noted that this is probably the best group of girls we’ve ever had in the program (10 seniors, 6 signed to college already), so they’ve got a good grasp of some basics and are quite moldable to our cause.
We’ve been doing 4v0’s and S-Patterns every day for a week, amongst other exercises. Each day, they seem to improve, and I try to add a little more focus when they do. For example: during the S-Pattern drill, I have now incorporated the shoulder “look” before they receive the ball (either centrally or at the angle). At first I didn’t ask this of anyone, then the 2nd day I put that challenge to my center mids, and now I’ve got the whole team doing it. Baby steps.
Personally, I love this set of exercises in the video – I’d seen it a few months ago – I had plans to use this with my midfielders/forwards when we breakout between offense/defense next week. Great way to mix things up. As much as I appreciate the dedication that it takes to master simple drills like 4v0, kids still want some variety. That’s where it comes down to your skill as a coach to plan and execute training, as well as being empathetic to the needs of your players.
Best of luck all!
Hey guys,
My name is Dirk Bennett and I’m very excited to finally see Brian and Gary’s program launch to such great acclaim. I’m a 25-year-old footy fanatic and I started playing the beautiful game aged 6 at the rec/AYSO level, then moved on to club soccer at 9, playing a few years up in my small, 1-club Midwest town. I’ve been going ever since, proudly captaining my high school team and playing college for Eastern Illinois University (NCAA Div. I).
I have about 2 1/2 years of high school boys coaching experience and 1 1/2 years coaching high school girls (our season is about to begin!). Currently, on the advice of a few of my old coaches, I’m about to start getting my badges in order so that I can begin the transition from a marketing/sales background to full-time coaching as a means to support myself. It took me my first few post-college jobs to figure out that the game will never leave my mind, and that my true calling is to pass on my thoughts and feelings about soccer to the youth of tomorrow. Currently, I’m in the search for any assistant coaching opportunities at the collegiate level.
When I played, I was blessed with good size and decent speed, but very few noticeable qualities as far as most coaches were concerned. I was fancy during the indoor season, but played quick and I daresay smart/conservative outdoors. Truly, the only thing I felt I was best at was passing. Unfortunately, I was surrounded by ‘Route 1’ style coaches who LOVED to yell and emulate our American football coaches practicing a few hundred yards away. It made for some successful seasons, but only because we were surrounded by such low quality (middle-of-nowhere, IL). When we occasionally got to a State tournament in high school, or ventured into Chicago/St. Louis for a club showcase, we always got put back in our place, left scratching our heads and wondering why we weren’t coming out on top. A core group of us always loved playing possession, but always felt like there was no support for such a ‘style’. Looking back, we now reminisce about how good we could have been had we just had some coaches like Brian and Gary.
Now that I’m coaching, I’ve scoured Youtube for drills, inspiring videos, highlights, etc. to show my high school teams. In doing so, I found 3Four3 and their possession-based approach via the blog about a year ago. Since then, I’ve been a silent reader. After meticulously going through EVERY single blog post and making my way through suggested readings like Jed’s Tiki Taka book, Guardiola, Barca: Making the Greatest Team in the World, and others, I finally feel up to speed and ready to contribute.
Looking forward to getting involved and learning a lot from you guys! Hope I can contribute something as well. Feel free to send a follow request to me on Twitter @dirktastical, and I’ll follow back. Cheers!
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This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by
