This is our tenth post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Scanning the Field installment. Playing the way you face is one of those topics that is very counterintuitive to younger players. For the most part of their soccer experience everyone has been teaching them (inadvertently at least) that the path to glory [...]
This is our ninth post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Passing Angles installment. This installment is not really about your players' ability to look up with the ball. While that is a definite prerequisite, what we're actually covering here is the tactical side of how you leverage the technical skill of being [...]
This is our eighth post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Width and Spacing installment. Back in Movement Off Ball our focus was on getting players moving to space to support the ball carrier. As your players get better this you can start to sprinkle in some more specific advice on [...]
This is our seventh post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Movement off Ball installment. In our previous post we defined some ground rules for what constituted acceptable off-ball movement. As your players get very good at the keep away style drills and you move into more realistic game scenarios, you'll [...]
This is our sixth post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Playing from the Spot installment. A popular coaches' mantra you might have heard is: "Who is the most important player on the field? The player withOUT the ball." If you want to play a possession style of soccer, movement off ball will [...]
This is our fourth post in the Possession Series here. This is a follow on from our Receiving the Ball installment. This continues our theme so far of perfecting some tactics around 1v1 before we move on to group scenarios. I'm a believer in that the better able the players are able to cope with and respond [...]
This page will serve as a landing page to build out content related to teaching both Core and EXTRA teams to play a possession style of soccer. UPDATE: If you wish to view/print/export the entire series from a single page, go here. What is a "possession style"? Possession-based soccer is characterized by: Methodically moving the ball [...]
At the intermediate level of play and above, tactical instruction begins to outweigh technical instruction. To aid in this instruction, player positions are replaced with a standard numbering system that provides: A consistent scheme/system across the United States, simplifying tactical discussions among disparate coaching staff Refinement of positions (e.g. a defensive vs center vs attacking midfielder) [...]
A document was recently circulated which provides a very rare glimpse into how one of the best youth programs in the world was run. The AFC Ajax have helped create some of greatest players of all time including Johan Cruyff. Though this document was from the late 90's, it's amazing to see how well its held [...]
Use this decision tree to help guide your session progression. This is targeted at 10u-14u. If you adhering to our Play-Practice-Play philosophy, here are the key questions to help guide your players to solutions in a given situation: Opponent has possession (left side of diagram): Defending when not closest/2nd closest to ball - How do [...]