HEADS UP: Creating awarness in a game situation is a priceless assest to any aspiring footballer.Decisions are made by players because of the information they take in from what they see  happening around them.The most important thing is that the player makes the right decision at the right time employing the right technique.Therefore it is essential that the information the player takes in with regard to what is happening around him is of the highest possible quality.The player should be looking at the general state of play,constantly updating his picture of the the game ie where players are,where opponents are,where the space is etc while at the same time just catching glimpses of the ball.This simple philosophy can be applied to any technique drill thus increasing the players overall awareness while fine tuning his technical ability.

                                         A passes to B and then runs to D

                                         B passes to C and then runs to C

                                         C passes to D and then runs to A

                                         D passes to A and then runs to B

As the ball travels from A to B , C holds up a certain amount of fingers(1-5). B must now look at C as the ball is travelling to him and shout out the number of fingers that  C is showing.

A runs to D. B receives the ball and passes  to C . As the ball travels from B to C ,  D holds up a certain amount of fingers(1-5) and C shouts out the number of fingers that D is showing(as the ball is travelling to him) and passes the ball to D.

C runs to A . While  the ball is travelling to D ,A now holds up a certain number of fingers. Before the ball reaches him/her D shouts out that number and passes the ball to A.

D runs to B.While the ball is travelling  to A ,B holds up a certain amount of fingers.Before the Ball reaches him/her,A shouts out the numbers of fingers that B is holding up and then passes to B.

A runs to D.

Set Up: 4 cones A,B,C,D

Begin the drill 2 touch and as the players get comfortable with it introduce the concept of players showing a certain amount of fingers to the player they will receive the ball from. Next step is to do this drill 1 touch.

DEVELOPMENT:

The player receiving the ball looks up before the ball arrives and shouts out the number of fingers held up by the next 2 players who will receive the ball. i.e B will look at C and D as the ball is travelling to him  and then play the ball to C………………..

Technique becomes a skill when you can apply it in a game situation.

In my job as a coach I keep hearing about young players that have great technique, but what does this actually mean ?

A few years back I was in Amsterdam and in one of the main squares there a man juggling a football using nearly every part of his body to keep it under control . He was at one stage on top of a pole juggling the ball! This was indeed an incredible feat of technique, balance, control and strength. Do you see where I am going with this?

Just because someone can do wonderful things with a football in isolated situations  does not necessarily mean that he is a good player. Ie Can he apply all these wonderful assets of technique, blance , control etc  in a game situation?

For me  as a coach what is important is that a player has the ability to recognize and understand a game situation, apply the right technique for that moment and have the confidence to carry it out under  pressurized situations.

Teknik blir en färdighet när du kan använder det i ett spel situation.
Många pratar  om unga spelare som har bra teknik, men vad innebär det egentligen?
För några år sedan står jag på torget i Amsterdam  där en man som jonglerar en fotboll med hjälp av nästan varje del av hans kropp för att hålla det under kontroll. Han var vid ett tillfälle på toppen av en stång och jonglerade bollen! Detta var verkligen en otrolig bedrift av teknik, balans, kontroll och styrka. Ser ni vart jag är på väg med detta?
Bara för att någon kan göra underbara saker med en fotboll i isolerad  situationer betyder inte nödvändigtvis att han är en bra spelare. Dvs Kan han tillämpa alla dessa underbara tillgångar teknik, blans, kontroll etc i en matchsituation?
För mig som coach är det viktigt att en spelare har förmågan att känna igen och förstå en spelsituation, använda rätt teknik för det ögonblicket och har förtroende att genomföra den under högt pressade situationer.

Read some articles recently by football psychologist Dan Abrahams.Below are some points that I feel are relevant to players who want to push themselves to be the best footballers that they possibly can be.The ”win” :-) word makes it hard to say at what age you  should  reccomend this approach but I am sure that there are useful and relevant points here for all ages.

Note :Swedish translation follows English version.

It is not the will to win that is important. It is the will to prepare to win.

• How do you talk to yourself on the pitch is as important as your ability to  control the ball.

• Body language is as important a component of performance as the ability to head a cross.

• To be well prepared for a match is more than just what to eat and remember to bring football boots for the big game.

A football player must be good at managing their emotions and managing their thought processes every second of every game. What scientists have discovered is that the brain makes sure that people feel emotions of 10-20 milliseconds and think consciously 500 milliseconds later.

Your brain is your  football game.

 Confidence can  be the most important skill you have as a footballer .

As a coach your goal is simple: to help your players to build and maintain a positive football images related to their games.

 So maybe as a footballer you keep in mind  the chance you missed to  last week (MEMORY.) And that makes you assume that others think you are not good as a striker (PERCEPTION). And to reinforce this by thinking that you are not good as a striker (THOUGHT). And you spend time imagining missing a chance in the next game (IMAGINATION) …

Lionel Messi is brilliant at perceiving things in a positive way and then think about the situation correctly. Messi refused to allow his physical size handicap him. In fact, he used it to his advantage. “I’m more flexible,” he said. “I can learn to play with the ball on the ground better than any other”. 

 If you can become an even more effective thinker, and if you can build an even stronger football Image, then you will be the best football player that you can be.

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Det är inte viljan att vinna som är viktigt. Det är viljan att förbereda sig för att vinna .

• Hur du pratar med sig själv på planen är lika viktig som din förmåga att fånga och kontrollera bollen.
• Kroppsspråk är lika viktig komponent av prestanda som förmågan att nicka  en inlägg.
• Att vara  väl förberedda för en match är mer än bara vad du ska äta och komma ihåg att ta med Fotbolls skor  till den stora matchen.

 En fotbollsspelare måste vara fantastisk på att hantera sina känslor och hantera sina tankeprocesser varenda sekund av varenda match.Vad forskarna har upptäckt är att hjärnan ser till att människor känner känslor i 10-20 millisekunder och tänker medvetet 500 millisekunder senare.Din fotboll hjärna är din fotbollsmatch

 Förtroende kan bara vara den viktigaste färdighet du har som fotbollsspelare

 Som coach ditt mål är enkelt: att hjälpa dina spelare att bygga och underhålla en positiv fotboll bilder relaterade till deras spel.

 Så kanske som fotbollsspelare du håller ihåg chans du missade att göra mål förra veckan (MINNE.) Och som gör att man antar att andra tycker du är inte bra som anfallare (PERCEPTION). Och du förstärker detta genom att tänka att du inte bra som anfallare (TÄNKANDE). Och du tillbringar så att föreställa saknas i nästa match (FANTASI) …

 Lionel Messi är lysande på att uppfatta saker på ett positivt sätt och sedan tänka tryggt om situationen.Messi vägrade att låta sin fysiska storleken handikapp honom. I själva verket använde han det till sin fördel. “Jag är mer flexibelt”, sade han. “Jag kan lära sig att spela med bollen på marken bättre än alla andra” sa han.

Om du kan bli en ännu mer effektiv tänkare, och om du kan bygga ett ännu starkare fotboll bild, då du kommer vara den bästa fotbollsspelare kan vara.

Physical activity can be spontaneous or planned.

Children engage in less physical activities which increases the risk of health problems.

In Europe,  both Sweden and Ireland have the lowest amount of time  aimed at physical activities during school hours.

It is estimated that amoung school children around 15-20% are physically inactive or have a far too low rate of physical activity.

Children of parents that are physically active are more active than childrens who have inactive parents.

Physical activity has a positive effect on childrens longterm  health ie bodyfat and the future risk of heart problems.

Physical activity has a positive effect on the s development of  motor skills,cognitive,emotional and social development.

Physical activity has a positive effect on the bone mineral density (BMD) .

Physical activity has a major effect on the skelatal system before puberty.

Obesity is becoming far to common amoung children.Obesity under the growing period increases the risk for heart disease later in life.

 In this drill we are looking to develop a fast breaking counter attack mentality and also develop the confidence and ability to build up the play from the back.

The yellow team is restricted to a at least making a certain amount of passes in each 1/3 of the pitch  , while the red team has 6 passes in total throughout the whole pitch.

The Yellow team must have all its players over the middle 1/3 before it can score. They should be patient in the build up and try and stretch the opposition as much as possible. They should also be looking to use quick combinations with the midfield and also dribble into space when the opportunity arises.

The Red team need to have a more direct counter attacking style as they are limited to 6 passes. The red team should develop an ability to recognize the opportunity for a quick counter attack.ie the build  up team(Yellow) has commited many players forward so the red team should be looking to exploit the space behind the defensive line.

The Red team has a decision to make.

1. Press high up the pitch and try and win the ball  as close as possible to the Yellow teams goal.

2. Drop and invite the Yellows in to their half  where they can intercept and counter attack.

Footblogball guest writer Aidan Isherwood reports:

This week the Stockholm football federation announced a new set of rules that will quite dramatically change how football is experienced by children under the age of 14. The package of rules comes into effect in 2012 and clubs not signing up to them will be unable to receive certification to play in the Stockholm football leagues.
The rules have been drawn up according to the findings of a lengthy survey of coaches and perhaps more importantly, players. The announcement has not so far received a great deal of coverage, but there must be at least some concern in the boardrooms and boot rooms of the bigger clubs.

There are four main criteria in the certificates, one concerns communicating the aims of the new football strategy to players and parents and another aims to further the zero tolerance campaign aimed at eliminating abusive language and behaviour. The two new rules the clubs must promise to adhere to are:

No poaching until 14. Clubs will no longer be able to approach and recruit players aged under 14 that are registered with other clubs.

There will be a “start guarantee” for players in matches. All players must sometimes be in the starting line-up and all substitutes must play. To help ensure this, there will only be three substitutes allowed in 7-a-side matches.
A further significant change is not one they can sign up to, it will be imposed upon them by the organisers of the St Erik’s Cup (the Stockholm football league structure), it is that:

There will no longer league tables for under 12s. Only when 11-a-side is played at age 13.
I imagine clubs are already working out fairly obvious ways around the laws:

How to let players and their parents know it might be a good time to contact a certain bigger club themselves to enquire about a try out, for instance.

Calculating league tables in-house so everyone involved knows how they are faring. And I guess the leagues will still be divided into “Easy”, “Medium” or “Difficult”, as they have been in lower ages until now.
Substitution rules only affect those actually summoned to the match, hopefully there will be self-regulation ensuring that all players in a squad get a fair share of call-ups.
Of course, we will have to wait for a season or more to be able to properly evaluate the effects. I guess they will one day hope to measure a reduced drop-out rate amongst 11-13 year-olds. Bigger clubs may well warn that the more talented players will not get the dedicated training they need. While others will argue that having more players still playing the game at a later age will lead to a greater pool of players at the top end later: late-developers should be less likely to be lost for ever.

The federation is offering a variety of training for club officials and trainers to help push the strategy forward. I feel optimistic that it will eventually lead to more children playing football with less pressure, for longer.

I hope I am not proven wrong.

Souce: http://www.stff.se/

By Footblogball contributer Aidan Isherwood.

As there is no qualification, only invitation, it was a bit presumptuous to call this tournament “The Little Champions League”, but the organizers did a pretty good job of creating something that came close to befitting that description for the 400 13-year-old boys taking part in this tournament hosted by what I think are a bit of a feeder club for Real Madrid.

Some of the biggest clubs in European football sent their academy teams there, including Liverpool, Arsenal, Inter Milan, PSV, FC Porto and Dynamo Moscow, as well as Atletico and Real Madrid. Plus a few from further afield like the Aspire Academy,Qatar and Kashiwa Reysol from Japan. They played the Champions League music and read the players’ names out as they came through the tunnel and out onto the pitch. The atmosphere was festive for the most. Two thousand supporters were packed into the little Canillas stadium for the final games. The tournament had Spain’s national manager Vicente del Bosque as its patron. He was there of course, but everybody else seemed to be trying to get a picture of Zinedine Zidane, whose son, Luca, was in goals for Real Madrid’s academy team. I imagine he was also there in his new capacity as Director of Football for Real Madrid. We even saw Liam Brady hanging about a hotel lobby the firstevening, there with the Arsenal entourage.

Oh, and one other bit of authenticity, the tournament was won by a Barcelona team thatwere on a different level to all the other teams present. Just like the real thing!

The speed of their pressing game, the way they attacked with one- and two-touch flicksand chips, knowing a team mate would be racing to receive and their ability to control fast and difficult balls all reminded you of their older clubmates. Guardiola’s team mostly grew up in La Masia with boys from Catalonia, a few other particularly gifted players from further afield in Spain, plus Messi himself, invited from Argentina at around the age of 13. But the team that won this year’s U13s tournament included two South Koreans, brought over with their immediate family and even grandparents (well, at least those ofone of them), another, reputedly the best 13-year-old from the Cameroon as well as Eidur Gudjonsen’s son, Svenin as centre-forward. The Barcelona dynasty looks set to run and run, assuming this is all within the rules.

I was there watching my own son’s team, outsiders Brommapojkarna from Sweden. The criticisms this west Stockholm club sometimes receive for luring players from acrossthe city seem a bit trivial alongside the Barça project for world domination. On the other hand, the Stockholm football authorities have now said that clubs cannot take players younger than 14 from teams in other parts of the city.

Overall, the tournament was a fantastic experience for players and spectators, with just a few complaints. The referee in our team’s first two matches decided to cut the time short by a few minutes, seemingly at random and definitely unannounced. Following orders
to catch up after a delayed first match, was the official’s explanation. The tournamentofficials meanwhile said the referee must have done it independently as they would never have sanctioned it, so he would be expelled from the tournament. He subsequently turned
up and refereed our semi-final!

One did get the feeling that our team was a bit less important as Inter would be going through to the semi anyway. Only the winners of the four groups of five would qualify for the semis, adding to the tension. And for these academy teams there was clearly
pressure to win, or at least to perform well. But even so there were a few really nice moments much more appropriate to a kids’ tournament.

An Arabic speaking mother from our team had the whole of the Aspire academy cheering us on, in Swedish, to a surprise last-kick-of-the-game victory over Inter. And even though our match with home team Alcobendas had been a really tough and occasionally
fraught affair, our players led the Spanish supporters in cheering their team to a fantastic late draw against Werder Bremen. Meaning we then had the privilege of receiving a footballing lesson from Barcelona in the semi-final. This was followed by a slightly
frustrating draw with Real Madrid in the third-place play-off and a failure to break down Luca Zidane in the penalty shoot-out.

All 20 teams lined up and were given medals and trophies at the end. They shook hands with Del Bosque and Zidane. Barcelona’s “Korean Messi”, Lee, was awarded player of the tournament and for all the boys there that never become professionals they’ll always
be able to point Lee out on TV and say “I played against him or in the same tournament as him once”. Which is more than most of us can say when we watch Messi and co.

Check out the tournament results here

Continuing on from “4-3-3 attack switches to 4-1-4-1 defence“

Pressing begins when A goes off the line of the 4 midfielders. The teams shape changes from their   defensive 4-1-4-1 to a more pressing 4-1-3-2.Both A and B cut out the passing options and try and force the blue defender to play the ball to the side where his winger directly faces his opponent.If the yellow defender wins the ball then it is a 5 on 5 situation  against a defence that is not prepared for it.

 Defender plays a ball into midfield.The midfielder shows good angle and body shape as he receives the ball and lays off a pass to the wide player who also shows a good angle and bodyshape as ball is travelling to him.The wide player then passes the ball into the forward who dribbles back to midfield with the ball and passes back to the defender.Forward stays in midfield,midfielder takes the wide position and the wide player becomes the forward.As you are coacing it is important to stress the need for the player receiving the ball to be aware of  the options around him.ie check over your  shoulder as ball is travelling.

Carry drill out on both sides of pitch simultaneously.

                                                        Part 2

Same as part 1 except that this time the striker tries to score.Encourage the striker to vary his movement before he receives the ball to make it as realistic as possible to a game situation.

                                                          Part 3

A development on Part 2.Pay attention to angle of approach to ball and body positioning.Important that the coach stresses the need for each player to be aware of what is happening around them ie keep their head up ,check over shoulder before receiving the ball.Passive defenders may be introduced.

                                                     SMALL SIDED GAME 4-3-3 v 4-3-3

The coach should be looking to ensure that each team works on the link play between Defence/Midfield/Attack.A good body shape and angle is shown at all times in preperation to receive the ball and that the ball carrier has sufficient support and options behind in front and to his side.