I thought I'd post this.

After watching a Korean under 12 team play nice, technical football last week, whilst our spilt state senior mens' league teams play direct, second ball football, my theory is that physicality is emphasised more at training than technical work. I intend to watch senior state league coaches on the training track.

I'll evaluate them with my KNVB hat on when I have time.

Club W.

Senior coach 1

Session.

Before some players did juggling with ball in a circle as a warm up. Not prescribed by coach..

1. Warm up by running and technical sports science exercises.

2. File passing.
I like this drill (and have used it a lot as a coach), but have devised a modified version for more touches. If I can find file passing on the internet as a video, I'll post it. This drill was stopped intermittelntly whilst players did push ups and sit ups.

3. Sprints with the ball. About 80 meters at a time.

4. 9v9 SSG.

5. Circuit sprint exercise drill without a ball.

6a. 6v6 SSG with keepers. Shootong game with big goals on pitch 25metres x 25 metres. It is set out in KNVB SSGs.

6b. Players not involved in 6 v 6, which was rotated, performed a dribbling around cones.

7. Half a pitch with 10 v 10 including keepers.

8. Flash sports science type running , warm down drill.

Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

The player I focused on touched the ball about 250 times in the session.



Edited by Decentric: 30/7/2011 04:44:21 AM

KNVB define productive football training ground practice as using exercses which are related to football.

Was this practice related to football? No.

Did the players learn anything about football from doing it? No.

Coaches saw warm ups/downs and football as being mutually exclusive.

In Australia sports scientists have had too much influence in football training. Rob Baan said he saw too much training ground time related to stretching and running with no footbal context in warm ups and warm downs. If we waste 10 minutes of each session before and after matches and training sessions, 60 minutes per week has been wasted.

60 minutes per week equates to 800 plus touches in Football For Everyone in FFE training time compared ti number of touches. Over a 30 week season, 8000 plus touches of the football have been lost. If we consider player W's touches of circa 250 per session as normal for a Tasmanian state league team, and a player gains an average of 50 touches per game, it equates to 16 500 touches per season for a state league player.

8000 touches of a football over a season is a lot of touches to miss out on. I know that touches vary in quality, but it puts running/stretching without game context in perspective.

These drills used by club W's senior coaches are commonly practised by elite football coaches in this state in warm ups for games and training sessions.

KNVB/FFE option instead.
Warm ups with juggling individually, juggling in pairs, paired passing with inside and outside of the foot, alternating inside of the foot from close distance, increasing the distance if players find it too easy. http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/training/skills/video/videoid=903004.html?autoplay=true

We would also have used Barca Academy's Directional Control, increasing the distance if players found it too easy.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSqc5va4Ls

Players would have touched the ball 200-300 times in the same time frame, using both feet and all body parts. Players would have worked on first touch, receiving, heading, passing and warmed up.





Edited by Decentric: 12/7/2011 06:42:05 PM

Edited by Decentric: 12/7/2011 06:45:55 PM

Edited by Decentric: 30/7/2011 04:45:21 AM

I can't find file passing on the internet.


P
P
P
P2




o
P1
P
P
P

P denote player
o denotes ball


Player face each other in a line/file.

Player with ball passes to P at top of opposite line.

When player has passed the ball they run to the end of the oposite line.

They continue with players from each team ending up on the opposite line.


When club W did it there was no instruction from the coach to explicitly make it a technical exercise by slowing it down and ensuring passing accuracy. Build up in speed as the passing becomes more effective.

KNVB analysis

Was it football related. Yes.

Receiving and passing was carried out..

The players demonstrated mediocre passing technique, not much better than my girls rep under 12 team. Some players needed to adjust their kicking foot at right angles to the ball. They also needed to have their foot going through the higher part of the ball to keep it down.

The coaches didn't rectify by demonstrating when poor technique occurred. They berated players instead.


KNVB/FFE practice instead

Have a player on right of first player, X1 in line. This player will be X2. X4 will be to right of X3.

Player to right, X2, takes a pass from player second in line.

X2 then passes it to player X3 who has moved forward after playing first pass back in direction of X1.

X3 receives ball and dribbles it past X2's right, to the back of the line X1 is leading.

As X3 reaches back of X1's line they will be choosing a variety of dribbling techniques set out in FFE's 7 stationary techniques.

X1 will receive a pass from X4 who is out of picture on X3's right, same as X2 proximity to X1. The same process will occur at the other end.

As players dribble forward, there can be 3 different techniques.
1. Dribble slowly with head up.
2. Dribble quickly with big enough touches to keep the head up.
3. Do inside/ outside of the foot at 45 degrees with one foot. This is called the Matthews' Cut. This is shown in the following video by Fernando Torres. He takes one inside touch, then one outside touch, then shoots. Instead of shooting, the dribbler in the aforementioned file passing continues the inside, outside, inside, outside till they reach the back of the line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNgwoRdbsSY&NR=1

If it is too easy, players can instep pass and outside of the fot pass.
The distance betweenthe two lines can be increased too.

Rotate players in X2's and X4's positions about every minute. All players need a turn in that role.


X
X
X
X3



o
X1............X2
X
X
X
X

This is much easier to follow if one already knows and uses file passing.


The KNVB/FFE version can incorporate passing with inside, outside and instep of foot. It also incorporates 7 stationary dribbling techniques and 3 moving dribbling techniques. It also forces payers r to receive the ball as they are moving forwards. This modified KNVB/FFE file passing can be done incorporating a lot more touches and dribbling technique, building up more technique in the same amount of time.

I've seen Victory use file passing as a warm up, but it was the initial club W model, not the KNVB/FFE model.







Edited by Decentric: 13/7/2011 02:07:56 AM

Edited by Decentric: 13/7/2011 02:09:23 AM

Edited by Decentric: 30/7/2011 04:46:19 AM

KNVB analysis

Is it football related in a game sense? Yes.

This was one of the best exercises of the night for senior team for club O. Although having read Gergory's comment about Raymond Verheijen positing that footbal is a game which comprises about 15 sprints of 10 metres, maybe it is not so good.

Players weren't instructed to keep the ball at sufficient distance in front of them to keep their head up, like Everton Academy advocates.

Club W's playes seemed very fit. Their control was good, but too many players dribbled with heads down. I've been advocating this exercise to a state youth coach, who still insists on sprints without the ball for the first 20 minutes.


KNVB/FFE practice instead

It was fine.

One addition would have been players performing stationary dribbling as they wait for their turn to race.

Another is to add a KNVB drill with a zig zag dribbling relay.

.................Xo............Xo
.................Xo............Xo


..........@.............................@.....


....................@........@


..........@..............................@


................Xo..........Xo
................Xo.........Xo


X denotes player.
o denotes ball
@ denotes pole.

Players race each other, dribbling around outside of poles closest to them.

Then dribble through the middle one with two poles.

Then dribble around ones on the same side as they started.

Players love this drill.
They can also do FFE stationary dribbling techniques whilst waiting their turn to race.

Edited by Decentric: 13/7/2011 12:32:01 AM

Edited by Decentric: 30/7/2011 04:46:51 AM

---------0 1 0--------






---------0_________0--------

------------------------------------------------0
-----------------------------------------------3
---------------------------------------------0

---------0 2


0-cones


Player 1 dribbles to second cones passes to player 2
Player 2 uses right foot to control left foot to pass to player 3
Player 3 dribbles to the start line.

Coaching points
Pass to the right foot of player 2
Player 2 use right foot to gain space in the direction of player 3
Player 2 uses left foot to pass in front of player 3.
Player 3 use far foot to control ball in a natural stepping manner, guiding it towards the start.
All players do not kill the ball.

Progression player 1 tackles player 2 after the pass.




Edited by krones3: 13/7/2011 05:55:20 PM

Edited by krones3: 13/7/2011 05:56:20 PM

Krones, I assume player 2 moves to 3's position after 3 moves to the start?

This activity was the most successful of the night.

The players played a 9v9 with no specific instructions about formation. I didn't know the players well enough apart from the captain who did his FFA Youth Licence with me.

There were 6 and 7 pass sequences in neat triangles. It may have been that most of the better players were in one of the teams, I don't know. I asked the head coach why this quality of football was rarely seen in match conditions in the split state league. He was perplexed too.

My theory about one team dominating may have been true. The player I chose to count touches barely touched the ball. I think he was in the weaker team. Nevertheless, some nice football was played by one team.


KNVB analysis

Was football being played? Yes.

Did it have relevance for a game as part of an overall structure? Partly, but there was to relevance to team shape.


KNVB/ FFE option instead

Use it in a 7v7 structure. Defence and midfield in a 4-3-3 could have played against the 3 in attack and an alternative 3 in midfield. Behind could be a CB as a one in that line to make a 1-3-3. Of course both teams could incorporate keepers which means strictly 8v8.

Extra players could have played rondos in 3v1 and been rotated into 7v7 structure with keepers.

It is better to use a 4v4 before the 7v7.

Tis was an impressive fitness exercise. It was basically a 10m x10 m square within a 20m x 20m square.


1@___________________________________________________4@





-----------1@_______________________4@





-----------2@________________________3@





2@__________________________________________________3@


_____ denotes side of square.

@ denotes cone




This is basically a square within a square. I can't make downward lines for the square.


The team divides up with an even number at each station from 1-4 on the outside of the big square.

When the coach says, "Go!" player first in line at station 1 races players at stations 2, 3 and 4.

Player one (like 2,3 and 4 racing to respective cones) races to cone 1 in little square and runs round it, back round cone 1 in big square.

Then he runs outside big square boundary to station 2.

He runs around station 2 cone in big square, and into little square and around cone 2, and back around outide of big square cone 2.

He runs ouside big square from cone 2 to cone 3 in big square and around cone 3.

He then runs into little square cone 3 and around it.

He runs back around cone 3 and repeates sequence to outside square cone 4 until repeating sequence all the way back to cone 1.

This is a race among the players at the four stations. Then second in line at each station races against other 3. They work all the way through the team.


KNVB anlaysis

Was it football related?
Arguable, KNVB would say no as there was no use of the ball which should only be done with top pro teams. There was turning and sprinting over short distances.


KNVB/ FFE option instead

These exercises should have been done with the ball. Fitness would still have been worked on, using Cruyff Cuts or other sharp turns, then sprinting with the ball around outside of the square until the next sharp turns with the ball. Exactly the same as the aforementioned exercise except with a ball.

This is the dference between KNVB and FFA.

KNVB is essentially organised and structured street football. Past FFA methodology is dominated by sports scienctists.

The ss would argue that players would gain more fitness by doing the exercises without the ball. KNVB would argue the players would gain a lot more technique if the team was weak in ball carrying and turning as a general rule.
Maybe the players would be fitter by doing it without a ball? Still the KNVB method would have also incorporated a lot more technique acquisition even if players wouldn't gain quite the same fitness benefits.

KPIs at the AIS were previously set by non-football people too. Ron Smith manipulated Steve Corica's AIS entrance even though he was deemed to have failed non-footbal specific KPIs.









Edited by Decentric: 20/7/2011 12:51:24 AM

Hmmm, serious allegation there, decentric.

Nonetheless it hardly surprises.

Bimbi ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

But don't worry, I'm still scratching me head over Tobin's recent gig.

Yes

Progression

Player 2 starts back runs to meet ball

Progression

Player 2 walks backwards to draw imaginary defender then runs forward to meet ball.


---------0 1 0--------






---------0_________0--------

------------------------------------------------0
-----------------------------------------------3
---------------------------------------------0

---------0




---------0 2



0-cones

Progression

Player 3 tracks back with player 2 staying onside when ball is passed.

Progression

Player 2 touches a mannequin with left hand before running forward

Progression

A bicycle tire is tied in a goal player 3 dribbles and shoots with right foot

Progression

Player 3 dribbles around cones before shooting.

Progression

Mirror image on the left so half the team are mirroring the other half with the opposite foot.

Thanks Krones.

The mirror image is good to develop two footedness.

Verbeek said that from what he saw on the training track in Australia, we don't teach two footedness like they do in Asia.

He said that Asian players were stronger technically in their two footedness.

He was right