Inside Sport

Should junior teams have a restriction on pressing on goalkicks.


https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Topic1765985.aspx

By tjwhalan - 6 Aug 2013 7:06 PM

In senior football where players can kick to halfway, pressing on every defender on the goalkicks will usually leave unmarked players behind them that can be found. However in junior football most players don't have the power in the legs to put the ball over the first line of opposition players pressing to the box.

What we see then in junior games is a setpiece opportunity on every goal kick for the team not in possession. By marking every player around the box we see the goalkeepers try to boot the ball beyond their range which most of the time ends up coming back at them as the players are all facing his goal(harder for the defenders to turn.)

Why don't we then, in encouraging playing out for the back, not allow opposition players past a certain point, or a restriction of the number of players in that third, or even all the goalkicks to be taken from the edge of the box? There are a hundred ways which something could be implemented these are just two options, I'm more interested at the moment on whether people would be in favor of the idea.

The obvious argument against is that kids have to problem solve in these situations and changing the rules would just restrict their learning. My thoughts are completely the opposite. My team consistently tries to play out at goalkicks, as the goalkeeper cannot kick very far we have our players very close to him especially the 4 defenders and holding midfielder all spread around the edge of the box. However the opposition just marks these players, so then more of our players come closer to get the ball and what we start to see are odd scenarios in which their are 15 players in our third on the goalkicks.

Now Im not convinced that situation is football and I think changing a minor rule to allow the kids to develop their playing out on goalkicks would be far less detrimental to their development then the current situation they find themselves in on every goalkick.



Edited by tjwhalan: 6/8/2013 07:07:18 PM
By Decentric - 20 Feb 2014 8:21 AM

dirkvanadidas wrote:
some observations, is that players know their start position but fail to move for the 2nd pass, the forwards start to drop nearer to the goal , get them forward to create space for the defenders to work in.


This is, and should be the objective for a lot of training ground sessions. Setting up training ground exercise, in sequential stages for players to improve this facet of the game.

Checking (faking and moving in the opposite direction) is a key component in coaching teams to play out from the back.

Also, coaching players to think proactively is important. By being proactive this means a player should support the player receiving the ball, thinking about how to do it before the team-mate receives the ball, by opening an effective passing lane to play forwards.

This is possibly the most important aspect of modulating the ball on the deck from the defensive line to the attacking line .

Arthur's club must do this very well, because his club's youth teams have impressed the coach of our state NPL finalist. This coach, well known in Australian coaching circles, is a big fan of passing football.