Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Session Plan 4 & Reflections: Switching Play (In possession Specific to SSG)

FAW Coach Ed

Ali Waheed

Profile Summary

Name:	Ali Waheed
City:	London
Country:	United Kingdom
Membership:	Adult Member
Sport:	Football/Soccer

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Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): Specific Practice

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Specific Practice

Specific Practice:

Session Objective: In possession switching play.

Session Organization: I will be coaching the BLUE team with the principles of switching play.

Blue team: 1-3-3-1 (8 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed 1 defender one midfielder and a striker.

Red team: 0-3-3-1 (7 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed the keeper 1 defender one midfielder and a striker.

Total number of players: 15 players

Pitch size: Half pitch.

Duration of the session: 10 mins of specific practice.

Conditions, Challenges & Targets: I will be coaching the blues. Defenders will be conditioned to stick to their defensive zones and make the passes. They cannot go further than the D area. Blues will be challenged to switch the ball to a side before scoring on mini goals. The target will be to score but with a switch. The challenges are aimed at making the pitch bigger, wider to exploit the space and play as wide as the touchline to give us the maximum space to explore and stretch the opposition. Reds are targeted to score as well on the big goal but they are challenged to do so in 6 seconds so they lose possession and blues can start over from the keeper hence keeping the focus of the session in play.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): SSG

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SSG

SSG:

Blue team: 1-3-3-1 (8 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed 1 defender one midfielder and a striker.

Red team: 1-3-3-1 (8 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed 1 defender one midfielder and a striker and added a keeper.

Total number of players: 16 players

Pitch size: Half pitch.

Duration of the session: 20 mins of small sided game.

Conditions, Challenges & Targets: After the practice session and 1 minute break I will straight go into a small sided game. Between the transitions of sessions a terminal coaching will be done removing the conditions on the defenders and keeping the challenges in play to obtain the principles of switching. The reds will keep it narrow and make it hard for the blues to switch the ball around.

Problem 1: CB unable to pass to CM with reds blocking the way.

Solution: Avoid the traffic, avoid the CM and the CB becomes the switching player and goes over and across to winger. This is deciding who and when to switch aspect.

Problem 2: Winger too narrow and blues losing the ball with switch.

Solution: Wingers pushed to the wide touchline of the pitch, explained why and how we do that as then we can use the extra space on the field width and length to punish the opponent with successful switch play.

Reflections:

Aim of the session of well achieved as the principles of switch play was well played. The walk through at the start was key to this successful session. The two problems that I diagnosed and did a coaching process helped them understand and master the art and skill of switching like who, when and how. The conditions on the defenders helped them understand the importance of early release and switch of the ball without running with it. The small sided game after the initial practice session gave more realism as I took of the conditions but still kept the challenge of switching to the wide area and then scoring to achieve the targets. Giving more information about ball speed could have been something that could have made the session better.

My action plan for next time would be to repeat the session on a bigger size pitch area like the full pitch, bring about different problems such as the importance of ball speed in switching, the aspect of decision making in switch play considered more. Also I will try a more deeper coaching position away from the ball the next time to have a better view of how the team plays and understand the principles of switch play as a team.