Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Out of possession: Reacting to being out of shape.

FAW Coach Ed

Joshua Richards

Profile Summary

Name:	Joshua Richards
City:	Exeter
Country:	United Kingdom
Membership:	Adult Member
Sport:	Football/Soccer

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Description

The focus of the session will be the out-of-possession team, and the intensity off the ball, and putting pressure on it.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): Set-Up

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Set-Up (5 mins)

Focus:

- The focus of the session will be the out-of-possession team, and the intensity off the ball, and putting pressure on it.

Aim:

- The aim of the game is for a team to complete 5 passes consecutively, and then each member of the team needs to touch a coloured cone on the outer box. This will replicate the team losing possession of the ball and players being out of shape.

- Whilst the first team are touching the coloured cones and trying to return to play, the opposition can start to complete their passes.

- The now out-of-possession team has to react and put pressure on the ball as quickly as possible before the other team completes their passes.

Pitch:

- The large outer box is 20*20 yards, outlined by cones.

- The inner boxes are created by flats, making four smaller boxes each 10*10 yards.

- At each point where the flats meet the outer box, there is a different coloured cone to the rest of the outer box.

- The flat lines are to act as reference points for both in possession and out of possession teams if quality of play is poor.

- Pitch geography is not important.

Equipment:

- Cones (4 a different colour to the rest).

- Flats

- Balls

- Bibs

Timings:

- The session will be split into 5 blocks of 3 minutes, with a 1 minute 30 rest between each block.

- Before the first block, there will be 1 minute of live to play to act as a demonstration to ensure each player understands and any mistakes that may happen can be minimised during the main blocks.

- The session will be a maximum of 25 minutes, time to explain beforehand, and time to evaluate, reflect and collect thoughts after the last block.

- The session is high physical loading due to the intensity in the blocks and the length of blocks.

- The session will be used on a Game Day -3 or -4.

Teams:

- 2 teams.
- 5 players on each team.

- More players can be added, but the pitch size needs to be adapted to reflect this.

- Players do not need to be position-specific.

Session Notes:

- Multi-directional possession game.

- 11v11 set up in 4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1, removing the back 4 and number 9 for both teams, leaving the midfield 5 for both teams.

- Likely to see parts of this game in the middle of the pitch, where the ball can be pressed from any direction, and where the midfield 5 become tight and compact to protect the red zone, and defend in packs.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): Session Break-Down

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Session Break-Down (20 mins)

Coaching Interventions:

- The coach will drive the intensity of the session during the blocks by using concurrent feedback, mainly fly-bys. The coach will have a loud and authoritative tone to his voice to ensure players are driven and not ignoring it.

- During the breaks between blocks, the coach will use terminal feedback through a lot of questions and answers, which will lead to walkthroughs, demonstrations, and possibly the coaching process. The coach will have a more calm tone when using these interventions as it will ideally be a two way conversation, however, the coach will stay enthusiastic to encourage player engagement.

Coaching Points:

- Importance of intensity in getting to the ball.

+ Players need to understand that when we are in possession we want time on the ball, which is probably what most teams would want, so we need to get to the ball as quick as possible to avoid giving time to the other team.

- The players approach to pressing the ball; technical break down.

+ Looking at the speed of approach, the body positions and use of arms, and the angle of approach.

- Structure and organisation of reacting to the ball when out of shape.

+ Trying to have the nearest player press, with the next covering, whilst others close passing channels and compact space by leaving the furthest players.

- Understanding the difference between putting pressure on the ball to slow play, and putting pressure on the ball to win possession.

+ If we are isolated and defending while underloaded, its not smart to press to win the ball in most cases as the opposition can easily bounce the ball around you and take you out of the game. It's a lot smarter to try and isolate the opposition by closing passing channels and stopping them from playing forward until others are ready to press.

- Understanding that ideally we will play both in possession and out of possession in a similar way.

+ In possession we want intensity on the ball and off the ball, so we can create lots of space and continually creating different passing angles. Out of possession, we want intensity off the ball so we can limit the space and passing angles for the opposition.

What Ifs:

- The ball leaves the playing area: the coach will have a pile of balls ready to feed to keep the ball rolling time high.

- Teams can't put 5 passes together: the coach will deliver some important information on how to improve the in possession team's quality.

- Teams can't get back to the ball before the next set of passes are completed: regress the session and have one player not lose shape (touching a cone).

Challenges/Targets/Conditions:

- A maximum number of touches on the ball.

- A number of cone touches in a block (challenge or target).

- Positional challenges using smaller boxes.

Opposition:

- The opposition will be coached by my assistant.

- The session will only be stopped mid-block if the standard is not good enough, where I may jump in to add coaching points for the in possession team. The assistant coach will ensure these standards are then maintained throughout the session as well.

- The in possession team will try to play different ways in different blocks:

+ Playing around.

+ Playing through using split passes.