U10 Training Sessions and Practical Information Gregor Young, Technical Director Here is the information and practice plans I’d mentioned to some of you was coming. There’s three practice plans that are consistent with the curriculum I put together for our U6 to U10 teams (available as a pdf in the coaches section of the club website) and tested on players this age this season. I’ve said to many of you that I consider U10 to be the most difficult age group to coach as it’s the last year before we tier players as per the rules of divisional soccer. Tiering allows you to coach to a narrow range of abilities and motivations. Right now we have players on our teams that are new to the game, have maybe not played any team sport before and are unsure as to whether they like the game or not. Having them play with and against kids who have been playing since they were five and are highly motivated to continue improving because they love the game is very challenging from a coaching perspective. To that end, here are three practice plans that follow a new training session structure known as G.A.G (game, activity, game). It’s been proven to increase player retention of what’s being worked on and is well suited to kids this age group who enjoy and are motivated by game-based play. The way it works is that after a short warm up you go directly to a game, generally a conditioned game but one that is oppositional and has goals. After that, you pull the players in, discuss what happened in the game and move to an activity that can be purely technical (no opposition) or possession-based (opposed but no goals to score in). Then you go back and finish with a scrimmage type game that can have a condition or just be free play. I’ve been running G.A.G. sessions recently and find it to be a really nice format that flows well, keeps the players focused and works well in the relatively short training times we’re afforded. Some notes on the importance on getting young players to use width in attack: Before outlining the training session, I just want to draw attention to the idea of using width in games. In last year’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United, Barcelona midfielder, and perhaps the best passer of the ball in the game today, Xavi, completed 141 of 148 passes. The most any Manchester United player made was 40 and that was by central defender Rio Ferdinand so it can be safely assumed that most of those were in his own half of the field. Xavi completed 46 of 48 passes in the attacking third where time and space are much tighter. David Silva, like Xavi, is a Spanish midfielder but Silva plays for Manchester City where he is increasingly being praised as the best player in the English Premier League. He has more assists than any other EPL player to date. Here’s a diagram of Silva’s passes (blue=successful; red=unsuccessful) in his last EPL game vs Norwich on the left and Xavi’s passes in the attacking third in the Champions League Final against Manchester United: What should stand out is both players excellent use of width. Far more balls are played laterally than directly towards goal. As both teams are dominant in almost all their games and opponents tend to sit back and make attacking against them difficult, it becomes very important to effectively use wide space to open them up. Playing wide balls forces defending to shift wide and potentially open up channels inside if they don’t stay compact. Quick ball movement back and forth through players like Xavi and Silva can then exploit gaps left by defenders slow to adjust to lateral play. That’s the long preamble to the simple point that younger playeres need to start recognizing the game is not about the quickest, most direct route to goal. Increasingly that route becomes blocked by organized defenders and they must learn to use the width of the field to find ways around opponents rather than insisting on going through them all the time. Here’s a picture I took at a recent U10 game. It’s irrelevant who the teams are or even if it’s a boys or a girls game. The issue is consistent across all our teams at this age. Neither team has a player within 10 yards of either sideline. To that end, I’ve put together a training session that gets our player to use the field’s width. Hopefully the diagrams are helpful. They were made with a few different iPad apps and some are more clear than others. Training Session #1: Width 1. Game: Extra wide two goal game Set up a field that is 30-40 yards wide and ~20 yards long. Make four small goals, using cones, in each corner. Make two teams and tell them they score goals by scoring into the two goals opposite them and defend the two at their end. Remind them that if they go towards one goal and find the other team all drawn to defending it they can switch play across the field and attack the other goal. Progression #1: Instead of shooting the ball through the goal to score, tell players they have to dribble the ball to one of the goal lines and stop it on the line to score. This will be more difficult and require quicker ball movement to open up the additional time and space to work the ball right to the goal line rather than shooting from distance. Progression #2: Same as above but now have the players need to complete a pass through the goal to a player running behind the goal. 2. Activity: Possession game encouraging switching play Using the same setup, ignore the four cones in the corner of the field and get the players to see the other four cones as a square. Put four players on each side of the square. Depending on how many players you have put the other players on the inside and arrange them so they are playing either 2v1, 2v2, 3v2 or 3v3. Players on the inside are trying to get the ball to a player on the outside, receive it back and then get the ball across the square to the outside support player on the other side. They are allowed to pass to other players on their team on the inside before getting it across the square. They can also decide to play to an outside support player next to the one who gave them the ball but they don’t get a point for this. They just maintain possession and look to score a point in the future. Instruct players on the outside to play to the team that gave them the ball and to be mobile up and down their line to provide angles to receive passes from players on the inside. If you have uneven numbers on the inside, for example 3v2, you can decide if the group of two or the group of three are the attackers depending on the level of play. It will obviously be more challenging for the two in a 3v2 to maintain possession and work the ball across the square. If you have even numbers whichever teams is able to get possession and work it to the outside is the one who is on the attack. Change inside and outside players every few minutes. 3. Game: 4v4 with wide support Regular scrimmage but put neutral players on the outside (both right and left) and make it a condition that teams must move the ball to the wide players (who cannot be tackled but must stay outside the cones) before they can attack the goal and score. (The overlapping blue and yellow figures are meant to indicate they are neutral and always on the team that gives them the ball). Progression: Get rid of the neutral players but keep the rule that teams must move the ball to the wide areas outside the cones before attacking. Now anyone from their team can move to this wide position to receive the ball (or they can dribble it there) and attack from there. Training Session #2: Passing and Moving 1. Game: Four Goal Soccer (attack and defend all four goals) Set up a field that is ~ 30x30 or 40x40 yards. Put four goals in each corner so that they are all facing into the middle of the square. Leave at least 6m behind each goal. Make two teams. 30x30 yards for this age is suitable for 4v4 or 5v5. If you need to play 6v6, make the field a bit bigger. The rules are simple. Teams can score in any of the four goals and they score by completing a pass, either way, through the goal to a teammate. This diagram was done on an older app and isn’t as clear as I’d like but you can see the four goals facing the middle with a blue player passing to a teammate through one of the goals. Yes, it says 40x40 and it’s only 5v5 but this is what older divisional players would play. Best to stick with the recommendation above for U10’s. 2. Activity: Passing and Moving in Grids Red lines indicate path of ball. Blue lines indicate movement of players I made this one up years ago and have added various progressions to it since.