The reason for doing this session is I like players to be really clever and creative with their movement and passing to penetrate the opposition. To combine well in attacking areas of the pitch requires movement, intelligence, and forethought, just to name a few aspects, so I feel working on these aspects in practice will help develop clever and creative players.
The session will work on combinations like one-twos, overlaps/underlaps, and 3rd man runs.
Technical Practice
This simple practice involves receiving from an outside player and then combing with a middle floater player and then playing across to another player on the outside without a ball. I have attached a picture below:
In the practice, as you can see, there are different floaters in the middle through which players combine in different ways. With my players, to begin with, I think I will begin with only one combination to play through the middle. Then I will move on to another combination in turn. This, I think, will help the practice flow a bit better to begin with as players gets to grips with the session and what I want them to do. When I then repeat the session, I will then try to just start with all three combinations to play through, as payers will already have an idea of what they are going to do.
This practice is very simple. One of the reasons I like it is, although there aren't any defenders, there will still be interference within the grid, therefore still working on decision making, awareness, and perceptual skills somewhat as players will have to search and recognize spaces and the right times to combine. Also, the combinations will different each time, thus being more realistic to the game. It is sort of a mix between an opposed practice and a technical practice. That is the idea anyways. Getting the players thinking a bit straight from the start of practice can only be a good think right. I am not really a fan of patterns for younger players where kids are just repeating the same thing over and over again in an unopposed practices. Stuff like that does not set the players up well for the game in my opinion - especially for a topic like combination play which relies heavily on a players ability to perceive and recognize the right times to do things - that skill requires defenders, not mannequins and cones who don't tackle and try to get the ball. Also, when you see teams doing that stuff, the teams always perform the pattern great, but when they go to a game, the practice does not transfer to the game at all, which is absolutely pointless and a waste of time in my opinion.
Moving on from the above practice, I will get the get the players into some target-to-target possession type games. Once again, these are very simple, they are directional, will include fewer numbers, and involve lots of movement and combining for players. I will manipulate the games a bit to try to get more repetition of the combination I want to see.
To begin with, I will have 2 simultaneous games going on as follows:
Game 1 - this will be a target-to-target game where players have to play from target to target within a rectangle. I will play this game so players only get a point if they perform a one-two and then play into a target player. I will also allow them to play a one-two with a target player to then receive in the end zone.
Game 2 - This game will be played with mini-goals and players play a normal game, but if they perform an overlap and score or create from it, then they get 3 goals. I will play either 2vs2 or 3vs3. The aim is to incentivise players to try and play an overlap but also not put a 'must' only score after an overlap. Sometimes players will just be in positions to shoot and score and I try to not take that away from them. However, if I don't see any overlaps, then I will put a restriction on the game that they have to perform an overlap before they can score.
With these two games I will play for about 10 minutes, then switch pitches so players play on the other pitch and try to perform the different combination. I have recently read a book called Make it stick. It's a book on how to learn effectively written by a few cognitive neuroscientists, and within it, they discuss a concept called interleaving. This is basically mixing up what you learn rather than constant repetition of the same thing which apparently hinders longer term learning. This is the principle I am trying to apply here with the mixing up of the two games - I am trying to think of ways to apply what they talk about in the book to a coaching setting. I will see how it goes - I am always looking for ways to develop how I coach.
As a progression to the above I will move to promotion/relegation system player possession games where players will get points for performing either a one-two or a overlap. Players will now have to decide which combination to do within the game. This will add more competition to the scenario and also get them to decide which combinations to perform depending on the situation. The idea here, is to really get them thinking about what to do and when to do it.
A practice that I will use sometimes to help 3rd man runs will be a target-to-target possession game again. But now, the restriction is, to score they have to make a 3rd man run into the end zone to receive from the target player. In other words, one player in the grid passes to the target player, and as this is happening a different player within the grid makes a run into the end zone to receive from the target player, thus being the 3rd man making the run.
To end the session I will play a game where I will split the pitch up into thirds. Within the game I will challenge players to combine and create goals. I will use the thirds to help focus the issue and challenge players with different ways to combine to play forward and create. For example, I will ask midfielders to try to receive in the middle third and play forward quickly and make forward runs into the attacking third to then try to get on the ball again, or I could ask them to play a one-two in the midfield third before advancing into the attacking third. There are loads of things that can be added to this setup of a game to help focus on what you want to achieve.
I like to do simple game-like practices and just add little restrictions and different ways to score to focus the issue of what the session is trying to achieve. The sessions are not complicated in their setup and structure. However, I feel they are game realistic and relevant, and will help players paint pictures in their minds which they will encounter on match day, therefore enabling more transfer to the game from practice. That is the idea anyways.One thing I will have to be wary of within this method is whether the technical ability of the players allows them to perform well in the session. If not, then I will have to rethink and regress the sessions to better suit the needs of the players.
Coaching Points
Some things to look out for in this session will be:
- Variety of receiving and passing techniques.
- Decision making
- Think about what to do before you receive ball, what to do when you have it, and then what to do when you have released it.
- Communication
- Encouraging players to try to anticipate and read defenders and attackers with whom they will combine.
- Playing quickly.
- one and two touch
- Quick, early, and clever movement off the ball.
- Creativity and different ways to combine.
- Players being positive and direct and looking to go forward with intent.
Thanks for reading.
Rickie
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