Part 2 of 4 - Five More Easy Ways to Stop Soccer Players from Bunching Up and How Your Soccer Formation Can Make it Easier to Teach Soccer Positions and Help Stop Bunching. I have had a lot of coaches say I need help now. SO, Im trying. This was rushed so there might be typos… This is one of 4 posts about How to Stop Bunching and How to Get Players to Stay Spaced and Keep Shape So there is Offensive and Defensive Support and You Have Field Coverage. I will post about this every day for 3 days, so check back. You may not be notified of these posts - only about 50% of the 31,000 fans of this page are - so check back if you are interested in How to Stop Bunching and to keep shape and space and have better offensive and defensive support. Every team is different - do what works best for your team. Fantastic teams can and should play differently from average teams. If you are a serious coach, read number 5 below. (1). First, a great tip from Mark M., who posted it as a Comment on my last post. When his boys and girls teams bunch up, he tells them to Stop holding hands. He says it works and I can see why it would work with boys - he says it works with girls too. I think it is a clever idea. Thanks Coach Mark M. (2). Second, Bunching Penalty idea - Dont Bunch Me - from Ken who is a great coach and a Premium subscriber - Something I want to communicate is a simple way to combat bunching in young players (U8 and U10). I call it the bunching penalty. I show the kids what 5 big steps looks like (or how many steps you choose) . Then I tell them if they are on attack and get any closer than 5 steps to the player with the ball they are hurting and not helping their team, and I will call the Bunching Penalty. Then the other team gets the ball. Generally, I only have to call it once and things magically improve. It has completely eliminated constantly yelling dont bunch up and spread out. The bunching penalty seems give my girls a different mindset. I even heard one girl telling a teammate, Dont bunch me. (3). Third, also from SoccerHelp Premium - from Troy who is a great coach and a Premium subscriber - a Team Chant… The Coach says When your teammate has the ball what do you do? And the team replies: Stay Away, Stay Away, Stay Away - again and again. (4). There is a Practice Game on SoccerHelp Premium that teaches players to stay spread out. Coach Bob in Pittsburgh said We ran it in practice on Thursday and we saw immediate results. It is a winner! - It is too long to post but if you are a Premium subscriber, check it out at soccerhelp/premium/practice_games/Bunching_Up_Spread_Out.shtml (5). ****Read This***** How Your Soccer Formation Can Make it Easier to Teach Soccer Positions and Help Stop Bunching - (Dont worry about formations for U6) - Kim, whose letter is part of Part 1, had been playing a 1-3 formation (one defender and 3 attackers) and I recommended she try a 1-1-2 (Sweeper, Center Midfielder, and 2 Forwards - she could also call the Sweeper a Stopper or a Fullback) because it has more depth and has a Center Midfielder, which is a big plus. She didnt have time to practice it, she simply explained it before their game, but had great results. Sometimes a simple change in your formation can make a big difference. In Kims case, she could tell her Sweeper to stop at the Halfway Line, and that would help her field coverage and help insure that her Sweeper stayed in position (in the Defensive Half) instead of coming into the attack so no one was left to defend. As Kim says, a strong Sweeper and a strong Center Mid can make a BIG difference. In a 1-1-2, the best place for weak or timid players is at one of the Forward positions. Your Center Mid can come into your attack or stay a short pass behind to support the attack. For typical youth soccer teams, I greatly prefer Formations that: A. Are Strong in the Center of the Field (the Center is an imaginary line between the 2 goals), because that is the most important part of the field - if you control the Center you will usually win. Let your opponent have the sidelines - they cant score from there and they will run farther and your players will have time to recover to defensive positions. But if you lose the Center, you will probably lose. So, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? It means that you need your best, bravest, fastest players at the Center positions like Center Mid, Center Fullback, Sweeper (if you use a Sweeper), Stopper (if you use a Stopper), and Center Forward. Center Mid and Stopper are especially important. You can put slow players at Fullback IF they are Brave and IF you Defend Deep, but it is a mistake to put players at Fullback who are scared of contact because attackers will use them as a screen to block your Keepers view and at the last second the scared Fullback will jump out of the way of the shot. B. That have Depth. For most youth soccer teams, Depth is MUCH more important than Width - most youth teams cannot defend the entire field and the Center is much more important than the sidelines. Example - in 8v8, a 2-1-3-1 (2 FBs, a Stopper, 3 MFs and a Forward) has more Depth than a 2-3-2 or 3-3-1. Depth matters because your players will run less and it is easier to assign positions. For example, in a 2-1-3-1 there are 3 Center players (a Stopper, a Center mid and a Center Forward). Another reason I like a 2-1-3-1 for Rec soccer is because if you have weak or timid players you can put them at RMF and/or LMF and stil be strong in the Center. HERE IS AN EXAMPLE of how this can work … If I played a 2-1-3-1 (8v8) with a typical team, I would teach my players some simple Positioning and Spacing Rules and tell them it is their Job to follow the Rules and trust their teammates to follow their Rules. Examples - (a). If my Fullbacks (FBs) are slow and Defend Deep, I would teach my 2 FBs to stop at the Penalty Box line and stay out from each Goal Post (RFB out from the Right Goal Post and LFB out from the Left Goal Post, so they are fairly close together). That way I have given them DEFINITE boundaries and fixed references - the Penalty Box Line and the Goal Posts. (b). If I Push Up my FBs to support our attack, they would stop at the Halfway Line and shift from side to side with the ball, staying a short pass apart. (c). I would teach my FBs that their JOB is to Defend our Goal Front - it is NOT their job to go to the corners - I dont want my FBs confused about their job - keep it simple and if they do their job, praise them, even if the team loses. I dont want my FBs to get pulled out of position to the corners. If the ball comes to the corners of our Defensive Third (the third of the field our goal is in), it is the job of the Nearest Midfielder (the MF nearest the ball - the RMF or LMF) to defend those balls. If the ball is in a Corner of our Defensive Third, my Far MF (the MF farthest from the ball) should shift to the Penalty Box Arc to cover that important area to protect against a crossing pass, my CMF should be shifted toward the ball but outside the Penalty Box and a pass from the Near MF (the MF closest to the ball), and my Stopper should be backing up my Near MF and a short pass away, between the ball and our goal. My Stopper can come into the Penalty Box but NOT my MFs - I need my MFs outside the Penalty Box so they can win cleared balls. Can you see how this approach stops Bunching and ensures that you have good coverage (called shape) and spacing? There is a lot about this on SoccerHelp Premium and a free article and a drawing about how to teach Shifting and Sagging is at soccerhelp/terms/soccer-shift-and-sag.shtml YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED how much difference a simple formation change can make. There is a GREAT LETTER about this from Coach Glenn (U12 mixed Rec) at soccerhelp/Soccer_Stopper_Soccer_Formation_8v8.shtml He didnt win a game for 3 seasons, changed his formation and started winning. He had been advised to play a 3-3-1 or 2-3-2. He says - for a rec team with little or no experience among the players, there is NO WAY we can play a 3-3-1 or 2-3-2. It is a disaster. It is demoralizing to the players to get beat every game, and more importantly, they are so overwhelmed and lost they dont learn anything. the 2-1-2-2 makes it very simple for young, inexperienced players. They quickly lose their timidness and just go play hard and have fun. Tomorrow - Part 3, more Positioning and Spacing Rules that are Easy to Teach and will Stop Your Players from Bunching and Keep Space and Shape
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:07:47 +0000
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