How to Teach Soccer Positions and Spacing and Field Coverage - I get a lot of emails about how to teach positions. Dont worry about teaching specific positions at U6 - just teach the general idea of scoring and defending - focus on dribbling and fun - but I dont think you just want to allow herd ball because bad habits are hard to break. I will post an article soon about how to teach players not to Bunch Up. At U8 and older positions become important. You cant have a good team if your players are running all over the field - players must play their positions or you will lose to a team that plays positions. You must have defenders, you must have attackers, and you must have a way to get the ball from your Defensive Third to your Attacking Third. The larger the field, the more important positions, formations and Styles of Play are. Your positions will be determined by - A. the number of players who are playing (e.g., 6v6, 8v8 or 11v11 - these numbers include a Keeper, although some leagues dont have Keepers until U8 or U10 because that forces the field players to learn to defend without a Keeper), B. your Formation. For example, if you play 8v8, a 2-1-3-1, a 1-2-3-1, etc… remember those numbers dont include the Keeper and they always start with the player closest to the Keeper, so a 1-2-3-1 would be a Sweeper, 2 Fullbacks, 3 Midfielders and one Forward, and a 2-1-3-1 would be 2 Fullbacks, a Stopper (who is like a front Sweeper), 3 MFs and one Forward. C. and your Style of Play - for example, do you Push Up your Fullbacks when you attack, or leave them deep? That decision will determine where your Fullbacks should be on the field at various times. You can read more about Styles of Play at soccerhelp/terms/soccer-styles-of-play.shtml There is a good article on SoccerHelp about how to choose a formation and assign positions at soccerhelp/soccer-articles/120824-Select-Soccer-Formation.shtml and there are lots of articles with more tips on Soccerhelp Premium. If you are a Premium subscriber, try Positioning Rules at soccerhelp/premium/Assigning_Positions_Rules.shtml A simple way to teach positions is by giving players some Rules to follow and boundaries. These Positioning Rules are for average teams - IF YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC TEAM, these rules dont apply to your team - great teams can and should do things that average teams cant do. For example (again, these are NOT rules for fantastic teams, they are for average teams - every team is different, do what is best for your team)…. a. If you have right and left Midfielders (MFs), you might teach them not to go past the Center of the Field (the Center is an imaginary line between the 2 goals). If the ball is on the other side of the field, the far-side MF (the MF farthest from the ball) should come to the Center of the Field and stop - that will help ensure you have field coverage and avoid bunching. It is critical that you defend the Center of the Field because that is a direct path to your goal. b. If you have right and left Fullbacks (FBs), you might teach them not to go past the Center of your Goal - If the ball is on the other side of the field, the far-side FB should come to the Center of the Goal and stop - that will ensure that someone is protecting your Goal Front. c. If you have a Center Fullback (CFB), you might teach him or her to not go past the Goal Posts (or 3 steps past the Goal Post) except for a loose ball - that will ensure your CFB protects your Near Post instead of getting drawn to the corner. In most youth soccer matches, goals are scored from in front of the goal, not from the corners. d. I would tell my Midfielders (MFs) to NEVER come into our Penalty Box - when our goal is under attack, they should stay a short pass out from ball and shift with the ball, otherwise we wont be able to clear the ball because there wont be anyone in position to win cleared balls. (Your Forwards should also be in position to win balls your Fullbacks and MFs clear, but your Forwards will be farther out, toward the Halfway Line and not in position to win short clearances or balls that pop out). e. I would also tell my MFs to NOT go inside the opposing teams Penalty Box (when we are attacking) unless they are onball. That will ensure that you have some support for your attack and that everyone isnt bunched up, and it makes it clear that MFs have a different job than Forwards. f. If I Pushed Up my FBs when we attack, I would tell them to stop at the Halfway Line and to shift from side-to-side with the ball so they are in position to win cleared balls and to stop attacks. There are a lot more tips like this on soccerhelp/
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:05:07 +0000
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