Coaching the Next Action
Good morning! I want to talk about how I like to coach the “next action” for our teams. Before we start, please like this post by clicking the heart! If you do that then Substack will show more people The Weekly Rondo!
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Editors note:
Sorry for no newsletter last week! I had just moved in to my new apartment in London, Ontario so it’s been a very busy week or so getting settled. Thanks for your patience!
Exercise of the Week
Back to basics for me! I’ve had a great time using this exercise with some of the new groups I’ve been working with in London with London TFC and FC London.
These types of target games can be great for hammering home your core in possession principles.
Not listed above is a potential progression whereby you put a second vertical play area attached to the first one and 2 more target players - equaling 4, 2 per team. The progression being that the target players can leave their space as long as a teammate replaces them.
Stop Talking, Start Showing
So when it comes to coaching the next action I like to set the session up in a way that it resembles a certain phase of play that we want to see the next action in.
So for example, in the build out phase when playing from the goalkeeper, we may give the goalkeeper or the central defender the first decision of who to pass to:
If the middle is busy, go wide
If the wide areas are busy, go central
But what happens when this act is done?
Continuing our example from playing out from the back, say we go to the wide area - we get the ball to our right fullback.
What are we instructing our fullback to do there?
Here’s how I would approach it:
If the fullback has space to carry, will the widest player on the same side invert or stay wide? Show the team both examples of what the fullback is supposed to do based on those two actions from the wide player.
If the fullback plays inside to the half-space, which foot does he pass to? What is recipients passing option if he receives on his left foot or right foot? What are the recipients teammates doing based on this reception? Show the options to the team at a snails pace. Walk through the ideas slowly, moving the attacking team and defending team together.
If the fullback decides to pass backwards, who does he pass to? If the goalkeeper, who is the first person the goalkeeper looks to pass to? If central, who is supposed to receive and who should that central player look to play after receiving? If wide, to a central defender or fullback, who do those players look to play to, and why?
If you set up a phase of play game with an 11-aside goal and then 3-4 mini goals at the top of the half way line, with the condition that every ball restarts with the goalkeeper, you have a seemingly infinite amount of opportunities to stop play and make a coaching point for your build up.
Neat Reads
Neat Reads is a segment where I share an article or podcast that interests me and relates to our weekly theme.
This podcast from The Training Ground Guru gives some more ideas of how to effectively coach a topic for your players. It also talks in more detail about the topic we discussed this week: coaching the next action
Conclusion
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See you next week!
Kindest,
Cameron