Soccer training, soccer drills, articles, soccer training videos and more from Wayne Harrison/Soccer Awareness.
Soccer Awareness training develops SELF THINKING players who are not coach driven; but coach guided, and within this they are allowed to make mistakes without criticism; but rather; encouraged to learn from them.
Welcome to the Soccer Awareness Coaches Corner. Browse through soccer drills, small sided games, tactical thoughts, full sessions and a variety of resources. Posts marked “Training Center Exclusive” are for members only.
Striker movement is one of the greatest and most difficult ARTS to master. The situation is constantly changing and the striker is constantly moving to create space for him or herself but also for teammates. Small-sided games are important in the development of younger players through increased touches with the ball and more experience with basic tactical challenges.
Read MoreStriker comes short, center back lets the striker go, and the striker receives and
turns and runs at the back four who now are in a vulnerable position. Being able to
immediately run at the back four means the striker and teammates have not been
delayed which would help other players on our team recover back.
Wayne Harrison's new book, his 15th publication on Soccer Coaching, will be soon!
Playing a 1-3-3-1-3 might be the way forward in the future. Chile won the Copa America Championship this year for the first time in their history using it. Pep Guardiola head coach of Bayern Munich uses it at times.
Receiving and turning is a technique that every player in every field position must have in their locker. The sooner they are taught this ability the better; that is why we focus here on such young ages.
Read MoreDivide the teams up into two 3 v 3 games with teams attacking the short side lines to score a goal. Play with one ball then two balls so there is some 1 v 1’s and also some support play. Then they attack the long sides as targets making it a little harder to defend successfully.
Read MoreMost of the coaches I know look at the trends at the highest level of the game for ideas of what might be effective for their teams. In the last 10 years the most popular system has been the 4-3-3. The Dutch have been using it for much longer it became used more widely by clubs like, Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto and later Chelsea FC as well as Barcelona FC, AS Roma, the US Women’s National Team and many others. As this shift occured at the top level we began to see more youth, high school and college teams move to this highly flexible system.
Read MoreSoccer Awareness developmental training focuses on the concept of the THIRD EYE of Awareness, Imagination and Anticipation in Performance. Soccer Awareness is a highly innovative concept which aims to develop the thinking coach and player. Soccer Awareness focuses on the creation of a player centered environment which encourages autonomy and an ability to make correct decisions within a game specific context.
Soccer Awareness Training Center provides unlimited access to Wayne Harrison's Soccer Awareness systems, training sessions, drills and more. Wayne's system helps the development of all levels of soccer players and teams in a systematic and imaginative manner that guarantees performance at the highest level of competition.
This video is an example of a “One Touch Mentality” game situation U14 boys.
Here are 9 ways to distribute from the keeper and play out from the back. We owe it to the players to teach them this as Young as is possible.
I work on this initially practicing all ways to get out. Have opponents only intercepting passes to begin. Then let it go free. When opponents win it back we work on the defending team condensing and defending correctly.
If three or four ways to develop play are done very frequently then it becomes a subconscious decision to move into position so no decision making required as such.
Linking foot preparation, body position and mental preparation to the technique involved in making a one touch pass leads us to a discussion on one touch play and its benefits.
One touch play teaches the value of being able to take your eye off the ball when keeping your eye on the ball can be a disadvantage.
To make this work, players need to have good teamwork and positional sense and therefore must work hard for each other.
54 Pages
We want to stay with our own game plan as closely as possible; based on what we practice and to keep it simple for us; as we dictate to our opponents; and we impose OUR WAY on them.
But there will be many occasions where we must change the system of play and we may have to adjust to suit the opponents.
Here are some ideas for you to consider for your team starting with the 13313 and 14231 systems of play.
Teaching players to develop a "one touch mentality" in their game, to train the MIND.
To play in "Anticipation" of the ball; both on and off it by Scanning the field constantly to make earlier, faster and more successful decisions in the game.
How do we do this? Here are some sessions to use to help develop this ability.
45 Pages
Using the 1-3-3-1-3 system of play for this, we show how your players can find free spaces between opponents with inverted runs from outside to in. Including how to create freedom of movement within the team framework.
This 295 page ebook includes 17 game situational clinics focused on tactical play and target games. To achieve the given theme successfully, many of the situational games have set conditions to them to force the theme to happen consistently and to maintain the focus of it. As we will explain, a big part of teaching in ALL these games is developing a One Touch Mentality in each players brain. So the “general” theme around all of them will be establishing this thinking process no matter the “specific” theme being taught.
This book is also available to Elite and Premium Members in the Soccer Awareness Training Center. Access Here.
We produced the eBook "Tactical Thoughts on the Development of the 4 v 4, 7 v 7 and 9 v 9 Game Sizes" covering information on team shape and development. We now add this eBook to provide Curriculums in each game size to support the tactical games eBook.
What this eBook offers you:
Its all done here for you, paying attention to the ages of the players and the depth of teaching suitable to them.
As the program moves from 4 v 4 through to 11 v 11 the focus changes from individual teachings at 4 v 4, to small sided situations at 7 v 7, to Phases of play and tactical needs at 9 v 9; through to team tactical development at 11 v 11.
11 v 11 focuses on advanced training ideas to teach the “team”.
This eBook covers up to 14 weeks of training for each game size presented as one session per week.
All sessions have small sided games scrimmage set ups as close as we can get it to finish to reflect the theme of the session.
This eBook shows how these different size games can be taught and also shows different systems of play that might be useful to you.
The idea I am trying to cultivate is to find a pattern of development that goes from 4 v 4 to 7 v 7 all the way through 9 v 9 to 11 v 11 that educates the players VERY EARLY on how to ultimately play the 11 v 11, a common thread running right through the book.
Often players position to receive the ball with their back to play. These session plans show some ideas on how to position and instead "Face Forward" or at least Half Turned or three quarters turned rather than positioning square and facing back.