Technical Center

Jeff Tipping Some of the great teams are able to play one-touch soccer for extended periods, helping to break down defenses by moving the ball around quicker than the defenders can adjust or regroup. Here are a pair of activities that can be utilized to help improve your team's ability to play one-touch soccer. One-Touch Soccer One of the most important moments in soccer is the transition from defense to attack. Teams can exploit over-extended defenses and score goals quickly. This series of exercises will help you condition your players to look immediately for the counter-attacking option. 2 v. 2 to Targets 2 v. 2 to Target Player 4 v. 4 Dual Game Transition Dimitar Berbatov is a player described as having "soft feet", referring to his great technical ability to control the ball with his first touch.  Here are a series of exercises to help players work on the ability to control the ball with their first touch in a fun atmosphere. Receiving Exercises For A Good First Touch One of the focuses in the NSCAA Premier Diploma is systems of play.  These exercises help coaches to guide the forward and midfield unit into a proper shape in the attacking third of the field, working on good timing of check runs, entry passes and combination play. Shaping Midfielders and Forwards In The 4-4-2 As touched upon by Marcus Hahnemann in an interview with the NSCAA Academy, goalkeepers must develop a transition mentality.  They must look to start the attack as soon as they control the shot or cross, knowing where they plan to play the ball before receiving it.  The exercises linked below will aid coaches in developing the transition mentality. The Goalkeeper In Transition One of the hallmarks of a great player is the ability to read the game and know - before receiving the ball - where the next play needs to go.  Whether in the Premiership, La Liga or the World Cup, players at the top level are capable of receiving the ball with a touch that goes into the right space to set up their next play.  Here are three exercises to help you improve the ability of your players to make the proper first touch. Receiving Exercises The holding midfield player has numerous responsibilities. Physical speed is not considered a major factor for players in this position (although it never hurts) as this is, really, a sweeper in front of the back players with little need to make long searching runs.  Defensive midfielders vary in size from the diminutive Deschamps of the 1998 French World Cup Champions to his fellow countryman Viera who, at 6’4” is a giant of a player.  A low center of gravity, helps as this player, generally, does a lot of tackling. Training The Holding Midfield Player When we were in Brazil about three years ago, we witnessed a practice in which the players performed choreographed movements over the length of the field in response to the blowing a whistle by the coach.  The different patterns were regulated by the number of times the coach blew on the whistle.  Hence there was a one whistle pattern, two whistle pattern, three and four whistle patterns.  This was very unusual and we thought it might be of interest for our American coaches trying to instill good movement into their players. Brazilian Four Whistle Drill The shadow play sequences which we teach in our Advanced National Diploma are shown in this series of exercises.  Here we display shadow play for the individual player, group shadow play, team shadow play, and shadow play against partial opposition.  This is a very popular form of functional training but we recommend that the coach does it for no more than fifteen minutes as the players prefer a competitive environment.  Shadow Play Doug Williamson - NEW This training session is designed to work with midfielders and forwards playing together in attack, first in a functional training exercise that can be a warm-up and a way to train technical expertise in passing and receiving for midfielders, and then in a phase play environment teaching midfielders to link up with front-runners in moving from the middle third to the final third of the field. Teaching Game Understanding One of the “oldie but goodie” training exercises that I’ve used over the years is called “Windows,” which can be very effective for technical training in both passing and receiving.  As I run into coaches from around the country who have seen me use this exercise at an NSCAA Coaching Academy, I often hear:  “I still use that Windows training with my team!”  One of the useful parts of the exercise is that a coach can use the same space and take players through a progression of activities from fundamental to game-related and right up to game condition, with increasing levels of challenges and difficulty for technical execution.  Another useful part of the exercise is that coaches can always add “wrinkles,” or modifications, to make the exercise different each time players use it.  So, without further ado, click on the link below to look at one such progression through the exercise “Windows.” Windows