Soccer Academy & Camps - Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge - FFTW Development
WINTER PROGRAM - WEEK 3
It was great to be back on the pitch again for Week 3 of the Winter Program. Please review the coaching points & comments by your coaches to get additional feedback.
WEEK 3 TOPIC for 5-7 & 8-10 Age Groups - PASSING & RECEIVING + GROUND CONTROL
Coaching Points:
- 5 Stages of Inside Foot Pass
- Use the inside of your foot to control the ball (control the middle of the ball)
- Weight of your touch (are you hitting it too hard or too soft)
- Get away from the defender by accelerating away
- Always on your toes ready to receive the ball even when its not a perfect pass
- Head up to see where your teammate is when passing the ball
WEEK 3 TOPIC for U13 - U15 High Performance Group - PASSING/RECEIVING
Coaching Points:
Three Keys
1. Communication is not an option, make it part of your game
2. Movement/Checking away from defender
- Timing (wait for eye contact and ball out of feet to make your move)
- Whether you are coming or checking away from the ball, you should be moving. Don't remain stationary when receiving the ball.
3. Quality of Pass (Weight and Power)
- How
- Where
- When
Additional Points
- Keeping it game realistic, the speed of your checks and the intensity in which you play
- Speed and sharpness (quick to take the ball in the direction which helps you get away from the defender and then release the ball to your teammate)
- Protect the ball with your body (your body is in between ball/defender)
- Checking your shoulder/head up to see where your next pass is and where the defenders are coming from
COACHES COMMENTS:
5 - 7 Age Group - Coach Mo
It was a good improvement from last week with players starting to understand the core elements of how to play an inside foot pass with the 5 stages. Although there is still work to be done in this area, we have made some really good progress over the past 3 weeks.
A big point for players to remember is for them to keep their ankle locked when taking out a touch as with a floppy ankle, the ball can go over your foot or bounce off your foot with minimal control. The main areas we will continue to work on will be our massing technique and our first touch of being able to control the ball and take the ball in front of us. The more advanced areas include being able to take the ball to the sides which we will continue to enforce over the next few weeks.
8 - 10 Age Group - Coach Mahan
Today was probably the best session we have had from the group in terms of the quality of their touch and their ability to take the ball where they want. We did push the players a little bit more in terms of understanding combinations with 1-2's and where to be after playing the ball. A key component was put on when you play the ball, showing again for a passing lane to receive it again.
When you make a passing lane, remember that you want to be able to see two things (the ball and the player you are receiving from). Speed of course can be better as always but to see the basic elements there was fantastic.
Keep up the great work guys.
U13 - U15 High Performance Group - Coach Ali
Last Saturday was about 3 key areas as noted above - #1 Communication is not an option, it is part of the game, #2 Movement and timing away from your defender and #3 Quality of pass (power and weight + the How, When and Where).
Players started the session a bit slow but did much better by the end of it and we were quite happy with the progress attained. It showed the players are slowly getting their touch back as a lot of the passing we did was 1 touch passing and to keep the consistency going without any mistakes was not easy.
The players deserve credit in this respect but the ball can still move quicker. If we want the players to get to a level where they are reaching a quality of academy player closer to European quality, the ball has to move faster and the touch needs to be cleaner - this will be our next phase we want to achieve.
Other key areas include the quality of our first touch, where we are taking the ball, the type of communication we are giving to each other and also watching the second ball as we had 2 balls going in 1 pattern. The awareness piece was missing but is an area we will get to eventually.
Good work!
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Great job by all the age groups and we look forward to seeing you this weekend.
Next weekend's topic: 1 on 1 Attacking (without defenders)
FFTW Development
Forever Moving Forward