FineSoccer Drill 95

Here is an interesting alternative to traditional shadow training (for more on shadow training, please go to http://finesoccer.com/soccer_edition_54.htm).

Instead of having 11 players on the field for shadow training, put your whole team (could be as many as 22 players) on the field at one time.  Put your starters in one color (blue) and the second team in a different color (red).  They are all on the same team going the same direction so there will be two right backs, two left backs etc.  The ball starts with a keeper and everyone moves into what they THINK is the proper position.  Now there is some pressure on each player to get to the proper position as quickly as possible in order to beat the other player in the position to the spot.  The ball can be played to any of the players.  Real quickly, you will see players moving quickly to spots because otherwise they will very rarely get the ball.

This activity gets interesting when you see two players playing the same position making completely different runs in the same situation.  This is when you, as a coach, should consider stopping play and finding out what each of the players is thinking (the key here is to not assume that one is right and one is wrong but rather for them to use these opportunities for each to learn different options that are available and the thoughts behind each of the options.

From a coaching standpoint, it's extremely important to be open minded in your thinking because you will see things that you had NOT anticipated and you can't jump to the assumption that it's wrong since it's not what you had thought of.  It's also important for a coach to know when to stop things and when to let things go because if you stop them too often, you will lose the focus of your players.

If you have enough players, you can also add defenders to this activity to force the attacking players to make decisions based on defenders positioning.  The only problem with this is that not many teams have enough players to do this.  If you can combine two teams to work on this, it's definitely worthwhile.  You do NOT have to have 22 players on the field either.  You might just decide to have your midfielders and forwards doubled up or really, it could be any position that you want to emphasize. 

Give this a try and let me know what you think on the FineSoccer Forum

Have a great day!

Lawrence