My son's team has had a few scrimmages and they have had a hard time passing the ball out of the backfield. The coach does offer some pointers here and there during practice but I would think that they would focus on it more given how often we have to do it and our lack of success with it. As a good parent (and still learning the game myself), I don't say anything but was wondering what are other teams doing to practice building out of the back specifically? I've seen a little of the 3four3 stuff and it looks good but just seeing if there is any other advice/viewpoints out there.
How does your team practice building out of the back?
- Thread starter WillJohn
- Start date
On our team: 1. keepers are discouraged from punting if they have an open man...to throw it or roll it to a defender who then is supposed to (preferably) pass it up...coach discourages AYSO kickball, 2. the "advanced star" in which the 7th kid in the obstacle course needs to pass it to the next kid who dribbles who then passes it to the next kid and only the last person in the line gets to shoot, 3. short sided 3 v. 3s where objective is for keeper to pass out to the defender to pass out to the third out of the back 1/2 of the pitch. Building up the back is pretty important to the coaches on our club...they do other things my DS tells me on this but it's hard to make out and I'm rarely at practices...but that's what I can make out from what he tells me.
Dos Equis
GOLD
You can create elaborate drills, institute new rules like a "build out line" across the middle of the field, prohibit punts, there is a menu of ways to change the game to try to encourage it.
Or you can make sure your keeper knows how to play soccer -- trap/receive the ball with their feet comfortably, turn into space, and pass. And then teach every player to look over their shoulder before they receive the ball, play the way they are facing if they are under pressure, play away from pressure, and give the player in posession options. In other words, no gimmicks, teach them how to play soccer, and playing back to the keeper becomes natural.
This is exactly why we are so behind in this country. We look for the shortcuts, and ignore the obvious.
Or you can make sure your keeper knows how to play soccer -- trap/receive the ball with their feet comfortably, turn into space, and pass. And then teach every player to look over their shoulder before they receive the ball, play the way they are facing if they are under pressure, play away from pressure, and give the player in posession options. In other words, no gimmicks, teach them how to play soccer, and playing back to the keeper becomes natural.
This is exactly why we are so behind in this country. We look for the shortcuts, and ignore the obvious.
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
What age? This sounds cliche, but it really starts with the basics. Look at development in this order:
If the kids play in an extra futsal league have them consciously work on passing and possession during the game. No shots until, say, 10 passes in a row completed.
- Develop sound ball skills (Coerver drills)
- Simple passing/trapping (sounds basic, but kids don't work on this enough)
- Small sided keep away (3v1, 4v1)
- Large sided keep away (5v2, 6v2)...start with unlimited touches/bigger space and eventually progress to 1-touch/tight space
If the kids play in an extra futsal league have them consciously work on passing and possession during the game. No shots until, say, 10 passes in a row completed.
The most important part of learning to play out of the back or play possession soccer is to have a good first touch with the ball. It's much easier to play the "smart" or "easy" pass when you are able to trap a ball at your feet with one touch and be ready to play it with the next touch. If your first touch is a donk and you need 3 or 4 more touches to get the ball "ready", it's hard to play with your head up and look for the open player. I'm dealing with this with my team right now. About 50% of them seem to "get it" and try to look to connect. The other 50% panic and boot the ball without any clue where they are putting it.
Then you have parents who clap and cheer when a kid launches a ball from inside their own 18 across midfield to an unpressured center back from the other team.
Then you have parents who clap and cheer when a kid launches a ball from inside their own 18 across midfield to an unpressured center back from the other team.
Supermodel56
SILVER ELITE
For us it wasn't easy either - it really begins with players who have good solid foot skills, confidence on the ball, and a good first touch. If you don't have that, your players are going to panic and either lose the ball to an opponent or just punt it away/kick it out of bounds.
After that, I'd say a lot of choreography, being aware of where you're supposed to be and when, where your teammates are, and how you can support. practice playing from the keeper and getting wide so your keeper or center defender has lanes to choose from - spread out the defense.
Practice through balls so players know to look for the passing lanes as well as receiving players being able to receive on the positive foot.
Then practice this with pressure... start with two opponents, then three, four, etc...
After that, I'd say a lot of choreography, being aware of where you're supposed to be and when, where your teammates are, and how you can support. practice playing from the keeper and getting wide so your keeper or center defender has lanes to choose from - spread out the defense.
Practice through balls so players know to look for the passing lanes as well as receiving players being able to receive on the positive foot.
Then practice this with pressure... start with two opponents, then three, four, etc...
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
I have no idea what this means...
SuperNatural
SILVER ELITE
I'm sorry but this is encouraged in Arsenal FC, and may I add one of the most if not expensive clubs out there.
It's hard to to come by good coaching and seriousness about the sport.
I reffed a U8 regular AYSO game. Funniest game I saw was when keeper A grabbed hold of a ball and punted into the back third of team B. Keeper B rushed out and picked it up and then punted it back. Went back and forth five times that way. Since there wasn't an offside rule, coach B finally figured out to stand all his players around keeper A. Technically it was cherry picking but cherry picking was in the refs discretion. Considering the situation was getting a bit ridiculous I allowed it. Easy goal. After much screaming about "cherry picking", coaches adapted and had the goalkeepers kick it out. Degenerated into the most boring game ever with kids constantly kicking the ball out.
Didn't the same thing happen at a tournament this summer? I think it was surf cup when they had younger teams on really small fields.
Supermodel56
SILVER ELITE
I think that was when they first started the smaller fields and not many teams had started playing out of the back yet. In fact, in Presidio at the youngers, I don't believe they played out of the back the entire season - all punting.
Is cherry picking illegal in AYSO?
Some regions have a cherry picking rule for ULittles before the offside rules come into effect. In our region, for U7 and U8, cherry picking can be called at ref's discretion. It's to stop a team from parking a forward in front of the goal the entire game. Coaches are told not to do it.
U6s in our region have a no goaltend rule. But teams started to park a defender as a goalie. So they created an arc kids couldn't enter. But then coaches started to park a few defenders just outside the arc in a wall.
Why not just teach them soccer?
chargerfan
GOLD
Because then they may not win every game
You'd have to teach the coaches first. The one dad coach that invented the wall in front of the arc seemed to know football....kept calling it the line of scrimmage.
Both sons were fortunate in AYSO that they got good coaches (I coached one year too but one year was enough). YS's last AYSO coach was really great for development and we requested him even though he wasn't the best tactician and he didn't have a history of winning games (I worked with him as an assistant)...a bad draw of players (including 2 which kept trying to do hit and miss kickball) meant our team only had 1 tie and all losses for a season with DS responsible for more than 1/2 of the goals. I've seen some bad club coaches already too, which is why I'm happy with our current team even though we declined a higher ranking squad and declined to renew on EXTRAs.
Supermodel56
SILVER ELITE
Because they're parent coaches and don't know how. I coached my DD's rec team against another team where the idiot parent-coach did that - they were 5 years old and he parked 2-3 players (the least skilled/experienced) on the arc the entire game and instructed them to just kick the ball out of bounds anytime the ball came near the goal. Throughout the game those girls kept asking him if they could go play and he said "No." We still won. Many of our girls are playing in fairly strong clubs on their A teams now. His players have either stopped playing or can barely make the B teams at mid level local clubs now - it's too bad because some of them had potential and were great kids. This isn't to say I was a good coach - I knew nothing about soccer and played only one season as a kid growing up - the only thing I probably did right was to give all the kiddos a chance and worry less about giving up goals at that age but try to use skills to win the ball and build that confidence - make it fun so they fall in love with the game...
What amazes me is that as club parents, we often think how crazy competitive soccer is but if you look at how the rec leagues are - I feel like that's actually where things really tend to get out of hand - parent coaches with ego issues coaching kids to win at all costs, teaching bad habits, no club policies on parents not coaching/yelling from the sidelines, etc... Those parents don't have kids who put in 2-4 days a week of hard work to become better players - it's just weekend entertainment. Not to say all parent coaches are bad - there are some really good ones - but you more frequently run into the other ones who have no idea what they're doing.
It gets worse in EXTRAs and All Stars because even though the coaching knowledge goes up, they don't care about development because the team is only technically together for a year (though some do stay together and even transfer to club). Plus, now medals get on the line.
One dad's rec confession:
https://sports.good.is/features/geek-dad-soccer
Correct. Due to the postage stamp sized fields it deteriorated to keepers scoring on punts and shot attempts on just about every kickoff. Credit to TFA for playing the game the right way despite the winning antics of the other teams.