The Purpose of Juggling

From Adrian Parish, Director of Coaching and Player Development, Kentucky Youth Soccer -

Coaches will often request that their players practice and perform juggling skills/exercises during downtime at practice sessions or even ask for them to develop this skill at home. But why is it required of a player to execute such a skill considering it is very rarely, if at all, used in games. Obviously it serves a purpose, and that is not just to help players become more comfortable with the ball by developing their first touch. It also helps develop a players balance and agility; two characteristics that we look for players to posses.

It is required of a top level player to have a good first touch and be comfortable on the ball, especially when under pressure from opponents, with limited time and space. Therefore, coaches must encourage juggling in order to develop touch, because touch translates into being composed in games. With a good touch players will be at ease when bringing the ball under control and holding it against pressure.

Players can also develop a better weight on their passing as well as being able to pass it with more accuracy. This technical skill is developed through juggling activities because players should be able to feel the ball through the shoe, giving them control of their first touch or pass and not the ball dictating what the player does.

Practicing juggling can also help players settle with the ball when it is dropping to them from out of the air. As they improve at juggling they will become more relaxed in bringing the ball down and continuing with it in a natural flow of the game or even shielding it from a defender.

Within today’s US school system it is not a rare occurrence to see physical education classes and activities being removed from the curriculum. Not only is this resulting in children becoming unfit but can result in children struggling with simple tasks such as tumbling, hopping and balancing skills. When you juggle, touching the ball is half of the battle the other is being in control of your body.

We may underestimate the importance of balance in soccer, but with all of the rapid lateral movement that takes place in the game it is something that we can not afford to neglect. If we encourage juggling skills balance will be improved.

When players practice juggling they need to have a relaxed posture, with slightly bent knees and using their arms for balance. During the task a player is likely to lose control of the ball and will stretch out to get that extra touch which could result in the player losing his or her balance. Therefore encourage players to become familiarized with the ball and if they feel they are about to lose control simply let it touch the ground and have them start again. This will allow the player to maintain their balance.

It is amazing that players do not really understand the meaning and purpose of agility and why it is required in soccer. During this past summer I questioned a group of regional level players as to why they needed to be agile as a soccer player. Not one could give me the meaning of agility or why it is important to be agile so they can play soccer.

Agility is a natural partner to balance, but it is being able to keep your balance while performing the skill in motion. Juggling can help players improve their agility especially if they work in pairs or challenge their individual skills by knocking the ball out of their proximity and keeping it under control. If working in pairs players must move after playing the ball off to their partner and prepare to receive the ball back after a set number of touches.

All of these skills may seem like a coach can develop and improve these during the practice time with players, but with juggling players are in control of their own development and can also improve their fitness level while doing something soccer specific. Juggling is mainly an aerobic activity which helps with the development of those muscles such as hip flexors and lower back muscles that if not conditioned properly will tire in games and leave players lacking speed in the later stages of matches.

As coaches you need to keep a variation of juggling activities that will help keep the players motivated. Whether they practice at home in the back yard or at the soccer field, players have to want to improve and must show this desire. Players can work on juggling skills to improve their touch, balance, agility and general fitness and do so at their own rate. It is important for players to have patience while practicing on your juggling skills. They can't expect to become good at juggling in few weeks. This is something that takes time but players that do it on a more consistent basis will obviously reach their goals sooner than those that practice once a week.

When players first start they may only be able to juggle the ball one or two times; the majority will start in a comfort zone by only doing the skill using their thighs. Instead of requesting that players count how many times they can juggle the ball before it drops to the ground, allow them to see how many touches they can accomplish in a set time no matter if it touches the floor or not.

As the players become in harmony with ball and start to master the skill of juggling, you can then challenge them by assigning tasks to accomplish set goals. Such as a set number of touches before the ball hits the ground. Juggle while moving from one place to another or knock the ball high and away slightly so the player has to adjust their position to keep the ball under control as it drops.

Many of you may have seen high level professional players partake in juggling exercise in pairs or small groups. This is a skill you can introduce to your players and teams as they start to become more comfortable so you can continuously focusing and develop the skills behind the purpose of juggling.

Keep encouraging this skill amongst your players and realize it does have a bigger purpose that will help them in the game.

The "Dummy" Run

A dummy run is a run made to try to draw the opponent one to one area while the ball is played to another.

To see an example, look at the diagram below



The player makes a near post run and the ball is played to his feet (or possibly directly behind him) and the runner steps over the ball and lets the ball go through (dummies the ball) to the player making the run behind them.

The "dummy" fakes like they are going to get the ball and this causes the defense to go with him while he is setting up the defense for the player making the run behind.

Dummying the ball requires communication between the two runners (sometimes verbal and othertimes non verbal) or else there is a lost opportunity in the attack.

The dummy run must be done sparingly for it to be effective.

Goalkeepers: Attacking the Ball on Breakaways

Too often, keepers feel they need to get right up to the ball before diving for it on a breakaway. The problem is, this makes the timing extremely difficult because the keeper does not want to dive when the ball is at the attackers feet (if they dive when the ball is at the attackers feet, the attacker can simply touch the ball to the side and beat the keeper) yet the attacker is not going to get so close to the keeper as to allow the keeper to just fall on the ball.

The alternative is to be willing to attack the ball as opposed to falling on the ball.

Rather than trying to get within a yard or two of the attacker and then waiting for the long touch, look to take the touch when the attacker is 10 yards from you (just an example). The way to figure out how far you can actually take off from is to experiment in training. There is no set distance that will always work for all keepers and the distance will be effected by the speed of the oncoming player, your speed and explosiveness, where you are in the penalty box, the surface (a wet surface will allow you to slide further which can be both good and bad) and many other factors. While there is not a set place a keeper should take off from, it's a safe bet that you or your keepers are taking off to close to the ball and have to be willing to explode to attack the ball once you see the bad touch.

PSV players will touch the ball nearly 1 million more times than the American player

By Greg Thompson

This article is a must read written by Gregg Thompson who was a 1984 U.S. Olympian, 1985-86 U.S. National Team (12 caps), and is now a Placer United Coach.

I brought 4 boys from our club to a soccer camp featuring Pepijn Lijinders from PSV Eindhoven, one of the premier developers of youth talent in the world. After the final day of camp, I discussed with him why Europeans are so much more comfortable with the ball than Americans. The answer was simple...touches on the ball. He said at the younger ages, the top American players are fairly even with the European players but as time goes on, the Americans fall further and further behind.

Once I got home, I did some quick calculations on my calculator and Pepijn's point really hit home. I approximated the touches the players received at the soccer camp during Pepijn's 90 minute session and compared them to the number of touches players receive at a "typical" 90 minute soccer practice I see every day of the week.

In 90 minutes, Pepijn's practice consisted of approximately:

• 15 minutes: Individual fast foot work warm up - 900 touches
• 15 minutes: Fast foot work with passive defender - 500 touches
• 20 minutes: 1 vs 1 competition - 400 touches
• 20 minutes: 2 vs 2 competition - 200 touches
• 20 minutes: 3 vs 3 competition - 100 touches
• Total number of touches in 90 minutes = 2,100 touches
  

In 90 minutes, a "typical" practice:

• 15 minutes: Running/stretching without the ball - 0 touches
• 15 minutes: Running around the field with a partner and passing the ball - 150 touches
• 20 minutes: Shooting drill / 2 lines toward a big goal - 125 touches
• 20 minutes: Shooting / Crossing drill...1 player crossing, 2 players attacking goal - 100 touches
• 20 minutes: 7 vs 7 scrimmage - 50 touches
• Total number of touches in 90 minutes = 425 touches
  

Assuming 3 training sessions per week and a 9 month season:

Number of touches per week -

• PSV team: 6,300
• Typical American player: 1,275
  

Number of touches per month -

• PSV team: 25,200
• Typical American player: 5,100
  

Number of touches per season -

• PSV team: 226,800
• Typical American player: 45,900
  

In just 5 years, the PSV player or similarly coached players will touch the ball nearly 1 million more times than the American player. Tough to argue with those numbers!

Granted most coaches don't have the knowledge of a PSV coach; however, if volunteer coaches a the rec/select/competitive levels just focused on touches on the ball, our players would be way ahead. To take a step back and ask our coaches not to worry about drills and to just play games of 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3 and 5 vs 5 at practice with little instruction, there would be a tremendous increase in number of touches and a corresponding increase in player development. The small sided competitions unintentionally/naturally teach the game to the players with little input from coaches.

Coaching in the USA - Are traditional coaching methods appropriate for soccer?

By Rod Thorpe

As an Englishman looking at ‘traditional American sports’, as purveyed on the television, I am immediately struck by the nature of the games and the input of the coaches. Football (gridiron), Baseball, Basketball are all characterized by stoppages, particularly at key stages, at which point the coach can provide direction and advice. Moves, strategies, tactical formations, individual player instructions can all be called by the coach, particular when the game allows substitutes to leave the game and then re-enter. Soccer is not like that – a coach can affect the game at half time, by the introduction of a substitute (but remember once a player is off the field they stay off) and to some small degree by shouts from the sideline or perhaps during an injury stoppage, BUT play is on-going for 45 minutes, a shouted instruction, if heard, can often be misinterpreted.

Simply it leads me to the conclusion that a major role for the coach of soccer, more so than most other games, is to give the players the confidence to recognize patterns of play, to make decisions for themselves, etc. It is my opinion that a coach who is too directive does not allow these qualities to appear. (You will see later that I do not believe the coach as director is the best way to develop players for any sport).

It would be quite wrong to suggest that all coaches of the ‘traditional’ USA sports are didactic (very directing/controlling), there are many documented examples of coaches who seek to develop players more broadly, it is just that the image of the coach often observed, not least by the parent, is the ‘vocal, sometimes emotive, director’. This is important to understand, because should coaches feel it is inappropriate to coach in this very didactic way for most situations, as I do, and fail to explain why they are not quite so active, why they are not telling their child exactly what they are doing wrong and what they should be doing, the parent will view this as a poor learning environment. I will present the case it might be the very opposite.

I would add that I think the attributes of perception and decision making, so important in soccer, take as much time to develop as the technical skills and hence it is the coach of the young player who has a responsibility to develop these aspects as well as the technical.

If like me you hold the opinion that it is our responsibility to ‘empower’ players to learn for themselves as part of the process of developing the whole person (a legacy from my Physical Education Teacher days) traditional coaching methods do not always fit. Interestingly many coaches are now looking at empowering players, not for ethical reasons, but more because they realize that to get great performances we need players who have ‘intrinsic’ motivation (they want to do it for themselves, they are not doing it for the coach, or for money, etc.), who to take responsibility on the field.

If, like the United Kingdom, children are learning their sport in organized sessions run by adults, we should not be surprised that they fail to practice outside these sessions.

I think we are in danger of developing people, player and parent alike, who expect the coach to cause the changes in the player. Sorry it won’t happen. Only the player can make the change – the coach has to be far more aware of how people learn, and match their coaching to the learning challenge. It is interesting to note that to play soccer; all you need is a ball, 3 or 4 friends, a bit of space and something to put down as a goal. Travel in some of the poorer countries of the world i revealing every patch of ground has youngsters playing soccer, with no sophisticated equipment and no coach. I became a reasonable soccer player and I never had a lesson in my life, (I used to practice, shooting, passing, keepie/uppie {juggling} for hours because I loved the game) perhaps if I had had a coach who encouraged this ‘play’ but added some key advice, gave me interesting challenging games and practices, etc, I would have been a great player.

It is often the case, particularly with the talented, that a young player watches a ‘hero’ or a slightly older player do something and immediately copies it – if the coach then steps in using words, breaking the skill down, often the fluidity of the movement just revealed disappears. The role of the coach with this sort of player is to ensure the player can see the role model at the right time (s/he is ready to move to this level – judging readiness is the greatest, perhaps the hardest skill of coaching) and has the facility to practice.

The key here is to encourage learning to occur and this may be by structuring the learning environment and then stepping back. This example illustrates why it is important for coaches to talk to parents – to explain that most people learn best by observational learning and that this does not always mean an ‘obvious demonstration’, it can be incidental by playing with other youngsters who have the skills. Explain why a little game of practice may be structured to include particular children. Good coaching is usually more about structuring a session, than barking out information.

We know that to be good at something you have to do it many times, there is just no chance in a once a week session for significant improvement. Ask all the great soccer players and the vast majority will say they used to practice on their own, or with friends in playful, but purposeful games and activities. It follows that the key issue for the coach is to engender ‘intrinsic motivation’ by providing lots of good fun games and practices that the players can take away and do alone or with a few friends – why not set homework?

Of course the criticism is made, that if we do not get the youngsters practicing the techniques, they will not have the skills to exploit the tactics and so we see sessions with youngsters passing the ball back and forth, dribbling around cones, shooting at targets; isolating the technique. There is nothing particularly wrong with this, unless they stand in queues waiting their turn, but one has to ask if it is fully challenging the perception, decision making and response links. Equally if this formal drill is at the expense of a fun game and the children see it as a chore – the coach is already building up a resistance to practice.

Perhaps more surprisingly people studying the development of these techniques are beginning to realize that a reason the technique does not transfer into the game is that the perception, decision making and response are ‘coupled’ in a more complex way than we thought, and it would seem wise to practice technique in as realistic a situation as possible. Rather than reduce the drill to the simplest form, once the concept of the technique is gained (the general idea of what to do) keep as much of the game in the drill. Of course if you are unsure why not play a modified game in which the particular technique is used. Interestingly, we keep returning to the value of games, not 11 v11, but all forms of games.

I have become convinced over the years that for the beginner coach of children in games like soccer, the key is to gain the confidence to organize a group, check they are safe and provide them with a range of proven games, selected by more experienced coaches. Once the children are playing stand back and watch carefully; first for safety, second for involvement and then start to note how individuals are working, note what they might need. This done, then make the biggest decision a coach ever has to make – shall I stop the activity, can I really do something useful, or if in doubt leave them playing. The advantage of several small sided games going on is that the beginner coach might feel confident to stop one game and help, perhaps the less able with whom the help is obvious. It may be that the talented youngster knows more than the beginner coach, why stop them if they are in purposeful practice.

Over 30 years ago, a number of people at Loughborough University in England, were looking seriously at Games Teaching – noting that traditional methods of teaching games were not motivating children; the talented went unchallenged, the less able found it embarrassing – technical teaching was often aimed at the average child and was always very teacher/coach determined. The whole tactical understanding was neglected, and players were told where to stand, and what to do. The most common comment during the lesson was ‘When are we going to have a Game’. In 1982 two of the staff at the centre of the initiative David Bunker and myself, presented a model for teaching games, which became known as ‘Teaching Games for Understanding’, further developed, with a little help from myself, in Australia as ‘Games Sense’.

Simply put the player always enters a Game – the Game is a well thought out game, suitable for the players level of development. (The younger the child, usually the smaller sided the game, but remember even the senior player enjoys 3v2s, etc. This is not just about giving them any game – each game has clear outcomes – it might be designed say with two goals, near the corners at each end to encourage players to ‘spread the play’ to ‘utilize width’. It could be played in a smaller than usual area to ‘challenge close control’.

The model follows the following pattern:

• Game Form – carefully selected.
• Game Appreciation – check they really understand the purpose.
• Tactical Awareness – thinking about what we might have to do to achieve purpose, based predominantly on understanding space and time.
• Decision Making – What to do and How to do it at any given situation in the game (this may be personally determined {a fast player may push the ball by a player and sprint, a skilled dribbler might commit the player to the tackle and check back}, etc.).
• Skill Execution – always individually assessed, how well did the players do their chosen skill?
• Performance – this is the outcome of the previous elements – recognizing the interconnections.
  

It is important to mention the coaching style that tends to be used in this approach. There is little doubt that the predominant approach is questioning, perhaps most coaches would lean toward ‘Guided Discovery’ – asking questions that lead to a particular determined answer – the coach leads players to discover the answer they determined. In some situations the more open ‘Problem Solving’ style can be interesting, this is setting the situation and seeing what occurs – do not determine the answer.

For those who use questioning already two thoughts;

The tendency is to ask for a verbal response, the more articulate players always give the answer – have you ever tried asking the question and then saying ‘Don’t tell me, go back to your game and show me’

Do you realize that the games set the questions and can challenge technical, tactical, mental and social aspects – can you design games that you merely set up and let the players learn without you? It may be great learning but would players, parents; other coaches accept this as good coaching? We are back at the start of the article – people fail to recognize that the great coach is one who maximizes personal improvement – I think we need to change people’s perceptions.

Training For the Last Five Minutes of a Game

From Lawrence at FineSoccer.com -

Frequently, coaches will design their training sessions so that after a warm up, they do some technical training, then they progress to tactical training (for older ages), and will finish with some form of a scrimmage and then some fitness work.

The problem with this is they are doing fitness work at the end and technical training at the beginning when they are fresh. When they get to the second half of the game, they start to get tired and they lose their technical proficiency. The coaches response is they need to do more fitness at the end of training.

An alternative way at looking at this issue is to do some of the fitness work in the beginning of the training session so that when they are doing their technical (and tactical) training they are already tired so are dealing with the same issues they will be dealing with in a game.

If you can pass, receive, dribble and shoot when you are fresh and unpressured, it doesn't mean you can do the same when you are tired. The only way to be prepared to execute when tired and when under pressure is to train while tired and pressured

This can be accomplished by doing pure fitness work at the beginning of training or, just as effectively (if not more so) doing the training at full speed (the same speed you might play at in a game) realizing you will get tired and have to really focus to execute properly.

The other thing (and what might seem quite obvious to some but few seem to do it) is if you want to do fitness work as part of your training, mix it in throughout the session to help prepare the players for playing while tired.

One of the things we, as coaches, try to accomplish in training is the development of good habits. If we want players to have good habits in a game when they are tired, they need to be developed in their training