As we’ve seen in every recent international tournament, high-speed attacking soccer is the only way to get an advantage over modern defense systems. An essential component of this offensive strategy is positional play. In this article, Schalke’s U19 coach, Norbert Elgert, and Peter Schreiner of the Institute for Youth Soccer will show you how to train positional attacking with a midfield diamond.

“Ground ball to the far corner!” Goalkeepers always seem to have trouble with this type of shot, so if you make it a regular part of your training program, both your keepers and your shooters will benefit. Comprehensive, realistic technique training and goalkeeper-specific positional play are the main features of these activities.

All players need to understand the importance of team defense tactics. So your first step is to teach them that pressing is a way of defending that requires every player, even the ones farthest away from the ball, to participate. They have to coordinate their movements across the entire field so that the ball carrier has no one to pass to and nowhere to dribble.

Preschoolers are exceptionally curious, with powerful imaginations and a strong urge to play and be active. Their physical skills are just developing, they can’t concentrate for long and they get tired quickly. What does all this mean for coaches at the U4–U6 level? We’ll show you in this article, with guidelines and sample games you can play.

Small-sided games involving multiple goals have become an effective tool for teaching young players to make better decisions on the field. The multitude of choices available to help players solve the problems of the 11 v. 11 game can be easily replicated over and over in the context of small-sided activities.

As coaches, we know two different approaches to teaching skills. First there is the drill-based approach, which takes one piece of the game, practices it and then puts it back in the puzzle. Then there is the games-based approach: Here, technical skills are learned in the context of playing.

We believe we choose the “best” players for our elite soccer programs for all the “right” soccer reasons, but do we really? Generally overlooked in selection is the effect of relative age in the birth year, which leads coaches to choose the oldest players from a given age group. Before we can address this problem, we need to recognize its effect on selection.

For youth soccer players, understanding when, where and why to play quickly is no easy task. This session is designed to address the issue by exposing players to the techniques and tactics involved in creating and executing combination plays and scoring opportunities.

Game formations with two strikers, such as the 4–4–2 or 3–5–2, offer the advantages of more versatile combination play up front and more pressure on the goal. They also make it easier to launch attacks up the middle. However, this style of play is only effective with forwards who have received the necessary training in tactics and technique.

By now, 1. FC Köln’s U15 players have 42 weeks of intensive training under their belts: nine weeks at the start of the season, nine more after fall break, 11 after Christmas break and 13 between Easter break and summer. With the hardest part of the season now behind them, it’s time for coaches Marcus Kühn and Martin Bülles to dial down the intensity and switch over to something more fun: motivational training.

Sure, the old season may not be over yet, but in just a few weeks you’ll be planning your next preseason, and that’s where this article will come in handy, with tips, guidelines and exercises for play-oriented endurance training that will leave your players tired out but not wiped out.

Like many other teams, 1. FC Köln’s U15 players spend the winter practicing indoors. During this time they compete in a total of three indoor tournaments, including the unofficial German indoor championships in Detmold, where they are currently the reigning champions. Therefore their training program from December through February focuses on indoor soccer while continuing to emphasize the training objectives from their monthly plans.

Unfortunately, children's training still seems to be a sort of scaled-down adult training in many clubs. Players practice techniques and run through a few tactics; in the most extreme cases they may even do drills on isolated aspects of condition. In this article, Christoph Anrich shows us how closely comprehensive motor training gives us exercises that use jump ropes ans soccer balls to help kids develop agility and build coordination in a playful way.

Unfortunately, children's training still seems to be a sort of scaled-down adult training in many clubs. Players practice techniques and run through a few tactics; in the most extreme cases they may even do drills on isolated aspects of condition. In this article, Christoph Anrich shows us how closely comprehensive motor training gives us exercises that use jump ropes ans soccer balls to help kids develop agility and build coordination in a playful way.

When you win the ball, you should start moving decisively forward right away while the opposition’s defense is still disorganized— that’s one of the fundamental principles of the modern game.
However, it doesn’t just apply to the classical counterattack from your own half; it’s equally important for fast attacks after you win the ball in the midfield. But how do you win the ball in situations where, for example, an inside defender is initiating the attack? In this article, DFB coach Ralf Peter turns three hypothetical game situations into exercises that teach players how to make their opponents lose the ball. Special passing rules are used to steer the opposition’s attack into the desired areas. After the turnover, players should always play the first pass forward and then switch immediately to offense.

“They won most of the 1 v. 1s — we deserved to lose!” That’s a typical explanation for defeats in soccer, where technically and tactically skilled 1 v. 1 play is a prerequisite for success. No matter how fine-tuned your offensive and defensive strategies may be, they’re bound to fail if your players haven’t mastered their individual tactics. The foundation for successful 1 v. 1 play
should be laid in early childhood. Even at an early age, the concepts of “winning the ball” and “protecting the ball” should be a part of any serious training program. But no matter what age and ability level you coach, improving individual tactics is a must!

In this article, the authors present the results of a study on the relationship between jumping and sprinting ability. Their findings,
together with the sample exercises they provide, are a valuable aid to coaches at every age and ability level.

Circuit training - you might remember it from high school or gym class: First, the teacher set up a number of stations handed out scoring sheets and divided everyone into pairs. Then he got out the whistle and stop watch and away you went!
Circuit training is still around , but the stations and activities are a little different this days, as Christoph Anrich shows us. In this two-part series, he transforms the old-fashioned circuit into a modern strength training-program adaptable to any age or ability level.

Is soccer a team sport? Yes, but every player is also an individual athlete who dribbles, sprints, jumps, tackles and shoots. That’s why individual training is so important. At the same time, though, for players to succeed as a team, these individual skills and abilities need to be combined into a tactical approach — a tough balancing act, but it does work.
In this article, Peter Hyballa gives you exercises you can use to make the transition from individual to team training in different technical and tactical areas.

In the pages of Success in Soccer, we often talk about planning according to training concepts and working consistently toward long-term objectives. But how do you create a weekly training schedule? On one hand, you have to think in the long term, but on the other, you also have to talk to the team about what they did right and wrong in their last match, and respond accordingly. And you have to think about the next match too! In this article, Andreas Knetter shows you how to do this mental split and still train your players effectively.

"He's got an incredible understanding of tactics, but he can't teach it." Have you ever heard one of your fellow coaches described this way? How is it possible that someone who instantly sees almost every tactical detail from the sidelines and can produce an expert analysis of any game still struggles with tactics training as a coach?
In this article, Stefan Lottermann lists the qualities a coach must possess or develop in order to teach tactics successfully, and he shows how a coach's individual strengths and inclinations influence his teaching methodology and his personal appeal.

In this article we focus mainly on the (short) passing game as the foundation for combination play. Young players often tend to get 'stuck' in tight spaces where they find it difficult to play passes or combinations - so instead they just whack the ball out. The author presents both simple and complex passing exercises as well as games that can help overcome this weakness.

Training must meet players on their level. For example, we know that U8 training needs to provide a wide variety of physical activities so players can develop basic coordination. But did you know this variety is also necessary because young children can only concentrate on a given task for a short time? Children need mental variety as well as physical variety.
A sports psychologist gives us an overview of mental development and how it affects training at each age level.

In today's soccer, the successful teams are the ones that can act and react with tactical flexibility. That's why Everton FC puts a strong emphasis on training its players to build a solid and versatile attack, from defenders to midfielders to attackers. To achieve successful combination play, first you have to provide proper technical/tactical training in passing, receiving and controlling the ball. The practice games presented in this article are part of the club's complete training program, known as the "Everton Way."

Almost 80 percent of goals at all levels of the game are scored from within 15 yards of the net. The younger the players, the more goals they attempt at close range. Therefore it's important to train good habits early and for life. Most young players miss chances in front of the goal because they hurry their shots, try to blast the ball with power or don't aim properly. Building confidence and accuracy in front of the goal helps young players eliminate these bad habits and provides a solid foundation for the rest of their careers.

In pro soccer these past years, very few teams seemed to enjoy much success from their corner kicks. The reasons are many: poor runs, the lack of a strong header, the pace of the corner kick, the lack of repetitions and even the intensity of the players. At the same time, modern ball-oriented defense formations are making set plays, including corner kicks, more and more important. So why not change your normal schemes and offer your players a chance to get a shot on goal? Two-man corners have been around for years, and the examples provided in this article will lead to some quality chances to score.

Talented youth players are first and foremost good dribblers. Players who can move the ball at high speeds and fake their way past multiple opponents stand out; their ability sets them apart from the rest. Very young players naturally love to dribble, so this age is excellent for learning. As long as coaches let young kids dribble, future spectators will always have new Ronaldinhos and Messis to admire.

It's enough to drive any coach crazy: You practice shooting combinations over and over again, but when game day rolls around, your players don't use them! When you do score, it's more often because of your opponents mistakes or a lucky coincidence than because of the combinations you've practiced.
In this article, the author explains why it really is a good idea to use practiced combinations in match play, and he gives us a set of sample exercises for low-level amateurs.

In the pages of Success in Soccer, our authors have often complained that youth and amateur players spend far too much time running without the ball. Instead, players at these levels should practice exclusively with the ball.
Fortunately, some coaches are getting the message. Michael Kopf has worked for years as an upper-level amateur coach in Austria and Switzerland.
In this article, he presents "intermittent endurance training" a training method that is common in those countries and consists of games and exercises with the ball. The basic principles are similar to those of interval training.

Playing styles in the 2006 World Cup were clearly shaped by the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 European Championship. As a result, many teams have shifted their focus to safety, compact defense and avoiding risks. And with Italy's victory, the team with the best-organized defense took the title once again. Despite this defensive trend, the 2006 World Cup represents a challenge to all coaches: It's time to develop some new ideas for attacking play. We need new tactical solutions to get past good defense formations. So rather than spending too much time on defense, let's move on to the positive offensive trends we've observed.

In this article, Stefan Lottermann shows us how to systematically teach counterattack tactics to the entire team. He also gives us some exercises on an alternative to the counterattack: a sudden acceleration following a positional attack or gradual attack-building. Both alternatives depend on the ability to think ahead, instantly assess game situations and respond appropriately with high game action speed.

The successful wall pass --- especially when played near the opposition's goal --- is one of the highlights of any soccer match. And a good wall pass gives attacking players a powerful advantage. After the pass, the player who had the ball can run past his opponent without it, avoiding a direct 1 v. 1 situation and getting past the defense, even when the attackers are outnumbered by tightly clustered defenders in a tight space.
This article describes and explains the basic elements of the wall pass, including detailed notes on corrections for each exercise.

In this installment of our continuing series on tactics, we are focusing on the possession phase of the game. The object of possessing the ball is to finish. Finishing is without a doubt one of the most difficult topics to teach, due to the difficulty of recreating the intensity of the "game moment" in practice. If we want youth players to be able to practice finishing in suitable learning environments, we must work to ensure that finishing sessions are conducted with game-like intensity.

One of the shortcomings of the American player is the inability to accurately and consistently cross the ball to create good scoring opportunities. Too many players, and their coaches, are satisfied with simply getting the ball into the box. As long as the ball lands inside the penalty area they are fairly content. Part of the reason for this attitude is that many soccer players consider the crossed ball to be a kick rather than a pass.

Pre-season planning can be difficult for many amateur teams. It's hard to get the entire team together, because lots of people go on vacation in the summer; out of 16 to 18 players, two or three are always missing. And then there are the injuries, often the result of training too hard. The pre-season plan presented in this article is designed for a mid-level, professionally oriented amateur team with up to six practice sessions per week. It can also be adapted for lower-level teams simply by deleting some of the sessions. However, these sessions involve a number of concepts related to ball-oriented zone defense, so no matter what level your team is at, you should be introducing this style of defense if you're not practicing it already.

A superb combination on the right wing; the outside forward skillfully penetrates and plays a perfect cross to the center forward, who goes up for the ball and.... And the crowd goes silent. Although the forward got free of his opponent, he headed the ball past the goal. Missed opportunities like these are often due to the technical difficulty of executing the offensive header. In this article, we present criteria for evaluating players' headers, along with technique exercises that can later be incorporated into practice games.

The main focus of this article is what to do when the opposition has the ball. The better organized your team is, the better your chances of gaining possession. By taking the right defensive measures, you can predict your opponents' game. Then you can outnumber them near the ball, put pressure on them and ultimately win the ball.

Now and then you'll hear a commentator say, "The keeper's having trouble controlling the box." If we take this common bit of soccer jargon literally for a moment, we're faced with a question: Is it even possible for a single player to "control" the entire penalty box? The logical answer is: No! But in many cases, the commentators do have a point. So what are they really saying about the keeper in question? In this article, we take a closer look at the concept of "controlling the penalty box" and explain what it actually means. We also provide detailed technique descriptions and sample exercises for overcoming problems in this area.

Let's start by looking at some numbers: In a 4 v. 4 match there are 56 channels of communication on the field. In a 6 v. 6 match there are 132 channels. In an 8 v. 8 match there are 240, and in an 11 v. 11 match there are 462 channels of communication on the field. So why do we still see coaching from the sidelines?

Shooting exercises are fun --- or so we coaches think. So we assign our players the same exercise again and again: Twelve or more field players stand at the center circle with balls. One passes to a player by the penalty box, runs after the ball, receives a back pass on the ground or in the air, and shoots. Then the next player does the same thing. However, there is an alternative: a shooting program that combines technique, condition, motivation and fun!

By the time they reach the U14 level, players should possess a good grounding in technical training as well as individual and small group tactics. With the advent of the 11 v. 11 game, adult standards and formalized rules start to shape players' soccer development. Skill acquisition is reinforced as training demands increase, provoking improvement in mental toughness, concentration and diligence. The U14s are at a critical stage. There is a huge dropout rate in a great many youth sports at the 12- and 13-year-old age bracket. Therefore, practice activities have to be thought out well and constructed in an age-appropriate manner. Take the care as well as the time to understand your craft, so that more quality players are produced by design and more players end up staying in this wonderful game over a longer period of time. In this article, we present useful coaching information, techniques and specific training exercises designed for improving the qualities and characteristics of players in the U14 age group.

More and more teams are using pressing tactics in any third of the field. So, improving your team's ability to quickly change the point of attack is even more important than ever. This is easier said than done. Players must incorporate the technical skills, and in addition to the technical skills, they also need individual, group and team tactical knowledge, combined with the psychological component.

Soccer players all over the world do the same thing when they get on the field, regardless of age or ability level: They shoot the ball at the goal! This shows that shooting is the main reason why the game of soccer is so fascinating, and in fact the whole idea of the game---to shoot goals and to stop shots---underscores the importance of shooting. This is especially true for youth training. In this article, we present a practice session for 8- to 12-year-olds, created with the help of SIS Training Card Set 1.

An appropriate definition of "flexible," in terms of soccer, is "able to adjust to change." Players should be able to apply individual tactics flexibly, adapting their technical and tactical skills to each new situation quickly and correctly. The same tactical flexibility is required for each positional group (defense, midfield and attack) and also for the team as a whole. Therefore tactical flexibility is a crucial aspect of training, and using a modern 4-2-3-1 shape as a basic attacking and defending structure provides a great deal of flexibility.

What is the attraction of soccer? Why do thousands and thousands of spectators flock to the stadiums to support and motivate their favorite teams? Clearly, it all comes down to the basic idea of the game, an idea that never ceases to fascinate: stopping shots and (more importantly) shooting.
But what about those other breathtaking moments that help make soccer so popular? Why are certain moves --- the bicycle kick, hip turn kick, diving header or sideways falling kick --- so fascinating for soccer players, and especially for youth players?

Soccer tennis is a popular training game at every level. It's extremely adaptable, and you can use it to achieve all kinds of training objectives. You can use the net for motivational games, or as a teaching aid in warm-up, technique training, regeneration training or condition training.

It isn't always easy to fulfill the need for youth soccer training that's fun, interesting and playful. Unfortunately, when it comes to putting training programs into practice, all kinds of problems can arise. Practical tips and suggestions that take these problems into account and offer workable solutions are always in demand.

In its second article on the English Academy System, SIS takes a look at English Premier League club Newcastle United's Academy with the help of Director Alan Irvine. Each Academy operates within the guidelines of the Academy system, but each has its own structure and coaching philosophy. Newcastle emphasizes decisive and creative play, especially among its younger players. You must develop quality players before you can expect them to fulfill the demands of your playing system!

Intense situations in front of the goal and (more importantly) successful shots---these are clearly the high points of any match. Safety, precision and versatility are important factors for successful shooting. Young players have to learn and master the basics of technique and tactics if they want to perform like true "goal getters" in front of their opponents' goals. Whatever happens in front of the goal in a match must already be familiar to players from many practice sessions.

Exceptionally talented strikers are expected to score at the rate of at least one goal for every two games played, and the likes of Batistuta, Cole and Ronaldo do just that. The demands of the modern game require forwards to involve themselves in all phases of a team's attacking play, not just goal-scoring.

Match day: The day players, coaches and maybe even fans have been waiting for. Ninety minutes of competition that may determine anything from a place in the league standings to qualification for the World Cup finals. Preparing for success on the field takes more than just talent and a good game plan. Diligent and careful preparation for players and coaches is the key to achieving the desired result.