Dribble! Shoot! Ahh, you kicked it over the bar The art of coaching is rooted in the quest to develop independent thinkers. If we do our job as developers and trainers, we can sit back on game day and hope to enjoy our players interpreting tactical challenges and striving to make sensible choices. Over time, we can expect their decision-making to become quicker and more acute, and their application of technique to become more precise. It s a long, slow journey from beginner to competent to elite, from curious to passionate; and often, with young players, it is emotionally necessary to simply celebrate a good decision or reaction undone by poor technique or a slow response, or by the play of an older or more capable opponent. Because youth soccer is characterized by a high tactical failure rate, what a young player does in response to a turnover generally becomes more important that what they have just failed to accomplish. A Coaching Binary Observed as a binary, there are two types of youth coaches. There are those who can help players improve their performance, defined as helping players make better decisions in the quest to grow towards the ideal of top-level professional soccer; and there are those who can help players win games by eliminating unnecessary risks. The former, the long-term thinker, is more likely to be holistically inclined, engage players in their own learning, and be inspired by player-growth; the latter, often the high-energy motivator, is more likely to be team-centered, dictatorial, driven by today s outcome, and cringeworthy in their appreciation of youth motivations for competing in sport. Coach Cringeworthy, the master of, Dribble! Shoot! Ahh, you kicked it over the bar! is the antithesis of the artful, caring teacher Coach Cringeworthy understands very little about nurturing the emotional bond between a player and the sport. Coach Cringeworthy pulls the strings, often without appreciating the context of the game. Coach Cringeworthy comments on the correctness of choices. Coach Cringeworthy draws attention to mistakes. Coach Cringeworthy provides correct solutions after turnovers or poor choices. Coach Cringeworthy provides redundant information ( Ahh, you kicked it over the bar ). Coach Cringeworthy is often sarcastic and sometimes verbally abusive. Coach Cringeworthy often bates referees. Coach Cringeworthy only celebrates in victory. The enjoyment of playing sport is to experience a sense of control. To make choices. To interpret tactical situations. To take risks. To fail and try again. To enjoy today. To play free of condemnation and judgement. To sense progress. To learn. To feel support. To participate fully. To laugh and have fun. To celebrate small successes. To enjoy teammates and coaches. To learn to respect opponents. To want to rush to the next game or practice. To dream. Coaching Helping players improve is not easy and guiding players towards learning requires an underlying knowledge of how the game of soccer actually works. Imagine trying to fix a car without understanding what or where the engine parts are, or how they function; or making an assessment of a person s health status on the basis of their mood.
Being a positive coach who can also maximize individual player potential requires a detailed knowledge of soccer, which does not come automatically from playing any more than being a driver makes one a car mechanic. Tactical Cues Guiding players towards better decision-making first requires that the coach understands who they are coaching and what they are guiding learning towards. This process directly couples the coach s knowledge and experience with their vision of how they think the game should be played. Helping players recognize and process the game s tactical information, its tactical cues, is the key to linking decision-making (what players see) with effective player actions (what players do). For example, players who have developed a basic comfort level with the ball can be helped to play faster by improving their situational awareness what they perceive about the game before the ball arrives. If they are not aware of the position and movement of players around them before they come into possession, they may take up poor supporting positions, control the ball inefficiently, turn into trouble, miss opportunities to shoot or play early forward passes or run with the ball, or generally take too many touches. Improving body shape and field vision prior to receiving the ball provides the conditions for improving situational awareness. Because players who look around them before the ball arrives are more aware of their immediate situation, the game s tactical cues, they can learn to be better in possession and ultimately play more effectively. Improving pre-control vision should therefore be regarded as one of the most important tactical lessons a youth coach can expect to teach. For the youngest players, the first important tactical cues often relate to the objective of the game: to score more goals than the opponent in the time allowed. Given this context, the best action a player can take is to score a goal. Naturally, it follows that the second-best action is to pass the ball to a teammate who can score a goal. If neither of these actions is possible, either the ball is too far from the goal or there are too many opponents between the ball and the goal. In these situations, the decision-making hierarchy relates to actions that either move the ball closer to the goal (penetration); or that circulate the ball to lesscongested areas of the field (possession) in order to go forward. It is worth noting that, within this tactical model, kicking the ball away is only regarded as acceptable when a young player panics and, in itself, this response provides valuable psychological information about a player as the coach seeks to build confidence and trust and improved tactical awareness; a process that will take some time. The Socratic Method The Greek philosopher Socrates is associated with a teaching method based on the use of questions and answers to lead learners towards better understanding. It is a process-oriented methodology that situates the player as the key decision-maker.
Expert coaches develop their craft over decades and are constantly adapting their understanding to new research and their own experiences. To use the Socratic Method effectively requires coaches to build content knowledge in three inter-connected areas: 1) how the game works; 2) the age, experience and motivation of their players; and 3) the ability to effectively teach to the level of their immediate audience. Exploring a practical example, many young players don t look to shoot the ball when they are in range of the goal. Coach Cringeworthy would simply tell them what to do, Mia, shoot! while the Socraticminded coach would take the time to help shape the thinking of the players through a connected series of guided questions which will establish the foundation for on-going coach-player communication. Underlying the following exchange is the coach s suspicion / appreciation that the players might not understand the main objective of the game. Coach: Girls, how do we win the game? Response: Pass the ball (Mia)? Dribble the ball (Shaquira)? Keep the ball (Maria)? Score goals (Jane)? Coach: Do we win the game by making passes or by dribbling or by keeping the ball? Response: No. Coach: So, when the game ends, how do we know who has won? Response: The team with more goals? Coach: Good, so what is the objective of the game? Response: To score more goals than the other team? Coach: Yes, good, and well done, Jane then what s the absolute best thing any player can ever do with the ball when they have it? Response: Score a goal? Coach: Excellent.. and what if you have open space between you and the goal and you have time to get your head up and look. What do you think the game is telling you at that moment? Response: Shoot at the goal? / Dribble towards the goal? Coach: Good answers again. and when do you think dribbling might be the best thing to do? Response: If we are too far from the goal to shoot? Coach: And if you are close to the goal? Response: Look to shoot?
Coach: Excellent again.. OK.. one last thing.. if there are lots of opponents between you and the goal and you can see a teammate in a good position to score, do you think shooting, dribbling or passing would give our team the best chance to score a goal? Response: Passing? Coach: Yes! OK.. let s go play again and see if we can find some of these moments. Theory needs Practice The most important and challenging part of the guided discovery process is the coach s ability to connect theory and practice during live play. Many players will give, or be led to, the right answers through guided discovery, but will subsequently fail to demonstrate learning on the field. This is an important observation for the coach and one that should be anticipated. More-often-than-not, players will require help in associating the practical match situations the tactical cues with the logic behind the guided questions. Guiding discovery requires knowledge and skill. The coach must first have a sense of what they want the game to look like during each phase (moment) of play (attacking / defending / transition to attacking or defending) and how that vision translates to individual player actions within a group or team context. Second, the coach must have the skill to create realistic training environments and possess the knowledge and experience to relate specific game situations with well-worded guided questions. For example, when playing out from the back, the goalkeeper must assess whether the best option is to shoot, or play to the forward line, the midfield line, or the back line; or to pass to players in the middle or the side of the field. For cringeworthy coaches who demand that their goalkeepers only punt the ball (or kick it downfield), the connection is straight-forward the tactical cue for a punt is that the goalkeeper has possession of the ball. But what if the defending team has dropped off to the half-way line and is conceding the entire half to the attacking team? At the very least, the attacking team will recognize that the tactical cue suggests that they move to the area of the field where the ball is likely to land. Crude tactics, yes, but tactically sound for a punting situation. For the more constructive coach, building out from the back first requires the tactical cue of space around the player receiving the ball. If the opponent has dropped off, the tactical cue is clear, and the goalkeeper can play any open teammate.
But what if the opponent is defending higher up the field? Building out from the back safely generally requires the attacking team to have more players than the defending team. In the simplified situation shown here, the goalkeeper has two choices the right or left defender. The position and movement of the opposing striker provides the tactical cue for the goalkeeper and the center backs, who must move to spaces that maximize their 3v1 advantage. With the more realistic training organization shown here (5v5 on a 50x30 yard field), the additional teammates provide the goalkeeper with the options to play into midfield or directly to the striker. Here, the white team is defending the middle of the field and has two players in the back, suggesting the pass to the forward is the least likely solution. Given the available tactical cues, the goalkeeper s safest option will be a pass to the left defender.
In this tactical situation, the white team is defending with two forwards and leaving open space in the middle of the field. This new situation provides space for the goalkeeper to dribble forward and pass to either the forward or the midfielder. Given the logic that forward passes are tactically better, the pass to the forward would be considered the best choice as three opponents (and two lines) would have been played out of the game with one pass. If the players fail to experience some measure of success in this 5v5 organization, the skills of the coach will determine the chances of any meaningful learning occurring. These coaching skills will include spending more time engaged in guided discovery to learn what the players are not processing and, as necessary, the creation of more simplified training organizations, such as the activity below (4v4 on a 36x25 yard field), which eliminates the midfielder and includes the requirements that a) the ball must be passed over half, and b) all three field players cannot be in the same half together.
The Socratic-minded coach will systematically work through this tactical teambuilding process by developing step-by-step lines of questions for each tactical situation, which, even in a 5v5 game, might range from playing through the midfield, to playing with back to goal, to combining with the striker, to pressing, to counter-attacking, to using the goalkeeper to circulate the ball, to playing the weak side defender, to balancing the defensive line, to utilizing offside tactics in the back and front. These coaching scripts, start with the basic roles of the players and move to highlighting the tactical cues associated with the training goal. In the example relating to playing out of the back with the goalkeeper in possession, the script might include the following lines of questions for the 5v5 organization shown above To the defenders Where can you move to be open for a pass from the goalkeeper? Show me Do you think it is easier for the defender to close you down when you are closer to the goalkeeper or closer to the sideline? Show me Do you think you will have more or less time to control the ball when you are closer to the goal line or closer to the half-way line? Show me If you are in a good position to help the goalkeeper, and the opponent moves close to you, what space have you just opened up for the goalkeeper to use? To the forward If you are playing at the front of the team and the goalkeeper has the ball, where can you move to open up as much space as possible between the back and the front of the team?
Show me Do you think it helps or hurts our team if you and the midfielder are both moving to the ball at the same time when we are trying to build out of the back? Can you think how the movement of the midfielder might tell you when it s your turn to move back into the midfield when we are trying to build out of the back? To the midfielder.. Where can you move to create a diamond shape between the goalkeeper and the two defenders? Show me If there is a defender very close to you, do you think that might be a time to stay where you are or move away from the ball? If the ball is played directly from the back (goalkeeper or defender) to the striker, what do you think you might do next? If you have moved away from the ball and the striker comes back to help us get out of the back, what do you think your new position becomes? These questions begin to establish the individual roles of each of five players during just one tactical situation and the reader should appreciate that the intended outcome is not to dictate player-decisions in possession, per se, but rather, to provide a structural framework that gives shape to the team and offers the possibility of building positional relationships within and between the three lines. One final point. Games with two even teams played to two goals with goalkeepers are generally harder to manage but more fun for the players. These games are highly efficient because they provide the opportunity for both coach and players to develop and reinforce team-specific habits on both sides of the ball (attacking and defending) BUT. specific training goals can get lost when there are lots of moving parts and the coach must have the eye to monitor the position and movements of between ten (5v5) and twenty-two (11v11) players during each phase (moment) of play. Coaching Phrases / Language Efficiency Guiding discovery can be time consuming, and Socratic-minded coaches must balance the desire to improve soccer IQ with the need to maintain good training flow. To achieve this balance, developing an efficient and common language within the team is essential. Dribble! Shoot! Ahh, you kicked it over the bar There are at least two problems with Coach Cringeworthy instructing players to Dribble! and Shoot! First, the decision-making has been taken away from the player; and second, the coaching information is being provided while the player is actively participating. Neither can be considered consistent with a player-centered philosophy.
Terms such as, Step up! Drop! Squeeze! Slide over! Let s play quicker! Together! Fewer touches! are all examples of common soccer vocabulary that, in theory, serve as efficient reminders of tactics and playing themes that have been established during training sessions and previous games. Note that none of these phrases relate to specific player-actions with a player in possession. For players, the challenges begin when there are no common or consistent links between the coach s verbiage, the game s tactical cues, and the messages relayed in training. Does Step up! refer to a defending or attacking tactic? When does the team step up? How far? Which player(s) organizes the movement? What are the individual roles and responsibilities? What happens if and when possession is regained or lost? Simply, the more closely training situations mirror game situations, the more likely it is that players will build habits and transfer their training experiences to their match experiences. When there is a disconnect, cringeworthy coaches can often be heard compensating by over-coaching from the sidelines. Taking Drop! as a further example, this term might refer to collective defending when the opponent has clear possession in their defensive half or third; or it might relate to a striker who has decided to press alone; or it might refer to the depth of the back line when the team is in positive transition and not creating enough space (time) to relieve pressure and circulate the ball. Once the coach has engaged the players in understanding the tactical cues of the situation, perhaps during live play or a freeze moment or a chalk talk or a break in training, or all of the above, the verbiage can shift towards developing common and simple phrases that connect theory (tactical cues) to practice (player actions). For more experienced players, the following coach-player exchange relates the term Drop with the tactic of creating space via the back line following a positive turn-over in the midfield area. Guys, when we win the ball in this part of the midfield and we can t go forward, where is the most open space on the field? In our own half. Good and what does that mean for us as a team if we can t go forward and want to open up and circulate the ball? The back line needs to drop off. Yes, so what does that look like for you two (center backs)? Show me where you might move to if we just won the ball in this area. And what does that mean for your positions relative to each other (center backs)? And what if we win the ball on one side or the other? Other than the goalkeeper, who is probably the most open player on the field at that moment? The opposite side fullback. Good.. So what does that mean for you two (outside backs) if the ball is played backwards, but on the other side of the field? Make sure you are moving to spaces where you can receive the ball without being closed down. Good!
OK last thought when we have opportunities to drop off and circulate the ball away from traffic, which players are probably best positioned to take charge of that? Yes, the two of you (center backs). Good.. OK.. So when we hear Drop from Tricky or Dicky, what does that mean we are looking to do as a team at that moment? Pass the ball backwards and look to circulate the ball. Great! Let s go play again and see how we do. Invariably, and over time, improved learning leads to further discussion as the next layer of detail becomes timely. Same situation, same process, same players, more depth. The Socratic Coaching Model The process outlined in this article is summarized in the Socratic Coaching Model below. Step 1 Engage Players in Practical Experience Step 2 HIghlight a Problematic Tactical Situation Step 3 Highlight Missed Tactical Cues Step 4 Engage Player(s) in Guided Discovery Step 5 Re-Engage Players in Practical Experience Step 6 Link Guided Discovery to Verbal Shortcuts Step 1 Begin with active involvement. Because human nature makes us more likely to pay attention to detail when we are motivated, but unsuccessful, organizing contextually relevant activities that create the opportunity for failure provides the coach with a learning environment that should provoke attention from motivated players. Step 2 Draw attention to the training goal. The pre-selected tactical situation is the training goal and should be highlighted either before the training begins or as it emerges from the main activity. Through ongoing observation, the coach will have identified learning opportunities a) for individual players, such as the striker playing with back to goal; b) for the group of players as a whole, such as young players taking too many touches / playing without purpose; c) for individual lines, such as the forwards starting positions during the opponent s build-up; d) for parts of individual lines, such as the weak-side midfielders staying too wide to defend effectively in transition; e) for the integration of lines, such as defending on the flanks; or f) for team issues, such as pressing at recognizable moments. By systematically assessing player-needs and motivations (age, level, etc.,), daily, monthly and seasonal training goals will become much more relevant to individuals and groups of individuals. This information provides the basis for curriculum development.
Step 3 Highlight the why. In conjunction with the tactical moment, the coach must help the players understand why they do the things they do. This connects the tactical situation with the tactical cues. Why are players having trouble gaining or maintaining possession when playing with their back to goal? Why do players pass to the opponent or dribble into trouble when pressured? Why is the back line disconnected from the midfield line when defending higher up the field? Why do players mis-control the ball when it arrives from a distance? Why is a player constantly offside? Why does the central midfield have a duplication of roles during the build-up? Etc., etc., Determining the why is critical to the guided discovery process, because it establishes the end point of the discussion. For example, is the challenge of playing with back to goal related to creating space? To Timing? To body position and pre-control vision? To shielding the ball from the defender? To the first touch? To the mechanics of using the controlling surface(s)? To awareness of supporting players? The coach must first determine the problem and then prioritize the process, particularly with lessexperienced players. The subtleties of playing with back to goal, for example, will be lost on a 9-yearold, who may simply need to appreciate that there are times when moving the ball towards the opponent s goal may first require that they move back towards their own goal. Relating to this process of prioritization, a typical continuum of soccer evolution is shown below, with the general age of the players linked to developmental stage and the associated game forms. General Age Developmental Stage Associated Game Forms 6 and under Playing with the Ball 1v1, 2v2 8 and under Playing Around the Ball 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 5v5 10 and under Playing Away from the Ball 5v5, 6v6, 7v7 11 and older Team Development 8v8, 9v9, 10v10, 11v11 Coaches must understand who they are working with, what the players motivations and capabilities are, and how that information impacts curriculum choices, training session construction, and coaching. Every player is a unique individual and every group of players is influenced by their environment. Some 8-year-olds play like they are 12; some 12-year-olds play like they are eight! Step 4 Help the players understand. Stripped to its foundation, the coaching process builds teams individual by individual. At the youngest level, there is no team; at the highest level, specific players need specific information about how they should think about their role during specific moments in the game. Coaches who can successfully work across the span of this continuum demonstrate a daunting range of experience and skills. For most, there is a sweet spot where the abilities of the coach meet the needs of the players. Step 5 Practice and check for understanding. Teaching is not learning. Teaching is what the coach does to influence learning, while learning is demonstrated by consistent changes in player-performance in realistic soccer situations.
In the 5 th step, the coach must return to Step 1 to observe the players to check for improved (improving) understanding. Move Forward-Move Back? If the players demonstrate positive changes in awareness, the coach can look to introduce verbal shortcuts to reinforce the tactical cues underlying the guided discovery exchanges. Conversely, if there is little or no glimmer of progress, the coach must re-engage the player(s) in guided discovery, paint better pictures through simplified demonstrations, use more direct coaching methods, or look to moderate the complexity of the practice organization. Step 6 Establish verbal shortcuts and continue to check for understanding. Players come to practice to have fun and get better. While having fun through active participation is more important to the casual participant, getting better is an important element of having fun for the more motivated youth player. Balancing the coach s desire to teach against the players desire to learn through active participation (play) relates to the concept of flow management. Specifically, players should actively participate for a minimum of 70% of the training time; a measurable goal which relates to everything from the initial welcome activity, to the transition between activities, to the ratio of balls to players, to the rotation of players, to the volume and efficiency of the coach s language. Establishing language shortcuts as an extension of the Socratic Method maximizes flow and the coach who can effectively link game situations with tactical cues with anticipated player actions with verbal shortcuts will maximize active participation. In Closing The experienced Socratic-minded coach will have developed the skills to assess players soccer age against chronological age and design training activities and guided discovery scripts that constantly seek to raise the bar on individual performance. Over time, the decision-making of the players will naturally become more closely aligned with the vision of the coach. No vision, no structure, no consistency, no discernable style!