The following is drawn from a comment about the development video shown on the Soccer IQ tab. It is about the SSG push in training. What do you think?
Teaching the game in context led to the Small Sided Game (SSG) push. Players learn best when there’s pressure and competitive elements are involved. Skills learned in those situation translate directly to the game. Therefore learning tactics with the associated skills is required.”
Actually, if I understand correctly, (the coach of the team in the development video) is advocating doing EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. Don’t setup a little soccer thought experiment, throw the players in it, and expect them to figure it out. Choreograph exactly how things should go in a game then rehearse exactly that over, and over, and over again until everything is perfect. As a side effect, players do not have to be masters of every possible technique. They just need to be able to execute their role in the choreography. This is in direct contradiction with the “let the game be the teacher” progressive coaching philosophy advocated in the USSF licensing clinics.
I think most club coaches buy into that philosophy. So they pack the players into a tiny area, place them under intense competitive pressure and let them “figure it out.” For example, playing 5v5v5 keep-away in a 10×15 grid. One-touch in a mosh pit. And when the players cannot translate that into a framework for how to play in the game, 50/50 donkey ball results.
If you were preparing a ballet group to perform Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, would you shove all the dancers into a phone booth, play all of the songs simultaneously at full blast and double speed, scream “DO BALLET-ISH STUFF! FIGURE IT OUT!”, and hope that art is a result?
4 comments:
Not to be too demanding on the BLOG MONSTER, but another scenario of "You Call It" would be fun.
I'd try one myself but I don't know how to post images here and it would be too hard to explain without a picture.
Too funny! Is that what soccer coaches really do? It sounds like they take the same approach as a therapist...let the patient figure out the cause of their problems themselves and how to fix it while continuing to bill them over and over for follow up visits. Yes...sounds Crazy!
...saw an average U14 team from a small city in one the southern states. Players were not special, not technically gifted, neither super athletic, but were very tactically efficient beat a super pre Academy team from the midwest. No bunker or or kick ball, just playing simple. Building of the ball with minimal touches.
I talked to the coach and he said all his practices are functional training from the real game. No small sided games (maybe once or twice every 2 month or so). Always have points that he needs to cover, he tells the boys before the practice, some kids get it and start doing it, some needs the progression.
Well if you are talking about the USSF Curriculum...that was put together by Claudio Reyna of NJ.
I think there is good stuff in there. I like the message on style of play. "All teams will be encouraged to display an offensive style of play based on keeping possession and quick movement of the ball." It just kind of falls short in executing the ideas. The training exercises are SSG and do little in the way of tactics development needed to keep possession. It's only a couple years old. That's a start!
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