Attacking Soccer- Maintaing Team Possession

Some skills you should practice to maintain your possession is increase the teams overall ability to retain possession. Also improve individual ability to keep possession in passing, identify and categorize players based on their possession abilities. Lastly, use these skills through competition and measure results.

There are two main plays you can use to practice maintaining possession. One of them is the 5v2 Divisions. For the best results of this play, the passes must be crisp, firm, and rolling on the ground. Also short support is critical with an open body position to receive and play quickly.

Another play is the 3v3+1 Playmaker. Some key points to go with this play is that the playmaker must stay fully engaged and active. Also the playmaker must create a good angle of support and angles to play into.

Question: Out of the two, which would you think would be the most effective when maintaining possession?

Attacking Soccer- Goalies

The goalie position isn't probably the first position you think when you sign up for soccer. You want to be involved with the action and be on the field. But the goalie position is just as important as the other positions. Why is this so? Well they prevent the opposing team to score and they put themselves in risk with balls flying towards them at top speeds. If they didn't do their jobs, your team may not have a chance of winning.

Now if you are thinking of choosing this position, there are a few things you have want to keep in mind.

1. When practicing, you should have the players shoot from both sides so you can build technique for both sides and not just one side.

2. You should have the ability to distribute with the hands quickly, accurately, and over distance. Top keepers make a save and quick distribute to a teammate to begin a counterattack.

3. Foot movement is just as important as hand movement. Footwork skills include long and accurate goal kicks, punts, dropkicks, and the popular side volley kicks and of the course the ability to receive balls, make good player decisions and connect passes in and around the keeper's defensive third or when needed, up field.

With this information, you know that the goalie position isn't as boring as you think. They don't just stand there the whole time, they get a lot of training and you need to have specific skills to be a goalie. 

Question: After reading this blog, would you think of being a goalie? If not, why?

Attacking Soccer- Passing tips

Passing is the one of the most important parts of soccer. It's simple but it's difficult skill to master, there are three main tips that can help you accomplish this task.

Vision

If you know where you are passing, its more efficient. Vision can help you find open players on your team to pass to and it gives you the ability to know what is happening on the field at all times. It can improve your technique, which is a ability you need to get out of tough situations.

Pass Often

When you are in a game, it is good to pass the ball often so the opposing team doesn't have more time to think of a way to get the ball back. Passing often can also get the ball
down the field faster and more effectively than just keeping the ball to yourself and attempting to get the ball all the way down the field. Going along with passing often, you should also pass fast because it will give less time for the opposing team to mark you and your teammates.

Through Passing

Using this pass can be deadly, but a good passer always sees opportunities for through passes. To make this pass, you would use a chipped pass so the other teams won't get a chance to intercept it. A chipped pass is kicking it into the air towards the target you are aiming for.

Question:
Out of three tips, which do you think is most important? Would you ever attempt a through pass?

Attacking Soccer: My own experience

        If you read my previous post, I described how great my book was and what soccer meant to me. Now we are going a little more in debt with the book and I'm going to show a play from the book.





 To play soccer you don't need a lot of things. Just two objects; a soccer ball and any type of ground environment. You don't need a huge soccer field to play, just a good spread out area, some imagination and friends.

      This play is simple and doable. You need a ball and a long field or road. When you see this image, you see mathematical ways of organizing your game, but you just need to be a good distance away from your players and be able to get it to them. Also a key tip that this explains is that the ball should never stop and keep kicking it around to the other players with one kick per person, this will keep the momentum going.






          Soccer is a special sport. It's affordable and you don't need much. But the one thing you need is great stamina and usage of good technique. You don't need as many materials as football for example. If you want you play for fun in the park, you don't need the shin guards and cleats.

       Question: If you play soccer, what is your favorite play? If not, what about soccer intrigues you?

Atttacking Soccer- Skills and drills for a high scoring offense

    I know you may think that soccer is an "overplayed" sport. But to a lot of people, soccer is their profession or a sport that helps through tough times. I myself played soccer for 5 years and honestly its a great sport, when you are playing it distracts you from the things that may be on your mind. Whenever you score, it is such a great feeling because you are running the whole time and right when you score, you get a overcome of happiness and relief. If you give soccer a try, believe me you will love it.
 
     When I was walking through Barnes and Noble, I didn't think I was going to buy a soccer book. When I walked into the store, I had my mind on a cooking book. Then I ran into a friend and he said he was buying a cooking book as well. Then it came to me that cooking books are such overused book and maybe I should a sports book. I was going up and down the shelves trying to find a good book and then I ran into this one. It caught my attention not only by the interesting cover but also when I grabbed the book, it gave me flashbacks of so many memories of when I played and it put a huge smile on my face. When it gave me flashbacks, I realized that I wanted to play again and why not get a book that explains good ways to play offense and tells you some great plays.

    The author isn't an inexperienced coach. Jay Miller has served as a national teams coach and coaching instructor of the United States Soccer Federation since 1978. With this information, you know that all the facts in the book are accurate and told by not one experienced man, but 11.

    When you open the book, the first couple of pages tell you where to find everything and specific plays that you maybe want to try out. But most importantly, it introduces what the book is about by stating, "The challenge of offense versus defense continues. As teams develop successful styles of attack, defenses are created and perfected to stop them. This book tackles the task of identifying and honing the skills and tactics necessary for breaking down organized defensive plans" (Miller 15). The author stated this because it shows that even though a team may have the best defensive plan, there is always a way to defeat them. Also that the challenges between offense and defense will continue and whenever a team comes up with a great idea, the other team will always find a way to counter play them.

     The next chapters are individual coaches telling their ways of a specific play or playing style. All the authors had great information and give their personal experiences in the beginning of the chapter. They provide diagrams of the specific play they are trying to explain and they have more than one in each chapter. They give tips on way to keep players in shape and how to deal with the environment, since soccer is played outside.

      The ending is just stopped after the last author gave his thoughts just like the others and there wasn't a huge conclusion like book usually have. The last few pages give information about every author who contributed to the book and why they were so significant to the book.

      From reading this book, I have to say that it is really useful and if you want to succeed and have great plays when you play soccer. I highly suggest this book, you get point of view from various authors and many diagrams dispersed throughout the book to really help a beginner out. If I ever start playing soccer again, I will definitely use this book.

  Q: Do you personally think that soccer is "overplayed"? Have you ever played soccer and do you ever just think back and realize how wonderful it was playing? If not, will you ever try playing soccer?