Coaching Diaries #3: Switching play
In the last couple of weeks, the focus of training sessions was on combination play and how to move without the ball. It is time to transition to a different form of creating a threat for the opposition — Switching play.
Switching play is a powerful weapon to have. From grasroots, all the way to the very top of elite football, it is used to create chances in front of goal. Teams who master this form of attacking get an advantage over their opponents for various reasons.
1) It is team oriented, meaning that it is more difficult to counter as it involves dealing with multiple players instead of one in particular.
2) Multiple variations can be adopted to achieve the same goal, making it less predictable.
3) Players on the latter part of the pattern anticipate the play much earlier than their opponent because they are aware of what is suppose to happen next, making it easier for them to exploit weaknesses or catch the defender off guard.
The following couple of sessions are going to have an emphasis on creating the above advantages. Different patterns are going to be explored on how to achieve the desired outcome.
The session starts as normal with the routine warmup and stretching. Afterwards, the players get into a rondo to get a feel for the ball and pick up the intensity.
The next practice involves a lot of repetition of passing and receiving. Passing patterns are only as good as the passes and the receives that the players make, so it is essential that everyone has a good standard of passing and receiving.
The practice above targets receiving on the half-turn. When done properly, receiving in such a way enables the ball to be moved a lot quicker. Essential information that needs to be given to the players is split into three parts.
- Movement — Do not stay flat footed and wait for the ball to come to you. Chances are that an opponent will be marking you and will make it very difficult to receive, turn and continue the play. Pick the area you want to receive the ball, communicate it with your teammate and then time your run so that you receive the ball on the move. It forces the defender to always be on alert for your movement, making it more difficult to for him to mark.
2. Receiving — Open the body. Make sure that after the first touch the body shape is such that you are facing the way in which you want to continue the play. Make sure that your first touch is into space.
3. Passing - Passes need to be given to the back foot of the receiver. Firm ground passes which will allow the receiver to pivot on his supporting foot when he receives if he is under pressure.
Once all players have had enough repetition, we will move to the next practice which will be opposed and will test their passing/receiving skills under pressure.
The aim for this practice is to be high intensity for the following reasons:
1. Simulating a game scenario where opponents will not give them time on the ball.
2. After a high intensity practice players need to recover their energy and are more willing to go over a more stale pattern practice.
Then we go into the pattern.
The above is a basic pattern of moving the ball from the right-hand side to the left. The pattern itself is not complicated and it shouldn’t be in order to work. The execution is going to be the emphasis of the pattern.
- Initial positions, we will look to implement what was covered in earlier practices, with timing of the run and receiving after a movement into space.
- The body position of each receiver needs to face the line of pass that he is supposed to make.
- Triggers — Players on the later part of the pattern need to recognize that the play is being executed and need to prepare themselves in advance for their receives/passes/runs. The play ends with an underlap from the wing-back
The next practice gives the palyers the opportunity to perform the pattern in a game environment.
The pitch is made wide and with 4 goals to allow success. By the goals being placed wide, it creates an incentive for the players to switch the ball if they find opposition on one side of the pitch.
The session will end with a game-related practice — one team will have to score in one goal.
It will test the players on taking advantage of the overload they create in wide areas and will potentially highlight some inefficiencies when trying to deal with them — something which will be the focus of the following sessions.
The aim of this session was to cover switching play in order to create an overload in wide areas. To achieve that, the team tried to execute a pattern.
