Transition In the Modern Game

Transition In The Modern Game

Gerard Houllier, former coach of Lyon, Liverpool and Aston Villa says that “The most important moment in the modern game is when the ball is won or lost.” Houllier is referring to the moment of interception of a pass, a goalkeeper’s save, a tackle in free play, or the ball going out of bounds. The reason this moment has become so critical is that defenses are so well organized that many teams can only be scored upon when they are attacked before they get into their defensive shape.

The Dutch FA highlight the four main moments in the game;

1.       We have the ball.

2.       We lose the ball.

3.       They have the ball.

4.       They lose the ball.

Moments 2 and 4 are vital moments and I would like to focus on these two scenarios in my next couple of blogs.

Some teams have a counter attacking strategy which involves player positioning, forcing opponents into predictable areas of the field etc. I hope to examine "Strategic Transitional Play" in upcoming blogs. There are incidents, however, which happen in a game when a transitional situation develops just by the sheer flow of the game. Here is an incident from an EPL game in which a ball is miscontrolled and the white team take full advantage of the blunder by the reds. This sequence is what I would call “Incidental Transitional Play” as the action begins from an unforced error which the white team pounces on. All teams should be trained to recognize those moments where the opposition commit an error and leave themselves exposed for an immediate counter attack. The key here is that the white team swarm forward as a collective unit and get bodies in the box before the defending team can recover. Lightning strikes from unforced errors should be in the mindset of a team and should be constantly coached in training. I know by experience, and from asking the question at scores of coaching schools, that few coaches train their teams to deal with a counter attack of this nature.

                                                                          

I have attached an exercise to help in the development of this mind set. This is a two versus two game on a long and narrow field which encourages looking forward and making vertical passes. The goals are four yards wide. The two players MUST play the ball to their target players who are standing outside of the goal the opponents are defending. These target players rebound the ball back to their team mates for a goal to be scored. In addition there are side players whose responsibility is to feed balls in immediately, when a ball has gone out of bounds. When done at a high pace the exercise can last for 90 seconds before the players in the middle begin to experience fatigue. The objective of the exercise is for the players to realize when the ball is about to turn over and use every means they can to catch the opposition flatfooted with a penetrating pass which is quickly supported.

A DVD of the entire counter attacking exercises are available if you would like to contact us at tipp1socgolf@yahoo.com. Thanks to CoachFX, based in Glasgow, Scotland, for providing the diagrams.

                                                         
                                                            UK Premier League Coach Study Tour

March 16 – 25^th 2012

We will be conducting a Coach Study tour in both England and Scotland arriving in the UK March 16^th and departing March 25^th. We will begin the tour with a look at the Everton Developmental Academy games on the morning of March 17^th and attend the Everton – Arsenal Premier League game in the afternoon. The coaches will then have the opportunity to attend the Everton Master Class course on the Monday, travelling to Liverpool’s training facility on the Tuesday. We shall go to Manchester United on the Wednesday and then leave for Glasgow on the Thursday where we will attend the famous Glasgow Rangers Academy and conclude the tour by attending the “Old Firm” Glasgow Rangers – Glasgow Celtic derby match on the Saturday. Coaches will depart back to the USA on the Sunday. For more information contact us at Chrisjte@yahoo.com or call 816 309 6411 and ask for Christine.

                                                                                    

The Coach Is The Most Important Person In Football"

“The Coach Is The Most Important Person In Football.”

Aimee Jacquet – French National Team Coach, 1998 World Cup Champions

I read with great interest the recently completed U.S. Soccer Curriculum – the proposed way forward for soccer in the USA. The author, former national team captain, Claudio Reyna, provides a template for the development of players. Maybe the document is, specifically, addressing the needs of the American player and it does a fine job of that. I see nothing, however, on the development of coaches which is essential for the future success in the game. Nothing in the document addressed the coach of the future and the skills coaches need to stretch and challenge and excite players. A significant amount of time should be spent on this topic. We need thousands of high quality coaches in the USA who, not only teach the skills of the game, but turn players on to a way of life. This would include watching the game. Our players do not watch enough soccer and the important learning step called “modeling” is absent in the development of many American players. Coaching development is an activity dear to my heart and something I spent the last thirteen years of my life doing. A massive document could be written on coaching development – and one of the items I would inject into that document is a section regarding the virtues of Position Specific Coaching – P.S.C.

I became interested in P.S.C. when I visited Steve McCLaren, then of Middlesborough FC in the English Premier League. Steve had introduced a coach for attacking and a coach for defending and was about to introduce a coach for restarts. My interest was ignited at that time and the curiousity regarding P.S.C. has proliferated since then. I have received a number of enquiries over the years, from Premier League managers, about setting up visits to NFL teams. I see Harry Redknapp, of Tottenham Hotspurs, recently wrote an article on the virtues of P.S.C. in an English newspaper. This is futuristic thinking.

Seems to me that this model of coaching should be adopted as a template for our soccer clubs and coaching community and could be one of the best ways to produce the players we need to become a world class power. Having a coach for the backs, midfielders and forwards, as well as a goalkeeper coach, is, in my view, the missing link in the development of American players. Position Specific Coaches would report to a head coach and be experts in their positional assignment. In some cases, the head coach may coach one of the units. Not only do players get more specific feedback they are, also, given more highly specialized training sessions. Dick Bate, the world’s #1 Coaching Educator, has developed courses in P.S.C. for the English F.A. and suggests that clubs should have special nights when the players are broken up into positional groups and trained for a period of time functionally. For something to tickle your thinking read the late Bill Walsh’s book “Finding the Winning Edge.” A superb book by an American Football Coach on staff and player management. Comments are welcome.

Steve McClaren

SportingKC

As we approach the playoffs in N America I wanted to feature one of the most amazing reversals in team fortunes I have ever witnessed. As their new $200,000,000 stadium could not be finished until June, Sporting KC, Kansas City’s MLS team, played all of their games away from home. They were dead last in their division with an 1-6-2 record and looked in serious trouble. When I visited their training facility a shadow hung over the complex and the Kansas City newspapers began to do what newspapers do best – speculate when changes in the coaching staff would begin. Then, Sporting KC had a 4-1 away win at Dallas and began a run of wins and ties which rocketed the team from the bottom of the division to the top. Sporting KC’s Livestrong Stadium opened on June 10th and, this past weekend, celebrated SKC's first divisional championship when the home team defeated NY Red Bull 2 – 0. To begin the season so poorly and end up winning the division is a testimony to the coaching staff and players and I asked Sporting KC Head Coach, Peter Vermes, what his advice he might have for coaches in a similar situation to the one he faced in June. I think his answer is quite interesting.

The playoff system itself is an interesting topic for discussion. Winning the league, such a massive accomplishment in Europe, merely leads to receiving a favorable playoff seeding in the USA. A league or divisional champion, if defeated early in the playoffs, does not get a ticker tape parade or trip to the town hall…that will be reserved for the team that won the playoffs, in some cases, despite being defeated by the League Champion several times in the regular season.
To a European this arrangement is bizarre. Winning the league is what it is all about and there are no playoffs. However, this is not Europe and, due to the peculiar cultural development of American sports in the early twentieth century together with the size of the country, together with the scholastic conference system, winning the playoffs is what it is all about in N. America.
Anyway best wishes to Sporting KC on what has been a remarkable turnaround.

 

Jeff Tipping Blog 2

The Soccer Club As An Agent for Individual and Community Improvement.

When I visited Lyon Football Club as the guest of Gerard Houllier in October 2007 I arrived at the training facility just before the players came in from their morning session.  Big clubs often employ greeters to meet with international visitors and Lyons’ greeter shook my hand and took me to the Player’s Lounge to wait for Houllier who was getting showered.

Players lounges frequently have pool tables, dartboards, coffee makers, cookies, newspapers, sofas, tv’s, chairs etc. so that the players can come in and relax and wait for lunch to be served – eating meals in the clubhouse is also a feature of professional clubs. As I sat in the corner, sipping a cup of coffee, the players began to arrive following their post training shower. Without hesitation, when they saw that I was a visitor, the players walked over to shake my hand and, in some cases say, “Welcome to Lyon.”  This struck me because every player who walked in deliberately came over to me and did this. As a total stranger to them this was extremely impressive.

This was not the “Lackies and Lads” Sunday morning pub team…this was five time French Champion and UEFA title contender Olympique Lyonnais. I reflected on the probability that the players had been schooled by Houllier, the consummate gentleman, to do this for all guests.

Club hospitality is a vastly under rated commodity in the USA and all clubs should develop a culture of respect and hospitality to guests, visitors and opponents. Not every club can have a clubhouse but I suggest that a local restaurant or pub could serve as a sally port following a game or practice.

It should not be forgotten that many of the famous international clubs began as church teams in the late nineteenth century, Everton and Glasgow Celtic to name just two. Both began their journey as church teams caring for the poor of Liverpool and Glasgow and providing them with protection, sustenance and education…not to mention healthy exercise.

Club soccer is growing leaps and bounds in the USA. Their purpose should be much more than helping players get scholarships. It would be nice to see clubs performing the community functions which are the charitable heritage of soccer. The ethical development of young people is, often, more effective when reinforced by club policies. Leagues for players with disabilities , food banks for the poor and visiting the elderly in nursing homes are some of the charitable efforts where club players can help. 

                                                                           

The summer is fading fast and the sound of balls being whacked around college campuses is an indication that college soccer is about to begin. What an amazing treasure college sport is! The ability to get a degree and still be able to play high level, highly organized and meaningful soccer is one of the wonders of the western world.

When Sporting Kansas City took the field against DC United last evening, ten of the twenty two starters were college graduates and another six had twenty two years of college soccer between them.  The game was an exciting, rugged and enthralling encounter with the American college players featuring  in many of the decisive scenarios of the contest – quite different than the days of the NASL when American college grads sat the bench or played in low profile positions.


College soccer has detractors but I can, personally, vouch for the liberating feeling of going into professional soccer with a college degree in my back pocket. To have options in life is sometimes seen as negating the hunger players need to succeed. I think this is nonsense. As Anson Dorrance says, having a university degree provides the possibility of chasing life’s other dreams if the dream of professional football does not work out. In this video with Chris Coleman explains why, as manager of Fulham FC of the English Premier League, signed so many American college players.

Technical Area

I am presenting some sessions on "Mannequin Training" this week to a group of coaches in Biglerville, Pa. Thanks to Pennsylvania State Policeman Rudy Grubesky who coaches at the Biglerville HS and the Biglerville club. We are presenting a power point presentation "The Da Vinci Coach" at the High School at 5.30pm and a field presentation on " Training Attacking and Defending Movement With Mannequins" at 6.30pm. If you live in the area and would have an interst in attending please contact Rudy at rgrubesky@state.pa.us

An illustrated workbook will be available thanks to Coach FX who are my official still and animated illustration partner.

  

Soccer - A Way of Life

Arsene Wenger

“ When we coach we are not just teaching players about the game, we are teaching them about a way of life.” Arsene Wenger

Here are four thoughts about this very interesting quote:

1. Mentality. The mentality of soccer people should be one of optimism and brightness. The massive scope of the sport we are involved with is, in itself, cause for optimism. According to Sepp Blatter, our global sport touches over 2 billion people. ( Players, parents, grandparents, supporters, referees, aunts, uncles, managers, administrators, journalists, etc. etc.) The sheer numbers of people touched by the game we love is awe inspiring.
In addition our sport is an impressive vehicle for reconciliation. I remember being at a European coaching conference and sitting for coffee with a Macedonian, Serbian, Montenegren, Croatian and Albanian, discussing the game and the profession of coaching only a few years after the devastating Balkan civil war which pitted a number of these countries against each other.
In addition, the sport, itself, demands a positive approach. The sport favors those with the ability to rebound, to move forward against the odds. Whilst acknowledging the accomplishments of the past, our sport is all about tomorrow – and even teams with the worst record in the land can still look forward to tomorrow.
A positive mentality also comes from being involved in an activity which encourages fitness, sharpness and cooperation – as noted below.

2. Belonging. When human beings go through any event which is difficult, stressful and requires sacrifice a sense of community develops. People who have never been on a sports team will never really appreciate the glue which binds the members of a sports team together – especially a group which has been successful against significant odds. Members of the group defend each other against criticism, incursions from other groups. They will, often, cover for each other even when the criticism or attack is justified! There is an expectation that team members will protect and guard each other.

3. Personal Fitness. Soccer is a game of energy, strength, endurance, agility and speed. Soccer players tend to be wiry and slim above the waist – albeit it powerful and developed below the waist, especially in the thigh, hamstring and calf areas. Physical fitness and economical movement should be a lifelong characteristic and a way of life for soccer players, current and former.

4. Interdependence. The nature of the sport cuts the umbilical cord to the coach and forces the players to rely on each other. The development of group support is an understood aspect of soccer culture.

                                                 METHODS OF COACHING


The following video shows UEFA A License candidate, Greg Ryan, coaching the Michigan club team. The method Greg uses is called "Phase Play". This method of coaching links two units of the team to play together in one half of the field. In basketball we would call it, "attack versus defense."

One of the great features of Phase Play is that the coach can see everything without having to scan the whole field. One of the disadvanteges of phase play is that the defending back four almost never get to the half way line and end up parked outside their own D so it gets a little unrealistic!

Greg is working with his midfield defenders and is correcting a player's speed of approach. Greg shows the player exactly how he wants it done with his demonstration. In coaching a picture is always worth a thousand words.

What is Coaching

Coaching can be interpreted as helping another person, or persons, improve in some aspect of their development. In the case of coaching a sport there are technical, strategic, mental and physical aspects which need to be addressed. In the case of soccer, due to the free flowing nature of the sport and the lack of intervention coaches can have on the game, the quality of the practice and the interaction between the coach and the players is of the highest importance. Generally coaches will deal with practices with the following in mind;

1. Chronological and developmental age of the players. Certain aspects of the game need to be mastered by certain ages and youth coaches will design practices which address the needs of the players in a particular age group. These will be practices of a largely general nature which everyone will do as it is part of the developmental template for that age group. Young players will work a lot with the ball and play a lot of fun games. Older players may combine practice activities with conditioning.
2. Addressing the issues raised by the play of the team, units or individuals in their last game or games. Issues like, lack of compactness, lack of width, poor defending may need to be addressed and improved in the next practice.
3. Preparing for an upcoming opponent. Some coaches will use a practice, or part of a practice, to prepare for an upcoming opponent.
4. Addressing general soccer issues which arise in the flow of the season. This would include practicing being a man down or man up, beating an offside trap, counter attacking,  defending a counter attack etc.

Quality practices are inspiring to players and invigorating for coaches. There are few feelings like walking off the practice field after a good practice when everyone has pushed themselves, the players have successfully faced the challenges that the coach has set them and practice has finished with a competitive inner squad game. Steve Round, in this video clip gives us one aspect of the basic skills of coaching. Steve is, presently, the assistant manager at Everton FC and is one of the many bright young English coaches in the Premier League. I hope that your attendance at a Jeff Tipping Coaching Education Clinic will help inspire you to get the very best out of the players on your team.

Coaching Education Events

Coaching Education Workshops and Clinics

Coaching Education events will touch on the three main themes of coaching; Coach as the Technician, Coach as Manager, Coach as Leader. Coaching education events will combine field presentations with lecture and some student directed learning. Educational programs are designed for coaches at various levels of the game. Clinics last 3 hours and workshops last 3 days. Topics include:

• Systems of Play
• Club Tactical Development
• Methods of Coaching
• Teaching Functional Play
• Tactical and Technical Applications of Small Sided Games
• Technical Training
• Awareness and Communication Exercises
• Developing the American Predator
• The Transition Game

Club Coaching Education Events

The best youth development clubs have common practice sessions – sessions which all coaches in the club are expected to know and offer on a regular basis. The Club Coaching Education Events offer a variety of 3 hour “themed” field sessions which will appeal to coaches in a club environment where club-wide coaching sessions are encouraged. These “must have” sessions are, specifically designed, for the American club and for players in the 12+ age groups.

Coaching Study Tours

A Coach Study Tour will adhere to the following common themes;
Club specific sports science and soccer analysis seminars, observation of practice sessions, match analysis sessions at live soccer matches and guest lectures on a wide range of managerial and leadership issues. Time is also set apart for visiting interesting cultural features of the country or the region we are touring.
Coach Study Tours are recommended in the spring (March) or late July early August. The United Kingdom and Germany are two common destinations.


Contact Jeff Tipping for more estimates and more information at tipp1socgolf@yahoo.com