Player Development
Training to Train U10-U14 Age Group
Training sessions: 60-90 minutes long.
Main Focus: Mastering the ball and learning principles of play. Players transition from a "Learning to train" phase into a "Training to Train" phase.
Tactical Concepts: Principles of Attacking & Principles of Defending. These principles can be very complicated and at this stage of development the focus is creating a foundation based on these principles.
• Principles of Attacking: Penetration, providing support, movement off the ball, width & depth, and improvisation/creativity.
• Principles of Defending: Pressure & cover, delaying, balance/team shape, compactness, control & restraint (not diving in), and counter attack.
Session Structure:
Stage 1: (Warm up) Games or activities that work on different variations of ball control and team problem solving.
Stages 2 & 3: (Main activities) Games focus on individual and team problem solving. Players work on mastering activities learned from previous years and expanding on those activities with more complexity.
Stage 4: Each session should end with small-sided games to goals. Each activity will be building into higher-level variations to improve technical abilities, combinational play, and problem solving.
• Example of games: 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v2, 4v3, 6v6
• Games can be played to end lines or with multiple goals (4 or 6 goal games)
• Possession games with and without neutral players
• Introducing principles of attacking & defending
• Switching the point of attack, playing out of the back, width & depth
• Pressure and cover, where to force the ball, not diving in.
Training to Compete: U14-16 Age Group
Training to Win: U16 & above Age Group