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by Gary Rue
garyrue@bellsouth.net
 

NOTE:  Gary did not write these exercises and tips with the idea that someone would publish them.  I subscribe to the Soccer-Coach-L e-mail list and Gary is one of the coaches that posts extremely well thought out replies.  These are some of Gary's posts that I collected for use in coaching my own teams.   I approached Gary and he was gracious enough to allow me to publish them here.  If you like what you see or have a question about one of the exercises you can reach Gary at garyrue@bellsouth.net There are 50+ more pages of Gary's posts categorized at the Home Page of Exercises of the Day by Gary Rue. Click here and enjoy.

Water Training

       At a recent medical symposium, I was introduced to "water" training. A long list of reasons (no notes) were given for why training players in water (swimming pool) can be so effective. The ability to rehabilitate injuries is a major reason to go into the water. The clinician noted several well known athletes that have used water training. For instance, Carl Lewis used water training to improve his sprint starting technique to reach his fifth Olympics. Other runners were noted to use water training solely prior to a meet where personal bests were set. Baseball players were noted to improve their swing and throwing motions. Water is very dense and viscose in nature and slows the motion to where defects can be seen by a trainer easier.

      While the clinician talked, two ladies warmed up by walking back and forth across the shallow end of the pool. The varied their movements each trip, doing short steps, long steps, lateral steps, hops, jumps, moving forwards, backwards, and sideways, etc.

       The session stared several volunteer coaches (who were provided swimming gear) with them warming up with "suicides." From the side of the shallow end of the pool, they would "run" to the first lane marking and back to the side, to the next lane marking and back, etc. Not demonstrated, but ladder suicides are when players run from the shallow end to the deep end (with floatation belts).

       A ten station circuit was setup with various water training equipment. The first set was run at 60%, the second was run at 80% and the last at 100%. By changing certain ways of performing each exercise, the percentage of intensity was increased. Some examples of the stations included:

• cross country skiing
• jumping jacks with the hands going from surface to side of the legs
• step up on and down off a step (like used in step aerobics)
• two footed jump over a step
• kick boxing with aquatic boxing gloves (my description) on each hand,
  upper cut, upper cut, kick, kick
• cross country skiing with speedos(?), another type of hand held contraption; lateral arm swings and up and down arm swings
• hydro-bells, swinging side to side with each hand, one with two hands or two together with two hands
• swing a baseball bat, a golf club, a tennis racket or a racquetball racket
• jog the wall, run up the side of the wall and back down
  

      Each section was 30 seconds with 10 seconds to get to the next station. The sessions could be increased to 45 or 60 seconds.

       The training is the deep end with flotation belts is important. The idea is to do the exercise in the vertical position and not the horizontal swimming position. Some exercises like swinging a ball bat can't be done, because the athlete must be "grounded." The use of foot gear was discussed as well. Apparently, there are shoes that are to be worn for pool workouts, that provide traction.

       After the session I quizzed the clinician on specific soccer related exercises. The running exercises were of course key. Backwards running was also a necessity. The players are also asked to imitate their kicking action. This not only strengthens, but also can provide technique assessment.

       I would be very interested in receiving ANY information or thoughts on this type of training. I am considering using this type of training in my preseason conditioning program (if I can find an available swimming hole).

Gary Rue

Practice Tip -  Suit-able
(Preventing lawsuits)

       A certified athletic trainer provided the following at a recent Kentucky High School Coaches Medical Symposium:

       In order to do everything possible to minimize the effects of a lawsuit situation, follow the six C's:

1. Competence - never stop learning as much as you can about your sport and related areas.

2. Confidence - be a believer in your abilities; doing something is generally better than doing nothing in certain situations.

3. Communication - explain (to appropriate authorities) what is or has occurred and what you are doing or have done to resolve it.

4. Compassion - care about what you doing and with who you are working

5. Carved in Stone - make and keep accurate records

6. Compensation - personal and catastrophe insurance

        No one is shielded from the threat of a lawsuit; however, due diligence and general concern for preventing problems should keep most of us out of harms way. Of course, this applies to all aspects of one's life, not just coaching.

Exercise of the Day - 2+4v2

        2v2+4 is a great exercise for themes that deal with ball possession, second/third man attacking support, and second/third man marking.

• Setup:
  A 20x20 grid with an attacking player outside each boundary line. In the grid area, two players are assigned to be attackers and two players are defenders. The inside attacking players are to maintain possession by passing either to the outside players or to each other. The defenders are
  to tightly mark the two internal attackers. If the defender steals the ball, they get a point and the ball is returned to an outside player to serve it back to one of the two attackers. The two attacking players receive a point when each receives a pass 3 times, before the defense gains control.  Replace
  inside 4 with outside 4 after a point or time level has been reached.
  
  Some useful variations:
  
• restrict outside players to one or two touches
• place a marker several yards outside of the boundary line from where external players must start--they can still go meet the pass and make the return pass while close to the boundary line.
• restrict outside players to pass only to the attacker who did not pass the ball (third attacker/defender).
• maintain possession for a time period (30 seconds) to win a point.
• defenders becomes attackers when possession is gained; one point for each defensive steal.
• change the grid shape; e.g., make the size 20x30 and use players on the long end as target players; score a point when the ball is worked from one
  target to the other without loss of possession.

Exercise of the Day - Second Attacker Support

"The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning
the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

       Attacking players that do not have the ball may have the most responsibility in establishing ball possession and a effecting passing game. The second attacker - any teammate that is or can be in direct support of the ball - must make himself available to the passer. He does this through movement to space or towards ball. Communication is sometimes key. Some support players are not good passing options and would do well to "clear area."

       The following exercises builds into a wonderful possession game that requires vision, decision making and communication by all players. To make it work the best, the second attackers have to make themselves available to the player on ball via movement and verbal communication.

       In a 20x20 area, there are three teams (different colored pinnies) of 3 or 4. One team is on defense, as the ball is possessed by the other two teams. When a team loses the ball, that team is now on defense--6v3 or 8v4.

Restrict players to two touches.

Restrict players to pass to teammates of opposite color. That is, if yellow is defending against red and green, the red player must pass to the green and the green player must pass to a red player. At this point, the coach should be stressing the need for the second attacker to be communicating via voice and movement to the first attacker, prior to the first attacker touching the ball.

Add a couple of 3 yard cone goals in the area somewhere. The attacking team
can score points by passing to the opposite color through the cones. Each of
the two attacking teams get a point.

Add three 2 yard goals at the corners of a 25x25x25 triangle (see ^ ^ in figure below. The boundaries markers of this area should be extended wider than the goals (see ! in figure below). Each team defends a specific goal. The attacking teams only attack the defended goal. Keep the two touch and opposite pinny restrictions.


                               !



                ^                             ^
              ^                                 ^




               !                                 !

                              ^   ^

       In my experiences with this exercises, the players tend to talk more -  sometimes it's to argue about who is on defense. Reinforce the importance of communication as much as possible and the job of the second attacker.

Attacking The Near Post

         Here are some notes from the 1993 national coaches convention. I believe the session was put on by Robby and Michele Akers Stohl

LEGEND: A - Attacker; S - Server; D - Defender; W - Wing server; M - Midfielder; NP - Near Post; FP - Far Post; GK - Goalkeeper

SETUP

• A runs hard diagonal to NP
• S passes from about the 6 on the goal line (try to hit A at the NP about 2-4 yards from goal-line
• A shoots 1-touch
• technique--redirect ball to FP with laces, toes down--chop laces across the ball and continue thru
• S returns to A line, creating congestion in goal mouth as next A makes run; A to S line.
• GKs in goal mouth, rotate from FP on each shot; no attacking the serve; more for window dressing
• after initial run though, run this setup from both sides (crisscross the goal mouth)
   

VARIATIONS

• S delivers bouncing ball, A starts slow, later move at full speed, don't slow up; S waits till GK recovers.
• S delivers higher bounce, then full volley serve (as if driven ball)
• A continues to use the laces.
• S serves for flick header to FP.
• A to use goalside leg for FP flick (when A must reach around D to get ball first).
• A1 dummies serve, A2 following finishes; A2 will run as A1 next time; A1 & S switch lines.
• GKs go live; allow NP shot if they cheat.
• S serves for diving headers (I generally save this for a wet day or when I want to get their emotions high)

GAMES

• Slot game--Two attackers and a wing server; A1 times run to NP off W's dribble; A2 shoots any crossed ball that gets thru A1; run with 2nd W; A's must regroup each time, be creative with runs; add defensive back that gives offensive W a head start.
• 2 M outside penalty area, 2 W on touches (can't go offside), 4 v 4 in penalty area, 1 goal; if defense wins ball, back to keeper or wings, then to M; M can switch to opposite wing or play back to same wing for next cross to team that last won ball; add drop to M for a 1-touch shot.

INDIVIDUAL SHOOTING WARMUP/EXERCISES

• GK passes to A coming straight on goal for power shot; technique review--eyes to check GK then look at ball, low on strike (bent support leg), low on landing (bent shooting leg), use instep.
• GK passes to A coming straight on goal for accuracy, use inside of foot to post; be prepared for rebound
• S serves bouncing ball to side, A facing away from goal turns and 1 touches
• S severs to A's chest, who traps, turns and shoots
• S serves for volley in front of goal (why chase balls all day)

I tend to use the criss-cross setup on a lot of my shooting drills; there's more player movement, and seemingly, more shot opportunities in less time.

--Thanks to: Gary Rue, KY HS and Select