00:00 Start
00:39 Assumptions
02:13 Session Planning
02:25 Build out
08:17 Build out recap
08:33 Attacking 1/3
12:11 What else?
13:20 What don’t I do?
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We scrimmage the last 15 minutes most practices. It is fairly simple to bring the group in before kick-off and repeat the main practice focus points. E.g. each goal kick, I tell them "build out", "find your shape" etc. So that's the only point I'd disagree with in your clip. scrimmages add game like situations. What I don't do is stop the game but try to remind players "on the fly" how to move etc.
I just want to say that I love your channel. I have been coaching middle school soccer for three years now. I have no soccer knowledge and I am learning as I go. I came across your channel this year and it has made such a change in my coaching. I have been looking for information like this for two years. The only thing I would ask is to make videos for 11 v 11 for those of us who are still learning. Again thank you so much for actually teach us how to coach soccer!! 🎉
whoa Coach, where did you get that sweet Leeds shirt? It's awesome
Any goalie drills for U8?
Love your stuff. I'm coaching park district U8 and looking to start travel team with kids that are ready. Recommendations on where to start with your videos with kids with skill but really ready to start learning the game? Thanks again, amazing stuff!
Where you located coach
Coach Rory, I've really enjoyed your videos and have used them extensively for my U10 team with great success. I have a serious question that I want to ask you that has been a nagging problem for my team for a long time.
I have a group of very aggressive players, but they are always "asleep" for the first ten minutes of the game. They always "wake up" and become aggressive after ten minutes and play brilliantly after that. It's the strangest phenomenon.
Sometimes during this ten minutes we will fall behind two or three goals and immediately have to spend the rest of the game digging ourselves out of a hole.
It's become so bad that we have given it a name. We call it "The Ten Minute Demon" amongst the coaches.
How can I get my team to come alive from kickoff and play aggressively from the start? How do I get rid of this Ten Minute Demon?
I coach a u10 team and I just found your YouTube page and I think it's fantastic! I've been watching a ton of your videos. Our coaching philosophies seem very similar. My one question/comment is I think 6 activities in one session is too many and makes each one too short. I've found about 4 activities is the most I can fit it. So I might do something like a Battle Box, a 4v1 Rondo, a 4v4+3 Positional Play game (similar to what you call a Build Out game), and then what you call a Positional game (offense vs defense on half field). Then once in a while I might switch out the Positional Play game for something else like the Pattern Choreography or corner kick practice.
Thanks for your video Rory really useful
👍👏⚽️
how would you deal with player’s that don’t want to pass the ball and want to do it all themselves
Do you have u14 video, I'm a big fan
Thank you! Love this framework 🎉
Promo-SM 💃
How can I do a 9 player rondo? I am new to coaching with a couple of advanced players, but mostly new players. We did a big circle with defender in the middle. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I want to be the best coach I can be for them.
Thank you so very much man. Your tips are very helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us. It has been an amazing tool which has helped me to understand coaching and apply it to my own sessions. 🫵🏿👍🏿👏🏿
Great video! During any of these, do we worry about offsides, like with 2v1 BB or positional games?
What are your thoughts on SSGs? I know that is sort of covered in breakdown games but things like 3v3s, 4v4s? Also do you add variety of activities or do you keep it pretty consistent?
Thanks so much for the update on how you plan practices. Love videos and have found them to be very helpful!
Here is my experience, having used activities in your videos frequently in practices for our U9 and U10 teams.
Things that have worked very well: battle boxes, rondos, rondo variations, some pattern choreography (but more like once per week or less), finishing runs, some conditional games.
So far, we have had limited success with the build out and attacking breakdown activities (U10). I think those activities are perhaps more suited towards pretty serious, committed players. I have found they are challenging to coach such the activity really emulates an attack or build out possession. Maybe we should stick with it and repeat it – first couple times through, I was pretty frustrated. Your slow down disclaimer really applies here.
I do appreciate the call out that you don't scrimmage much. We are probably scrimmaging too much. That's what the kids want to do, of course, but agree that after a point, scrimmages start to lose their value. I am tempted to call things scrimmages that are actually conditional games, to trick the kids!
I think an additional assumption of your plan is on the level of commitment of the players on the team. If they are not going to do individual work at home, doing some during practice is a pretty effective use of time, in my experience. Similarly, I have found more emphasis on defense is really effective in making our team more competitive. Half our goals probably come from having an organized press.
Alright, I gave this a big shot today. I'll share my feedback:
I'm pretty well practiced at pattern choreography, rondo, and short sided games, and my players are acclimated. I was able to fit everything in to 1.5 hours. It seemed to flow alright, but my players seem bored every time we do large field rondos. I wish I knew how to inspire them to work harder and properly (keep posession!). I goaded them to work at speed in battle boxes (1v1) and it does seem like a great way to get them into practice. I've been toying around with "lazy, posession based, pass the ball around" 6v6 to start practice as well, with mixed results. I don't think I do the 2v1 right yet, but we have another version with coaching sticks that does work really well for us and I think you'd agree it was a good substitute. We played 8v3 at the end, and it was shocking how well the 3 controlled the game because of poor application of pattern choreography out of the back. There's always Thursday!
with the lack of scrimmage, do you feel like US Soccer's coaching principle of play-practice-play isn't the right way to approach it? i've never been quite sure how i feel about play-practice-play
I choose to scrimmage at the end of every practice. I set up the scrimmage parameters based on what we’ve been working on and continue to try and find moments to reinforce the key coaching points.
Sometimes it is a rotation of 3v3 or 4v4.
Sometimes we play Rage in the cage – 2 teams are around the outside of a small field with 2 regular goals, groups of 3 (or another number) come on and have to score. Their teammates on the sides are available for passing (often required). Keeps it fast and works on player movement in a small space.
Sometimes we play 7v7, with touch restrictions, pass requirements, foot rules etc.
I’ve also incorporated a bit of running (periodic sprints/jogs at random times) into my sessions, as it is so important as you get to high school (a little older than the sessions you talk about)
Nice video!
Hi Coach Rory, love your videos! any tips on adapting your strategies and training for a U13 team shifting to 11v11? ⚽ Thanks!
Really finding these videos inspirational and incredibly helpful! Thank you
About pattern choreography, kids might not get pure joy out of it, but it definitely translates during game time. Great call out to do it.
Echo no scrimmaging, if I do, it will only be 10-15 minutes of the second practice of the week, and IF they’ve earned it. Sort of a reward for staying on task.
Wonderful video. I have a U10 AYSO team. It's 7v7, but 9 kids per team. Plus, we get two 1 hr sessions.
This is a brilliant video. very well broken down and set out.
Hi coach how far do you space the cones out for the rondos. e.g 5 steps 8 steps
Do you introduce the concept of "defending in lines" to your players?
Do you do coed teams, and how do you do a build out of the back when the girls dont play as aggressive as the boys?
Coach what are your thoughts on the Play-Practice-Play model from US Soccer?
Thanks for your videos. I'm a volunteer coach for a park district team u8 7v7 team and I've absolutely used them to shape my training sessions.
We unfortunately just get 1hr a week (though i run an optional extra 1hr session). We have additional constraints like equal playing time and rotating players through positions. Still, your videos are absolutely foundational to how i think about organizing practices.
Doing away with technical exercises and drills has been a great mindshift and really works. In the games and exercises they get more than enough practice for the skill level they're at.
The one part i disagree with, and that may be because of the different level of play we're dealing with, is that I find the 10-15min scrimmage at the end invaluable to reinforce some of the concepts learned at each session.
Our city rec league only meets for one hour once a week with games on Saturday. (12U) Given I only have one hour per week (I'm sure there are hundreds of other rec leagues that are very similar to ours) how would you structure your practices within those parameters?
Thank you for the great videos. All of your videos have been my go to source material for coaching U10 the last 3 seasons. One question I have is how would you approach coaching a team that’s very new to soccer in general, new to U10, and lack some of the fundamental skills. Would this change how you plan your sessions?
Forgot to say, ‘thank you’ for all your videos. I refer to them regularly and they have been a huge help.
I do run a 15 minute scrimmage or a small sided practice game at the end, where I ask to them to utilise what we learned during that session. If we didn’t have a short game at the end, I’m not sure all of them would keep coming to training as it’s their favourite part
I'm curious on the thinking of doing the choreography after the games versus before. Is it to see if they figure out patterns during the games and then reinforced during the choreography? I also noticed you removed the 4-goal game from the session. I'm guessing this is just evolving what you had posted last year (maybe a little longer). BTW, I've been converted to this basic setup with my team and they've really taken to it and I have noticed the 2v2/3v3 warm-ups end up being like recess before afternoon class, kids get all crazed up before trying to learn.