Goal Kicks - help please

[supershrimp489]

I coach an U11's side.Nearly all the boys cant hit the ball hard enough to make an effective clearance.After a goal kick we are under pressure again as we just cant hit it far or high.The opponents just hover around our penalty area.Any thoughts/tactics welcome.
Any ideas as well on how to improve the kicking ability of the players.
Thanks

[walks]

Think you need to work on the technique of long lofted passing. a nice simple tecxhnique exercise is to get the players in 3's. get them 20 - 30 yards apart, with one ball between them and one of the 3 in the middle. To start with get the person in the middle to roll the ball back gently( it is easire to kick a ball that is rolling gently towards you) the player must look to strike the ball over the player in the middle's head and towards the far player. Get them to have an angled run up, strike the ball with the laces and kick under the ball. A good tip is to get them to imagine the ball is on matchsticks and they have to kick the match sticks away. It is important that they focus on an angled run, this lets them swing their leg more effectively, striking with the laces, locking the ankle on the strike, kicking underneath the ball and letting the kicking leg follow through all the way to the target. Repeat at other end and swap places regularly. When they are getting some success, get the player to control the ball out of their feet to the side and then try and kick it over the middle man. at this point you can start to make it a competition. whilst you want to make it fun, it is very important they understand and develop the correct technique. demonstrations are also very important to show them the correct technique. if you can't do it, get someone who can.

Good luck

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by supershrimp489

I coach an U11's side.Nearly all the boys cant hit the ball hard enough to make an effective clearance.After a goal kick we are under pressure again as we just cant hit it far or high.The opponents just hover around our penalty area.Any thoughts/tactics welcome.
Any ideas as well on how to improve the kicking ability of the players.
Thanks

Have you worked on distributing the ball out from the back then? Are they comfrotable on the ball and able to pass properly?

[supershrimp489]

regret they arent good enough yet to pass it out carefully - may have to think about it however we just lack someone who can kick the ball high and long.

[mcolwell]

Originally Posted by supershrimp489

regret they arent good enough yet to pass it out carefully - may have to think about it however we just lack someone who can kick the ball high and long.

Correct technique is important when taking striking a stationary ball. For a goal kick you need to have the player who is best at striking a lofted drive from stationery. You can practice the exercise previously mentioned. However the worst error on goal kicks is that the kick goes centrally instead of to the flanks, so putting your team under more direct pressure. Practice striking the ball to the flanks and having sufficient defensive cover if the opposition win the ball. We as under nines do play the ball out on occasion but only to the more skilful pleayers who are able to play a forward pass.

[Charlie]

Focus on identifying attacking passes.

Play some piggy in the middle with two defenders in the middle. Give the outside players a point if they can successfully pass between the two defenders (I would call this a “split pass”).

Take on the same basics in looking for a “split pass” in 2v2 games, 2 players facing, 2 players with the ball. The first defender commits to the ball. The first attacker makes a quick pass to his team mate and looks for the pass between the two defenders and into the space behind the first defender. Give a point to those that you see identifying the opportunity.

We can go into more depth on coaching the wall pass, but your question is goal kicks and so .............

Have your midfielders in wide areas. Have your defenders standing on the edge of the box (no doubt tightly marked), get them to make the run right into the corner to receive the ball there. If they get the ball there they can play out, up the line. What will more likely happen is that the "marker" will follow, when this happens the goal keeper should be able to see an easier "split pass" to a more distant wide area.


(easier said than done !)

[skowee]

Hi

If you have any 5 a side goals at your training venue you could use these for the players to kick the ball over or just have a cross bar challenge for a bit of fun. Start near in to the goal so they get used to lifting the ball, then increase the distance for more power. This way they might not realise that they are taking goal kicks and be more relaxed when striking the ball.

[74offsuit]

Hmmm I recognise that badge ^^^^^^

We should soon be overtaking you on our way to dominating the world. (Evil laughter....)