How Do I Teach Width?

[steve68]

Please can you E-mail me your Session plan for this drill as I will use it this Saturday at training, as I coach an under 9's side. I will let you know how it went. My E-Mail address is williamsajw@aol.com

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by steve68

Please can you E-Mail me your session plan for this drill.As I would like to use it this Saturday. I will let you know how it went. Thank you. E-Mail

Sent.........

[steve68]

My E-Mail is williamsajw@aol.com

[tonycmb]

please sendme that drill,sounds great tonyheuze@msn.com

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by steve68

My E-Mail is williamsajw@aol.com

It was sent a few days ago, did you not receive it?

[Asgoodasthelast]

Similar to Cookies, field in three sections(wings narrower than centre) each team has wingers in the attacking half of the field, no defenders to begin with, attacking team gets the ball wide, winger has free run down line crosses to middle for attackers.
Progression: Once an attacking team has passed wide the opposition winger can track back to defend (1v1).
Progression attacking team has to move the ball to both wings before crossing the ball.
Progression: Free play 1 point for a goal, 3 points for a goal scored from a cross.

[Charlie]

I played this 8v8 game with some pretty good under 12's and they just started to avoid the central area altogether and it became unrealistic.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by mcolwell

I coach an under nines team and our stregth is using width. This comes from encouraging looking up and pssing and continual movement. The way to start this off is to play practice games where players are restricted to zones which are marker out by coloured cones. I would start with taking an area of 50 x 50 and dividing it in to four or six to stop players running the length of the pitch. This will do two things, restrict their movement and so force them to look up to see what else they can do with the ball. It will also encourage the players in the other zones to call for the ball and so encourage 'heads up'. You will have to coach them to move within their zones to be best placed to receive the ball. You will also have to rotate players around the zones so that get experience of each area of the pitch. The wider the area of play the better really. It does work, it turned them from under sight headless chickens to cup winners last saeson and they are top of the league this year. Once you have got the hange of this there are other drills you can do to take it further.

This sounds interesting.
Do you limit players to zones or just say that they can't dribble through a certain amount of zones?
What conditions do you put on this game?

[addas10]

when coaching i love to use conditioned matches 1 of my favourites was the area game i set up basically you have 4 areas 2 being the wings (each wing should be about 2 1/2 metres wide and all the way down the sides of the pitch) and the other 2 is a box from half way line to touchline both sides which only anattcker of one team and 2 defeders of the other can be in each you would then also have an midfielder who is allowed anywhere on the pitch. match is played as normal but only player in the areas can stay in there areas this is great for positions and width.

GATES is also a good conditioned match and a bit less complicated, there are 4 gates wing usually 2 metres from each touchline and in line with the edge of the box, before a goal can be scored the ball must travel through one of the gates in the opposing half.

if you want more information email me aj_smart@hotmail.co.uk

[aaron@plot7.freeserve.co.]

Originally Posted by Cookie

I'm working on a session tonight with my U10's that is not really about width, but speed of play in congested areas - which by default actually encourages players to get into wide positions or move the ball wide.

I start off with a 5v5 in a 40x30 grid split into two halves denoting defence and attack zones. Object is to run the ball over your opponents goal line, but both teams are conditioned to only have two touches maximum in defensive area. Coaching points are slick, sharp passing and movement, move the ball quickly in defensive area, don't take risks in defence.

From there I progress to splitting the pitch lengthways into three zones (so two wide areas and one central zone). At the end of each area is a mini-goal (cones are fine) so you end up having three goals at each end of the same 40x30 area. Emphasis now switches on 2-touch in that central strip, encourage players to be creative in wide positions but to not take chances or risks in the normally congested midfield areas.

Finally we play a 8v8 match, but I mark out a square in the central area of the whole pitch (which is now 60x40) and tell all players that it is two touch in that central zone but unlimited touches elsewhere. You will see them think and act quickly in the middle, but also it will encurage them to spread the ball wide (or to stay wide to receive the ball) where they are then asked to be creative again and have as many touches as they want.

It's important to maintain a high tempo with this session, with lots of good movement off the ball and nice sharp passing. I've prepared a session plan for this if anybody has trouble understanding the above, just let me know and I'll email it.

Could you please email me your session plan for this topic.

Many thanks,

Aaron