Tactics Taught Thematically

Alliteration in the title seemed to be appropriate for todays topic. Tonight I delivered a 3 stage counter drill to see if the girls could call up past lessons on correct passes for each situation. Some yes, some no, not a surprise but with no clear pattern or reason why some knew what was going on and some didn't.

Stage #1, counter up the middle with a chaser and flip for the ball quickly so the goalie pass is never in danger of sailing over the counter and into the opposing goalie. About a quarter of the girls didn't want to give up the position to he offense to start the drill. Well, without knowing the correct pattern of swim-advantage-pass-finish then doing it later with full defense in a game will not work, no recall of a pattern. Some won't accept that and they are the ones who seem to never recognize the tactic when it pops up in a real situation.

Stage #2, counter with a defender on the left hip and rely on the goalie pass to a relay part way up the pool on the right side. The release was done universally well but receiving the pass with the intent to advance the ball to the ball-side advantage in the centre was seldom automatic. Easy enough to correct as we are doing more give & go drills at this time of the season.

Stage #3, counter advantage is gained by burning the centre forward and a pass to that breakaway is fed late, dry, from a deep wing. The only problem with this stage was the tendency for sharp release of the wing sideways. We were looking for a deep release toward the #1 spot (or #5 to feed the lefty) with a goalie pass wet to the wing and continued movement forward. That way the dry pass to the counter could come from in front and not behind which is just a turnover waiting to happen.

So, this was actually more of a learning practice than I had hoped. There was not as much recall as I wanted but I have identified who the listeners are and who needs some hand holding in future. That was important with this hybrid Espoir team that I was working with tonight.

Tomorrow I will talk about the Give & Go drill that we do to teach fluid movement with passing. Maybe drills and practices are boring for most, I don't really know who reads this blog now that it is an international audience.

Also, later this week, updates on Brendan and Carson who are playing in Florida this week with some US teams they hooked with while at a camp. I encouraged this as we came up empty on a club plan for February travel for all our teams.

PS forgot to mention that Serena stopped another 5m penalty shot vs Stanford this past weekend. It was one of their USA superstars, Lauren Silver. Anyone remember the season a few years ago that Serena went a whole year without letting in a penalty shot?