14: Grow Coach Newsletter

Football Coaching: .

Mar 28, 2024

A warm welcome from JustCoachMD. We are happy to have you on board. We are looking forward to providing you with helpful content.

Here is what to expect:

Education: Coaching the transitions.
Activity 1: 5v4 (+2) possession game.
Activity 2: 4v4 (+4) Transfer game.
Session Commentary: What to coach and what to look for.
Coach Project: Session design activity.

Football Coaching: Training Transitions

There are two basic types of transition play in football:

The transition from defence to attack is known as the attacking transition.
The transition from attack to defence is referred to as the defensive transition.
Winning the ball back is known as regaining possession and the moment when the ball is lost is commonly known as the loss of possession.

Both moments require players to react quickly to the loss or regain of the ball. Players must observe what's going on and anticipate the next action. Teams with slow reactions to the transitions often struggle to create scoring chances or easily concede goals.

What skills do players need during transitions?

Encourage players to anticipate and plan for interceptions and regains. Players must be coached to read the triggers that the ball is about to be won back or lost. The coach can help the players to position themselves in the correct spaces. This gives them a good chance to win back the ball or to defend.

Transitions are constantly occurring during the football game, and the player’s reactions during these moments can be the difference between success and failure. The best teams are always transitioning. They will have some players ready for the attacking transition and some preparing for the defensive transition.

The collective group should always have an idea of how they will react. Even though it seems like these moments occur in isolation.
It is important to coach players to be ready for both at any one time. This is where the difficulty can lie when trying to coach transitions to players. Players can find it hard to focus on both moments.
Coaching the attacking or defending transition in isolation is normal as a starting point. As players become more skilled the coach should allow for more chaos.
For example when coaching the attacking transition the attacking team could be in a defensive shape before they react to a turnover.
The defending team could be in an attacking position before they return to a defensive shape.
A team is either in or out of possession when a transition occurs. The coach should try to create practices that reflect what this looks like in your environment.

Coaching Anticipation

This skill is about players planning and predicting what might happen next. Coaches can help players to position themselves to allow for an interception or regain. The skill of anticipation involves lots of scanning. Coaches must get players to think about playing the game with their eyes up. This helps players to get better at recognising common pictures and patterns.

When the player is scanning the coach needs to help them understand what they are looking for. Some general information that can be coached is encouraging your players to look at the opponent’s body language.

Encourage them to watch the opponent’s body position, is it open or closed?
Do they know you are there? Which direction are they facing?
Who are they looking at? Do they look rushed? Where are they going next?

Predicting Play

The answers to the above questions will provide clues. They will help the player to make their plans and predictions around defending, attacking, intercepting, and regaining. The amount of detail provided will vary from player to player.

It is up to the coach to decide how much or little they want to share with the player. Try not to overwhelm them, your coaching detail must be challenging but achievable.

Secondly, the coach can help their players to use their bodies to execute what they have anticipated.

Quick players can use their speed to get there first or outrun the defender.
Strong players can use strength to push off, back into, or shift the opponent out of the way.
Small agile players can hide out of sight. They can use late but explosive changes of direction to intercept, regain or change direction.

The coach can have coaching points to help the team understand anticipation. They can have collective actions which are required when the ball is won and lost.

Coaching the Transitions

What are the triggers to look for during transitions?

A trigger should stimulate a response so players should be encouraged to use the anticipation skill to trigger their reactions. This information is based on what they see and observe throughout various moments of the game.

There are triggers for the attacking and defensive transitions. The coach is responsible for working with their players. The coach must help players spot triggers to move from defence to attack or from attack to defence.

Coaches should encourage players to react to likely moments when opponent players may lose the ball.

Triggers the ball is about to be won

Poor touches
Players holding onto the ball too long
A player turning their back on the direction of play
Long direct passes
The ball carrier has limited options and space

Once the ball is won players who have anticipated well should be positioning themselves in hurtful positions. This makes it hard for the opponent. Width and depth will help to stretch out opponents.

Time is the main advantage the ball-winning team has. Finding the furthest pass quickly or picking the quickest option to travel with the ball forward will be essential in maintaining the edge.

Coaches should encourage their teams to punish the opponent’s slow reactions and take advantage of any errors or mistakes. This mentality will have a positive impact on your players.

The players who react quickest during errors, mistakes, and setbacks often have the edge over their immediate opposition. Time limits upon regains can be introduced to players in games, such as double goals for scoring within 6 seconds.

Triggers the ball is about to be lost

The moment your team is about to lose the ball is another moment when the coach can help players. The players would be looking for the same triggers as above but scanning their teammates rather than the opponents.

The anticipation part would be around positioning around the ball. Good positioning allows players to react quickly if their teammate fails to keep the ball.

High opponent pressure on the ball can often indicate that the ball is about to be turned over.
Positioning around the ball during these moments is important. Positioning allows teams to execute a counter-press if the ball is turned over.
This is why some teams only encourage a short passing game. The distances their players have to run to win back the ball are shorter if possession is lost.
From a positioning point of view, the coach would be looking for the players closest to the ball to go and win it back. The players who are close but not pressing would be looking to block passing lanes and mark a player.
The players furthest away from the ball would be getting organized into a compact shape.

The opponent's style of play can also help teams react positively when they are about to lose the ball. For example, a tactic to win back the ball against a team playing long balls could be competing for second balls.

In this instance, the main skill of the out-of-possession team will be anticipating where the ball will land. They then need to have players in good positions to win it back.

Transitional Play In Football

Activity 1: 5v4 (+2) Possession vs Pressure

The Black team starts as the possession team and they must make a set number of passes (6 – 8) and then score in the furthest goal from the last pass.
The Blacks can use the goalkeepers to help keep the ball unless they are trying to score.
The Red team must win back the ball and score a goal.
The Black possession team must react quickly to losses of possession and the Red defending team must take advantage of regains.
If the Reds can win the ball and score within 5 seconds they can have two goals. If the Blacks complete their 6 – 8 passes and score they also get two goals.
Keep the score and change roles every 3 – 5 minutes.
The game can be progressed by adding additional players to the field.

Activity 2: 4v4 (+4) Transitional Possession

HOW IT WORKS: Set up the playing field as shown. There are three teams of four players.

One team acts as support players (Whites).
The Black and Red teams must retain the ball in their half for as long as possible.
The team in possession can use the Whites to retain the ball. Teams can be rotated after a set period to allow each one to act as support players.
The Black and Red teams score by getting a wall pass around a player or by making 6 – 8 consecutive passes in their half.
A goal is also scored each time a team regains and transfers the ball.
The defending team must win the ball and try to transfer it to their half by playing off one of the Whites centrally or hitting the furthest White on the end line.
When the ball is transferred from one half to another all players transition and the practice continues.

Final Thoughts

Transitions are an important part of football and they are constantly occurring. Coaches must help their players develop anticipation skills. This ensures they can respond quickly and efficiently to the transitional moments. Practice and repetition will help players to develop the habit of reacting.

Reading the game, and predicting what may happen next is a fundamental part of highly skilled players. The coach can help players read the game better by providing them with triggers that indicate the ball is about to be won or lost.

These triggers should then help the players position themselves correctly to allow them to take advantage of an error or recover into a position that allows them to defend or win back the ball.

This article provides coaches with technical details to help the individual make decisions and some generic coaching points to give the team for both the attacking and defending transitions. The sample practices can be used to help deliver the coaching detail in fun games where everyone is involved and gets the chance to practice.

Session Commentary

Aim: Give players lots of opportunities to react during transitional moments.

Objectives:

Work on the reactions to win back the ball or defend during a possession turnover.
In attack, regain the ball, pass forward and run forward.
In defence decide on the best course of action, win back the ball, pick up a player or cover a space.

Coaching Process: This is the method you could use to coach the session to the players.

What: Show, tell, or ask the players WHAT to do.
When: Ask the players WHEN is the best time to do it.
Ways: Get the players to think about how many WAYS there are to achieve it.

Coaching Points: Share some coaching points that are most relevant to the players

In Attack:

Regain: Win back the ball.
Retain: Pass forwards or secure the ball.
Run: Make sure the receiver of any passes has support.

In Defence:

Steal: Can you steal the ball from your opponent, If you are close enough?
Stick: Stay close to a dangerous player and stop them getting the ball.
Space: Do you need to cover a space whilst staying connected to the team?

‘‘The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable and comfort the troubled’’

(R, Charlesworth)

Coach Project

Practice Design: Use the activities above for inspiration, and create a full session on the attacking or defending transitions. Think about different progressions you could add. For example, a 2nd ball, another player, a mini-goal, etc.

Can you build up the session from start to finish? The session sequence could look something like the image below.

It could have the following sequence:

Technical practice: Unopposed activity that is repetitive.
Skills practice: Work on the topic with an overload or varied levels of pressure.
Possession: A directional practice that involves playing under pressure
Small-Sided Game: Get lots of full-pressure repetition of the session topic.

Coach Task :

Design the activity for around 6 – 12 players to work on attacking or defensive transitions:

•Keep it SIMPLE

•Ensure it is REPETITIVE

•Include a COMPETITION

Note Down:

•The rules and organization

•Progressions and regressions

Please feel free to get in touch or share your ideas, actions, and interventions. We would love to hear from you. If you have any questions, post them here; we will do our best to answer them.