1v1 or pass the ball
Article written by Angus McLeodWhat is 1v1 and Why do we encourage it?1v1 means 1player verses another player.There are plenty of 1v1 soccer drills and games out there that will help your players prepare for match situations. These 1v1 soccer situations occur naturally and are a constant part of the game and it is important your players are ready, whether they are on the defensive or going forward.Being a Head Coach of a Team is something that I take with a great deal of pride and accept the trust that has been put in me to develop the team even if sometimes when my head says ”PASS the ball” but my heart says “KEEP going, take them on, can you score”.Now let’s be honest, we all want our players to score goals and for our team to get up and win, its natural, we are human so LET’S not lie about that.Put your hand up if you have been on the sideline yelling out directions eg: PASS The ball! And they did, which turned out to be the wrong decision. The reason we yell this out is from “FEAR” Fear of losing the ball to the opposition, Fear of them running down the field towards our goals and Fear of them scoring.On this site we talk about Trusting your coach, Persistence and Winning isn’t everything. The reason we talk about this is Development and 1v1 is a very strong development attribute for a player to have. One week we will have the players on the pitch playing 1v1 and instruct them to go as far as you can, and can you finish off by scoring a goal. Some people would say we are encouraging the kids to be BALL HOGS but in actual fact we are developing the player to have confidence in themselves, to trust us, to be persistent in putting practice & training into play by using their foot skills in defeating their opponent with the STEP OVER, CRUFFY TURN, ZINDANE TURN, AIR ELASTICO, THE HEAL CLICK or even THE LORENZO SPIN. We need them and MUST let them practice this in actual games so they can dazzle themselves and us of course dazzle us with their brilliance, they want to show off that they can do something special so we must allow it and that creates a fantastic culture for the player to be in, especially when the entire team, parents and supporters are on board saying encouraging words like “WOW you were great in those 1v1 battles and that shot at the end or GEZZ you were so close at the end of some of those 1v1s, you are really starting to fool the other players, they didn’t know which way you would go, or I really get excited watching you take them on”. Then the next week which becomes testing to the player as we start training them moving the ball quick instead of playing a progressive 1v1. They stand there and look at you with their head slightly tilted to one side and say, “you say WHAT?’ yes, my friend you heard me, play a quick 1v1 and pass the ball. As confusing this may be to some there is logic behind this. What we are now creating is a library of skills that their brain can pass in a split-second decision on. By asking them to now move the ball on, as this creates SCANNING & AWARENESS, checking their shoulder, where are my teammates and where are the opponents. This also creates another skill of being able to play strong through balls and split the players to open the space up for the attacking team, it also gives them confidence to be able to play back and build a play up or simply to be able to hold possession till an opportunity presents itself to have a strike at the goals. All of this also creates one of the biggest skills that can take a very long time for a player to develop and that is communication.We need to train these players week in and week out on the different types of games we want them to play, so that they can get to a point where they as not only individuals, but as a team can make clear decisions and score goals. They play because they love it, so please for your player, try to watch it and enjoy it, instead of yelling at it.Gusy
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