The the summer of 08, VAA, in cooperation with VUSC (Valley United Soccer Club) is launching a new program called the Valley Soccer Alliance (VSA). It is intended to give VAA community players an opportunity to experience something a bit more like travel, without the total travel commitment. VSA players will play on VAA community teams. These players will then come from their respective teams to participate in additional practices. Finally, the VSA teams will compete in 2 travel C3-level tournaments during the season.

These is a note I put together for the coaches of those teams...

Here my thoughts on the Valley Soccer Alliance practice curriculum. These players will already be playing twice per week with their assigned VAA teams. They should be getting adequate field time in those session. I think that one additional VSA session per week should be enough extra practice. It should be a serious practice and the effort level (i.e. focus, speed of play) may need to be up a bit compared to their regular team practices.

Here are some key issues:

1. Keeper - you absolutely need to have 1 or 2 keepers who enjoy playing that position. Note that I did not say they need to be good keepers. Enjoying the position is much more important. The skills can be taught. If you know who these keepers are now, they should sign up for the keeper part of the 4/26 NSC clinic and they should also plan on attending the free keeper training Sunday evenings beginning 4/27. (4 Sundays, 7P-8P) All of this is at Hayes.
2. Field positions. I would find out what two positions your players like to play. That doesn't mean that's where they should play, but it can give you ideas. When you create your tournament lineups you have the opportunity to try to field the strongest lineup you can without moving players among all positions equally.
3. Playing time. We have not yet discussed this issue. VAA rules call for equal playing time. VUSC rules say each player must play a minimum of 50% of each game. The latter may be more appropriate for the VSA teams. We should discuss.
4. Formations. I would recommend a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formation. The 4-3-3 is easiest to teach, but may not provide enough defense. The 4-4-2 is a bit tougher to teach, but without a striker with a "nose for the goal", may not generate enough offense. Choice of formation is dictated by the talents of the players you have, though 4-4-2 has served me very well with the girls teams I've coached. I've used a variety of formations with boys depending on their strengths.

1. set plays. More goals are scored on set plays than any other way. Teams that have played together for months will know what to do. The biggest danger the VSA teams face is disorganization on set plays. Work a few corner kick and free kick scenarios each practice. Don't spend more than 10 min on this. Make sure players know where to go. Make sure they know why, when, how and where to make a wall. Make sure the keepers know how this works. Make sure that a player on the field knows to take charge in these situations. If you have questions on this, please let me know. If you do nothing else, do this.
2. (optional) if there are any skills you want to work on without pressure (heading, juggling, trapping), do it here.
3. passing and receiving/keep away. We'll get in a number of skills at once with this: passing, receiving, communication, speed of play, defense. You can do this a number of ways, but the goal is to both have teams able to complete many consecutive 5-10 yd passes, receive the ball away from pressure, move (no ball watching) and work on D strategies to prevent the above. There are countless drills to work on this. Start with way more O players (like 3v1... your players should be able to complete 10 good passes without a steal in 3v1, or 5v2), then 6v3 or something like that, then equal, small-sided keepaway (4v4).
4. Attacking or Defending patterns and principles. Focusing on EITHER attack or defense (i.e. attacking third or defending third), work specific strategies to goal, such as: wing play, crosses (very important), timing passes, etc.; and then defending all of these. The goal is to give the team some specific simple things they can do in the attacking third so they won't panic. As they get comfortable with these patterns they can get more creative. Also, the D gets reps.
5. scrimmage. Each practice should end with a short, full speed, scrimmage.
6. PKs. Preliminary tournament games can have ties, though championship and consolation games cannot end in a tie. It's always good to work on PKs.

You can find practices with all this kind of stuff on my website.

Finally, just like for community, I have put together a coaches manual and curriculum for Valley United (though I didn't write them). These may be useful to you in working with the VSA teams. You'll find them in the usual place, http://www.bjb.org/soccer/coachinfo/ .

These are just my suggestions. As coaches of the teams, you need to decide what is appropriate for your team. Any thoughts, questions, ideas... please let me know. This is, of course, a new program and I expect we'll learn a few things this season!

Barry

Barry Caplin
VUSC/VAA Soccer Director of Coaching

<bc@bjb.org >