Constructive Strategies Success a Vital Element in Improvement

Anyone who has played soccer for any length of time has undoubtedly been on both sides of a lopsided score line. It is not much fun to lose under any circumstances, but it is especially difficult when an opponent runs up the score. Players are brought face-to-face with their shortcomings, and their confidence erodes. Even the winning team tends to suffer a bit in a lopsided game. Some players feel badly for friends on the losing team. Others may feel shortchanged because they received less playing time when the coach cleared the bench, or because they did not get a chance to play as competitively as they would have liked.

kids sitting on benchAttending to players’ bruised feeling and self-esteem is a difficult but important job for losing coaches in blowout games. They have to put aside their own feelings of frustration and find positive outcomes from an unpleasant experience. In soccer, as in any learning situation, success is a vital element in improvement. Yet it is a real struggle to find ways to have player perceive anything about a one-sided loss in positive terms.

What can players, coaches and organizations do to avoid blowouts? And if one-sided contests cannot be completely eliminated, how can we minimize their negative effects? Our purpose in writing this piece is not to deliver the definitive answer for handling blowout situations, but to sample opinion, invite reflection stimulate discussion and perhaps generate some constructive strategies for handling games involving mismatched teams.

By Keith Conners, Ph.D., Victoria Brooks and Amanda Brooks

Keith, Victoria and Amanda’s constructive strategies are available to you at: www.fundamentalsoccer.com

Editor’s Note:  Please send your opinions on this topic to: cysakarl@comcast.net

Konstructive Strategies

By Koach Karl

What can winning teams do to keep the score down while still playing good soccer and benefiting from the experience?
Here are some ideas of possible conditions and restrictions that coaches and player can accept to help balance the competitive situation on the field and still play hard. The list is arranged in no particular order and coaches should consider applying restrictions or rules that encourage their players to work on strengthening personal weaknesses.

• No one may score until a designated player scores.

• Specify a designated number of consecutive passes (10) before Going-to-Goal.

• Pass, Dribble or Shoot with left-foot (only) for right footed players and vice-versa for left-footed players.

• Go-for-Goal only after successfully executing a combination play (i.e. wall-pass, take-over, etc.) in the offensive third of the field.

• Go-for-Goal only after successfully executing a combination play (i.e. wall-pass, give-and-go, etc.) in the defensive third of the field.

• Following restarts (including throw-ins) all players on the team including the goalkeeper must touch the ball before being allowed to Go-for-Goal.

• All players are limited/restricted to ‘one-touch-play-the-ball’, that is, they are not allowed to bring the ball under control but must immediately release (pass/shoot) with the 1st touch –no exceptions!

• All players are limited/restricted to ‘two-touch-play-the-ball’ , that is, they must 1st control the ball with the first-touch and immediately release (pass/shoot) the ball with the 2nd touch –no exceptions!

• All –or-designated players are limited/restricted to either ‘one-touch’ or ‘two-touch’ play depending on what part of the field a. defending, b. midfield, c. attacking the ball is on.

• Use your Imagination!!!

CAUTION: Moving players to unfamiliar positions often results in even more damage (scoring). Many coaches have exchanged their front-line players with their back-line players to avoid running-up the score with tragic results. They did not realize that Back-line players (even goalkeepers) who were finally given the opportunity were willing to sacrifice personal harm to score a goal.

Editor’s Note: For more Koach Karl suggestions/ideas go to: www.fundamentalsoccer.com