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0:00 hello and welcome back to the channel this is coach KW here and today we're going to do something a little bit more practical the uh first sets of videos
0:08 were definitely a little bit more on the theory and big picture I think of it as like a crash course education on the big picture of 7v7 and just general soccer
0:18 play to help you have a good base and framework especially if you're not very experienced with the game today we're going to look at something much more
0:26 practical in the play practice play methodology that us ER uses in all their training courses and a lot of State associations do too one of the things
0:36 that you need to think about is what they call a welcome game and welcome game is basically when your players arrive to the field for practice your
0:45 goal is to try and get them out there playing something productive right away and so usually what they recommend and what I think is a great idea if you're
0:53 going to use that methodology and there are others that we can use and we'll look at them as well later on is a welcome game a game that when they show
1:01 up you can throw the first player out there and as soon as a second player comes out they're playing 1 V one and as the next player arrives and gets their
1:09 gear on now they get out there and it's 2v one and as each player arrives you can add players until you have as many players that you're going to get that
1:16 day right and you know they play and usually what I do with these games is I tend to let them go about 15 20 minutes but what's nice to do sometimes is
1:28 sometimes when you watch them play especially is you've had this a team for a little while if they're in a flow if they're doing really good things
1:36 sometimes what you need to do is just let them play and maybe you let that welcome game go for a whole half an hour if what they're doing is things that
1:45 you've worked on in the past or you're seeing hints of things that you would really like to Now work on with the rest of your practice so what I'm going to
1:52 show you is a whole bunch of different setups for welcome games from just the very basic simple and we're going to work our way through down to things that
2:00 are a little bit more complex and what the key of A welcome game is besides getting your players right into the action when they arrive you can use your
2:09 welcome game with conditions or ways that you set the field up in unique and different ways to kind of force the players into playing in a particular
2:20 mode or particular way that you're then going to reinforce in your practice section if you're going to do play practice play or to reinforce something you've worked on before and so you set
2:30 the field up and use conditions in this practice game to kind of force the play into a certain kind of thing and when you're doing these welcome games the one
2:39 key component is you give the players some hints as to what they should do to successful but it's not a time to coach it's not where you're going to stop them
2:48 every 30 seconds to address something that's happened you want to encourage you want to cheer on but really what you want to do is let them figure it out
2:57 once you've given them some hints of hey here's some ways you could be successful in this unique setup that you've laid out for them because after you see the
3:05 first one or two you're going to realize there are lots of different ways to do this and it forces different things on the players so once you get them going
3:12 and once you've kind of given them the framework of the field set up differently for a reason can you figure out why this is what I want you to do
3:21 and then let them be let them figure it out maybe give them a gentle hint here and there have to watch for safety reasons making sure they're not why and
3:30 not doing something dangerous to their teammates but let's take a look at some of these right now okay here's the first one very simple rectangular field marked
3:39 out the size that you need now I will say for roster sizes if you have a reasonable roster size for 7v7 that's usually around 10 to 12 players anything
3:50 bigger and I find you're going to be limiting playing time during games and anything smaller you can be a little restricted when there's absences sicknesses in injes so I like to have my
4:01 team somewhere in that 9 to 11 range but I've had as big as 12 and as small as nine before um if you have more than that you may have to make two Fields
4:11 because the idea here is you also want the competition to be intense in small sided so 3v3 4v4 if that's where it starts to push it where perhaps if you have to go to 5v5
4:23 or 6v6 maybe you break you make two of these small Fields next to each other so that you can get it to be 3v3 on both sides if you have a large roster like
4:31 that if you have an odd number of players whether because of absence or what else you can have them play up a man down a man because that happens in
4:41 the game or you can employ the neutral concept where you put a player in a neutral color Penny and you say to them you play for whatever team has the ball
4:51 so um that's a lot of different ways to do this but in this format here you can see very simple two Nets you toss them out there the first two players arrive
5:01 they're playing One V one and as players arrive they keep going simple straightforward easy to do here's the next version of this now you see we have four Nets and if you
5:12 don't have pop-up Nets you can use cones you can use anything you can find to make Nets but now you can see we have four Nets two in each corner and what
5:20 this four goal game enhances or you know tries to get them to understand is hey if the route is blocked to one goal can you get to the other goal so now this
5:33 format teaches players to switch the field switch to play from one side to the other you can't get to one side because everybody's gravitated to there is somebody smart enough to stay out
5:43 wide and you can pass that ball and he has a shot into an empty net so this is a great welcome game to help your players work on getting the ball from
5:51 side to side up and down the field and again it might be a review of stuff you've worked on or it may be a precursor to what you're going to work
5:58 on in the pr practice as you go forward next one here is a little bit more complicated this one can confuse them we're in a square and we have Nets
6:06 across from each other and we have one team that can go north south and the other team that go east west and what this does is it creates some interesting
6:14 overloads and interesting ways that players have to think about marking the other team or on transition which is really what we're working on here on transition how can you get into a shape
6:25 that can be defensively sound yet be able to attack your net so it really your players think and play with some problem solving issues when you're in
6:33 this sort of four goal game where one team is going east west one's going north south you can also change it and be like one team is the left and the
6:41 bottom and one team is the top and the right you can do all sorts of permutations there to really make them think about how is it that we can play
6:49 and how is it that you know when they organize themselves on the field when the ball turns over how can they protect what they're protecting so it's a great
6:58 way to make the your players think be aware and start to pick up their heads and think about what's going on on the field our next one here is an
7:07 interesting one this one here is where you take two goals you put them in the middle of the field back to back and what these lines are trying to poorly
7:15 show is the blue team is trying to score on the net that's closest to the red team and the red team is trying to score a goal to the net closest to the blue
7:23 team so now the players have to work the ball out into deeper areas so those red players have to get down where the blue players are work a ball perhaps that in
7:34 that direction and then to bring the ball back up so now we're having our players spread out they're moving the ball in opposite direction so maybe two
7:42 stay behind to defend and two stay up front to attack they get to rotate around the Nets but again it's a new challenge for your players where now
7:50 they're having to move the ball with depth and width and trying to now go back towards the goal in and same with defending players have to run around
7:58 perhaps if you want to keep players out of the Nets you could put a square of cones around those Nets and say no players are allowed to come into that
8:07 space so now they have to take you know maybe they have three feet 5 feet away from the Nets it keeps people from standing in the net playe quote unquote
8:14 goalie here's that same version here where we have those cones but now we've placed a player from each team inside there those players cannot score but now
8:25 they work as Central players to move around and defend their net but also as a kind of a central midfielder can act as a glue and also cover each other so
8:36 now you're working on playing the ball in and out and then getting it around so it's a new challenge it's another way for players to work on some skills and
8:45 play in a unique manner where they have to solve the problem can I get the ball into that player in the middle and then get it bounced out for a score you can
8:53 set conditions that say if you use that player in the middle to score a goal it's worth two points so you can do things things to encourage or enhance
9:02 what you're trying to do by uh putting conditions on it like that and giving them bonus points for doing certain things here's another one let's say that
9:11 you have an odd number of players you can work that player in the middle that player is a neutral they can't be marked but you can say hey that player plays
9:22 for you and if you play through that Central player and here we're really focusing on working on a central midfielder to to knit play play together if you can play through that player and
9:31 score it's worth two points and if you just go around them it's just worth a regular one point but here's another way when you have an odd number of players
9:39 you can place a single player in the middle and rotate that player in and out and have them work on those skills of turning receiving looking up the field
9:47 linking Play In and Out in a non pressurized situation you can also make it that other players can go in from the opposite team and challenge for the ball
9:56 but again you can set those conditions just let them play here's a variation on that where now you have two players locked into that zone and so now they're trying to fight to
10:05 get space from each other because they're going to Mark each other but they can't leave that space so again it's now a little bit even more realistic where that red player at
10:14 number three for example has got to find space and shield the ball if he wants to receive a ball from player eight for example and get that ball and turn and
10:22 play it out and play to somebody else so it's a really good challenge for those players but another way to have a welcome game where you're also reinforc
10:29 forcing a component you can also use these games as part of your drills afterwards once they've played you can use the same setup to say hey let's see
10:38 if we can be more successful by and now you can focus your practice part on those skills that you want to have happen in this game and use the exact
10:46 same setup you can save yourself time by not having to move cones move Nets now you're using the same setup as part of your practice here's now where we've
10:55 taken the field instead of being long and narrow it's now short and wide so now we're having our players try to utilize that wide space and you can do
11:04 this with two Nets you can do this with four Nets just like we saw in the first games but now it's a different challenge can we use the wide areas everything is
11:11 congested and if everybody stays in the middle it's just going to be a Rugby scrum where's the open space where can you find that space to either dribble or
11:18 pass or move the ball into here's a variation of this where we've used cones to make diamonds so that the players up at the top and the
11:27 bottom so up the top we have player eight and five they're locked into that triangle Zone and players two and eight at the bottom they're locked into that zone and you
11:35 can see they can move in a V fashion and it kind of replicates what wide Wingers would do on a real field where they go wide when they get closer to the center
11:46 of the field and they become narrower as they approach their attacking 18 yard area or defending in the front of the 18 and so now you got 2v2 in the Middle
11:56 with players locked on the outside where they have to play 1 V one and the players on the inside can utilize them you can do that with cones you can do
12:04 that with lines you can do that in lots of different ways but here's an example of doing that with a condition game here's another kind of condition game
12:10 where we're playing forward and backwards but now we've locked two players in the attacking zones or the final thirds if you will and we have four players in the middle playing 2v2
12:22 or maybe it's 3v2 again if you have an odd number of players you can have a neutral playing there sometimes you can take your neutrals put them on the
12:29 outside on the sidelines and use them and say hey there's a neutral player on each sideline and you're going to play wide and back in but again ways to get
12:38 your players to think about different ways to defend the ball find space and as they join in play and again the same setup can be used in your practice to
12:48 Now work on those skills once they've kind of explored them on their own here's another a little bit more complicated game let's say maybe you're lucky enough to have access to Nets that
12:58 are on on Wheels and you can push them around um I'm lucky enough every once in a while to get my whole 7v7 field so I'll use the center circle as opposed to
13:07 those yellow cones in the middle but I'll take the Nets I'll turn them around put them back to back and I'll use one go tender and I'll make a square using
13:17 the center line the gold Tender Is In The Middle With the center circle with the Nets back to back on the center line or you can do it like this and then I
13:24 make a grid or a square um either using the tops of the 18s or I'll use hes like this and basically what I create is four grids outside that Center Square and I
13:34 lock the players into that area and the idea is they need to try and work the ball around from grid to grid around to try and get a shot the keeper this is
13:45 where it gets challenging the keeper has to defend both Nets so they have to run around the net so you're going to want to swap your goalie out a lot because
13:52 it's very taxing um but it is kind of a fun and interesting way you can even make it also that like one side of the net is for red and the other side of the
14:01 field is for blue so you can force them to play in One Direction as opposed to any direction but you can do it in lots of different ways just an idea of a way
14:09 that now because the players are locked into a grid and they're playing One V one in each grid they're now trying to move the ball trying to find movements
14:17 to be able to find an open player and they also one of the rules is they have to shoot the ball from outside the center circle or outside the yellow
14:24 Square so that the goal tender doesn't get destroyed all the time so this is a fun welcome game it's a little bit more complicated but again it can work on
14:31 lots of different skills finally the last two that I do are we'll talk about these in more depth this is more of a practice thing but you
14:42 can arrange this during your warm-ups as players come in but it does require you to have worked on some shape in this one we're taking our six field players and
14:51 if we had an extra player or you as a coach could stand on the other side of the center line we basically have our one two 2 31 formation and we're trying
15:01 to play towards that goal that has three Defenders and a keeper sometimes we can have two Defenders and a keeper and you can condition this to say hey you need
15:09 to make five passes before you take a shot on that so now you're working on your players moving in the shape trying to maintain possession move the defense
15:18 around to then find a shot and you can put those conditions like five passes three passes seven passes and this formation is the opposite now we're working as we're playing out of the back
15:29 and so now we're telling the blue team the idea is you need to be able to hold on to this ball make five or six seven passes and then ultimately your goal is
15:37 to play to that player one who moves up and down and if the red team wins the ball they can then try and go for goal so it's another way of working in that
15:45 shape of that one two 31 shape and working it as a game this is a little bit more complicated and it's something that we'll look at further but I just
15:53 wanted to lay that out there is you know when once you've had your team for a year and a half or so you can make this a welcome game as well once everybody's
16:01 shown up so I hope those welcome ideas are useful to you they're great ways to start a practice and they're great ways to take a practice from the start and
16:10 then work on a specific component without you having to rearrange your field your cones and everything else and then once you've get through all your practice piece you can take away all the
16:19 restrictions and then let them finish with a scrimmage and you have most the places things in place which really a time saer for you and for the kids
16:27 you're not having downtime while you're mov moving everything around so I hope these welcome game ideas are useful to you helpful to you and you can come up
16:35 with some ones on your own hopefully these inspired you so hope this was helpful until next time have a great time on the field and we'll see you
