By Jeff Tipping, NSCAA Director of Coaching

With more and more teams playing flat zone defenses more teams are using the ‘early cross' as a way of crossing the ball from the flanks. In the Academy we have normally taught that the flank player should get to the goal line and pull the ball back to the near post or the top of the penalty box. Alternately, if those spaces are occupied the flank player should cross the ball to the back post. The introduction of flat back fours frequently gives flank players an opportunity to cross the ball as they approach the top of the penalty box. This kind of a cross is obviously executed earlier than the goal line cross and is particularly effective when the back line is outflanked and is running back at its own goal. The technique for the early cross is quite different than that used for the goal line cross and the coach should be familiar with the important technical coaching cues which will make the cross a dangerous cross.

The flank player eliminates the goalkeeper by hooking the ball so that it lands in the space between the top of the goal keepers box and the penalty spot. The ball should come in at waist height or below so that retreating defenders have difficulty clearing it. To get the ball to hook the flank player must do the following:
1) hips should keep facing forward in the direction the flank player is running
2) the ball should be struck from inside to out around the outside of the ball
3) most importantly, the big toe should be pointing up, which is essential in putting spin on the ball.

It is vital that the player does not spin the hips inside otherwise the ball will be driven rather than hooked. We encourage coaches to teach the early cross and teach players to recognize when a space has opened up behind the retreating back four. This is a very dangerous kind of cross and is becoming more common as the structure of the structure of defensive alignments change.

•  Friendly atmosphere

•  Great Coaches

•  Emphasis is on Individual Development

•  Right here in San Francisco

We will be playing in Abronzino League (Mostly Saturdays, and some Sundays) in the Fall, other activities are also planned in winter and spring that will not interfere with the high school soccer.

SFVC RED is a Class 1 (Competitive) team for Girls whose birth date is on or after 8/1/1986. Our Head Coach is Arturo Tafolla, Natioanl B Coaching License, Coach of the Year 2002, California Youth Soccer Assoc., Asst. Coach: Salvador Perez.

For questions, please feel free to call the manager.

•  Friendly atmosphere

•  Great Coaches

•  Emphasis is on Individual Development

•  Right here in San Francisco

We will be playing in tournaments in summer, and in Redwood League (mostly Sundays) in the autumn. Other activities are also planned in winter and spring that will not interfere with the high school soccer.

Practices are held twice a week at West Sunset field on Mondays and Wednesdays.

SFVC XTREME is a Class 3 (Developmental) team for Girls whose birth date is on or after 8/1/1988. Our Head Coach is Arturo Tafolla, Natioanl B Coaching License, Coach of the Year 2002, California Youth Soccer Assoc., Asst. Coach: Salvador Perez.

For questions, please feel free to call the manager.

By Jeff Tipping, NSCAA Director of Coaching Education

Sequential passing exercises are a great training tool to teach players some important playing habits. The coach assigns each player a number and then issues the following directives:

1. No player is allowed to stand still
2. No pass may be less than 15 yards 
3. The players must pass the ball sequentially, receiving the ball from the number before them and passing the ball to the number after them. For example, #2 receives the ball from #1 and passes the ball to #3.

By placing various conditions on the players the coach encourages the following developmental habits:

1. Each player must take two touches, one to receive it and one to pass it. This encourages the players to:
     i) look where their next pass will be before they receive it
     ii) prepare the ball in the direction the pass will go
     iii) measure the weight and accuracy of the pass to their teammate
2. One-touch passing will encourage the following
     i) further reinforce the need to look where they will pass the ball before they receive it
     ii) put the onus on the next sequential player to call for the ball early and move into space early to help the passing player execute an effective pass
     iii) put maximum emphasis on the speed of the pass knowing that the teammate also has only one touch
3. Introduction of a second, third or fourth ball. This will force the players to pass the ball quickly as they do not want the two balls to arrive at a single player at the same time.

A coach can divide a squad of 16 into 2 groups of 8, separate the groups and have them perform the exercises listed above. At some stage the coach can intermingle the two groups so that the visual environment puts more demands on the players.

Soccer participation in the United States has grown nearly 15 percent since 1987. In 1987, there were 15,388,000 players on adult and youth soccer teams in the U.S. By 2002, there were 17,641,000 players on teams. By contrast, basketball saw only a 2.4 percent increase in team participation, while baseball actually experienced a decrease in team play (31.1 percent decrease) as did touch football (26.6 percent decrease). Basketball still has the highest total of team players in the U.S. in 2002 with 36,583,000 players on teams. Soccer is the second highest with 17,641,000 followed by touch football (14,093,000) and baseball (10,402,000).

In 2002, there were 12,530,000 total youth soccer participants and 5,111,000 adult soccer players. Over 44 percent of players said that they played 25 or more days per year, while 23 percent of players said they played 52 or more days per year and 32 percent of players claimed that they were "aficionados" and that soccer was their favorite overall activity.

Of total player participation, 57 percent of players were male and 43 percent were female. The average amount of days spent playing soccer also increased from 1987 to 2002, from 30 days spent playing per year to 40 days spent playing per year. Perhaps the strongest statistic indicating soccer's immense growth in the U.S. over the past decade and a half is the fact that there are now 5.1 million adult soccer players in the U.S., up from 2.8 million in 1987-- a 79 percent increase.

I coached a few years ago and have an F license. I have time this Fall, and if some coach finds that he or she cannot coach, I can fill in, or I can act as assistant, say taking practices while the coach remains in charge for Saturday games.

Straight from the NSCAA convention: Klinsmann on teaching strikers

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America's annual convention took place from January 16-18 in Kansas City. The convention traditionally includes exhibitions, awards banquets, and clinics taught by former and present professional soccer players and coaches. This year's event also marked the first time that the MLS SuperDraft was open to the public at the same location.

Jurgen Klinsmann , a famed pro soccer player, spent his professional years competing for Stuttgart and Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga, Sampdoria and Inter Milan in Italy, Monaco in France, and Tottenham Hotspur in England. He retired in 1998 after representing Germany in the World Cup for the third time.

Klinsmann appeared at this year's NSCAA convention to discuss the striker position with youth coaches and how their attackers can become greater offensive threats.

Klinsmann emphasized that strikers should be taught separately in after-practice sessions to permit coaches and players to concentrate solely on offensive maneuvering rather than worrying about other members of the team (in general, when focusing on individual positions, it is always a good idea to hold position-specific practices).

First, Klinsmann discussed the importance of being vocal on the field to increase communication and therefore speed up the movement of the ball down the field. Players should always refer to one another by names, or even use the third person to refer to themselves, so that there is never any question of who is open while the front line makes runs towards the opponents' goal.

Another important topic of discussion in Klinsmann's clinic was the importance of letting players “just go” on the field. He feels that because the striker position relies so much on spontaneity and creativity, too much guidance or instruction by a coach can actually hinder a player during a game. If the player is thinking too much about what he is attempting to execute rather than relying on his or her talent to beat a defender, the player and the offensive attack naturally slows down. He also warns coaches against making naturally aggressive strikers become too cautious; again, this can slow down the game as the player tries to mold to a technique outside of his natural instincts.

Klinsmann discussed many drills for strikers that are ideal for after-practice sessions, but also stressed that drills should not be specific to certain on-field situations. For example, coaches should create a scenario where players have to react to one another on impulse; they should not create a scenario where a defender tries a block stop, or a tackle from the left side, etc., because then half of the lesson is already erased (the striker already knows what to ‘expect'). He suggests a 5 v. 5 drill in which the one side (the offensive team) scores points by making goals, and the other side (the defensive team) ‘scores' by executing eight uninterrupted passes to one another.

Klinsmann does not favor the 1 v. 1 drill. He believes that strikers should first and foremost rely on their speed when trying to pass a defender; trying to trick or outmaneuver the opponent through fancy footwork again only slows down the action on the field; using speed also decreases the chances that the fast breaks executed by the other forwards will become slowed or stunted. The team's chance to score will not be hampered when fancy footwork on one side of the field interrupts the fast break on the other side. He suggests giving attackers scoring “options” during the drills—by setting up mini-goals with cones alongside the regulation goal, players increase their mental activity and decision making; this encourages different types of scoring.

In any drill, Klinsmann says that all parts of the body's “arsenal” should be used, including the strong and weak foot (using both the instep and the top of the foot), the head, and chest. In the smaller after-practice sessions, teammates have more of an opportunity to observe one another and discover one another's strengths and weaknesses, and can therefore learn how to “channel” their passes to each other (towards their partner's strong foot, or the head “Brian McBride style,” etc.).