The More Touches The Better

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MORE

TOUCHES THE

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HOW CAN WE GET PLAYERS MORE TOUCHES ON THE BALL?

OUR BALL MASTERY JOURNEY As a player and a coach, how ball mastery has helped.

CONTENTS Page 3 - Welcome Page 4 - YouTube Page 5 - My Ball Mastery Journey Page 8 - Follow us on Page 10 - How can we get players more touches ?

Page 14 - Ball Mastery Training Session #1 Page 15 - Ball Mastery Training Session #2 Page 17 - October Player Development upload #1 Page 18 - October Player Development upload #2

WELCOME

The Player Development Magazine Welcome to this month's Player Development Magazine. We love the technical side of the game and how to make players, either adult or youth, improve their ability on the ball.

Player development doesn't happen overnight, but with regular practice and consistent training we can really see huge developments in the player's game.

We love taking more touches on the ball, and figuring out how to increase the player's contact time with the ball.

This month we take a look at how to increase touches on the ball while also taking at a look at our own personal experiences with ball mastery, how it has helped us improve as players, and as coaches.

We hope you enjoy!

Elliott Everson, Owner, OpportunityElite

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MY BALL MASTERY JOURNEY

By Elliott Everson OpportuntiyElite

At OpportunityElite one of our main focuses in player development is ball mastery. Over the last few years ball mastery has become a much more significant part of team training sessions at a number of different levels. Spurs were one of the first teams to actually have a designated technical coach, Ricardo Moniz, who is currently manager of SV Excelsior in Holland.

Back in 2008 was the first time that I saw ball mastery as a specific aspect of training.

Ricardo Moniz came and visited the training academy that I was coaching at. He provided a purely technical session, focusing on the manipulation of the ball, using both feet and quick changes of direction.

At the time I was playing semi-professional football and used ball mastery as some of my own individual training, but only sporadically.

I then moved to America to play for a University on a soccer scholarship. Training was tough, physical and intense but it didn't incorporate any ball mastery training. After my time playing was finished, I became a coach at the University and implemented ball mastery into players' training programmes. I would devise sessions for individuals to make sure that they were more comfortable, confident and sharp on the ball. With regular practice I could see the huge benefits that the players were having. Even players between the ages of 18-24 were benefiting from the increased touches on the ball, and quick, agile movements. Previously I had thought that ball mastery will only really benefit the youth players, who were in the early stages of their technical development, but that wasn't the case. All ages improved due to ball mastery training.

After realising this I began to think of different ways to bring ball mastery into team practices while developing new skills and exercises. I soon realised that I needed to be very sharp on the ball and able to show players exactly how to do the exercises and skills. The speed of my feet improved significantly, my close control became good on both feet and I just felt much more confident on the ball.

The ball mastery practices helped the players greatly, and it also helped me develop much more than I thought I would. I improved in all areas of close control and felt sharp on the ball, quick footed and deceptive, being able to drop my shoulder and change direction quickly.

As a player I was skilful, loved to dribble at defenders and create goalscoring opportunities, but the ball mastery practice that I had been doing had helped me feel quicker on the ball and much sharper!

When I was a youth player there was very limited ball mastery training. The extent of it may have been some quick Cruyff turns and drag backs before our match at the end of the training session but now I can only wish that I had learned and used ball mastery at a much younger age. I am certain that it would have provided a huge improvement to my game, giving me more confidence on the ball in tight areas, while allowing me to deceive my opponents with quick feints, drops of the shoulder and close control of the ball.

On my return from America to the UK, I began coaching players technically through one to one and small group sessions. Ball mastery has been a huge part of that training, but I must always make sure that I can demonstrate and perform the techniques to help players see and understand exactly what they need to do.

To make sure of this I practise on my own, once or twice a week, ensuring that I can move the ball sharply, while keeping co-ordinated and in control of the ball. My close control and ball mastery skills have improved significantly over this time and I now feel that I have quicker feet, better control and skill on the ball than when I was playing!

I'm a huge believer in ball mastery and have seen the results first hand. Improvement doesn't happen straight away but with consistent practice players will become much more confident and comfortable on the ball.

I now think to myself quite regularly about how different my game may have been if I had had significant ball mastery training from a young age. It's all about taking more touches on the ball and being comfortable and confident enough to move and manipulate the ball exactly where we want.

If an opponent finds it very difficult to get the ball off you then you will be in a great situation.

Bring ball mastery into your training as much as you can, even as you move into the senior game.

It's hard work but the benefits can be huge for you as a coach, or as a player. If coaches can practise it, they will begin to understand how best to demonstrate and help their team improve their technical ability on the ball.

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The More Touches The Better. Increase Players' Contact time on the ball.

How can we get players more touches on the ball?

We set up the pitches, mark the cones and distances and have a plan set out for our session. The players arrive and one of the first things you hear them say: "When are we having our game today?"

Young players' enthusiasm for the game is fantastic and all they want to do is play and have the ball at their feet. But, how do we get players more touches on the ball, and why should we?

Technical development at the youth level should always come first. We musn't forget it because we have a bug game coming up and need to work on our tactical set up. If we don't have technical players, they will struggle to execute tactical plans. Place the technical first, before anything else.

As coaches, we need to always think about getting players more touches on the ball.

How can we do it, and where can we do it?

A good start is during the warm up. Quite regularly you will see players jogging around the pitch for a few laps which, I have to say, there is nothing wrong with. But, if we want to make sure that players develop their technical ability then we need to utilise all the possible time we have with the player, giving them the chance to take more touches on the ball.

Instead of running the players around the pitch, can we get players dribbling, practising skills, ball mastery or passing in ones or twos? Gradually increase the intensity of this while they are progressing, increasing their heart rate while taking touches on the ball.

During this 10-15 minute warm up time the players may have taken an extra 100-200 touches on the ball. Do that each week for a season and players will begin to see huge improvements in their technical ability.

Bring the ball into your warm ups as much as possible. 10 to 15 minutes of ball work, unopposed, with as many touches on the ball as we can take, will give us just as good a warm up as anything else.

If we can have a segment of the session where each player has a ball then that would be fantastic for individual development. Deliver and practise ball mastery skills, give players challenges to master and practise dribbling and turning skills as much as we possibly can.

Incorporate ball mastery into your practices as regularly as possible. The more consistently that we can use ball mastery drills, the better. Ball mastery will increase contact time on the ball significantly.

If we aren't using ball mastery then there are still plenty of drills, techniques and sessions that we can use to increase the amount of touches each player will take on the ball.

Divide players into small groups or to practise as many one v one, or two v two scenarios as possible. The larger the groups that we have, the less touches each player will take on the ball so we need to make sure that we are developing each session to give players the best chance to get on the ball as frequently as possible.

Putting players in a position to practise against their team-mates, taking as many touches as possible in training will increase contact time on the ball and the amount of touches that they take.

In addition to trying to get as many touches on the ball in sessions, it is also incredibly important for players to practise in their own time, depending on what they want to achieve from the game.

If players want to progress, then they must practise on their own. As coaches, we only get to see players for an hour or two's training each week and a match depending on the weather. In that time where we don't see them, what can the players be doing on their own?

Again, it comes down to the amount of touches on the ball they can take. Players that regularly go out into the garden, or down the local park and play against their friends, or train on their own, improve significantly. As coaches and players we need to encourage the extra training, training that players can undertake themselves.

Good ideas for doing this are to practise a skill, or technically challenging exercise, during the session. At the end of the session we can ask the players to see if they can master it next week, or progress it with their own skill or trick included.Â

Providing players with a technical challenge helps them beat a target and develop their technical skills. They'll enjoy it and love showing you their success.

We want to make sure it is a challenge, not a technical skill that is too easy, or too slow.

Can it be something sharp and fast that they have seen their favourite players do before? If we get it right, they will be wanting to show their team-mates and coaches, giving them a great enthusiasm to practise on their own, while also developing their technical ability.

Ball mastery provides fantastic individual practices, as do dribbling challenges and skills.

The more ideas that we can give players, the more training that they will do.

Players can sometimes run out of ideas for their own individual training. The more that we can help give ideas, the better. These technical challenges can keep them engaged for much longer than we might think.

On the next two pages we have some ball mastery sessions, which are great for developing technical ability, while also challenging the player Turn to the next page to see...

Ball Mastery Training Session 1

Ball Mastery Session 2

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