TACTICAL FOUNDATION (YOU HAVE TO USE THIS!)

This is taken from an article by Fergus Connolly but it also appears in his book GAME CHANGER.

There are 4 elements of tactics:

#1 - Locationing / Positioning

#2 - Man Circulation / Movement

#3 - Ball Circulation / Movement

#4 - Relationship / Timing / Sequencing

#1 - Locationing / Positioning 

- Refers to knowing where you are generally, in relation to the ball, to your teammates and to the opposition

- Once play resumes if you out of position then it’s too late 

– all movement is now being processed cognitively in relation to the last understood location so you’re movements will be out of place because you started out of place

#2 - Man Circulation / Movement 

- Refers to how you move either with an assigned task to complete or on the fly in respect to everyone else

- All player development/game correction needs to be based with this in mind (were you too close or too far away from the contest? How close should you have been? Where were you in relation to your direct opposition?)

#3 - Ball Circulation / Movement 

- Refers to how the ball is moved or allowed to move  and determines the movement of the opponent

- You can move your opponent around as little or as much as you want by moving the ball, and you can compress them or spread them out

 - Defensively you direct the opponent to area's you want them in by how you position and move your players

 - You have just as much, if not more control over the game without the ball then with it

#4 - Relationship / Timing / Sequence

- Refers to the timing of all of the above, how they move and in what order

- This is the most complex to develop because it is dependant on the game sense of eacg individual player

- Any and all practice must replicate the game scenarios you face and want to improve, otherwise why even bother training?

- These 4 foundations form the basis for identifying the area's of focus/improvement of game sense in your players

- Is the player making tactical errors? Are they not aware of their positioning? This can be addressed/fixed by using more breaks to allow them practice of self locating

- Perhaps they are not moving properly in relation to teammates on defense or they're not close enough as they move which can be developed by changing numbers or making uneven numbers for small sided games in practice or 7v7

- Is it a timing issue where they haven’t played enough? Is your team preparation archaic? Is there not enough focus on game sense with too much gym and running?

If you have a less talented and/or skilful team, and at local/amateur level most of it do, then using the game model principles by Fergus will give you a far greater chance of competing, and hopefully winning, then spending 15mins a night on zone kick out drills and useless cone to cone drills that has close to ZERO transfer to what happens on game day.

Use this stuff now and be the first to implement it and reap the benefits which will lead to greater success, better players/coaches being attracted to your club and all of a sudden you're a powerhouse leaving everyone else in the dust.

The full article can be found here.