The Competitive Cauldron: Creating Intensity in Training

We have all seen it; our top player lollygags his or her way through yet another session. We have prodded, cajoled, whispered and yelled, and yet, another display of average effort is put forth by a talented player, and a talented team. It is a problem all too common for the American coach, a result of our poor youth soccer structure in the US. With yearly fixed rosters, and little avenue to promote and demote players between teams, we are faced with players who know that their spot on the roster is pretty much guaranteed until the next tryouts. Even in the US Developmental Academy, all players are guaranteed to start 33% of the games. So how do American coaches over come this, and create the competitive cauldron in training, where players fight on a daily basis for their spot in the first 11?

Every year, when the new crop of American talent heads oversees, their first comment is how competitive training is. In Europe, South America, and elsewhere, youth players are brought up in this environment, as they are constantly playing to make the U16s, the U18s, the Reserves, and ultimately the first team. In clubs with a true Academy program, hard working youngsters are rewarded with training opportunities with older players, and even with the pros. There they see players at the top of the game, fighting day in and day out to get in the squad on the weekend. Yet with a completely different structure in the US, can we create the same environment? Perhaps not exactly, but here are a few suggestions to make your sessions a little more competitive.

Structure your sessions, progress quickly, and finish on time: Bob Bradley, the current US Men's National Team coach, is well know for setting his watch for 75 minutes, announcing it to his players, and getting on with the session. At 75 minutes, no matter where the session has progressed to, it is done. Players know before hand that for 75 minutes, supreme effort is required, but once time is up, training is finished. Dean Smith, legendary UNC basketball coach, used to plan out is practices to the minute, and post them on the bulletin board for his players to see beforehand. How many times have we dragged a session on and on, trying to coax more effort out of players, while our players were afraid to put in much more as they had no idea when training was over? If we clearly define what we expect of our players, in terms of effort and time required, then we can demand more during that allotted time.

Structure your training week: Rush CEO Tim Schulz sent out a great document a while back about intensity levels in training. Let your players know that Tuesday will be a grueling level 4, Wednesday will be intense but not quite like Tuesday, and Friday will be a light session with some fun games and preparation for the weekend. This allows them to come in physically and mentally prepared on Tuesday instead of coming prepared for a stroll in the park. This will also help your players gain a sense of achievement by 'earning' the easier days through supreme effort on Tuesday. When expectations are set out ahead of time, coaches and teammates alike will be far less tolerant of excuses.

Play 1st team vs. 2nd team in training: As a coach, make it very clear that starting spots are earned in training as well as games. If a player on the 1st team is not putting in the required effort, switch him out with a reserve. If that does not change his attitude, let it be known that the starting lineup on Saturday will be decided in training today. As a former collegiate and high school coach, it was easy to play 11v11, as I carried large squads. Yet as a club coach with only 16 players, this can still be accomplished with a functional session to goal. If your starting forward is taking a break instead of breaking to goal, and your reserve is toiling away in the midfield of the defending team, switch them, and see what happens. If you start the same eleven players game after game, complacency will set in, not only among starters, but reserves. Do you have 11 starters and 5 reserves, or 16 potential starters? Keep them on their toes!

Keep your training games competitive: There are a variety of different ways to make our sessions more challenging, and I am sure we all have favorites. From fitness exercises to the losing side, to numbers up and down situations, players can be challenged a lot of different ways. My favorite is "Goal up, Goal Down," or in other words, last goal wins. In essence, you are either one goal up, or one goal down, so if you score when already up a goal, it is meaningless. This not only keeps the game competitive, but it teaches our players how to defend one goal leads, keep possession to kill the clock, and press with every player if you need a goal. Rarely do we see top notch effort from a team losing 5-0 in an 8v8 match at the end of training, but add in the element of last goal wins, and you can usually extract the last once of energy out of most of your players in an effort to win the game.

Reward players who work hard: Do you acknowledge great effort by individuals? Are your best players challenged enough to work hard? I had a very talented 13 year old that, for the life of me, I could not motivate to play hard, and we butted heads many times in training and games. Yet once I started having him train with our 16 year olds, and saw that he could play at that level when pushing himself to the limit, I began to see a whole new side of him. The best part was, when he went back down to the U13s, he could not switch off the effort, and his whole attitude and demeanor changed, as he became one of the hardest working players on the team. For 12 months I believed he was failing me as a player, when in reality I was failing him as a coach by not providing the challenge he coveted.

Every day, when we step on the training field, do we 'hope' that our team will work hard for us, or do we know they will, because we have prepared them to put in that effort, created a training structure that breeds intensity, and found ways to challenge our team, and our individual players, to give that elusive 110%. As American coaches, until a true professional academy structure emerges in the United States, we will have to be creative in fostering the competitive cauldron. Good luck!