King Knight Education
@KingKnightEd
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🎗 Coach Education. Positional Play. JdP. Rondos. La Masia. #KingKnightEd
Cincinnati, OH
Joined May 2015
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A Guide to Coaching Youth Football.
We put this book together as a philosophical guide to help develop sessions, curriculum and Game Models for players in the youth age groups.
The book discusses what kinds of things youth players need to be able to do
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A very simple, but excellent clip here of Man City practicing Sub-Principles (Defensive Line Principles) from their Game Model.
Not everything has to reinvent the wheel.
Notice the full back looking down the line to adjust its height.
Look at the age-old principles of play:
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COACHES: WATCH THIS VIDEO.
Insight like this was not available as a young coach making their way.
Henry explains Positional Play Concepts here like rest defense & relative distances of support & illustrates clearly why positional games are a great way to train these concepts.
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A great video of Xavi talking about the importance of the ‘4 P’s’ in the Game Model and DNA of Barcelona:
Positioning.
Pressure.
Possession.
Perception.
Jordi Alba also talking about how it is difficult for players that were not taught these things as children to do them
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Diego Maradona’s fitness coach made him do the Cooper test, Maradona ran 2,550 meters in the 12 minutes. His fitness coach said “elite footballers should do 3,400 meters, even I can do 3,200 meters”. Maradona responded: “then it is best that you play instead of me on Sunday”.
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De Zerbi’s details here are great.
One may say a little prescribed, but the intention of using off-the-ball movement to attract (or in this case, deliberately not attract) pressure fits perfectly into a positional play philosophy.
This movement prevents a rival player
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Johan Cruyff: “Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then go and work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right time, to the correct foot of your team mate.”
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13 seconds of brilliance.
Xavi, regarded as one of the best midfielders ever, playing in the best club team ever, scanning at every opportunity whilst moving to receive the ball.
Visible is the
#KingKnightEd
Concept of Scanning and it’s sub-components:
Head Up.
Body
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The Netflix documentary is not a patch on the All or Nothing series on Amazon, but it is interesting to see that, even at arguably the most advance level of football on the planet, the rationale from the coach about why players can’t perform badly/under perform are still the
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“When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not.”
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COACHES WATCH/READ THIS. Brentford’s Thomas Frank with some great insight on how he adjusts his team’s formation and defensive schemes based on the opposition but the game principles still remain consistent.
He talks about marking man to man when defending from the front, and
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AS Roma demonstrating a Line Drill (an activity that teaches a principle from the Game Model that applies specifically to a Line of the team).
We can see pressure, cover and balance being taught here as the ball is moved side to side, up and down, served and ‘nearly served’.
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Thierry Henry talking about an individual strategy he used himself as a striker. He refers to it as ‘freezing the keeper’. Regardless of whether or this approach actually did ‘freeze the keeper’ it is interesting to observe, even at the elite level, the psychological
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COACHES: THIS IS A MUST VIEW VIDEO WHETHER YOU COACH GRASSROOTS OR IN THE HIGH PERFORMANCE ARENA.
Thiago, in this video, references several King Knight Education Universal & Collective Concepts of Positional Play.
Scanning.
Communicating through the Pass.
Receiving with
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COACHES WATCH THIS/SHOW THIS TO YOUR SMALLER PLAYERS:
“I’d love to be faster. Physically I’m limited, but I’ve survived by using my head.”
— Xavi
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Pep Lijnders talking a little here about development and how winning should be a natural consequence of that.
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Coaches watch this 60 second clip of Juanma Lillo talking about defending with the ball.
Essentially referencing the
#KingKnightEd
positional play concepts of:
Rest Defense.
Traveling Together.
The Diamond Principle.
Courerpressing.
Worth a watch!
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I was lucky enough to be at Red Bulls at the same time as Jesse Marsch and privy to his tactical explanations.
The language used here, “connections, space-management, red zone, verticality” etc. clearly denote his intentions surrounding his style of play.
What do we think?
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Nice little video of Pep talking about why he coaches and the importance of passing within a team.
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De Zerbi’s great use of the Collective Concept: The Third Man, during the Initiation of Play phase in Zone 1.
A Collective Concept that can be easily trained through Positional Games.
Remember, no matter what you hear, Rondos and Positional Games are NOT just activation
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COACHES: WATCH THIS VIDEO.
The interviewer, after having basically already asking the question: “So you wouldn’t, what we call, win ugly?” Referring to Peps insistence on build up play instead of playing direct.
The interviewer is a football person but even he doesn’t
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A different view of the double movement and communication through the pass from Vini and Kroos that put Bayern in so much trouble.
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Playing a short, associative style is often dismissed by coaches that don’t understand it as ‘pretty, Pep-ball’ etc.
The real reason is to remove layers of defensive pressure either in the current phase or in a subsequent phase (‘we saw what they did last time, we are really
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A very short video of De Zerbi stating why he couldn’t play any other way than a short, associative game from the Initiation Zone.
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Beautiful video here of Pep Lijinder’s methodology whilst working in an academy.
Great examples of individual work that players can perform by arriving a little early or staying a little late.
And then some amazing examples of positional games which were clearly also being
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De Zerbi's Brighton has garnered attention for their adeptness in the build-up and playing out of the back, underpinned by a few key tactical principles and strategies that have contributed significantly to their success.
Formation and Player Roles
Brighton, under De Zerbi,
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COACHES: WATCH THIS VIDEO👇
Fascinating clip of Henry talking about how Pep used to zone-off the practice field to instill positional discipline in his team in Zones 1 and 2 , but in Zones 3 and 4 the shackles were allowed to come off and players could express themselves.
I
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A simple line drill here, training principles from their Game Model.
It is interesting to note that to avoid non contextualized training (or at least reduce it) they have incorporated this line drill into part of their physical preparation (possibly a strength day?).
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An analysis of Pep Guardiola's concept of 'indefensible spaces' and their relationship to positional play:
Pep Guardiola's tactical philosophy is built around the idea of positional play - controlling space on the field through intelligent positioning and movement of players.
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Coaches, read this ⚽️👇👇👇⚽️
Bernardo Silva: "Guardiola doesn't let other teams adapt to us. Every year he creates something different so that the teams don't get used to our way of playing. He shows me that I'm wrong, because we do it well and he changes so that we continue
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Pep talking about the need for a head coach to be able to go with his gut sometimes instead of, or as well as, Big Data.
Coaching is something tangible and it is quite possible that data doesn’t always provide the full story.
Performance analysis departments are growing year
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A great analytical piece on De Zerbi's Brighton.
It examines:
How they build.
How they adjust higher up the pitch.
Numerical Superiority in a midfield box that looks suspiciously similar to
#KingKnightEd
Rondos and Positional Play Games.
Third Man.
Fourth Man.
Free Man.
1st &
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#SundayShare
@SundayShare
A great video featuring Julian Nagelsmann talking about the importance of player profiles in relation to their roles and responsibilities within the Game Model of the coach.
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Another fascinating clip here from Juanma Lillo on the difference between football and other sports in terms of attacking without the ball, and defending with it.
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Collective Concept: ‘Communicating through the pass.’
“Find the Third and Fourth Man.”
Unfortunately, although the environment was perfect for the Third Man pass, the execution was off.
Busquets did brilliantly. Watch this video again.
As Busquets realizes that the ball is
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Playing to keep the ball isn’t the same as keeping it to play.
Passing is a mean’s to an end.
Passing is intentional.
If you have read our book, you’ll understand passing as ‘Intentional Speaking’.
#KingKnightEd
#juanmalillo
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COACHES WATCH THESE TWO VIDEOS👇👇👇⚽️⚽️⚽️. Here we have the FULL video, not just an exert.
We wholeheartedly recommend coaches watch this video for several reasons. None of which are because De Zerbi is the new kid on the block.
He clearly talks about
#KingKnightEd
Concepts.
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Paul Hall talks here about the internal game inside a hexagonal perimeter. Absolutely game realistic. 100% trainable in a positional game.
Most collective concepts can be trained inside this type of set up and because of the contained nature of positional games, lots of reps.
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In total there are currently 4 managers out of the remaining 8 left in the Champions League that played for FC Barcelona in 1999.
This is a truly staggering statistic.
All four managers predicate their training and Game Model on the Concepts of Positional Play.
Come on
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COACHES: WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO.
Pep musing on Messi’s ability to scan and appear as if he has gone awol during parts of the game whereas, he is actually allowing things to play out, patterns to emerge, and then processing and acting upon these patterns.
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Am thinking of starting a low (zero) budget What’s App group for forward thinking and progressive coaches to share ideas back and fourth on things like Rondo, JdP, player development, opposed skill development, pattern play and all the good stuff you need to coach expansive play.
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“Playing Inside to Play Outside.”
Here we see a good example, of playing inside to play outside ‘fixing’ the defensive player on the outside of the block, to his current position.
"Attracting pressure with the ball is often conflated with moving a player a player with the ball.
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This is the player-profile info that we are providing to our young players and I can honestly say it is making a difference in the short time they have been out. Through performances in games and practices but also through the types of questions I get from players and parents.
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Opposition coach to me yesterday: hey no offense but we wrote you guys off in the warm up, look how small you all are compared to us, it’s men against boys. I think you were really lucky that my team just couldn’t get the ball off of you otherwise I think we would have run riot..
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What Adam Owen classes ‘reaction’, in his microcycle, what is that otherwise known as in a classic microcycle?
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A rondo I wrote for my curriculum for switching the field and looking to create the Free Man
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Session plan based on moving the ball into the final third (1 of 4 thematic and progressive sessions on the topic) including some light technical work too.
@Smedley033
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@MBPSchool
@hatrik10
@barkernscaa
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@CoachEllisRiley
@RickMinars
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An introductory text on Rondos, Positional Games and how to coach universal, collective and team concepts within them.
Currently being used by professional club coaches in European premier leagues as well as by MLS coaches
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On a recent trip to Bayern Munich I was excited, although disappointed at the same time, to find that their methodology across all levels from Men’s and Women’s, academy through to the first team was not really any different from the methodology that I had instituted at my club.
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Great 5v5+3 positional game from Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen.
What concepts would you suggest are being taught here?
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This video from the fantastic Toplider Coach. Appears to be a positional game. If you had to give it your best guess, what would you say the coach is using it to teach? Or what would you use it personally to teach?
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We love being challenged and appreciate questions. We were asked about Pep’s philosophies on playing direct & why there are some teams he only plays direct against. Our answer is that ‘without playing short, there is no playing direct’. This short video might help illustrate that
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#SundayShare
@SundayShare
@Leecosgrove10
COACHES WATCH THIS VIDEO. If you have 6 minutes, it’s really worth it.
Here we see a lovely and really succinct summary of some of the tactical innovations and evolutions that Pep went through during his time at Man City.
Of
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3v2 activity designed to work on combining in front of goal, circulating and probing and wingers learning how to use their width in the attacking third.
@IBarkerSoccer
@Smedley033
@Keepitonthedeck
@PaulKelshaw
@CoachEllisRiley
@PedMenCoach
@AZArsenalSC
@AZSoccerAssoc
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We would have physically dominated you. We’ve dominated all the other teams this season. Now, just re read that for a second. ‘You’re lucky we couldn’t get the ball off you’. Do you think he realized what he was saying??? I was speechless and annoyed in equal measures.
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We receive a lot of questions about tactics, philosophies, methodologies and concepts such as pressing, counter pressing, playing out the back, Third Man, Free Man, Tactical Periodization and Structured Training.
So we have decided to put short videos together based on these
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Evening Coaches!
An old but interesting short clip of Klopp talking about the importance of counter pressing, it being the most important playmaker.
Worth a watch.
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A study by Zaichkowsky and Peterson shows that “when expert playmakers bring the ball into the attacking zone, they tend to look first for spaces to exploit rather than functional acts such as dribbling, passing or shooting” (Zaichkowsky & Peterson, 2018).
This piece of
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“Possession is used as a method to intentionally provoke pressure and attract defensive movements from the rival team so that they will no longer be able to maintain the proximity of its players to one another in the same line or different lines and once this happens the
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It’s fair to say that if a coach, of any team at any level, who didn’t know where to begin or what to teach, only worked on Third Man Movements and Switching Play, that team would improve.
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Great 6v6+1 positional game. Working on the Collective Concepts of the ‘Third Man’ and ‘Plus 1 Scenarios’.
What other positional play concepts do coaches think they might use this game for, with or without adjustments?
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This image generated some great conversation last week. It is a simple representation of how Rondos may be replicated in a game and an example as to why Rondos should not just be used as 'technical exercises' for passing and receiving.
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Am delighted and thoroughly relieved to be starting my UEFA A with
@OfficialIrishFA
in May. Can NOT wait.
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We receive a lot of requests to put on a webinar or something similar about the book. We respect the work of
@GaryCurneen
highly and will be collaborating with him in the future to do such a thing for you all. We look forward to seeing you
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The hard work of putting our first online offering together is well and truly underway.
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COACHES: WATCH THIS VIDEO👇
A fantastic 30 second example of multiple positional play concepts demonstrated by Atletico Madrid, resulting in a goal.
We see the effect of other players on the four players marking Griezman.
With everything going on, they simply don’t see him.
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Interesting video of Hansi Flick talking to his Germany team ahead of their World Cup game against Spain, about the standards he demands from the team and the individuals within it.
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We honestly did not think much more than a handful of people would be interested in a book on Rondos and the concepts that we use to teach positional play. But here we are, nearly 6 months later, with a Five Star rating on Amazon & still selling strong
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On a USSF assessment I was criticized for making the same coaching point more than once. I had half an hour to coach one topic in a game. Guess what, the same point came up multiple times but I was expected to fabricate other less important coaching points. Anyone else have this?
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Football is not life or death. Standing by each other is much much more important. Well done Landon.
Landon Donovan on why the team decided to forfeit tonight's match against Phoenix Rising FC.
#SDvPHX
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A Power Point presentation on JdP. Retweet if you like it.
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Some of the clubs whose Academy and First Team coaches have purchased the Rondo Book. Unbelievably grateful, happy and proud.
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Rondo book being proofed this week. Thanks for all the inquiries, genuinely means a lot and sorry for the delay.
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Not saying we 100% agree with this (very small disagreement with the duration) but this is very similar, almost identical, in terms of format and activities, to the pre-match warm up routine favoured by King Knight Methodology.
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⚽️⚽️⚽️COACHES: YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS. WATCH THIS VIDEO👇👇👇
Three clips (first two are most interesting) where John Stones talks about his journey from CB to Midfielder, his progression under Pep and Martinez, and mentions his reliance on
#KingKnightEd
Concepts, namely:
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#SundayShare
@SundayShare
@Leecosgrove10
Collective Concept: ‘Communicating through the pass.’
“Find the Third and Fourth Man.”
A beautiful example of a Third Man pass that finds the Third Man in space on the wing.
Here we can see at least 3 Concepts chained together:
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Want more playing time?
1) Show up at team activities
2) Outwork everyone around you
3) Know your plays
4) Compete in all you do
5) Be coachable
6) Empower & help your teammates
7) Go above & beyond
8) Practice harder than you play
9) Have character
10) Be dependable
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Thread: 1. A few people now have asked me why I so vehemently hang my hat on positional play (JdP) instead of any other playing style or philosophy. Why I think that it’s the best, when compared with every other way you can play. I think that’s a great question and I’ll try to
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27 clubs (that I know about) in the US alone are now using this as their top to bottom curriculum, game model and session plans and that’s not including individual coaches and teams that use it. Thank you to you all!
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Question: as a Director of Methodology, if the 11v11 teams in your club play a 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3) what formation would you use for training and playing for your 4v4/7v7/9v9 teams to maintain consistency and a flow into the 11v11 format?
#SoccerChat
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For a chance to win a free book, retweet this link. For every 100 retweets will will pick one winner to send a free book to. Good luck.
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POTB Session. Heavily JdP oriented.
@Balonfoot
@CulturaTactica
@TPiMBW
@Tenllado7
@CoachEllisRiley
@MEntrenamientos
@EricWildeFutbol
@hatrik10
@innovaFutbol
@Keepitonthedeck
@PaulKelshaw
@nlevett
@MBPSchool
@TheTacticalRoom
@ussoccer_coach
@USYouthSoccer
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From one of the best strikers of all time, about the best player of all time.
We can provide players all the technical development, all the tactical knowledge and all the marginal gains in the world, but mentality seems to win out in most cases of truly world class players.
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This book has now sold more than the last one. I can’t believe it. I will shortly be getting to work on a book on my favorite Rondos, and the purpose and value behind them. Helping coaches move away from ‘keep away’ and into coaching Rondo. Rondo. Rondo.
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Fancy some summer reading???
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An excerpt from King Knight Educations new book on Youth Soccer Development.
When increasing the level of complexity of a session, a coach often confuses complexity with difficulty.
Complexity and difficulty, although related, are not to be conflated. They are not the same
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Everything is cyclical.
A team can’t be on top forever.
We see this now with Barcelona and Man United and not too long ago, with AC Milan.
Henry talks here about the standards at Barcelona and their philosophy on winning v player and coach development.
They are not quite
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Not the traditional 2v1 with through balls. This is a JdP style game designed to engage and provoke defender.
@IBarkerSoccer
@Smedley033
@deanatk
@ricky_powers3
@PedMenCoach
@Balonfoot
@_ToddBeane
@EricWildeFutbol
@HalfSpaceSoccer
@hatrik10
@Keepitonthedeck
@rickymachel
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What would coaches say has been a defining moment in how they coach? For me I can say discovering positional play, meeting my wife in Barcelona and having an affinity for Barcelona and all things Spanish and from a technical perspective discovering the new or revamped Coerver
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COACHES, WORTH A WATCH:
A fantastic short video on the emergence and importance of Virgil van Dijk and the impact he has had on Liverpool since Klopp brought him in.
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One Rondo that can be used to teach the Universal Concept of Scanning, is a simple 4v2 Rondo.
When each possessing (Red) player has the ball, he must scan the four references:
1) Teammate
2) Opponent
3) Ball
4) Space
This Rondo gives ample opportunity for each attacker to do
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My little girl tried out recreational soccer for the first time today at my club, at the age of 5. Safe to say she loved it.
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Just saw an ‘individual technical coach’ working 1 on 1 with players. His methodology consisted of shooting tennis balls off of cones. Kicking balls through moving hula hoops. Diving head first full body through the hula hoop to header a ball. I. Just. Can’t.
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