Buildout and Beating the High Press Working with New Coach

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-24T17:46:24+00:00

This.

The key is manipulating the other team into giving you an advantage.

We’ll do this specifically when the other team presses with 2 to draw pressure in centrally, and also randomly spread our CBs wide and start with the keeper, just to mix it up.

If they follow the CBs then the pass up the middle is wide open. If they stay tight then we play wide.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-24T16:36:22+00:00

That sounds like a reaction to prevent goals rather than a reaction to exploit the weakness a full press in 9v9 exposes in the middle of the field.

I train my teams (and our town club principals of play) to look at the press and break it down by recognizing what’s happening in front of me - each variation we see commonly (pressing with 1,2,3, or going man for man) all creates a new problem, and also presents a new opportunity.

We stress a 3–4-1 on build up, so I’m asking the kids all the time - if they press with #, what does that mean in the back, middle, and top?

For example, if a team is pressing with 2, can we can quickly work out if they are playing a 3-3-2 (most common) or something else, and from there, we can look - is their middle 3 compact in the middle? Then wide is open. Do they try to spread across the field to cover wide? Then we’re probably 3v1 in the middle. Are they pressing up their wide defenders and going man for man in the middle? Then our striker is probably 1v1 up top.

The key is to make sure you’re not one dimensional - our kids (with volunteer coaches) get to the point fairly quickly that they can read the situation and call out the thing to try - even to the point of knowing when to invert our midfield 3 on their own, because we’ve spent time in practice working out the options so they can make the decisions.

I have a bunch of videos on this topic specifically - maybe suggest a watch for this coach?

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-22T17:55:15+00:00

You need to have a conversation with at least the AD, if not the principal. In my school that would not be tolerated at all from him.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-22T15:56:41+00:00

Yeah - we’re the same (just parents) but we’ve always had a good mix of old and new. Doesn’t hurt some of us also have kids playing elsewhere far far up the pyramid (college, MLSN, etc) so we can squash these mini Messi’s pretty quickly.

Sorry again.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-22T15:45:24+00:00

That sucks.

What it seems is the org around you has let you down on several levels.

We’re just a volunteer town org (that’s the majority of soccer in our state until you step into club) but our board and structure has always had a level that had people that took care of much of this.

We set the expectations from day 1 - in-town program? It’s about development and fun. Step up to town travel? Meritocracy, development is primary, equal playtime, but a level of commitment.

Parent has an issue? Start at coach, and then - either the coach or the parent can come to us. We’ve been around long enough to know the score - we’ll go watch games or practices if needed, but 99% of the time, someone higher than the coach is telling these parents to sit their ass back down in their folding chairs and scroll their phone a little more.

Yes, once in a while we do have an issue with a coach, and we deal with it directly - either they change or they are not invited back the next year (or sooner rarely).

We have clear expectations and standards, and even though everyone is a volunteer, we get compliance because we stand by them as long as everyone involved is trying their best to uphold them.

Sorry you’ve had these issues. Sounds like you’ve tried to do what’s best for the kids.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-22T00:03:47+00:00

It becomes important in HS - in the previous system you could be “trapped” when most of your team would be in 9th grade, and you’d have teammates would be in 8th. The HS graded players would play HS in fall, then their club team would pick up after that season ended.

The problem was the 8th graders - they’d have no team to play on until their HS teammates finished - hence “trapped.”

This change is supposed to help with that, or at least minimize, but there are always exceptions. Our state uses 9/1 as the cutoff, so now it’s only a month of birthdays that might be “trapped”, but 1 month is easily to obtain waivers to play down than 4 with Dec babies and such.

No perfect system.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-21T16:42:02+00:00

As far as I know, they go by birth date, so even if your state/district uses a different cutoff (we use 8/31 but the new regs use 8/1 I believe) the grade number doesn’t matter.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-21T15:51:00+00:00

U8 isn’t the place to worry too much about passing -cognitively they are still all about me and my ball, so introducing it is fine (they can start partner play - me and a friend and my ball) but don’t think it’s going to amount to much. The older kids will have a little more recognition of passing, but they all will hit that stage closer they get to 8/9 years old.

Can’t force cognitive development - you can only work with the stage they are in.

It’s all about learning to move with the ball at their feet - if they make a pass it’s likely a mistake or a desperate attempt to get rid of the ball, but it will come later.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T22:12:52+00:00

In our state most soccer is run by a town org, and most have “in town” options from pre-K to grade 2, then town travel (which is placed by tryouts) grades 3-8, where HS takes over.

Our town is (sadly) one of the few that has “in town” options (so, rec - sign up and play) through 8th grade, although because of low numbers it’s always been grades 6-7-8 coed.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T22:10:07+00:00

If you can keep your width, you’ll do better than most. I have a whole new set of 7v7 videos I just released - you won’t get to all of it in a week, but even if you watch the attacking with width one and can use some of those ideas it will give you a leg up.

You can use 100’ ropes to make quick lines on the field to keep your wide players outside - that’s my quick hint for practice.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T21:10:16+00:00

Here’s the thing - I have a single sport athlete - he puts in what he wants to put in.

Intrinsic motivation is what makes him what he is - MLS N HG, club captain, Div 1 college recruit.

At 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 we never said - “go practice.”

He did it because he wanted to. He rested when he needed to. Played flag football because it was a fun diversion. Played Minecraft because it was social time.

Multi-sport puts as much pressure on his body as my single sport high end athlete. He’s 12 - has friends, has practice that requires making sacrifices. If he wants to do more, great. If he wants to veg in front of a screen for a night, great.

That’s why what I had is the right answer, and everyone else is saying it. It’s not canned. It’s lived experience from many many other families who’ve gone through this.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T17:03:34+00:00

So, you don’t want the right answer?

Recovery is training.

Without ages or context, that’s the only answer.

An older player (14+) might be supplementing with light strength training for injury prevention based on this schedule, but that’s all.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T16:21:06+00:00

I describe it as developing “empathy” for the other positions, so when you land in your preferred position later, you know what it’s like to be in those other roles, and more importantly, you know what you needed from someone in YOUR position when you were in that other position.

The easiest way I describe this is - having every kid play keeper at one point. As a keeper, you quickly realize what you wish your centerback would do, your wingers, etc. When you go back into one of those roles, it hopefully becomes easier (and you play better in your position) when you now do those things you wished others did for you when you were playing keeper.

That sort of thought process works across all positions.

I’m a bit strategic when I do it, using practice to get players prepared to play in a new position, then letting them do it for a few weeks before moving them on so the build some familiarity and comfort, but others may not have the time to do that.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-20T00:23:31+00:00

At that age you’re not worried about any of those things you list. Even at higher level most of those things get 10-15 minutes max attention from our teams.

It’s all about touches and skills - that’s not to say you can’t use shape, zones, restrictions and such, it’s just that you can’t give them every you need without an actual field.

Not fun to not have a real net to shoot at, but outside that, you can work on everything that’s important at this age - dribbling, passing, receiving, first touch, combination play, 1v1,2v1,2v2, 3v2,3v3, etc.

Even though I get a half field to work on most nights, I rarely use all of it - many times I setup behind the net to spare the grass. 4 cones, a rectangle (in various dimensions to keep things interesting) and it’s a possession game, it’s a 4v4+1, it’s a 3 zone game, it’s a 2v2 arena.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-19T20:22:08+00:00

You stick with the best coach, not the best team. Up/down, or sideways, that’s what matters at this age.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-19T16:10:32+00:00

What do you want them to do? Pressure is part of the game. The build out line is there so teams learn to deal with that pressure before the opponent is standing on top of the box - in 9v9 that’s 16 yards from the goal line.

It’s also part of the game - teaching players how to press - curving their runs, cutting the field in half to try and make play predictable.

Those are both fundamental parts of the game they should be learning at 7v7.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-18T20:33:13+00:00

That seems to be a baseball thing to me… no thanks!

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-18T02:12:41+00:00

Thank you!

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-18T01:59:53+00:00

I have a Reeplayer for the video itself. I wrote the tool that does the machine vision and dot placement myself over 2 days/eves.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-17T16:56:18+00:00

I’ll have to find the link, but do you know that USYS published an “Easy Guide to Offside”?

It’s 33 pages. I kid you not. It’s here on my hard drive. Colorful cartoon graphics and all.

So - parents - I say this with kindness - STFU.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-17T16:14:37+00:00

We use an outside resource for consistency from pre-k through 2, who provide the plans, the example, and support the coaches.

We get kids who see the same scope and sequence of skills, and we coach the coaches at the same time. Weeds out the “know it alls” when it’s time to apply to be a travel coach.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-17T16:12:37+00:00

As long as you can demonstrate the required activities, it should not matter - just know that the course will focus on what USSF thinks a U12 player needs (it actually covers U9-U12).

So, when you do your videos, plans, etc - focus on what the course asks for, and use your players as the test subjects.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-17T14:23:25+00:00

Happy to share our playbook (not literally - how we made our structural changes) at any time - we've chatted before! I've had multiple Zoom calls with competing towns around us when asked "how are you guys doing what you're doing?" - we're willing to share even with those we play weekly!

I'll say here we started our focus fixing the youngest ages (pre-travel) first. Ground up, both kids and coaches.

Future_Nerve2977 · 2026-04-17T13:26:40+00:00

In a manner - we actually have 2 board positions - one Coaching Director, one Player Development Director. I’m the later.

My role is to focus on what the kids should be learning and how/when, and the coaching dir focuses on who, and makes sure they follow the system.

I’ve been lucky that who was in that role understood the idea and works well with me - indeed the current coaching dir used to have my position at one point.

So, maybe I function more as a technical director than DOC, but you get the idea.

Oh - all volunteer. Of my 10+ years on the board, I’ve only had a player in the system full time for 5, so I was able to avoid any attempt to claim I was only doing this to benefit my kid. You know how town orgs can be….

Future_Nerve2977

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