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We are volunteer youth soccer coaches and we do not have unlimited hours to train. However, youth soccer is pretty much the most coach-oriented sport there is, in other words, the coach can make the difference in winning or losing more than any other sport. Therefore, he must do the following to win games and give his team the competitive edge he needs. The following game process takes 3-4 hours on a Sun. evening.
Step 1. You need the game movie of your opponent’s previous game. There are typically no high bleachers at youth soccer games, so get an end zone view of the teams offense. Always film behind the team you are looking for so you can see exactly what they are doing. Make sure you can see all the players and their numbers on each play.
Step 2. Watch the movie and diagram each play the team makes, including replays. I usually use cardstock. Write the number of the play and the down and the distance to the best of your knowledge and a legend for each play, i.e. you would write the play 1, 1 and 10, Pitch Sweep Right and diagram the blocking assignments made and the numbers of the backfield players. For a playoff game, I would take the extra time to write down each player’s number.
As you diagram plays, you’ll learn his playbook and begin to get a feel for the coach’s play-calling philosophy. This is the most time-consuming part of the process, as you have to keep pausing and rewinding to get all the blocking assignments and plays written up correctly.
Step 3. Watch the movie again with your diagrammed plays in front of you. Now you are looking for tones that can help you. I look for weak and strong offensive linemen, who are your best running backs, how well your QB can throw the ball, who plays receiver who can catch the ball and who can’t.
Step 4. Look for signs. Some teams will have multiple formations and only run one or two plays from a particular formation. For example, a team will always run out of a tight double formation and will always pass outside of a wide four formation. There are always 3 or 4 of these teams that you will play each year. You must crush them unless they are better than you in all positions. Some teams in the aforementioned category will even substitute their QB on passes. If you don’t notice something so obvious, you deserve to miss it. A slightly harder ploy to see is to put the best linemen on the side of the game, you can often get away with it if the other team hasn’t watched you. In the movie it’s pretty easy to see a lineman switching sides on every play.
There are signs that are a little more difficult to detect, but they are very common in youth soccer. For example, when a running back is substituted in the game, do you look for him to pass the ball to you right away? When a new player is put in the TE or WR position, especially when that player is a starting winger, he can be pretty sure he’s looking to throw the ball to you. When a team extends a kid to the sideline away from the quarterback, you can be pretty sure they won’t throw the ball to him unless the quarterback has absolute cannon. Even then, if he’s not one of your top two or three players, the kid probably won’t catch him. If the initial TB goes too wide, stick to it; if not, don’t do it.
Line splits are another thing to consider. They mean different things to different teams depending on their schemes, however, in youth soccer; wide divisions generally mean run and narrow divisions mean pass. Some linemen will give away the play based on where they line up. Linemen and backs will often give away a play because of the weight of their stance and where they’re aiming.
Teams that run a lot unbalanced are easy to beat. They usually only have one or maybe two plays on the weak side of the lopsided formation and are poorly formed and are just there to keep you honest. Make sure you have one or two players ready to stop that particular play and have everyone else commit to their lopsided side.
Passing is hard to do in youth soccer because pass blocking is suspect and there are usually 7 or more running backs. On top of this, children are poor road runners. Unless they are constantly drilling, they are never in the same place or running twice at the same speed. For these reasons, you can bet that in most cases there aren’t many pass route combinations being used against you. Teach your DBs to sit and/or jump the opposing team’s favorite routes, especially on third or fourth and long. You can also block the receiver in question in the line of scrimmage for as long as possible, sometimes I’ll have one player blocking and another waiting to cover. I also know which player to do this because I have watched the team and I know who is a threat and who is not.
If you’re playing a fork option team or a double wing team, make sure you can stop the dive first, then their offense falls apart. This can be accomplished with interior blitzes or interior defensive linemen using goal line or short yardage techniques. If you’re playing against a team that relies heavily on the downfield or jet sweep, work hard on the holding defense. If they run a full house backfield (3 backs) make sure your holding man gets to the deepest blocking back and make sure you have at least an 8 man box and your corners are not too outside and your safeties are useless.
Step 5. Create your game plan and write it simply so your players and other coaches can understand it. Now I have a playbook software program, but I used to only use MS Powerpoint. Now that you know your offense and your signals, game plan accordingly. If you see a formation you know they’re going to run away from it, if you see a formation you know they’re going to come through to get your inside line stunts and blitzes going.
When you practice, have the offense run, the opponents play as a scout team using the plays you have diagrammed. Make sure your team can recognize the formations and knows what you want them to do on every given play and knows every signal you saw on film.
Now you can beat a team with top talent because you’re ready. If you found this article helpful, please look for my upcoming book on how to win in youth soccer, my upcoming offensive spread playbook, and my upcoming youth soccer defensive playbook, all available at http://www.ythfootballforum.com.
daniel lyons