Mar, 2008

TRAINING DECEPTION

Here are a number of activities from the GFC Academy curriculum that will help to develop players with the ability to use deception in the various aspects of their play: dribbling, passing, combination play, etc.

Deception in Dribbling. We show some excellent training activities for 1v1 attacking play which encourage development of deception in the Oct 2007 GFC Training Session on 1v1 Attacking Tactics (view training session). Here are a few additional comments on these activities as it relates to deception.

1v1 to End-lines Continuous Action, and 1v1 to 2 Goals. The attacker should try various ideas for committing the defender to one space in order to attack another space. If players limit themselves to using the same approach over and over, the coach may want to make a requirement that for some portion of the activity a different idea must used each time for a goal to count. This will stimulate discussion on different options for deception. It's important from a teaching methodology standpoint to allow/force the players to discover the different options, rather than tell them the options.

2v2 to Diagonals Goals. This is a great game for 1v1 deception. The 2 players out of possession of the ball will typically transition to positions defending each of the 2 diagonal goals. This leaves a 1v1 attacking opportunity for either of the attacking players, and therefore plenty of 1v1 repetition. Additionally, right after the ball turns over, before the defenders can retreat to the goal areas, the 1st attacker can experiment with faking as to which goal they will attack. It's also a good game for exploring how to create 2v1 attacking situations. See more on deception in 2v1 situations below.

Here are some additional activities for developing deception in dribbling.

1v1 Duals. A variety of 1v1 duals can be set up to work on deceptive dribbling. In the example below, 2 teams compete against each other in a series of 1v1 battles. Blue team attacks for 2 minutes, the red team attacks for 2 minutes. Players can attack and score in either goal. You can play that goals are scored by dribbling thru the goals on by passing from within a shooting line. Keep score. This is an excellent setup to allow players to work on disguising and faking which direction they intend to attack. Many times the defender will recover before the goal is scored. This situation provides opportunities for players to change the direction of their attack, fake to change direction, etc. Players should be encouraged to take as long as they need to finish the attack with a goal, even if that means changing the direction of the attack multiple times. The activity can be changed to have the players entering the playing area from the same side, or from the same end. Each dual can be alternatively started with a 50/50 ball in the middle of the playing area. The dimensions of the playing area can be changed as well to make a long narrow field or a wide short field, for example, to alter the dynamics of the dual.

Deception in Passing & Combination Play. Here are some activities to help develop deception in passing. This involves deception in the choice between passing or dribbling in 2v1 situations, as well as more complex situations in common 2/3-player combinations.

2v1 to End-lines Continuous Action, and 2v1 to 2 Goals. These are the same activities as above but with a slight change in the organization. The attacking team always attacks with 2 players against 1 defender. In continuous action, when a goal is scored or the ball goes over an end-line, 2 new players start an attack from the same end where the previous action ended. You can play that one of the previous attackers stays to be the lone defender. In 2v1 to 2 goals 2 attacking players score in either of 2 goals on the dribble or with a pass.

Basic Possession Games. There are a variety of basic possession games that provide a useful environment for players to practice disguising the direction of their pass. The game can be altered in a number of ways to make it more or less demanding. As in the example below, where the players in possession are on the outside of the playing area with the defender(s) on the inside, attacking players don't have to worry as much about being closed down and can focus on disguising their passes. To make the game more difficult, make the space smaller, add a 2nd defender, and eventually put all of the players inside the grid.

3v2 to End-lines Continuous Action. This activity provides many opportunities to experiment with options to dribble, options to pass, and options to use various 2/3-player combinations. This setup also provides opportunities to explore situations where the decision to NOT use a particular option is appropriate, such as to NOT make the penetrating pass to a diagonal runner where the defender has committed to defending the penetrating pass but has left room to attack on the dribble.

3v3 to 4 Goals. In this game 3 players from each team compete to score goals in any of 4 goals. It's beneficial to require that goals must be scored from within the shooting zone. This setup leaves at all times one goal undefended. This games is great to help players learn to recognize which space is open to attack. Players will learn that they need to be prepared to change their mind continuously as the game changes continuously. As players gain more experience they will also begin to realize that they can purposely attack a particular space to force another space to become vulnerable to attack.

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