In the Bob Bradley interview featured here this week he refers to the need to work on collective play when training the National Team due to the short amount of time available for training. When coaching collective play the methods Bob uses will likely be “Shadow Play” (or a variant thereof), “Coaching in the Game”, or “Phase Play.”

Each of these three methods is used by advanced coaches as they involve multiple numbers of players working together in large areas of the field. To keep the wear and tear off the player’s legs some coaches will make the field artificially smaller - like the three fields I saw at the Middlesborough training field a number of years ago. (See diagram in Technical Center.) Shortened fields not only reduce the wear and tear on player’s legs, they also provide the opportunity for more repetitions in crossing games, shooting games, high transitional games etc.

National team coaches frequently work with large numbers due to the need to give the players an overall strategy of play in a short period of time. Some national team coaches will divide their staff up so that one staff coach will coach the attackers and another the defenders in a “Phase of Play” exercise similar to that featured in this week’s Technical Center. This is a follow on from the Penalty Box Exercise featured in this space earlier, with the addition of more players - both attackers and defenders - and the exercise begins with balls fed in from the half-way line.

Enjoy your coaching,

Jeff Tipping
Director of Coaching
NSCAA