The following was written by former Cape Express Head Trainer Dan Patterson with the intention of providing the reader with a general understanding of the training philosophy embraced by the Cape Express Soccer Club. While some of the details have changed, the club still adheres to the following basic philosophy.

Cape Express Training Philosophy

At CESC the emphasis is on training each individual player. It is our responsibility to prepare each player to reach the highest level possible. Successful teams are a product of successful players. It is most important that game results not become more important than the development of the individual players. With this in mind, we must also recognize that soccer is a team sport and players must learn to play in patterns to develop as both individual players and as teams. To accomplish this balance between individual and team, we structure our practices around three basic principles that we have defined as being essential for developing players and teams - individual skill, small group tactics and team tactics. In general, we dedicate 1/3 of each 1 1/2 hour training session to each principle. The following provides a rough outline of our typical training sessions and the philosophy behind them. The specifics of each training session varies according to age and skill levels however all training sessions necessarily involve a measure of all three basic principles.

Individual Skill

This is the most important 30 minutes of training. Some of the world’s greatest players have only worked on individual skill. You hear the stories of Pele with a makeshift ball and Ronaldo not having the money to play on a club team. There are many stories of children that only played in the streets and yet attained national glory without mom’s driving them to practice or cut oranges at half time. The basis for the development of a soccer player is not athletic prowess but skill on the ball. Athleticism is a wonderful asset and in youth soccer can take a player quite far by itself but unless it is combined with a mastery of the ball, a player’s ultimate potential will be severely limited.

This portion of the training session involves the individual players with their own ball with the purpose being for each player to touch the ball as many times as possible. Coever Method drills are utilized along with similar exercises so that every way possible to manipulate the ball is covered.

As a bit of background, a Dutch coach named Wil Coever developed a regimen of individual ball skill exercises in an effort to train these so important ball skills. As Coever developed his method, he was also able to demonstrate that very young players performing his drills were able to develop skills previously considered only in the arsenal of the highly skilled. The Coever Method has continued to develop and is used worldwide to teach individual ball skills, one of the three main principles we strive to teach in our program.

In addition to Coever specific exercises, there are other skills that are developed during this time including space orientation as it relates to navigating through other players, flexibility and fitness. This is probably the toughest part of the practice session and sometimes the least favorite for new players. It amounts to an aerobic workout of quick turns and twists while attempting to master the ball. The players that have a mind for the game and develop the fastest are usually the ones that start enjoying this part of practice and there is no doubt that all successful players will learn to thrive in these first 30 minutes.

Small Group Tactics

The philosophy behind individual skill is as many touches as possible. The Small Group Tactics portion adds movement and tactics to the touches. The groups are small to force players to take a lot of touches and make a lot of decisions. As much as we like to think of soccer as a game of team tactics (one of the first questions asked about any given team or game is "What formation were they in?) the game is still decided by thousands of small decisions involving 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3. In addition, the ability to hold possession of the ball in tight spaces is key to developing a soccer player. During this middle third of practice, great emphasis is placed on technical skill such as receiving the ball with the correct foot, attacking the middle, attacking with the correct foot, defending with patience, tackling with the correct foot, moving without the ball, triangulation and pattern play. These skills are best taught in groups of six or fewer.

Players typically absorb more from these sessions than might actually be specifically said or demonstrated by the trainer. This is why it’s necessary to stress tactical patterns especially in small group play. Learning first and second defender, playing in rhythm, learning when to run forward and when to check back and most importantly keeping team shape both offensively and defensively is what keeps a team supporting each other defensively and creating space for each other offensively. It is never correct to teach offensive movement solely for creativeness while ignoring the pattern that your players will be left in should they lose the ball. Team balance and patterns start in small group tactics. It is not possible for a youth player, or adult professional for that matter, to continually be able to think of himself as one of eleven perfectly coordinated players all working in unison just like in the coaching manuals while at the same time dealing with the game going on all around, including actually playing the ball. While this cohesive unit of 11 is what is stressed during the Team Tactics training, the reality of the game is that the player really only has control over his own actions and almost all of his attention is taken up with the 5-6 closest players. Small Group Tactics is all about dealing with these situations.

There are many exercises that teach both technical skill and tactics and we try to utilize drills that also include tactical decision making. These exercises are typically performed in tight spaces emphasizing skill over fitness. The ability to hold the ball in tight spaces is the best way to create the open dangerous attacking spaces utilized in team tactics.

Team Tactics

We spend the first third of training on individual skill. The second third involves small group tactics. The final third centers on Team Tactics.

Cape Express is willing to sacrifice success at a young age for success at a later age. There are tactics that can be employed to increase a team’s chance to win the U-10 game on Saturday or Sunday but they are not taught because they are detrimental to the players ultimate development. In addition, training time isn’t wasted on some sneaky corner kick trick meant to steal a cheap goal from an unsuspecting youth team that hasn’t bothered to waste their training time learning about sneaky corner kick tricks. Team tactics are taught in an honest way with no shortcuts. Teams that practice what we preach with correct tactics and work hard at technical skill always get promoted to higher divisions. Skills taught in team tactics are shape, space orientation, playing wide early, attacking empty spaces, moving defensively as a unit, compacting space defensively and counter-attacking.

Teaching team tactics is sometimes difficult because 8v8 and 11v11 teams have maximum rosters of 14 and 18 respectively and this is not enough to be able to have a full sided scrimmages. While scrimmaging is certainly utilized, Team Tactics instruction is also broken down to deal with specific places and situations on the field. Team tactics typically involve players in the groups they play in such as the backs, midfielders or forwards. These groupings teach players to learn to recognize each other’s talents. Players must also develop an understanding of how all the pieces move and work together, not just how the say mid-fielders work. Stressing patterns in small groups and then transferring those patterns to the big field develops this understanding. The importance of attacking empty space is best taught with keep away. The numbers can vary from 8v8 to 10v6 to stress certain tactics. It’s best if players can repeat patterns in practice that are realistic to the situations that will be presented in games. It is also helpful to scrimmage nine attackers against a back seven. The pattern is game-like and is helpful in teaching the backbone of the team, the defense, how to transition from defense to the counterattack.

Summary

I have tried to present a broad outline of our training philosophy. There are many factors that change the details such as pre-season, tournament preparation or the specific problems or situations that might require a "little work" that became apparent in the latest game (we can’t pretend we’re just training and not actually playing games once a week all the time!) Also, more attention is generally paid to technical skill at the earlier ages.

Keep in mind that the two training sessions are always to be complemented by the individual players working on their own. All players should be juggling six days a week, players can pass against a wall on their own and assuming they have a nearby teammate or friend they should practice long balls, shooting and 1v1. A player will never succeed to the highest level if he doesn’t want to practice. Developing strength, touch and skill to a player’s full potential cannot be done in only three hours a week, the player has to play the game.

Dan Patterson
July 2004