Coaching The Unorthodox - Part 5

Street Football:

Recently, I let my Wealdstone U23s squad finish the session with a game of Wembley. No offsides, no fouls called, just like playing in the park again!

Other than the fact the game is incredibly fun and competitive, there are also so many good returns on a developmental level:

• Chaos created, how creatively can you work through the chaos?

  
  

• High repetition of attacking actions

  
  

• Decisions on shot placement/power based on lots of bodies in the way (something which lots of finishing practices fail to replicate)

  
  

• Goalkeepers dealing with deflections/being unsighted

  
  

You can also reward different types of shots depending on what you want. In this game, first time redirects in the box were worth more goals to encourage increased number of crosses whilst also working on a type of finish we have worked on a lot.

If you want to work on shooting, this is such a good game at all levels to do. High repetition of so many different shot types that we often neglect in finishing practices!

Bring back street football to organised training!