What's Up DOC?
This is a new section we're introducting where YOU as JI Club members get to ask our DOC (Director of Coaching) an anonymous question. Click HERE to submit a future question.
This month's Question:
At what age do teams typically shift from the back defender doing throw-ins to a different/closer player so that the opposing team’s defense doesn’t have time to get set? This might allow throw-ins to be quicker?
DOC's Answer:
There is no special rule within our club as to who throws the ball in. We focus on having the outside defenders do this as it gets more players into the attack and allows the players you typically want to get on the ball (center mids, wide forwards, wide midfielders) in the attacking third in positions to receive and go to goal. We do make sure that central players stay away from taking these as by trying to take the throw in they (a central player) put the team in a numbers down situation in their respective areas of the field. When attacking you always want to create numbers up situations (simply put, numbers up means more of our players attacking than their players defending).
As players get older more time will be spent on “gamesmanship” and something like this will be addressed in more depth. Gamesmanship in this sport refers to things such as how long or quickly to do something and when/where/why, how slowly to do something and when/where/why/how, and even things like how to “kill” off the game (which simply put means how to see out the game in order to keep a current result (things like dribbling towards the corner flag etc)). Jr Irish directors (Nick Swaim Director of Coaching and Mis’ Mrak Academy Director) are working this winter with a leading professional soccer mind to tailor a specific curriculum that fits our club and its players.
Like everything else in life there is no one cookie cutter way and we are working hard to continuously improve our club and everyone’s experience within it. We are working on things that highlight our current players' positive qualities and also to help focus on our deficiencies.
This is a process that takes time as we must first know our current players skill sets and tendencies (data collection) in order to continue to build on what they do well and improve what the deficiencies are across the whole club (process of creating and tailoring a very specific curriculum to our players). This is a very exciting time to be a part of Jr Irish and we are looking forward to this process and implementation.
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