Wayne Harrison is a former professional player and has been a highly qualified professional coach for many years.

Youth Soccer Training & Development Tips For Coaches

Wayne Harrison on the Coach's Corner: Focus on Developing Specific Peripheral Vision Part II

Wayne Harrison is a former professional player and has a wealth of knowledge of the game both as a professional player andcoach. A former Academy Director and professional player at Blackpool F.C. in the English Championship league, and Youth Director Al Ain Football Club in the UAE; he now writes and presents at coaching symposiums worldwide. Harrison holds a UEFA ‘A’ License, the NSCAA Premier Diploma as well as a bachelor’s degree in applied physiology and sports psychology.  Harrison has published numerous books on player development and coaching. Currently, Harrison coaches youth soccer at CV Manchester Soccer Club in San Diego, California.

A previous article introduced Awareness Training and explained how it helps players develop skills more rapidly than traditional training methods.  The second article explored the scientific background to Awareness Training and how the approach speeds up and improves decision making and the thought processes in soccer. This third article focuses on improving a player's overall game awareness.

Soccer is a thinking person's game.  Great soccer requires a cerebral approach. Developing a successful player necessitates teaching an understanding of the game of soccer and helping a player be aware of how plays develop on the field. Here are Wayne Harrison's recommendations to help player development: 

Here is the Progression:

Just a few of the soccer books written by Wayne Harrison

The following activities can be used to improve the overall game awareness of individuals within a team concept.

Activity #2:

Set Up: Same playing area as Activity #1.  Two teams of 6 players are positioned inside the playing area as shown below in Diagram (b).  One ball is required for each team.

Objective:
Here we have two teams playing in the same area, player (5) passes to player (3). Player (2) as the ball is traveling runs outside the area, player (3) has to see this movement and make the next pass to that player. If (3) makes it with a one touch pass that is excellent as it shows they have seen the run as the ball is arriving and made the quickest pass possible to get the ball to (2). Player (2) then brings the ball back into play and the passing sequences start again.
Likewise player (E) on the other team passes to player (D), player (C) runs out of the area and the set up continues.

Progression:
See field illustration

Objective:
Passing to opposite colors - so now a red player (letters team) is looking to make a pass to a yellow player (numbers team) running out of the area and a yellow player looking to make a pass to a red player running out of the area. This really sharpens up the awareness capabilities of the players. Here Red (E) passes to Yellow (6) and Red (F) makes a run outside the area, (6) spots the move and best case scenario makes a one touch pass to (F).
Likewise Yellow (3) passes to Red (B) who spots the outside run by Yellow (2) and passes to that player.

This is all designed to sharpen the awareness of all the players so they keep their heads up with and without the ball and to be able therefore to observe their options as quickly, efficiently and (especially) as effectively as possible.

Coaching Points:                                                                                                                  

a) Timing and coordination of runs                                                                                        

b) Quality of passing                                                                                                          

c) Recognition of passing options                                                                                     

d) Support play – angles, distance and timing     

Click to Activity #1                                                       

Related Article: Coach Wayne Harrison's Awareness Training and Myelin and Training - The Scientific Concept in Skill Development with Wayne Harrison

Wayne Harrison. All of his 10 books are currently in print through Reedswain and World Class Coaching and are recommended reading at coaching courses worldwide.  His most recent publication “COACHING THE 4-2-3-1” is nearly 300 pages of clinics aimed at developing this system of play with your team.  The book: Soccer Awareness: Developing the Thinking Player explains in full the importance of Awareness training such as this

Log on to www.soccerawareness.com or contact him on wayneharrison@soccerawareness.com for further information.

Wayne Harrison's Soccer Books are Available on Amazon.com