Shek Borkowski Official Website | LTA Agency » Training Modern Female Footballer http://shekborkowski.com Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:53:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Penalty kicks http://shekborkowski.com/2010/01/penalty-kicks/ http://shekborkowski.com/2010/01/penalty-kicks/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:26:54 +0000 publisher http://shekborkowski.com/?p=448 We all know that moment: The referee has placed the ball on the spot and there may be dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people watching as a player prepares to take her penalty kick. If she scores then she is the hero, if the goalie saves her shot then dreams of many can be shattered. But what is required to take a perfect penalty kick?
Two variables are key in successfully taking penalties; psychological and physical.
The key to good psychology for pressure situations like penalty kicks means having no thoughts, just pure focus.
Penalty takers will often try to fool the goalie. I believe that there is no need to try and fool the goalkeeper. If you take into account that the standard reaction time is on average 200ms then you can imagine that the goalkeeper isn’t going to stand a chance against a hard well placed kick (80+ km per hour) from a 11 meters distance. Mathematically, she’s not actually part of the equation.
The state of mind penalty takers need to have to be successful is similar to the purest hypnotic state. Players must be able to make the crowd disappear and all thoughts of success of failure need to fade away.
Total concentration on accuracy and power is required.
Physically three factors will increase your players chances of scoring consistently:
1. Run up – for most players, casual, supremely confident, two-step run-up will be difficult to execute. Train your players to make powerful 5-7 meters run up in order to generate power.
2. Power – even if the goalie dives the right way, she will be a second behind the ball, and will not stop a powerful shot.
3. Accuracy – a well placed shot is nearly impossible to stop.

All my training sessions end with all players required to take and to score two penalties.
To increase difficulty and to build confidence, my players are required to “call” their shots and make it.
As they prepare to take penalties, all players must point to, and let goalkeeper know the side to which they will shoot. They can’t cheat. They can shoot high or low and goalkeepers must be positioned as they normally would.
By doing this players are forced to take goalkeepers out of the penalty equation, and focus on the run up, power and accuracy. Using this method, as the season progresses there is a measurable increase in players’ confidence to score, and the conversion rate of penalties taken.

]]> http://shekborkowski.com/2010/01/penalty-kicks/feed/ 0 Opportunities from opponent throw-ins. http://shekborkowski.com/2009/12/training-modern-female-footballer-creating-chances-from-opponent-throw-ins/ http://shekborkowski.com/2009/12/training-modern-female-footballer-creating-chances-from-opponent-throw-ins/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:21:37 +0000 publisher http://shekborkowski.com/?p=422 While all coaches recognize the importance of set pieces, there still are some coaches who underestimate or ignore preparation for opponents throw-ins. For me opponent throw-ins, especially in their 3rd, represent goal scoring opportunities. Even well organized and disciplined teams tend to lose concentration and their team shape during their own throw-ins. This represents opportunity for prepared teams. The following are my speaking notes from coaching seminar, from August 2008 (I focused on defending throw-ins in attacking 3rd).

Training Modern Female Footballer – Creating chances from opponent throw-ins.
On average, women’s football teams, will have 12-16 throw-ins per game. Of those 4-6 will be in opponent’s 3rd. Those 4-6 represent goal scoring opportunities for teams prepared to take advantage of opponent’s loss of individual concentration and team shape and of our own team’s numerical advantage is tight spaces. Effectively dealing with 4-6 of these during a game could be the difference in a win or loss. Treat throw-ins as set pieces and have set plays for and against it.

1. Define individual players and line responsibilities.
2. Defending throw-ins:
- define opponents capability (<20m, 20-30m, >30m)
- long throw-in,
- negative throw-in,
- to-midfielder throw-in,
3. Dealing with deflections
4. Attacking throw-ins:
- who to double team,
- attacking “bad” throw-ins (what is it?)
- press & hold (when and why?)
- press & commit (when and why?)
5. Creating chances from throw-ins:
- 1-pass,
- 2-pass,
6. Patterns and timing of attacking runs:
- weak side outside midfielder
- forwards; acceptance of first pass and subsequent run
- weak side outside back
7. Dealing with breakdowns
8. Role and positioning of goalkeeper

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