Conference trucks::football;1

    
    I fear it may be too late for you but FWIW:
    
    In my youth, the 70's, I played for an excellent school team and we 
    had the following training games (10 minutes each way) in addition 
    to the usual strength and fitness training routines.
    
    Aged 12 - 14, emphasis on 4/5 a side, v.small pitchs, not usually 
    on grass, to improve basic ball control, speed and reactions.
    
    Aged 15 - 17, emphasis on 7 a side, full size pitches, to improve
    passing, possession and awareness.
    
    Like most schools we also played 2 11 a side matches a week.
    
    It may not be everybodys cup of tea but this method produced an U19 
    team that was unbeaten for 2.5 years with 6 of the 11 playing 
    county-standard.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Andy

	Here is what we do ritual every Tuesday, and I never bother 
	going Thursday, so wouldn't know. However, the key is to 
	get a bit tired before you touch a ball. It is then harder, 
	but when you're not as knackered, voila, difficult things 
	become easy (well, for the others, they were always easy for 
	me. Ahem)

	Anyway heres what we do.

	First warm up, natch.

	Next form a large coned square, 50 yards X 50 yards. 

	Do about 5 laps of touch left, touch right, head forward kind 
	of stuff just to get moving.

	Next do a lap of walk on side, jog one side, 3/4 pace one side, 
	sprint one side, then 1 pressup, 1 squat thrust, one star jump. 
	Then do this again, only 2 of everything at the end, then 3, 
	then 4, then 5. (After being injured for two weeks and doing 
	this I was f****d I can tell you.)

	Next a small breather. (large this week i.e. nausea, the whole 
	9 yards; well out of fitness)

	Next have a base cone and three further out and do some shuttles. 
	1 back, 2 back, 3 back. Two laps of these. Obviously its nice 
	to split into some teams for this one for some good slagging 
	people off type fun and a lovely forfeit for the losers.

	Next 2 games X 2 laps each of weaving in and out the cones at 
	pace with the ball. One game should be complete control with 
	your wrong foot. If its particularly badly done, have another go. 

	Next do the same but with a ball i.e. take a ball out
	to each cone, stop it dead and return. The next fella brings them 
	back, nice turns on a dead ball here. The next fella then takes 
	them out. Again two laps of this. Now do this exercise again, 
	again 2 laps.

	Notice how Tony the sadistic manager is slowly bringing the ball 
	into the action just as you're feeling buggered and have developed 
	even more piss-poor control than you had before.

	Next, group up into threes, in a line maybe 10 yards apart, ball 
	at each end. Each guy pitches the ball at the fella in the middle 
	to be volleyed back under control, for a set period of time. We do 
	2 minutes of each, and this is extremely tiring. Everybody does 
	volleys, then half volleys, then chests and give backs, then headers 
	getting off the deck. You are now knackered, but will be able to 
	feel your touch getting better over the weeks. If feeling flash, 
	call for the ball on your wrong foot for these exercises. Sometimes 
	this is enforced.

	Now go straight into a two touch match for 10 minutes followed by 
	some all in, or if you're feeling fruity how about twenty minutes 
	of peppering your keepers with balls, attempting to put as many 
	over the railway and into the tennis courts possible.

	Its important to have someone who has coached or at least has an 
	idea of some decent games/exercises. We used to have this fella 
	who would make games up on the fly, which everybofy would cock up 
	and get really cheesed off with. Fortunately the axe fell and 
	now we have a proper fella doing it.

	This is for Bagshot playing in the Surrey League, so a pub team 
	would probably not want to get involved as much as this, but I 
	find the 'getting a bit knackered' before going near a ball does 
	definately help my touch.

	Ian.

RE Last:

	Good exercises! Remember them all too well ;-). 
Also something that's fun and makes sense:

	Before training starts, i.e. the time it takes until everybody's
	changed an on the pitch, make one or more squares with cones, 
	about 10m apart and play 4 against 1, first with two touches,
			     then with one touch
			     If the one player manages to touch the ball,
			     the player who passed the ball has to go in.
			     If a player passes the ball out of the 
			     boundary he has to go in. The same if the
			     player makes more touches than allowed.
	Variations: 4 v 2, 3 v 1, 5 v 2, 5 v 3, etc. according to no. of
						     players available
		    one or two touches (shouldn't be more).
	Make sure that the guys don't stay glued to a corner but move
	a bit back and forth 'asking' for the ball.

Of course there are loads of other NICE :-) exercises, but I think the
ones mentioned in the last reply are sufficient for a pub team.
If you do want a greater variety of exercises, get a trained coach or
buy one of the many books available.

Have fun

Eduard

My "RE Last:" ment of course 328.2.

You should be a bit careful with the bunny-hops, though.
It's not too good for the knee ligaments and patella to
go down too far. Only bend your knees slightly and not 
further down than to 'toilet-seat' position :-) (i.e. 90� angle
between tibia and thigh).

Eduard

    
    Eduard,
    	it's the guy who tries to make me do bunny-hops who's gotta be
    careful!! When I used to train with a south London Sunday side, the
    trainer was an absolute sadist. He used to make up bunny-hop twice
    'round the pitch and when we did team sprints etc. the last team home
    were given the opportunity to do another lap of bunny-hops. It was
    alright fro the trainer (who insisted on leading by example) - he was
    even shorter than Jerry!!! so he didn't have to bend his knees much to
    get his but to touch the floor.
    
    	Those were fun times. When I do bunny-hops now I have real trouble
    getting back up!!
    
    JBg

	JBg

>    	Those were fun times. When I do bunny-hops now I have real trouble
>    getting back up!!

	Same with me now ;-)


	Another nice exercise I remember of a late trainer of mine,
	is standing and then bend the knees in 3 stages down to the
	beforementioned 90� angle veeeeeerrrrry slowly, holding
	each position at least 15 seconds and moving up and down
	between the three stages without rest. One session took
	about a minute, then shake your legs and the same all over
	again. Makes your thigh muscels feel like tearing. ;-)

	Or a similar knee-bending one I remember from the under 18's:

	Up and down 10 times with a player sitting on your shoulders.
	Players should be of equal size and weight. I always had about
	80kg sitting on my shoulders ;-).

	Cheers

	Eduard 

>    	Those were fun times. When I do bunny-hops now I have real trouble
>    getting back up!!

    What Jon actually means :
    
    "When I do bunny-hops now I have real trouble getting down, hopping and
    getting back up. In fact the only aspect of Bunny-Hopping that I do
    well is the "Post-Hop Complaints".
    
    Still, he doesn't do too badly considering the fact that he's coming up
    to retirement age. Sorry Jon, but somebody has to keep the record
    straight.
    
    
    Jerry.

    
    	I can't deny that Jerry, I've been telling the missus for years
    that I'm retiring at 35 to a little place on the Gower peninsula.
    I've another 5 years of hard slog to go, and in the mean time, I may
    be 5 years your senior, but I'm also 5 yards faster that you when it
    comes down to the chase for goal.........it must be all the other
    exercise you're getting! How is Una by the way?
    
    JBG
    
    Ps. to get back to the subject (ie. training), "set piece" attack and
    defence practice is essential. The guys taking the corners have to
    consistently put the ball in the right place and the guys in the box
    have to know where the right place is going to be. The same goes for
    free kicks whether from close range or on the half way line. You can
    involve everyone when practicing, giving the forwards the chance to
    develop a set of standard attacking plays, and getting the defenders
    used to defending such plays.
    	In a lot of training games there is little emphasis placed on set
    piece tactics, and hence time ought to be set aside for this purpose.
    

RE .9:

	One appropriate tactical exercise that comes to my mind
	is 
	    offensive midfield + attack 
		against 
	    defensive midfield + defense + goalie

	using one half of the field. Place two goals (i.e 2x2 cones 2m width)
	on the middle line, 1 on the left wing and one on the right.

	This gives the defense the opportunity to score goals too (good for
	moral) and teaches them to build up an attack quickly after getting
	into posession of the ball. It also teaches them to make a wide pass
	from one side of the field to the other to try and score in the
	other goal.
	The attack,besides getting attacking practice, has the opportunity to
	shoot at the goal and also learns to block an attack or try to disturb
	the building up of an attack if they loose posession. The attackers
	also learn that they after to run back and defend if they loose the 
	ball.

	A good exercise, which I always enjoyed doing (probably because
	I played in defense and we won most of the time because our
	attacking capabilities were better than the attack's defending
	capabilities :-) :-))

	Eduard

    
    	I know the feeling Eduard. Most of our forwards have never won a
    defensive tackle in their lives ..... it's like stealing sugar from a
    baby!
    
    	Another variation on your theme is to allow the teams to score in
    EITHER goal. Thus they can change the direction of the attack at will
    and the opposition have to react. This can be quite good fun and is
    very tiring!
    

Re LAST

  Yes, I know that type of exercise too. We used to play it with four goals
  made of cones and each team had a diagonal pair of goals. The trick is
  to split up your team and make one half responsible for one goal and the
  other half for the other goal instead of the whole team running all over
  the place ;-).

           A                                                       B
   -----I----I--------------------------------------------------I----I-----

            X            X          X         Y           Y           Y

                 X                              Y             


                                         o


         Y         Y                   Y  X                 X
             Y                                     X              X

   -----I----I--------------------------------------------------I----I-----
           B                                                       A

   Eduard

    Cheers lads,
    
    	I've got some new ideas out of that as well. If I can just convince
    everyone to mebbes try one or two of these I am sure our game will
    improve and we can get promotion. I have tried/used a lot of methods
    from school days and they helped me quite a bit, but talking to the
    lads I play with down here it seems they used to concentrate on getting
    fit, ie plenty of running and exercizes with little emphasis on the
    basics of the game.
    
    	Rich