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In the northwest you can probably get away with just soft ground boots considering the amount of rain you get. Those should be fine, but I would still try to get some FG boots if you can find any on sale or if a teammate is willing to sell a spare pair, just for the odd game where the pitch is dried out. As for position, with your height you'll be expected to play centre back or target man, if you can't head accurately then more towards centre back but you'll still need to be able to get your head on the ball for clearances. Accuracy doesn't matter too much. If you're fit and half decent with the ball at your feet then centre midfield might be better but you need good understanding of tactics and positioning to play there well. Baibai Kuaikuai posted:I've joined up for a amateur division, which is basically just for fun with my fellow students at my uni. Thing is, though, I've always been crap at football. I played it when I was young, but when I started getting called out for being so bad at it, it didn't exactly fuel my interest for the sport. With some practice you'll probably learn to control the ball and pass half decently, but you'll probably struggle a lot to do the same under pressure in a match. To accomplish anything under pressure you need to be good enough at it that you can do it without thinking or concentrating. To that end, practice as much as possible without looking directly at the ball - dribbling with your head up, playing sidefoot passes looking at your target rather than the ball. Proper technique for using your laces has you looking at the ball anyway so it's not as relevant for shooting with power, but being able to make a basic pass while under pressure will make you far more effective on its own than anything else.
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Jun 9, 2012 12:51
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Baibai Kuaikuai posted:Thanks for the tips guys, everything is useful to know! I've been working at mostly just getting used to having the ball at my feet, some shooting and some juggling. I'm still very much crap, and I mean absolutely terrible, but hopefully through the summer things will get abit better. I figure things can't get much worse, anyhow. Well it's not the end of the world if your positioning is a bit suspect, but it makes a big difference in how effective you are in midfield. If you're great at passing but you're never in space to receive the ball, then your ability is wasted. If you're a great tackler and almost impossible to get past, then that isn't much good if you get caught too high up the pitch and the opposition just pass it around you. All that said there's only one way to learn, and playing as a defensive midfielder is useful for that because all you need to concentrate on is the space in front of your defence. You don't have to worry about the offside line, you don't have to worry about making clever runs, and as mentioned if your fitness is good you'll be able to compensate for poor positioning with work rate. In a lower league it tends to come down to individual battles anyway so if you just identify their best attacking midfielder and shadow him you're halfway to doing your job already. Your manager/captain should be able to give you some specifics on what he wants you to do anyway, or at least he should. Sadly a lot of lower league managers seem to expect players to automatically understand their role even though the same position can be played very differently depending on the system. If you're paired alongside someone with more experience they should be able to keep you right.
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Jun 11, 2012 00:43
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DontFearTheReefer posted:In regards to recieving the ball under pressure, I was always taught to keep my eye on the ball but would always get tackled whenever I tried to turn him, what do you guys do in that situation? Don't. The only way you can turn a defender at your back is if he makes a mistake. If he doesn't get tight enough you're free to turn (and your team mates should give you a shout to tell you this). If he gets too tight and tries to take the ball, you can shield it and roll him by turning to the opposite side. But if he gets tight without overcommitting, then trying to turn is just giving him a chance to tackle. Assuming the defender is well positioned, you have two options: 1) lay the ball back to a teammate then spin off the defender so he can play a through ball. This turns it into a race between you and the defender towards his own goal which is far more difficult for him to deal with. 2) turn while moving towards your own goal. This needs to be a fluid movement because you'll get 1 touch do it and you'll usually need a second as the defender tries to tackle. Basically as you receive the ball instead of killing it completely or turning into it, you want it to move about 1m back towards your own goal as you turn on it. This gives you just enough space that you can react to the tackle. If you can master the second one it will really improve your game, but it requires a very precise first touch and confidence to pull it off. Generally you always want to go with 1) if the pass is on anyway though, because even if 2) works you haven't got enough time to pick a pass, but the guy behind you gets plenty of options. There's maybe a couple of flicks and tricks that occasionally work too but you tend to get 1 chance to try them per defender, after that he'll be wise to it whether it works or not.
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Jul 9, 2012 10:09
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25 is probably too old to make a dramatic improvement in your technique, but you're never too old to learn positioning and how to read the game. For some people it comes naturally but most have to learn it, and some never do! The fact that you recognise you need to work on it puts you a step ahead of a lot of amateur players already, if you play regularly for a season I guarantee you'll feel a lot more comfortable by the end. As long as you and your teammates are prepared for the fact you'll make plenty of mistakes as you learn, it's not a problem.
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Jul 24, 2012 17:42
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Baibai Kuaikuai posted:I know it's not directed at me, but thanks for this, I find it very interesting. As I previously mentioned in this thread, I haven't really been practicing soccer at any point during my life, without pickups during elementary school. Just recently I've been having alot of fun practicing dribbling, juggling and shooting. I basically do it for fun, but since I'm so old, is it pretty much moot to practice at all? I mean, since I've barely done any technical training before, does this mean it's too late? I don't mean playing in any semi-pro teams, obviously, I'm thinking more in amateur games. Will I not see any difference, mainly because I'm so old? I know it's sort of a dumb question, because obviously there should be some improvement if you keep at it, but, basically it's too late? It's too late for a dramatic improvement. The first step to becoming a really good player is to get all of your basic technique up to the point where it's all second nature and you can control and pass without thinking about it. This means you can use your concentration on reading the game, spotting runs, picking gaps. That makes a good player great - good players can put the ball exactly where they want with their first touch, but great players are aware of the space around them so they pick the right place to put it as well. In your case the ship has probably sailed on reaching that first hurdle with your technique, but it doesn't mean you won't get anywhere from practising. What it means is that you'll need to concentrate more on the ball and will have less time to look up. It won't stop you improving as a player though. There are lots of successful professionals who are really not that great with the ball at their feet, but they make up for it with what they do without it. For an attacker that might be just making intelligent runs into space, for a defender it comes down to positioning and reading the game that we mentioned before. Don't give up practising your technique, but focus on a good first touch, looking up, playing a forward pass into feet for a teammate. When you're happy that you've got that nailed, focus on reading the game - any time that your team is in possession, regardless of where the ball is, ask yourself constantly "if the ball came to me right now, who would be the best person to pass to?" Then when it does come to you all you have to do is focus on doing what you already decided. Defending is just the reverse - which opponent is in the most dangerous position right now? Can I do anything to reduce that or do I need to yell at a teammate?
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Jul 24, 2012 21:56
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Alctel posted:Apparently I'm doing ok, but I feel like I have zero impact on the game at all. Any advice for this position? It's probably second only to wingback in terms of how much running you have to get through, but you don't have to sprint as much. If you're used to playing on the wings already then that's your answer, keep moving, drift wide, and help the wingers double up on the full backs. It's a slog against two DMs by yourself because one will follow you and the other will cover the space, but you'll get a lot of space against 4-4-2 teams if they press high. Last thing to try is to play 1-2s with your DMs. One of their DMs will eventually get pulled up the pitch so at least you'll be 1v1 after that.
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Aug 13, 2012 12:58
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Mistakes happen, just apologise and move on. The way I see it, if someone is trying to do the right thing and gets it wrong, e.g. tries to clear it and slices the ball to an opponent, there's not going to be any point criticizing them because they already know what went wrong and there's not a lot else they could do about it. Technique and fitness aren't something you can change in the middle of a game, and a player who slices the ball is probably more in need of encouragement than anything else. If people make bad decisions though, like a fullback trying to dribble past an opponent, or a lazy midfielder not tracking his man, then you have to do something about it because those can be fixed on the pitch and that kind of stuff is exactly the kind of match experience that turns people into good footballers. Hopefully your teammates don't take it too far of course.
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Aug 24, 2012 00:15
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I'm 5'8", I scored my first ever header (and in all likelihood my last) on Sunday by going up for a corner and making a run from the back to the near post that wasn't tracked, I didn't even have to jump. Had the defence been even remotely competent the ball wouldn't have come anywhere near me and the keeper would have wiped me out anyway. If you're smaller than me, and a left back, you should probably staying back to defend against counters when your team has a corner.
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Aug 29, 2012 17:10
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CAMiasm posted:anyone have experience with Nike CTR360 Maestri I cleats? i've had 3 pairs of adidas in a row, but they always seem to fall apart rather quickly. I've had a pair for about 3 years but I haven't actually worn them too much because I bought some Predators afterwards. The CTR360s are really light but the angle of the laces is horrible, you get no protection for the top of your foot whatsoever so I ended up sore just from shooting sometimes. After I caught someone's studs and couldn't walk for 3 days I stopped wearing them. If I was getting Nike boots again I'd get Laser 3s or Tiempos.
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Oct 31, 2012 14:43
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Lazlow posted:No, I can't even feel it, and I didn't really notice it until the bruise started to appear. I wish I'd thought of this. 4 months ago I tackled a guy trying to hit a 30 yard piledriver. Since I'm not very big my style of tackling is nicking the ball off the opponent's toe and then getting away from him as quick as I can with the ball. In this case I managed the first part and then took the full force of his boot right on the top of my foot. Ironically, he had spent the previous 30 minutes trying to hurt me but was suddenly all apologetic when he managed it accidentally. It still aches quite a bit but if I rest it for any length of time I'll lose all my fitness right as the new season is starting. Unless I take up swimming or cycling I guess (ugh).
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Aug 12, 2013 22:47
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Tongues posted:Assuming that the parents aren't just chucking medicine balls at their children's faces from infancy, the difference in preventing concussion is going to be negligible. How many kids have you seen get a concussion from heading a soccer ball in a game? And I say this as one of the many people here I'm sure who've been concussed during a match. From the article, this isn't something that happens when you head the ball during a game, it's something that develops over time when you head back goal kicks every day in training and never get a break from it. Which means the way to protect kids is to limit how often they are practising headers and playing games with full goal kicks, not to ban it altogether.
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Nov 17, 2015 14:13
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cosmicjim posted:My new cleats have a hole for the Adidas micoach speed cell. Just pulled the trigger on buying one. Anyone here use one of them before? Thoughts? I got one at Christmas, it's OK but the app and the site are a bit naff. They hosed up the unit conversion for some stuff so you get hilarious notifications like this: 
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Mar 7, 2016 18:58
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vulturesrow posted:Any thoughts on a good formation for a team that doesn't have a lot of midfield talent? I help coach a girls select team at the U13 level. This is their first year playing full sides on a regulation pitch. We really only have two girls who I would consider legitimate center midfielders and another who would make a great defensive midfielder. We've been trying 4-4-2 but the head coach has been trying a diamond midfield but I think that's a little too tactically complex for kids who are just starting to learn the ins and outs of true positional play. I think a straight 4-4-2 might be best. Thoughts? I haven't got far enough in my coaching courses to be authoritative on this but in my experience playing flat 4-4-2 properly is very demanding positionally, and especially so on the fullbacks who tend to be the weakest players in a junior team. 3-5-2 is much easier to start from because everybody except the sweeper is simply man marking (though you might not call it that working with a girls' team?). If the opposition play 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 then you push one man marking centre back into midfield and bring the wingbacks back, so you end up with a 4-4-2 diamond. In that sense it's about as straightforward as you can get defensively as long as everyone gets a clear idea early on of who they should be marking. Attacking is mostly about teaching the attacking midfielder to find space and everyone else to give that player the ball whenever they can, so that might be a problem if you don't have someone suited to it, but it shouldn't be a tactical issue. Scikar fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Aug 22, 2016 |
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Aug 22, 2016 14:03
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