Ian Barker's Skills and Activities for Soccer 3-Pack

with Ian Barker,
Director of Coaching Education, United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) since 2012;,
former Head Coach at Macalester College;
former University of Wisconsin Assistant Coach (was a part of four NCAA tournament appearances, a Big Ten title and the 1995 NCAA National Championship);
served for 10 years as Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) Director of Coaching & Player Development

United Soccer Coaches' Director of Coaching Education Ian Barker demonstrates 13 warm-up drills that allow variation and progression with economy and fluidity. Coach Barker works with men and women (separately) to model attacking, defending, transitioning and even goalkeeping activation drills. The drills emphasize a blend of technical and physical demands with team communication.

Coach Barker's drills lend themselves to rapid decision-making and variability potential to suit your preferences. You'll see how to move players efficiently and intensively through single-player technical ball touches, as well as partnered work that moves up the body to thigh, chest, and head touches and on to passing line and full-team drills.

Warm-Up Activities

There are 11 activities in this section that will get your players up and moving. They are designed for athletes of all levels and each drill progresses into the next. The activities include:

• Mirror Activity - Great activities for shadowing and movement within a fun and competitive drill. You can use this as a drill to activate movement or it can be tied into training as part of 1v1 defending.
• Scramble - This section can be looked at as chaos with a purpose. Coach Barker uses some cues that all coaches can steal and use in their own training sessions.
• Knock and Move - Helps players understand how to stay onside and move wide to get into position to receive a lead pass.Keeper Warm-up - Trains the keeper's need to recognize the type of pass coming to them and handle it the proper way. A great way to get everyone involved in the warm-up.
• Ladder - Coach Barker uses ladder agility drills to teach multiple movements and agility while finding the ball or getting touches on the ball once athletes have changed direction.
• Technical Circles - This section takes all of the skills an athlete has and puts them together in different phases to get lots of touches on the ball. Partners will work in a whole-team framework. The premium placed on communication and blend of individual footwork, passing, and rapid decision-making synthesizes the fluid components of the game played at high levels.

You'll see Coach Barker instruct players on points of emphasis, singling out specific player movements or decisions for praise or critique at appropriate moments.

Coach Barker models and explains over 70 minutes of progressive warm-up and activation drills that work for beginning and advanced players. The wide variety of activities allows players to work their way intensively and efficiently into peak technical, physical, and psychological readiness.

77 minutes. 2016.

with Ian Barker,
Director of Coaching Education, United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) since 2012;,
former Head Coach at Macalester College;
former University of Wisconsin Assistant Coach (was a part of four NCAA tournament appearances, a Big Ten title and the 1995 NCAA National Championship);
served for 10 years as Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) Director of Coaching & Player Development

Learn how to take activities you currently use and adapt them to work on different components of the game

• Learn shooting drills that will increase your team's scoring opportunities
• Learn small sided games to improve speed of play in attacking and defending
• Use creative passing exercises to develop your players' soccer awareness

Building a Successful Training Session

Coach Barker lays out the traits needed to build an efficient and successful practice. Once the video moves to the field, Coach Barker provides examples of these coaching necessities. He provides the five essentials of an effective coach.

Training Exercises

These exercises are built around the four components of soccer: Technical, tactical (or decisions), physical and psychological. An example of some of the exercises you will see include:

• 5v2+3 - A traditional keep away game with a transition tied into it. A great game for teaching transitions and can be used for pressing. The section goes on and becomes progressive building on each game.
• 4v4 - Filled with many good opportunities for teaching paired defending and passing to keep possession.
• 1v1 to 2v2 - Ideal for teams who like to press or play more forward soccer. Players try to score on a small gate diagonal from where they start. The game then moves to a 2v2 situation, where you must work with your partner to widen the defenders out or if defending learns to have 1 defender press while the other has a choice.
• Shooting Activities - This section has three drills that are very progressive. Each drill adds a different element to a pass, pass back, shot, then movement to crash the net and receive a cross from the corner. The combination of a shot from straight on and then the cross is a great way to teach movement to the net. The added element of adding a partner also helps with learning to communicate as you attack with numbers. All the drills require the players to move around a mannequin and either hides the ball to drop it or to shot once around the mannequin. All of these situations are game like situations.
• Triangle Passing - Set up so four players practice three passing activities before entering into a 3v1 keep away exercise. Coach Barker's explanation of how a pass towards the player back foot instead of their front foot puts the receiving player in better position to pass the ball and keep possession moving.
• 1v1 Gates - This section has good explanation of attacking 1v1 and defends 1v1.

Barker does great work with explaining all the sections and what coaches should expect from each drill. He stops the play as needed to explain what he is looking for.

70 minutes. 2016.

with Ian Barker,
Director of Coaching Education, United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) since 2012;,
former Head Coach at Macalester College;
former University of Wisconsin Assistant Coach (was a part of four NCAA tournament appearances, a Big Ten title and the 1995 NCAA National Championship);
served for 10 years as Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) Director of Coaching & Player Development

The ability to recognize numbers advantages in the run of play is something all coaches want from their players. United Soccer Coaches' Director of Coaching Education Ian Barker shows you how to build up your attack and how to train your players to recognize numbers-up situations.

Through a progression of small-sided games, your players will learn when and how to add width and length to the field. Coach Barker chooses proper times to freeze play and utilizes these moments to teach players recognition during each situation.

1 v. 1, 2 v. 1, 3 v. 1 and More

Once your players master their touches on the ball, they must begin to master their position on the field and how it relates to their teammates and opponents. Starting with 1v1, Barker breaks down each scenario and how to add another offensive player in the situation. He emphasizes the four components of quality coaching:

• Creating space away from the ball to improve attacking chances.
• Utilizing your goalkeeper as a viable option to help counter movements and to alleviate pressure.
• Switching the ball quickly and attacking with pace to fully take advantage of a transition moment.
• Using zones as the session continues to build allows the players to see the functionality of their spacing.

Practice Segments

Coach Barker progresses from having players compete in restricted areas to giving them freedom to play and apply what they learned. Practice builds up until players take on more complex off the ball movements. Many of the progression include teaching movements to create spacing such as:

• Give width and length.
• Utilize the target to establish spacing.
• Interchange with a teammate.

You will get five drills to help your players understand their position on and off the ball and how it relates to play on the pitch. Coach Barker's dynamic drills create real play situations and offer players several options in obtaining a numerical advantage, while supporting the effort of quick recovery in numbers down and maintaining balance on the field.

Coach Barker also discusses his four components of soccer, how to blend in different variables like time restrictions, and gives tips for effective coaching.

This video is sure to help your team improve their attacking. Through establishing width, playing in a numbers up or numbers down situation, transitioning with pace and more, Coach Barker shows you adaptable sessions that teach key soccer principles.

59 minutes. 2016.