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Women & Girls Soccer

Women’s soccer is already big in the States and is rapidly growing in Europe and the rest of the world. It is therefore important that girls receive the best coaching to encourage more and more to take up the sport. Within the female game there can often be judgements and ignorance that can inhibit the development of young girls within the sport, so ensuring that the right steps are taken by the coach can be useful for the women’s game.

Girls Soccer

Use the Women & Girls section on Cupello to gain useful advice and insight into the female game. By reading these pieces you will see that the development of your players will grow exponentially, from tips on finding talent to motivation, filling them with confidence and the best technique. 

Watch your girls become the next Rapinoe, Bronze or Kerr!

Soccer Coaching Tips

When working with young players I always try to reflect upon the recent training sessions and link all my key messages for matchday back to training.

 Females love to learn, so help all players feel involved, even if they are starting the game on the side

Think about how a young players' development could be enhanced playing different positions.

Player time on the pitch or bench
  • Women & Girls

Player Game Time in Development Teams

It is never easy in development teams to get the balance right between player ga...

Coaching Female Players
  • Women & Girls

The Importance of Why When Coaching Female Pl...

Have you noticed how often girls ask questions during your sessions? How much do...

Free

Attacking overloads in transition
  • Attacking
  • 16-18+

Transition and Overloads

This activity is a brilliant way to work on playing with an underload or overloa...

Difficulty

Free

Forward runs in behind
  • Attacking
  • 11-18+

Exploiting With Runs in Behind

This session is designed to allow players the opportunity to the timing and exec...

Difficulty

Talking to colleagues
  • Women & Girls

Top Tips: Difficult Conversations With Staff

Having conversations with staff that are about problems or issues arising that n...

Free

Attacking runs
  • Attacking
  • 13-18+

Exploiting With Runs in Behind

This session is designed to allow players the opportunity to the timing and exec...

Difficulty

Zinedine Zidane working with his players
  • Women & Girls

Four Modes Of A Modern Manager

For the person in charge of a team there is more to it than picking the players ...

Free

Players travel for away games with long journeys
  • Women & Girls

Top Tips For Managing Travel

As we all know, there are a number of factors that can affect an athletes perfor...

Players using video analysis tools
  • Women & Girls

Top Tips For Using Video Analysis

Tanya Oxtoby gives her top tips for working with video analysis. Working using ...

Free

Womens Euro winners and losers
  • Women & Girls

Women's Euro: Cupello Blog 4

In the run up to the semi-finals former Estonia Women manager Keith Boanas looks...

Free

Flag of the Women's Euro
  • Women & Girls

UEFA Women's Euro – team review

Keith Boanas, former Estonia Women National Team Coach looks at the teams in the...

Free

What type of coach are you?
  • Women & Girls

Understanding The Coach You Are

As coaches our job is to try and maximize players potential. It’s important we...

Setting targets for individual players
  • Women & Girls

Five Tips For Individual Player Sessions

Tanya Oxtoby, WSL assistant coach, gives her five top tips for individual player...

Free

Coach & Player
  • Women & Girls

Top Tips on Giving Feedback

Feedback can really help players engagement, learning and development. How d...

Girls Enjoy
  • Women & Girls

From the Touchline – Season complete!

It’s one week on from the last game of the season, where a win would see us ga...

Girl Huddle
  • Women & Girls

One Game To Go

As the season is coming to an end, there are leagues to be won, promotions to be...

Girls celebrate winning
  • Women & Girls

Top Tips for Recruiting Players

Tanya Oxtoby's top five tips to help you with recruiting players from having a t...

Coach
  • Women & Girls

Half Time Team Talks

There are various ways you can conduct a half time team talk, this could depend ...

Working with talented players
  • Women & Girls

Speed Bumps

When working with talented players do you ever consider their long-term player d...

Coach
  • Women & Girls

The Game is the Headteacher

I see lots of sessions where coaches set up good practices but very rarely go in...

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Coaching young players FAQ's

Coaches regularly discuss problems, ideas, and solutions. Here are the most frequently asked player coaching questions.

How do I get my defenders to understand pressing?

I have a simple exercise for this:

Get four players to stand 2v2 facing each other about 3 yards apart. One side are attackers the other defenders. The attackers stay still but give one of them the ball and make the defender facing the player with the ball move forward so she is right in front of her to "press".

Players stay still and you explain this is pressing with the second player staying back to cover. Now get the attacker to pass the ball to the attacker next to her.

Now the first defender drops back 3 yards to cover as the second defender moves right up to "press" the attacker with the ball.

Do this a few times to show the defenders what it is they should do when the ball is in play.

Should the same players be subs every match?

We all like winning but here at Cupello we advise that player development should be a priority over results. In our experience player development creates a better squad of players and therefore has much more chance of being successful over the course of a season.

Playing your strongest team every week at the expense of the same players sitting on the bench will probably mean you have a great start to the season – but once injuries kick in and the players who have spent weeks on the bench have to play when they are not up to speed your team will suffer.

Pep Guardiola said: " What makes you grow is defeat, making mistakes. It is what keeps you alert. When you win you think 'great we've won'. And we'd surely have done some things wrong but you're relaxed. The only thing that winning is useful for is a good nights sleep".

You will find that the parents of the players who are always on the pitch and not on the subs bench will give you their full backing – but you will get comments from parents whose child is always starting on the bench. All parents have to pay the same for each youth player so they should all be getting their money's worth during matches – it is only fair.

I also want all my players experiencing coming onto the pitch when it is in full flow because it is a different proposition to starting a match. There is no chance to get up to speed they have to be 100% ready when they come on.

So at the beginning of the season you may struggle but that soon goes and players you thought should be on the bench will be flying and the first name on your team sheet.

Finally, make sure the same players do not start on the bench every week even if they are getting the same game time. Starting on the bench is disappointing and something everyone should share around.

My girls give up the ball too easily how can I get them to be more aggressive?

If your players are being brushed off the ball you need to play games like 2v2 or games with overloads so they have more of the ball and encourage them to win it back if the lose it. I wouldn't say they need to be more aggressive just less accepting when they have the ball or when they lose it – guard it and win it back in 6 seconds.

Games like 2v2 or 3v2 can in themselves mean the girls will not want to let their team mates down in such small sided games. 

Try playing these games and you will see that on the pitch they are less likely to lose the ball and more likely to be keen to win it back!

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