Soccer Style Passing And Scoring

Most folks know I like to borrow a lot from other sports, and this post ought to provide a pretty good example of why that would be. Here I’m going to suggest that we can incorporate some soccer style passing and scoring into our game. And, despite the title of this post, there’s also something in it for goaltenders.

The following stems from Mike Trusson, the founder and owner of Grassroots Coaching — at www.grassrootscoaching.com, which is an online resource that reaches thousands of soccer coaches worldwide.

The title of the specific piece I thought would help us was “Coach your players to combine to finish in the final third“. I’m not much up on soccer terminology, but my guess is that the “final third” Coach Trusson is talking about is the final third of the soccer field, or something like our offensive zone. And, of course, I saw the thinking and drills he used for this as great food for thought for us hockey-types.

Interestingly, Trusson sees the developmental levels of the game in a unique way, as in “The passes achieved in the final, attacking third will be the key to creating goal scoring opportunities.” With that, he adds, “Therefore, this key attacking area is where we focus our midfield break out game on.”

Allow me to interpret this, if I can… I mean, what I think he’d be saying about a hockey attack is that it originally begins in the neutral zone, or from our entry into the offensive zone.

Trusson goes on to describe a soccer style passing and scoring game thusly: “The game is a directional, rotating game designed to encourage midfield combination play in the attacking third. Once the midfield team have combined for an agreed number of passes, they can break out and look to combine with and support their forward and try and score. If the opposition win it, they can immediately break out and counter attack.”

Hmmmmm… Like many other posts I’ve included in CoachChic.com, I’m reminded of the old Soviets, as well as the way a lot of modern day North American hockey teams play on the attack. Furthermore, I now better understand how Anatoli Tarasov and other top USSR hockey coaches brought soccer thinking into their on-ice game — since Trusson describes soccer as “a directional, rotating game designed to encourage midfield combination play in the attacking third.” Ya, that was the old Soviets’ way, of swirling all around and switching lanes.

With that, here’s a video depicting some great soccer style passing and scoring drills…

Okay, if you’re wondering how you might adapt that to the ice, here’s what I think…

I would put two nets — back-to-back — in the middle of that layout, with a goaltender guarding each net. I’d use one zone, as in the middle of the ice or either of the end zones. With that setup, I think most of the coach’s drill ideas would work. Then, I don’t know if this crossed my members’ minds or not but, I was envisioning a hockey powerplay as I watched that drilling.

Now, here’s another, only slightly different soccer style passing and scoring setup…

I’m actually loving this stuff…

Presuming we setup the two hockey nets in the same way I described above, can you imagine what challenging games these are for our netminders? I mean, there’s no telling how a puck will come flying into play from the other side, and there’s the potential for a quick attack to come at any time and from anywhere.

As for the attackers, I think the passing combinations, the movements, and the switching of positions are awesome.

Then, how about a few of my suggested variations…

While Coach Trusson uses a third goaler to feed balls into the game, most hockey teams would probably use an assistant coach to handle extra pucks.

I think most of us are viewing the deepest players as our defensemen. I think I’d do that, but I also think I’d rotate forwards into one of those rearward slots, too.

The more I watched those videos, the more I thought I’d prefer to play games like these at one end of the rink. In that way, the team closest to the end boards would have those to field pucks from. Of course, that suggests that teams would switch sides on a regular basis.

After awhile, I think a number of planned plays could be introduced, those not unlike ones we might use in our powerplay. As I’m sure Trusson is hoping to achieve, I can see a lot of goals coming in super-quick, “bang-bang” fashion.

Also after awhile, I think it would be possible to add a defender on each side. I wouldn’t do this too quickly, because I think that might defeat the purpose Trusson intends. Still, to eventually have the attackers play something like 4 on 1 or 3 on 1 would ultimately be good for our players.

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Just so you know, there are some other drills shown on Mike Trusson’s website. Appreciate that he’s trying to sell membership to his site, too, so don’t be surprised if some of his drills or videos are mainly teasers. Still, there’s some good stuff there… Grassroots Coaching