SOCCER PLAYERS: HOW TO HANDLE BLOWOUTS
Blowouts are difficult when you’re on the receiving end, but they do present some opportunities for you to develop both your mental and technical skills. The first order of business is to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Sure, you’re getting shellacked on the field and it feels awful, but it happens to every soccer player. If you play soccer long enough, you’ll find yourself on both sides of the equation many times. You’ll get annihilated in some games and your team will dominate in others. What you should concentrate on is how you conduct yourself during both these scenarios.
Definition: Blowouts
When your team is beating another team by many goals, or just the reverse, your team is getting decimated by another team by several goals. Scores like 5-0 / 7-0 / 9-0 are considered blowouts in soccer.
The Game Inside The Game
If you’re getting decimated by a superior team, you need to stop feeling despair and figure out how you can increase your impact, no matter how small. Is the opposing midfielder dribbling by you every time? If yes, think about how you can stop that from happening. Can I contain her so she can’t simply fake me out? Can I also cut off a passing lane while I contain to limit her options? If you notice that your new actions are forcing her to pass, instead of dribbling right by you, it’s a win. You can even start keeping your own score. Every time she passes, it’s a point for you, every time she beats you, it’s a point for her. Doing something as simple as this creates a Game Inside The Game. The scoreboard may say 7-0, but you’re 3-1 in your own game. #winning
What if every time you get the ball, the opponents steal it from you. Either they tackle you, or poke it way, or simply body you off the ball and take it way. It seems hopeless and you start to wish the ball never comes your way. Not exactly what you signed up for, huh?
Change The Way You Look At The Game And The Game Will Change
Well, first thing you can do it change your mindset. Stay positive and create your own Game Inside The Game. Instead of thinking I don’t want the ball, think: every time I get the ball, I’m going to focus on maintaining possession long enough to get off a good clean pass to a teammate. Every time I get off a pass, that’s a point for me. Every time the other team takes the ball away, it’s a point for them. Start thinking about how you can get your point each time: “since the other team is pouncing on me as soon as I get the ball, I need to know where I’m going to pass before it comes to me, so I need to have awareness. I need to know where my teammates are and who’s open. I probably need to play one-touch too, since I’ll have no time to control it and look up. All right then, keep my head on a swivel; always optimize my positioning so I’m in an open passing lane; find open space; ball is passed to me; move to it; one-touch pass to John.” Boom! Point for you. And guess what? At no point during your own Game Inside The Game, did you think about the score. #winning In the two examples above, you have created your own Game Inside The Game to enhance your skills and take away something positive from a negative situation. Instead of feeling bad about yourself and your team, you’ve created situations where you can make small wins to improve. That’s playing smart.
Show Class When Dominating A Weak Team
Now let’s flip the coin. Your team is blowing out a very weak opponent. The other team is demoralized and feeling miserable about themselves. You’ve been in the exact situation and understand precisely how they feel. This is the time to show some class and behave in a manner that doesn’t make the other team feel worse. In no way should you excessively celebrate goals, or whoop it up when a teammate performs a technical skill that leaves an opponent in the dust, or laugh when a mishap befalls the other team. Instead, keep it respectful and even offer words of encouragement. If an opponent falls down, help them up. The amount of admiration by parents, friends and fans will actually be far greater than you can imagine because displays of good character in athletics are few and far between these days.
In addition, blowing out an opponent, offers you unique opportunities to play the Game Inside The Game. If you’re a defender, practice playing out of the back with quick, accurate passes. Or, if you’re reluctant to do this in more competitive matches, try “bombing up” to go on the attack like a Wing Back. Just remember to recognize when the moment your team loses possession, so you can retreat back to your position. Midfielders and forwards can see how many consecutive passes they can achieve to practice possession and patience. Often times in games with wide margins, your coach will sub in the second and third string players. When one of these players comes into the game, let’s call her “Sarah,” get with your teammates and say quietly “only Sarah can score.” This achieves two goals. First, it allows one of your teammates to get some meaningful opportunities to have some success. Second, since Sarah’s skill level is below the starters, it reduces the chance of her actually scoring and the other team making some good defensive stops. #winning
Lift Up Your Teammates
In cases where your team is getting trounced by another team, you have the opportunity to be a leader. It’s a lot easier to be a leader when your team is dominating, but when you’re getting a decisive beatdown, your leadership skills will stand out to your teammates and coaches. When times are tough on the field, some players will often opt to be negative towards their teammates. Everyone is already feeling bad, do you think piling on more negativity is going to help anything? Never. So be The Light. Lift your teammates up by offering encouragement and positive reinforcement after good gameplay. Most likely you’re not going to comeback from a 9-0 deficit, but your actions will not only impress the fans watching from the sidelines, it will make a significant impact on your coach. Why? Coaches want players on the field who lift up their teammates and are a positive influence. They don’t want soccer players who stop working, are overly negative, and bring everyone down – no matter how good they are. Positive soccer players who elevate their teammates, always get more minutes in a game. Smart, classy and a positive influence…you certainly can win — even when getting blown out.
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The Game Inside the Game For Coaches
Creating a Game Inside The Game mindset is great for players, but it can be incredibly effective for coaches.
Creating a Game Inside The Game mindset is great for players, but it can be incredibly effective for coaches. The biggest opportunity will arise at halftime when the team is together and you can create a specific “game” for the whole team. If your team is getting blown out, try to find one part of the game where your team can succeed. See if your team can execute three, four or even five consecutive passes. Each time they get achieve that set milestone, they get a point. If they can get ten points in the next half, you’ll treat them to a pizza party. This works great for younger players, and even older players, since who doesn’t want pizza, but what this does is take the focus off the blowout, and make the players focus on getting a string of good quality passes together in a game situation. You’ll notice that the score suddenly doesn’t matter. What your team will be focusing on is getting those ten points. Heads will come up, player movement will improve and your team will start encouraging each other.
If your team is blowing out another team, you can use the same Game Inside The Game tactic. For instance, your team can only take a shot on goal after they make ten consecutive passes. And those shots can only happen outside of the 18 yard box. This Game Inside The Game achieves two things, it allows you to practice keeping possession and shooting at longer distances. If your team quickly nets two goals even with these restrictions, add the element of only a certain player can shoot on goal (like the example with Sarah above). For younger teams, make it one of the weaker players. For older teams, make it a Wing Back who is bombing up on the attack. Want even more sophisticated? How about make it that you can only score with a header, working on getting quality crosses into the box. The only limitation is your creativity.
Finally, if your team is blowing out another team, clue the other coach into your Game Inside The Game tactics. Pull him/her aside and inform them of precisely what you’re doing. By quietly letting the other coach know what is transpiring in a calm way, you’ll showcase your sportsmanship in a respectful manner. Even if a couple more shots find the back of the net, the other coach will understand you’re not piling it on and won’t get upset. This tactic is far, far better than yelling to your team “Don’t score!” or “No shots!” which only makes the other team feel more inept.
★ Smarter.Soccer Insight: When creating a Game Inside The Game, be creative. Instead of wallowing in the defeat, use this unique opportunity to work on specific things your team needs to improve on. You can rarely replicate the same game-like pace and intensity in your practices, so use this time to your advantage.
Game Inside The Game
Game Inside The Game
love this concept ….it is a positive reframing of the situation at hand