I recently had the opportunity to visit Borussia Dortmund to spend some time with their academy coaching staff and also got to meet with the US Wonderkid Christian Pulisic who at 17 finds himself in the first team squad and is already the youngest ever player to score 2 goals in the Bundesliga. It was great to chat with him about his experience as a 17 year old in Germany playing in front of 80,000 adoring and extremely vocal fans. What a wonderful grounded individual who still has to have his dad drop him off at training because he is too young to drive in Germany!

As part of my stay I also got to watch first hand some of the sessions that the club implement across all the age groups from the youngest players to the first team. One thing they stressed was the need to “Train the Brain”. Listed below are my notes from the coaching sessions and any questions feel free to get in touch with me at mapletechnicaldirector@gmail.com. I hope you manage to get something from the notes and manage to use them in some capacity.

All the best for the rest of the season.

Movement Warm Up as an individual Activity 1
Moving left, moving right, moving backwards etc., then juggling as you stand, go forwards, backwards, in a circle etc.
Pick the ball up and hold it behind your back and try to throw it over your head and catch in the front. Then reverse directions. Can you do this standing and then as you jog along
Do the same but this time not a throw but juggle it up to catch behind back then toss it forwards over your head and start juggling again!
Introduce basic turns, Maradona, Cruyff, Pivot, Step overs etc.
Juggling the ball but call your birthday out on each touch i.e. 1,2,1,6,1,9,6,7 then mobile number etc.

Progressions;
• Develop to get to sides of squares by giving each side a number ,
• Develop into countries, cities, numbers, and players from Dortmund etc.
• Coach introduced 10-7=3 and you have to go to that side or in which country is Istanbul, London, Cologne, New York etc.

Activity 2
Develop into playing with an eye patch on and dribbling around area, call out different moves and movements etc. Eye patch goes on your stronger eye so we work on our weaker eye and awareness

Progressions –
• Ball juggling with patch on
• Repeat all other stuff with juggling your birthdate etc. and make it loud and can you go forwards and backwards with the numbers so you go up then down

Movement Warm Up as a team

Activity 1
2 teams in a 20×20 square with 1 ball and move the ball around your team by throwing and catching. If the ball touches the ground or is intercepted with a catch from opposing team then change possession. First team to 10 complete passes earns a point, play first team to get to 5 points

Progression –
• Develop the practice by using different sized and different types of balls

Coaching Point –
• “Transition, how fast can we change from defense to attack when we win back ball?”
• “Spread out far and wide and move to support”

Activity 2
Playing in a 15×20 yard area half with balls on outside of area and half without inside the area wearing eye patch still. Players without the ball move and take a pass off a player with a ball and pass back then find another. Movement of receiving player is to check away from the ball then check back to ball i.e. as if taking the defender away then go back to ball and make space for yourself through a "counter movement”. Make sure everything is at match pace

Progression –
• Develop into using different surfaces i.e. not just passing but volley, controlling surface then lay if etc. person with ball can take eye patch off

Coaching Points –
• “Are we all moving?”
• “Do we make eye contact?”
• “Eye contact, then counter movement, then passes”

Activity 3
Movement Warm down – “Train the Brain”!
In a 20×20 square pairs walk with one behind the other as a shadow, shadow touches partner on either shoulder and they move that way, touch both shoulders at same time and stop.

Progressions -
• Now develop so that the player in front has eyes closed and arms behind back, can shadow lead them safely, can we go faster or light jog, make area smaller as a progression or take them into traffic, change partner roles.
• Progress to now if touch on left shoulder goes right! Train the brain
• Progress to 3 people and back person taps then second person has to do same tap to front person, front 2 have eyes closed

Passing, Possession and Movement

Activity 1 – Warm Up
Set up a rectangle sized 15 × 20 yards using 4 poles to define the corners. Set players up at each corner of rectangle and have 2 balls in the area. Pass along the shorter end of the rectangle then make a diagonal run across the area. Use both feet, maximum of 2 touches, receive then move. As players run across area introduce different types of movement such as flick ups, knees up, side steps, skipping, jump up to head etc.

Progressions –
• Develop by putting a pole about 3 yards back from other pole and have the player check back to the pole then back to the ball.
• Progress to one touch, really speeds movement up and note development of fatigue from warm up to higher intensity

Coaching Points –
• “Always go to the ball, do not be standing waiting for the ball to arrive to you!”
• “Ball and player are always on move”
• “The emphasis is always on control of the ball”

Activity 2
Set players up facing each other in pairs about 10 yards apart and a ball between 2. Simple passing across to each other with 2 touches maximum or 1 touch only

Progressions –
• Develop now with same passing distance but work in together then back out always using 1 touch
• As you pass the ball across you must hold the same side hand up of the foot you pass with i.e. if you pass with your right foot you must hold your right hand up in the air
• Progress to pass with foot but lift other arm up, note to see if distance between pairs gets longer or if weight and accuracy gets poor.
• Saying to your partner ‘Right’ or ‘Left’ to pass with and they must use that foot
• Now progress to if I say right you must pass with your left, no need to hold hand up

Activity 3
Play 3v1 in an 8 yard square but in middle of area is a 1 yard square that neither ball or any player can go into, play 3 touch maximum and suggest use poles where possible so that you can’t run over the cones.

Coaching Point –
• “How fast can we move the ball to ensure the defender cannot intercept the ball?”

Activity 4
7 v2 in an area that is shape of a square of about 15 yards but 5 yards back is a yellow pole making triangles on outside, 3 touch max, after a pass the player must run round yellow pole to get back in square. Note that all must be focused as you can’t pass directly back to a player who gave it to you as they have to go out of square to go round a yellow pole

Coaching Point –
• “Ball always moving and you are always moving” “Dead ball is a bad ball”, “Train the Brain”
• “As you reenter the square can you make yourself available and get in a good position?”
• “If you see a player leave square do you go across and occupy the space they were in to help player on the ball”

Activity 5 – Passing patterns
Set a middle pole in the ground or marker and around this set up 5 Poles or markers around it. Put a player on each pole. The middle pole faces the first of the 5 poles and then the other poles are set out like a pentangle.
Player facing middle pole has the ball and passes up to the player on the middle pole, they pass back and player with ball plays up to furthest away pole, that player passes back to next pole on their side and that person dribbles to first pole and we all move and then start again.

Progression –
• Can we add another ball so we have both sides of the area going at the same time?

Coaching Points –
• “Are ALL players without ball engaged or ready?”
• “Are these players able to play 1 touch”
• “Is the player who runs ball back to start able to take ball into space with first touch?”

Activity 6 – Team Passing and Movement
Using the penalty area as the field play 4 v 4 v 4 with one ball. Activity requires 3 different sets of bibs to define teams. Can you earn a point by making 10 passes without an interception by the 4 defenders? If the ball goes out of play or is intercepted then the team of the player who lost it becomes defenders.

Coaching Points –
• “Can we immediately counter once we win possession and transition from defense to attack”
• “It is not the behavior that causes the mistake as much as the behavior after it and how we react as an individual and team to win the ball back”
• “Always be open to receive, what are you doing to help the player with the ball?”