Dylan Hunter

The first exercise was suggested by Chris Mohr, a colleague on the soccercoach-l mailing list. It is a simple exercise for younger players.

This simple but effective exercise emphasizes finishing on goal, and also efficiently incorporates complementary receiving skills. The exercise moves along so fast that although there is a “line” aspect to its structure, the wait per player is very short (in some cases almost not long enough, since it’s a pretty vigorous exercise and they need to get back to the starting position in time for their next turn).

Set Up and Execution

For every six to eight players, you will need:

• a pair of bicycle flags to serve as the goal
• a pile of extra balls
• a coach (or knowledgeable parent) to supervise / feed the extra balls when necessary.

Two flags are placed about a goal-width apart. Two lines of 3-4 players each are formed, the start of each line roughly centered about 20 yards out from the flag “goal” (F = flag, X = player in line 1, Y = player in line 2, C = coach, o = ball(s).

For some groups, a couple of cones to mark about where players should start from may be useful aids, but they’re not essential to the exercise.

The coach initially serves a rolling or bouncing ball toward the first player. The player has N# of touches to receive and get a shot off (ideally, N == 2 or even sometimes 1). Player “shot” will of course continue past the flags toward line 2.

The first player from the front of line 2 moves to receive the ball, two (or one) touches and returns a shot back through the goal, which is in turn received and shot by the next player in line.

If a shot or attempt at receiving it goes awkwardly astray, or is so poorly mis-hit so it doesn’t effectively roll through the flags, the coach immediately serves another ball to the next player up to go after instead.

Coaching Points

• Use your receiving first touch to direct the ball to the side a bit in front of you to set up your shot, ideally on the very next touch.
• Use good striking and receiving technique, BUT equally or more important is to receive and get a shot off QUICKLY!
• Emphasize that in a game, fussy extra touches to try to set up a ball perfectly = lost opportunity to get the shot off before the defense recovers, (and also allows the GK to better cut off the angle and get set).
• Set the plant foot a little past the ball so it in the correct position beside the ball when the ball is struck.
• We want the shot on the ground or low if possible (must at least come in under the flags to count). Without enforcing this condition, players will fail to ingrain the technique habits necessary to avoid skying the ball over the crossbar. (Let ‘em learn chip shots over the GK in another exercise, another day)
• It’s better to try for accuracy and smooth firmness than to deliberately try to swing at the ball hard.
• After awhile, you can direct (if the receiving angle is suitable) that the shot must be with the non-dominant foot (usually the left)…so try to set up the receiving touch that way if possible!

It is better to keep this exercise simple and uncluttered, by NOT attempting to have the players switch lines…but rather have move quickly out of the way after their shot passes the flags, and move back to the end of their line in time for their next turn (which is coming up very quickly! That’s in part because there’s inherently no rebound to “follow” by the nature of this exercise (the ball passes through the flags)…and you want the action to flow immediately, without interruption, to the next player in the opposite line. This is a technical exercise to ingrain the proper instincts for receiving and shooting rather than a competitive
small-sided game

Progression of Flag Shooting

Of course, it would also be a good (but very different and small sided take-on rather than technical shooting) exercise to have the player from line 1 continue through the flags to be a facing oncoming “defender” against the next player up from line 2 to try to receive and shoot against, and so on. Here’s a variation I would use first, to get players used to executing good receiving touch and shot with composure under stress and pressure. You can assign one player, or better yet (if you’re strong-winded) yourself to give chase closely behind each player in one of the lines, starting immediately upon their first touch. Use the pause while the opposite line has its momentary turn to get back in place to give a controlled amount of harassment to the next player in line.

You can also do this slightly differently by having each player have a ball, and when a player takes a shot, they must follow it to the goal to become GK for the opponent’s shot. Then retrieve a ball and go back to your group.

He takes feeds of the latest posts from sponsors’ blogs and puts that in an ad box on Techmeme. That’s their ad. It’s brilliantly simple: dynamic advertising controlled by the advertisers, who will make their ads - their content - relevant to the readers who see their feeds on Techmeme….

Gabe is charging $4,500, $3,500, and $3,000 respectively for the three month-long spots (I’ll save you the cipherin - that’s $132,000 per year). For the advertiser, that works out to a $5-8 CPM, which is good.

I definitely agree on the excellence of the idea… For years now, the advertising network folks, (including me while @ Miva) have been talking about how advertising is becoming the content, with this being the perfect pinnacle of that concept - 0 incremental maintenance on the advertiser side, and assistance in feeding the sucking content creation monster, while making money on the publisher side - what the heck’s not to like?

At some point down the road would definitely love to have something that does a contextual match between any given post on the publisher’s side, and X back on the advertiser’s side, to maximize both relevance of the content & CTR, but first things first, and definitely agree with Jeff Jarvis - would definitely be an ad unit that I would think about using myself!

New York - Internet advertising revenue rose 37% in the first half of 2006, compared with the same period a year ago, to $7.9 billion, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Revenues for the second quarter of 2006 also eclipsed $4 billion for the first time — a 5.5% increase over the first quarter — and represented the seventh consecutive quarter of growth for the online ad market. While search ads sold by firms like Google maintained their 40% share of the market from last year, “displays” like banner ads and rich media ads dipped slightly from 34% to 31% of the market, and online classifieds were up a bit, from 18% in the first half of 2005, to 20% in the first six months of 2006. “While search advertising remains the largest format in terms of revenues, we expect to see new formats like video ads to continue to emerge as advertisers seek to leverage the branding opportunities afforded by the growing installed base of broadband users,” said David Silverman, a partner in the entertainment and media practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

More…

Another excellent exposure opportunity for New England-Based Startups from Doug Banks, Editor of Mass High Tech, (posted here by permission - Thanks, Doug! ):

Hello all,

For those of you running companies that may be looking for funding, for a strategic partner or on the hunt for a CEO/COO, Mass High Tech is looking for companies to include in its weekly feature called “The Pitch.” It appears on Page 3 each week and showcases a startup company from New England.

A recent example can be found here:

Consider it an elevator pitch - in print for 55,000 technology readers to see each week. It is free and is considered an editorial feature in our newspaper.

To be included, all we ask is that you fill out the questions below, email them back to me, and then we’ll contact you. (If your company is chosen, we’ll ask you to provide a headshot of the CEO.)

Thanks in advance for your help in getting more recognition for New England’s technology companies.

Doug Banks,
Editor
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology
www.masshightech. com

MHT’s “THE PITCH”

Company Name:
Headquarters:
Employees:
Founded:
*THE PITCH*: Seeking [HOW MUCH]
Web:
E-mail:
Phone:

PITCHING THE TECHNOLOGY

Describe what makes your technology/business model unique?

PITCHING THE PEOPLE

Who are the company’s founders? Where were they before your company?

Who is on the management team?

Have executives been involved in a cashout prior to this venture?

Who is on the board of advisers, and what other companies have they been with?

PITCHING THE BUSINESS

How much money is being sought?

What partnerships, collaborations or affiliations are already in place?

List any federal or state grants, contracts or awards received:

What’s the market size being pursued?

Who are the likely competitors, direct or indirect?

Is the company profitable?

Current annual revenue:

Now go get it!

For anyone who’s not keeping a close eye on the O’Reilly Radar, (and if you’re not, you should be! ) looks like they’re looking for speakers for their Web 2.0 Expo in April ‘07. Given the tracks suggested, looks like they’ll be talking about just about everything, so am sure it’ll be an excellent conference for both speakers and attendees!

Tracks:
- Strategy & Business Models
- Marketing & Community
- Design & UI
- Web 2.0 Fundamentals
- Web 2.0 Services & Platforms
- Workshops

More here.

Now here’s hoping that the registration costs will be something we normal humans can afford, (am sure an Un-conference it is not! )

Very glad to hear that AOL took the “riskier” path, (see prior discussion on my post here and that it’s doing so well for them.

New York - A Time Warner executive said on Tuesday that the media giant’s strategy to offer AOL’s content for free has attracted new users at a faster rate than expected, Reuters reported. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner’s COO, told investors that 40% of the service’s new users were not previously paying subscribers, adding that AOL’s advertising sales have been “very robust.” Bewkes also said that former subscribers were adopting AOL’s free services more quickly than originally predicted, Reuters reported. The company announced its radical change in strategy in early August, all-but abandoning its dial-up Internet model in an attempt to increase its ad revenue by attracting larger numbers of users.

More temporarily here. Unfortunately, since Yahoo keeps expiring their news articles, which really makes for a significant hole in the discussion if one reads one of my prior posts, am sure will be finding a good substitute soon. BTW - note to Yahoo: Please seriously rethink this expiring thing - I know one of the last things you care about anymore is linklove, but for those of us writing about stories you post, you’re really giving us every incentive to find someone else to use / link to / send traffic to. Does that sound like a good long-term strategy for an online media company?

According to the PQ Media Global Product Placement Forecast 2006, global paid product placement spending surged 42.2% to $2.21 billion in 2005 with double-digit growth expected to continue in 2006 and beyond. Product placement spending in TV, film and other media is expected to climb another 38.8% to $3.07 billion in 2006, driven by the continued shift toward a paid placement structure from a barter and added-value model….

The US is by far the world’s largest paid product placement market at $1.50 billion in 2005, up 48.7%. Additionally, in 2005:

* Brazil ranks second with paid placement spending at $285.3 million
* Australia at $104.3 million
* France ranks fourth
* Japan, fifth

PQ Media forecasts that global paid product placement spending will grow at a compound annual rate of 27.9% in the 2005-2010 period to $7.55 billion, as product placement growth continues to significantly outpace that of traditional advertising and marketing. The overall value of the worldwide product placement market, says the report, including the barter/exposure value of non-paid placements, will increase 18.4% compounded annually to $13.96 billion in 2010.

More

The Game

Players pass the ball to the player with the number one higher than their own. (eg. 5 passes to 6, 11 to 1). Ball travels through the entire team. First, allow unlimited touches, then two touches, not allowing the ball to stop, then one touch. Try playing with left foot only, outside of foot only, without talking.

Coaching Points
# Eye contact.
# Good passing technique.
# Angles of support.
# Proper weight of passes.
# Keep body open to the field of play

The Game:
Create a 5 - 10 yard neutral area that no player can enter. Use a minimum of one ball per two players (for best results, use a ball for each player). On command, each team tries to keep it’s side free of balls by kicking through the neutral zone to the opposite side. Play for a specific time limit.

Variations
# Must use two touches.
# Only use inside of foot.
# Only use instep (laces) when kicking.
# Must do an escape move, then kick.
# Increase size of neutral zone for more advanced players.
# Use fewer balls.

The Game

Groups of three, one ball per group. Player A rolls the ball (receiving ground balls) or tosses the ball (receiving air balls) to either player B or player C. In this example, player C must control the ball and get a completed pass to player B. While this is occurring, player A immediately challenges player C and tries to win the ball back. After successful pass, player C would then pick up the ball and repeat the activity as the defender. The defender is awarded a point for winning the ball back and gets to throw again.

Coaching Points
# Encourage defender to pressure quickly after the toss. Defender needs to work hard at closing down the space while the ball is in flight.
# Receiving player’s first touch should be away from the pressuring defender.
# Player receiving the pass should move to create a clear passing lane.
# Do not allow the receiving player to one touch the incoming toss. This is a receiving drill, as well as a drill that serves as a good warm-up for practices dealing with defenders.