We are volunteer youth soccer coaches and we do not have unlimited hours to train. However, youth soccer is pretty much the most coaching-oriented sport out there, in other words, the coach can make the difference in winning or losing more than any other sport. Therefore, he must do the following to win games and give his team the competitive edge he needs. The following game process takes 3-4 hours on a Sun. evening.

Step 1. You need the game movie of your opponent’s previous game. There are usually no tall stands at youth soccer games, so get a view of the end zone of the teams’ offense. Always film behind the team you are searching for so you can see exactly what they are doing. Make sure you can see all the players and their numbers on every play.

Step 2. Watch the movie and diagram each play the team makes, including replays. I usually use cardstock. Write down the number of the play and the down and distance to the best of your knowledge and a legend for each play i.e. you would write play 1, 1 and 10, Pitch Sweep Right and plot the blocking assignments executed and the numbers of the backfield players. For a playoff game, I would take the extra time to write down each player’s number.

As you diagram plays, you’ll learn his playbook and begin to get a feel for the coach’s play-calling philosophy. This is the most time-consuming part of the process, as you have to keep pausing and rewinding to get all your block assignments and plays drafted correctly.

Step 3. Watch the movie again with your moves plotted in front of you. Now you are looking for ringtones that can help you. I’m looking for weak and strong offensive linemen, who are their best running backs, how well can their QB throw the ball, who plays receiver who can catch the ball and who can’t.

Step 4. Look for signs. Some teams will have multiple formations and will only run one or two plays from a particular formation. For example, a team will always run out of a tight double formation and will always pass outside a four-wide formation. There are always 3 or 4 of these teams that you will play against each year. You must crush them unless they are better than you in all positions. Some teams in the aforementioned category will even substitute their QB on passes. If you don’t notice something so obvious, you deserve to lose it. A slightly harder ploy to watch is to put the best linemen on the side of the game, you can often get away with it if the other team hasn’t watched you. In the movie it’s pretty easy to see a lineman switching sides on every play.

There are signs that are a little more difficult to detect, but they are very common in youth soccer. For example, when a running back is substituted into the game, do they look for him to pass the ball to him right away? When a new player is placed in the TE or WR position, especially when that player is a starting full-back, he can be pretty sure that he is looking to throw the ball to him. When a team spreads a kid down the sideline away from the quarterback, you can be pretty sure they won’t throw the ball to him unless the quarterback has an absolute cannon. Even then, if he’s not one of your top two or three players, the kid probably won’t catch him. If the initial TB goes too wide, respect it; if not, don’t do it.

Line splits are another thing to watch out for. They mean different things to different teams depending on their schemes, however in youth football; wide splits generally mean run and narrow splits mean pass. Some linemen will give the play away based on where they line up. Linemen and backs will often give a play away because of the weight of their stance and where they’re aiming.

Teams that run a lot off balance are easy to beat. They usually only have one or maybe two plays on the weak side of the lopsided formation and are poorly formed and just there to keep you honest. Make sure you have one or two players ready to stop that particular play and have everyone else commit to their unbalanced side.

Passing is hard to do in youth soccer because pass blocking is suspect and there are usually 7 or more running backs. On top of this, children are poor road runners. Unless they drill constantly, they are never in the same place or running twice at the same speed. For these reasons, you can bet that in most cases there aren’t many passing route combinations that work against you. Teach your DBs to sit and/or jump the opposing team’s favorite routes, especially third or fourth and long. You can also block the receiver in question at the line of scrimmage as long as possible, sometimes I’ll have one player blocking and another waiting to cover him. I also know which player to do this, because I have watched the team and I know who is a threat and who is not.

If you’re playing a fork option team or a double wing team, make sure you can stop the dive first, then their offense falls apart. This can be accomplished with interior blitz or interior defensive linemen using goal line or short yardage techniques. If you’re playing against a team that relies heavily on downfield sweeping or jetting, work a lot on holding defense. If you run a full house backfield (3 backs) make sure your holding man gets to the deepest blocking back and make sure you have at least an 8 man box and your corners aren’t too far out and your safeties are useless.

Step 5. Make your game plan and write it in a simple way so that your players and other coaches can understand it. I now have a playbook software program, but I used to use only MS Powerpoint. Now that you know your offense and your signals, make your game plan accordingly. If you see a formation you know they’re going to run away from it, if you see a formation you know they’re going to come through to get your inside line stunts and blitzes going.

When you practice, get the offense running, opponents play as a scouting team using the plays you have mapped out. Make sure your team can recognize the formations and knows what you want them to do on any given play and knows every signal you saw on film.

Now you can beat a team with top talent because you’re ready. If you found this article helpful, please look for my next book on how to win in youth football, my offensive spread playbook, and my next youth football defensive playbook, all available at http://www.ythfootballforum.com.

Daniel Lyon