Getting your team to communicate on the field

Tom BeanCoach, England

Hi Chad,

Communication is a huge a part of the game. I like to think that if you can get the players to become mates off of the pitch, they will be much happier to communicate on it. Have session which may not be just, or at all soccer based. Instead get them doing other activities that initiate communication (team building exercises etc.).

Once the team have built up a relationship between them, in your training sessions, use drills that have multiple balls in the game for example. This will force your players to talk and call each other, particularly in crowded areas. Try any of the Passing and Receiving drills or Conditioned Games drills in Sportplan and have a go! Once they begin to see the benefits of communication in their results, there will be no stopping them!

I hope this helps and good luck!

Tom

Full NameCoach, Libya

Use the small sided game and you have to built good relationships between them to create good communication

Fritz MizellCoach, United States of America

Something I`ve done to help build communication on field is have a small sided game for 5 or 20 minutes and they can NOT used any communication at all. That includes hand signals, verbal or any other form. Have a short meeting to ask how it worked for them.

The next 5-10 minutes, that can communicate. It worked for my team.

Chad BrunsCoach, United States of America

Thanks for responding with ideas guys, appreciate it!