Many of you reading this may already be familiar with the Coerver Coaching Player Development pyramid. The pyramid is broken down into 6 phases of player development, with each phase contributing to a specific topic which then progresses to group play.
The Coerver Coaching pyramid starts off with ball mastery – the fundamental aspects which every young soccer player needs to learn and become familiar with. This is where the players start to manipulate the ball in different ways, using both feet, and are encouraged to be creative. Those of you who have academy aged soccer players between the ages of 7 – 10 should spend time in this area.
The next phase of play in the player development pyramid is passing and receiving. Internationally renowned soccer clubs such as Manchester United, Ajax, Barcelona, Arsenal and many other clubs throughout the world look for players who are cable of being able to receive, and pass a soccer ball. Receiving a ball on the move is a skill many coaches look for – is a player comfortable with taking a positive first touch and then distributing the ball sensibly and smartly?
At any level of the game, soccer is about winning individual battles on the field – 1v1s are critical in any area of the soccer pitch, especially the attacking half. The third section of the Coerver pyramid focuses on teaching players those 1v1 moves which can have such an impact and often create game winning scoring opportunities. These beat-an-opponent moves involve scissors, step-overs and much more. The younger players aged between 8 – 12 love to work on these moves, the more creative you can help them to be, the better. Instilling confidence in youngsters to use these moves is such an important part of soccer coaching.
In the modern game of soccer, speed is crucial. The fourth part of the Coerver pyramid focuses on making players quicker, so players learn how to improve their agility, power, and acceleration – with and without the ball. When you think of a Lionel Messi with his small frame you would imagine he would be overawed by the stronger more physical players. But look at his balance – he has such a low center of gravity, moves quickly, and has such a deft touch, he makes those stronger players look sluggish.
The fifth part of the Coerver pyramid is all about finishing. Finishing is a skill many people are good at, but few excel. At youth level soccer you will often find games with lots of missed chances – the team that has better finishers is often the victor. Coerver finishing drills and small sided games focus on instinctive play in and around the penalty area with a strong focus on technique. Without technique, the art of finishing is lost. Coerver establishes the fundamental finishing techniques, then puts players into situations to take advantage of those techniques.
The final, and sixth part of the Coerver pyramid of player development is about group play. If you look anywhere on the field of soccer, the game is broken down into different areas which normally involve around four players from each team at any one time. When players are given the skills and know-how to succeed in those group play situations, that bodes well for a successful soccer team. Coerver puts emphasis in this section on fast break attacks which involve breaking as quickly and as efficiently as possible using all the skills learned in previous Coerver pyramid phases.
To recap, let’s go over the Coerver pyramid one more time:
- Phase 1: Ball Mastery
- Phase 2: Receiving and Passing
- Phase 3: 1v1 Moves
- Phase 4: Speed
- Phase 5: Finishing
- Phase 6: Group Attack