with Butch Lauffer,
West Texas A&M University Head Soccer Coach;
over 500 career wins;
3x Lone Star Conference Champions;
Finished 2018 season with a 17-3-3 overall record (best in program history);
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
2x NCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year (2001, 2009);
USSF 'A' license, Grade 1 coaching license (Irish Football Association), Class 'A' License (United European Football Assoc.), UEFA pro license (Scottish Football Association);
2008 Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 Women's National Team Assistant Coach
and James Crowder,
West Texas A&M University Associate Head Coach;
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
former Goalkeeping Director of the Lonestar Soccer Club;
USSF 'B' License, NSCAA Premier Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma
All coaches need to review solid fundamentals to build their teams into champions. The old adage, 'Defense wins Championships,' holds true more often than not, and Butch Lauffer, the head soccer coach at West Texas A&M University, demonstrates solid defensive techniques in this action-packed, fully loaded instructional video that’s chock-full of valuable drills and solid coaching information.
6v6v6 Drill, 1v1 Drill and 2v2 Drill
Rather than start with the standard drill progression, Lauffer lights the fuse and begins the action with a 6v6v6 Drill – which is used as a quick game to warm up the players and get them involved with lots of touches.
Defending in 1-on-1 situations is the foundation of team defending and the key building block for defensive success. As Lauffer transitions into the 1v1 drill segment, he offers an explanation for how defenders must position themselves when playing 1-on-1 defense, with an emphasis given to body placement on the inside foot and forcing the head down.
Lauffer explains that working with a teammate in 2-on-2 situations is another key aspect for building a team defense that’s tough to beat. To help demonstrate effective ways to to improve on 2-on-2 defensive principles, a 2v2 drill is rolled. In this drill, there is good insight on teaching defenders how and where to cover and using the sideline as an extra defender.
3v3 Drill and 4v4 Drills
Understanding the principles of pressure, coverage and balance are an important part of planning and organizing team defense. In the next segment, a 3v3 drill is used as a build-up progression off the previously shown 1v1 drill and 2v2 drill, with a dedicated progression for concepts on pressure, cover and balance, as well as coaching points of emphasis regarding where players must position themselves defensively.
To tie the defensive principles together and prepare players for practicing under game-like situations, the 4v4 drill segment continues the work of the other drills and emphasizes communication, while also outlining the core concept of keeping cover and balance positioning in a line.
This video provides a real-world example of why Lauffer has been such a successful coach over the years – his consistent messaging, clear communication and emphasis on fundamentals truly hold the keys to program’s success.
Coaches will be able to take the drills shown in this video and immediately implement them into their very next practice. All the drills shown are simple and easy-to-implement regardless of your players’ level of talent.
58 minutes, 2022.
RD-05950B:
with Butch Lauffer,
West Texas A&M University Head Soccer Coach;
over 500 career wins;
3x Lone Star Conference Champions;
Finished 2018 season with a 17-3-3 overall record (best in program history);
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
2x NCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year (2001, 2009);
USSF 'A' license, Grade 1 coaching license (Irish Football Association), Class 'A' License (United European Football Assoc.), UEFA pro license (Scottish Football Association);
2008 Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 Women's National Team Assistant Coach
and James Crowder,
West Texas A&M University Associate Head Coach;
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
former Goalkeeping Director of the Lonestar Soccer Club;
USSF 'B' License, NSCAA Premier Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma
Attacking in the final third of the field is a tough principle to teach. In those situations, two factors come into play that work against your success in the final third: 1) Passing becomes much tighter, and 2) Opposing defenses become much more aggressive as defenders desperately try to get the ball out.
In this information-packed video, Butch Lauffer, head soccer coach at West Texas A&M University, explains how to overcome both of these problems by teaching a proven, successful strategy he calls, 'Attacking Principles of Play,' which is a system designed to create overloads that allow attacking players to probe and find an open window to shoot from.
Concepts For Attacking The Final Third Of The Field
As Lauffer digs deeper into the offensive concepts for attacking the final third of the field, viewers are shown a detailed strategy for teaching players the keys to success, while simultaneously placing emphasis on overload concepts to create advantages in space.
Overloads are critically important in soccer. To successfully attack the final third, Lauffer explains that if you can create an overload situation, you’ll dramatically increase your team’s chances at a scoring opportunity.
As an added positive by-product of teaching this system, coaches will find that by practicing and adding drill repetitions for attacking concepts into your daily training regimen, it allows players to have fun at practice while learning how to create high-quality opportunities to score goals.
Drill Progressions: To Reinforce Attacking Principles
To effectively teach his attacking principles in the final third, Lauffer showcase four primary activities within a series of drill progressions – from 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 – all done as a means to help players understand how to take the individual skills they’re being taught and fit them into the bigger picture of offensive team concepts.
The importance of a proper teaching build-up becomes evident, as viewers get a first-hand look at how the drill progressions allow the concepts to progress. During these progression activities, Lauffer often stops a drill to explain the higher-level attacking principles working within the framework of drill – which provides terrific takeaways and makes each drill more valuable to the viewer.
Lauffer and his staff also explain what players and coaches should be looking for in each drill activity, which is an effective method for helping viewers learn the finer points of teaching and coaching this system.
This video is a comprehensive primer for installing an aggressive style of play to attack the final third of the field and create overloads to find open windows to shoot from. Lauffer provides viewers with a detailed plan for conducting practice sessions and uses drills to hammer home these concepts and key skills to improve execution.
50 minutes. 2022.
RD-05950C:
with Butch Lauffer,
West Texas A&M University Head Soccer Coach;
over 500 career wins;
3x Lone Star Conference Champions;
Finished 2018 season with a 17-3-3 overall record (best in program history);
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
2x NCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year (2001, 2009);
USSF 'A' license, Grade 1 coaching license (Irish Football Association), Class 'A' License (United European Football Assoc.), UEFA pro license (Scottish Football Association);
2008 Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 Women's National Team Assistant Coach
Effective crossing and finishing is the bedrock of all successful soccer programs. In this video, Butch Lauffer, head soccer coach at West Texas A&M University, takes viewers through multiple attacking drills designed to help coaches develop effective attacking strategies for their teams.
In this comprehensive instructional video, viewers will learn, 1) How to effectively time runs, 2) Overlapping and underlapping on the wing, and 2) Entry passes and changeovers.
Timing Runs, Overlapping / Underlapping On The Wing
In this segment of the video, Lauffer discusses important coaching cues to look for to stress the concept of effective crossing from the wings. These cues include how players positioned off-the-ball must time their runs and how to effectively frame the goal to provide targets for the crosser. There’s also a valuable discussion on when to play the ball back out, depending on where a player fields it in the box.
As the video transitions into the segment on overlapping and underlapping on the wing, viewers get a detailed explanation on how the ability to control play on the flanks sets up a variety of options for passes and crosses into the box.
Lauffer demonstrates several excellent overlap and underlap drills to help players learn how to create different opportunities to attack from the wings. By alternating from overlapping to underlapping runs, players learn key techniques for maintaining their attacking shape, while creating a variety of attacking options that are difficult to defend.
Entry Passes, Changeover and Shot Segment
As the video transitions, there is a discussion on the importance of having high players attack as an effective strategy for playing to goal. Coach Lauffer demonstrates this by showcasing how he uses a target forward positioned with his back to the goal and set up in a premium position to lay the ball off to players running into the attack for quick 1-2 combinations and 1 touch shots.
This segment is packed with crossing and finishing exercises designed to teach players how to creatively attack and finish in the final third of the field. By providing drills and their variations, coaches will learn how to teach players several different strategies for keeping defenders off-balance, while creating quick and dangerous scoring opportunities.
This video is a good resource for intermediate and advanced coaches looking to add high-quality finishing drills to their practice arsenals!
55 minutes, 2022.
RD-05950D:
with James Crowder,
West Texas A&M University Associate Head Coach;
2018 United Soccer Coaches South Central Coaching Staff of the Year;
former Goalkeeping Director of the Lonestar Soccer Club;
USSF 'B' License, NSCAA Premier Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma
One of Butch Lauffer’s highly valued assistant coaches at West Texas A&M University, is his right-hand man when it comes to all-things goalkeeping, James Crowder. In this information-packed instructional video on goalkeeping, Crowder reveals his time-tested, best-practices for training and coaching the goalkeeper position.
Loaded with teaching strategy and skill developments drills to improve a goalkeeper’s skill-set, Crowder guides viewers through a detailed training progression that provides technical and tactical coaching points for goalkeepers through repetition.
Crowder has a reputation for being thorough when it comes to his approach to coaching the goalkeeping position. Throughout this video, he stresses positive communication and creating an environment that allows his goalkeepers to develop and improve – all while simultaneously having fun and working hard.
Goalkeeping Essentials
In this video, Crowder uses a detailed, organized progression that starts with goalkeepers working on fundamentals like foot skills and concludes with the keys to making diving saves. Viewers will notice that Crowder is constantly asking questions of his players, encouraging them to think about their technique.
You’ll receive essential information and a guide to improving critically important goaltender traits such as: foot skills, proper-hand placement, contour catches, basket catches, smothers and collapse-dives through a variety of drills.
Goalkeeping Drill Progressions, Step-In Sessions
Crowder offers coaching points that are simple for coaches and players alike to understand, while being easy to teach on the field. For drills that are demonstrated, viewers receive several variations of each drill, which are designed to expose keepers to different situations around the goal. Best of all, the drill progressions increase in both the level of difficulty and in the demands that are put on goalkeepers.
In the Step-In Drill, Crowder offers six variations of movement patterns and handling which nicely ties the handling activities together. These movement patterns focus on: a) clean handling, b) approach and recovery steps, c) turning into the set position, and d) diving out of various movements.
Crowder provides you with effective and easy to implement activities which work on key fundamentals for goalies at any level. Whether run weekly, or incorporated into warmups, these activities are sure to benefit your goalkeepers.
Goalkeeping is the most-specialized position on the field, and many coaches lack the technical ability to train goalkeepers. All too often, the only training goalkeepers receive is when there is a shooting drill, and that drill is for the benefit of the shooters, not the keepers.
Coach Crowder changes the approach to training goalkeepers in this video. He provides an easy-to-follow, easy-to-implement training session for goalkeepers. Watching this video will give coaches at all levels of competition the confidence to work with keepers!
54 minutes. 2022.