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Futsal - Great Off-season Training!

By Steve Sawtelle

     My goal in writing this article is to share some of the benefits my team and others have gained by adding futsal to our regular winter soccer program. Futsal has been such an effective development tool that we have replaced the conventional US walled indoor soccer game with it this winter. Our soccer week follows a pattern of one formal skill session on Tuesday using the futsal format, outdoor pick-up games on Saturday, and organized league play in futsal on Sunday. We are not using the walled indoor soccer game to train players at all this winter. The cost of court time and available space makes this prohibitive. I believe that when given a choice for player development, futsal does it better and more economically.

     Futsal may be new to some coaches, so I'll describe it briefly here. This is a court soccer game. Its origins are credited to Uraguay some 30 years ago. This game is common in certain areas of Brazil where the shortage of open space encourages short-sided court games and beach soccer. Because of it's availability and small-sided format, Futsal has impacted the early development of some of Brazil's finest players. This game is also played in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. This is the indoor game sanctioned by FIFA.

     This is a five-a-side game. It is played with a goalkeeper and four field players. This game was originally played as team handball and evolved to soccer. The character of this game is outdoor soccer played indoors. It is played in soccer's fundamental shape, which the 4 vs. 4 format is so good at presenting. The futsal ball is smaller and heavier than the outdoor soccer ball and has dampened bounce. Players, U12 and under, play with a ball about the size of a No. 3 outdoor ball. U13 players and above, play with a ball approximating a No.4 outdoor ball. Since the court surface is usually fast and the space small, these modified balls scale the game to the size of the court remarkably well. The smaller circumference makes precision touch and the sweet spot on the ball more challenging to hit. The rules of the game are similar to the outdoor game with some friendly modifications that fit the game to the smaller space. Throw-ins are replaced by kick-ins and the goal kick is replaced by a goal clearance. The goal clearance is a restart by the keeper using his hands to put the ball back in play with restrictions similar to those of the outdoor soccer goal kick. Substitutions are made on the fly, including the keeper. Most importantly, the game is played with touchlines and goal lines, with all the consequences that go with them. Simply put, a bad play with the ball may result in the ball leaving the field of play with the resulting loss of possession being the consequence. This game also emphasizes skill and control. Rough play is discouraged. Shoulder charges and slide tackles are forbidden. Fouls are tracked and teams penalized for playing too roughly. As in basketball, a sanction is placed on a team after 5 fouls have been assessed in each half. In futsal, this sanction takes the form of a revised free kick process. Only the goalkeeper may defend the goal during the taking of the kick. The offending team loses the privilege of their wall and the ball is spotted on the second penalty spot 10 meters from the goal. As you can see, this is a strong deterrent to rough play. I have rarely seen a game get to this point with young players. For more details, go to the US Futsal web site or be our guests at KCFutsal at www.Kcfutsal.org. Both sites have links to the Futsal Laws of the Game.

      Futsal is great for young players. It provides numerous ball touches in a short period of time and it presents many of the fundamental tactical patterns of the big soccer game. The game contains many of the challenges faced in the final third of the field and provides repeated opportunities to finish. As a requirement of all teaching, futsal provides repetition and recognizable consequence for poor execution. Conversely, it also reinforces good play with tangible results, mostly shots and goals. In most coach's training sessions, the 4 vs. 4 format is often used. Its effectiveness in teaching players both skill and tactics is widely recognized. The 4 vs. 4 game can present all the primary combination plays. It emphasizes both offensive and defensive support, but most importantly - immediate transition. Futsal can be a brutally honest game. It will isolate and expose your team's deficiencies. It will also showcase your teams strengths. The game is fast and numerous finishing opportunities are offered when played well. Technical and tactical speeds are emphasized. A bad touch or a slow recovery will almost always result with a loss of possession. Quite frequently the lesson is driven home with a goal scored by the opposition. These lessons learned hard are not easily forgotten. The satisfying thing about this game is that these lessons are quickly learned and that players readily adjust themselves to the game's demands. Coaching clinicians have often stressed that the game is the best teacher. By putting players in learning situations, the results of the decisions and their technical execution will educate them with a minimum of coaching involvement. In futsal, you can see this happen.

      When teaching young players, I think some coaches struggle with getting effective player movement off the ball. Players tend to feel that their work is done after they deliver the ball to a teammate or when a shot is taken. In this game, supporting movements and management of space are keys to success. Slow transition and lazy supporting play will result in turnovers and goals to the opposition. This game requires strong play in these areas. If not shored up, the score can get ugly. Team success requires good spatial management, patience, and poise. Goalkeepers must be more than an obstacle standing in front of the goal, they must also play in the field and support the attack. A good futsal goalkeeper plays is a sweeper and a goalkeeper. Because of the speed of the game, communication and anticipation are necessary and are usually rewarded with ball possession and finishing opportunities. Finishing opportunities generate enthusiasm and reinforce quality decisions and execution. This is a position-less game (excluding the goalkeepers). Players must continually rotate between defensive positions in the back and attacking runs to the front. Players must organize themselves to maintain both defensive and attacking shape.

      I think futsal's advantage over the dasher board indoor game is that it naturally teaches good habits. My experience with dasher boards is that they don't punish bad play or bad decisions as well. In some cases, a bad decision can turn into an assist with a lucky carom off the wall. Since the ball is kept in play by the boards, players don't have a consequence for a misplayed ball or for bad tactics. A player in trouble can be redeemed with a kick off the wall that sometimes results in an accidental assist or an opportunity to maintain possession. I have watched my young player's movement and work rate diminish steadily over a 9-week season in walled soccer. Sometimes the game declines into a long kick and chase game where possession and control lose importance. Futsal demands play to feet or to playable space. Players learn good possession habits, how to make space, and how to attack space. Futsal's most powerful selling point to players is that they get more playing time and shots on goal. Consider a team with the full roster allotment of 18 players. For the same costs of playing dasher board soccer, this team can be split into two futsal teams of 9 players. This same team will usually play as an 18-player team in the conventional walled soccer game. Both soccer games will last 48 minutes. In futsal, each player will get at least 24 minutes of court time if all play equally. In a 6-a-side indoor soccer game that lasts 48 minutes, each player will play approximately 16 minutes. Because of futsal's smaller pitch, touches and shots per minute are also increased. Possession and shots in futsal are more frequent. This playing time differential sells kids to this game.

      One of the powerful attributes of this game is its accessibility. Any basketball gym will work. Any open warehouse space will do. This game has an advantage over the common form of indoor soccer in this country. The game played in a hockey-type format is primarily set up as a business operating for profit. Court time and practice time is scarce and costly. Here in the Kansas City area, gym time ranges from almost nothing to $50 dollars an hour. The bottom line is that practice time is easier to get in these gyms and it is cheaper. A basketball court fits nicely into this game. The three-point arc defines the penalty area and it comes complete with a half line and boundaries to the pitch. All you need to add is the goals. A futsal goal is 7 feet tall by 12 feet wide and is now offered by a number of companies.

      Getting a league started is a bit more challenging than scheduling practices and clinics. You need a large block of court time, administration, teams, referees, and a schedule. We lease our time in two facilities and are serving 141 teams this year. We got to this point almost faster than we can manage. I think this makes a strong statement to the power of this game. Once introduced, coaches continue to expose their kids to it. Coaches and parents are great salespeople once they accept the concept. The original sell is hard, because the game is new and different to many people. It is not in the paradigm of US soccer yet. They don't see the game on TV, it's not in the newspaper. Lastly, futsal is the only indoor soccer game with a world championship and an endorsement by FIFA.

      Futsal is a great training tool for developing soccer players. It is also a very fun and safe game to play. The people who introduced this game to the Kansas City area realized that competition in this game is important. The competitive game is the exam that reveals how effectively the lessons are absorbed during training. As mentioned above, we have a successful league playing now for its third year. We have 141 teams playing from U8 to U17. We started three years ago with 5 teams and now have filled two gymnasium facilities with four active courts each Sunday from November through February. I think this fact alone speaks strongly about this games effectiveness with youth players. Supporting us in this rapid growth have been Lennox Industries, the Kansas City Wizards, Johnson County Parks and Recreation, and the Johnson County Girls Athletic Association. Visit our website at www.kcfutsal.org and follow the links on this site to the United States Futsal Association and other organizations supporting this game in the United States. This site also contains links to the Laws of the Game for futsal.

      I think this is an excellent alternative to indoor soccer (anyone who has read through the archives or was an early subscriber knows that I am not a big fan of indoor soccer but Futsal is something I really could get excited about.

      Any questions or comments about Futsal should be addressed on the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm as a number of the people who post there seem to be involved in Futsal

      Questions, comments or suggestions about the site should be sent to me at comments@finesoccer.com

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Have a great day!

Lawrence

Original Artivcle Webpage: www.dprsports.com

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