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 The purpose of this page is to facilitate the B6 Warriors NXT virtual training for the Fall 2025 season. 

What is New

No meeting or homework for week 5. 

Training Outcome:

The purpose of this training is to help the players better tactically analyze a soccer game and improve their mental performance. The desired outcomes are:

  • Players are better able to tactically analyze an opponent on the soccer field during the game
  • Players mental performance in the realm of dealing with pressure, focus, and visualization is improved

 Standard Session Overview

Sessions will normally be held on Thursday evenings via zoom from 7:30-8pm. The session will focus on tactical analysis for about 20 minutes and then mental performance for about 10 minutes. All of these sessions are completely optional for players.

Zoom Link

Here is the link to the week Thinking Thursday session.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86069311379?pwd=Om8LObg9qg0pT1S2TOxtNdInsooc8U.1

Standard Agenda

  • Welcome and Intro
  • Watch 5 minutes of the game
  • Group discussion on the game analysis focus on our specific questions for this session
  • Group discussion how this applies to our games
  • Mental performance discussion
  • Discuss week ahead

Game

This is a 9v9 game between a team called Man City MANC (red/maroon) and Real Madrid RMA (white). These players are your age. Through much of our Fall season we will progressively watch this game using it as our focus for tactical analysis. 

Man City vs Madrid

Roma (Red) vs Borussia Dortmund (Yellow)

Weekly Focus

Week 1 - 4 September: Identifying Defensive Formations

This week our tactical analysis focus on is identifying defensive formations. Our mental performance focus will be on the impact and how to of box breathing. 

Agenda

  • Coach will divide us into 2 groups
  • One groups watch White and group Watch Maroon
  • Both groups identify the defensive formation of their team
  • Group discussion of what they found
  • Group discussion of why knowing the opponents formation matters
  • Mental performance talk about game pressure and box breathing
  • Practice a few minutes of box breathing
  • Self 1 (talking/thinking mind) and Self 2 (doing mind) Discussion
  • Breathing to still Self 1 and settle down Self 2
  • Homework: box breath for 5 minutes a day

Mental Performance

Please watch this video prior zoom session. Just watch the first 2 minutes of the video. You can skip the last 45 seconds. 

Week 2 - 11 September: High Press?

This week we are going to focus once again on the first five minutes or so of the game. We are all going to focus on white (Real Madrid) and determine what style of defense they are playing. We have agreed they are generally playing a 3-3-2, but we did not agree on what style of defense they are playing. If you have time go back and review low-block, mid-block, and high-press on our team page to brush up on those different styles of play. 

For the mental performance we are going to talk about how our box breathing went this week. Then talk about the ideas of Self 1 and Self 2 from the Inner Game of Tennis. Then we will talk about "listening and observing" Self 1 during box breathing. 

Agenda

  • Welcome - everyone do an emoji so we can get that out of our system
  • How did the box breathing go?
  • Self 1 and 2
  • Way ahead: breath and observe Self 1

Self Talk

We will talk self-talk later, but this is a good example of Self 1 talking. This is a form of inner dialogue Self 1 talk by Ronaldo. 

Inner Game of Tennis

This is a GREAT video about a book I recommend you add to your reading list. Actually, this would be a great book for you to read with your parents if they are interested in playing any kind of sport. This book helps with any sport you play. This video does a good job of explaining the book. Make sure you pay special attention to the ideas of Self 1 and Self 2. 

Week 3 - 18 September: Analyzing Tactical Formations and Styles Again and Hearing Self 1

This week we are going to focus on mastering our ability to analyze formations and styles of play. Additionally, we are going to discuss how that analysis impacts us as players on the field. Then we are going to once again discuss our box breathing with a focus on what we learned about Self 1 (monkey mind) and how it talks to us.

Agenda

  • Welcome and push emojis
  • Watch 5 minutes or so of Roma vs Borussia Dortmund (you are the center back for Borussia Dortmund
  • Discuss Roma's formation and defensive style and how it impacts your play
  • Discuss our box breathing over the last week and what Self 1 said 
  • Discuss what visualization (Discuss video)

Visualization Video

This is a great video that discusses what visualization is, a little bit of the science supporting why we do it, and how to do it. Please try and watch this before our Thinking Thursday session. He covers a lot in this video. Don't worry if you don't get it all. We will talk about this over and over again for the rest of the season. The main thing for this video and your first viewing is to just get an overview of visualization. 

Homework For Next Time

  • Please continue with your 5-10 minutes of box breathing a day
  • "See" Self 1 and let him go
  • Visualize the task or moment in a game that worries you the most 

 

Week 4 - 25 September: Visualization

Last week we had a great discussion on formations and styles of play, but did not really get to visualization. This week we will focus on box-breathing, listening to Self 1, and visualization. Sid made a great observation about the science behind the visualization. 

Please continue to do 5 minutes of box breathing a day while listening to Self 1. Please watch the visualization video again as that is what we are going to focus on. 

Visualization Video

Agenda

  • Welcome (review last week)
  • Discuss box-breathing and Self 1
  • Discuss the visualization video
  • Practice one minute of breathing and visualization
  • Discuss
Week 5 - Canceled. Rest

No meeting this week. Rest. 

Week 6 - 9 October: Why Knowing Opponent Formations Matters

This week we will first focus on mental performance and then tactical analysis. For preparation for this week please keep doing your box breathing and visualize one soccer skill you want to get better on and pressuring to regain the ball after you have lost possession. 

Agenda

  • Discuss how our visualization went (skill versus behavior, detail versus reps, etc)
  • Discuss what to visualize next
  • Rewatch five minutes of the MC vs Madrid game from the perspective of the MC defense
  • Discuss what we have learned from our analysis that gives us a "thinking" advantage

Here are some of the tactical questions we will talk about:

  • How does knowing the opponent's formation and style impact our defenders while on the attack?
  • How does knowing the opponent's formation and style impact our midfielders while on the attack?
  • How does knowing the opponent's formation and style impact our forwards while on the attack?
  • What are the general strengths of the opponent's formation and style?
  • What are the general weaknesses of the opponent's formation and style?

Summary

We had a great discussion on visualizing and did not get to the tactics discussion. We will move that discussion to next week. 

Week 7 - 16 October: The "So What" of Understanding Formations and Style

This week we will briefly discuss the impact of our visualization on our play in the tournament. Then we will move on to discussing what it matters that we understand what formation and style the opponent is playing.  

Agenda

  • Discuss how visualization impacted our play in the tournament
  • What do we visualize next
  • Re-Watch first five minutes of so of MC vs Madrid from the perspective of the MC defense
  • Discuss who understanding the Madrid formation and style impacts our style of play as the MC defense

If we have time at the end let us discuss the definition of soccer tactics. A possible definition is:

Soccer tactics is the positioning of soccer players and the ball on the field in regards to time, space, direction, and purpose to win the game.