Today was my last game in charge of my U11s team. My teenage daughter has just got herself a part in a West End play, so a lot of my spare time will now be spent travelling to and from London with her. That basically means that I won't be able to dedicate much time on a Saturday morning to my team. I've coached them since year 2 until now, half way through year 6. There have been some challenging moments, not all with the players themselves, but overall they've been a fantastic bunch of boys who have been willing and eager to learn. I've been a great believer in educating myself too by doing my FA coaching courses and found the Youth Award Modules 1 and 2 to be well worth the time invested into them. You wouldn't expect a school teacher to start off with primary school kids and then not study more to teach them through to secondary school, so why should a football coach be any different?
But anyway, this blog post isn't directly about coach education, I'll do that another day. This one is about my coaching options going into the new year and beyond. Having said that, I have done a couple of FA courses on coaching futsal, so I've already been using this brilliant variant of football for my weekly coaching sessions. For those that don't know what futsal is, it's a 5-a-side game played indoor, but with a slightly denser ball with a much lower rebound than a standard football. You play to the lines on the court so there's no using the walls, and the goals are a different size. There are a few other rules that differ, but it's a very simple game to teach and it helps players (of all ages) develop the ability to look up, pass and move and there's loads of opportunities for 1v1 situations.
I'll really miss a lot of the training in my sessions and matches with the boys, but there's an awful lot that I won't miss. Putting the goals up, often on my own, and taking them down again, although with more help normally than putting them up! Then there's the admin side of things, teamer (which is brilliant if you use it properly and the parents of your team actually reply) and the simple fact that it's often bloody cold and wet! So what does this all have to do with doors opening and closing? Well, hopefully it means that I will still be able to do my futsal coaching sessions once a week and hopefully with most of the U11s. It can only be a good thing, both for me and the kids. For me it means I'll still be coaching and I won't have all the same crap that I've had, and for the boys it means a chance to develop some great skills and maybe even get a game against other futsal sides.
If you coach a team, whatever their age, I'd really recommend that you have a look into futsal as either a standalone game, or as I do, as a coaching tool as part of a bigger picture. After all, the Brazilians and the Spanish can't all be wrong can they?
By the way, we finished off the first half of the season with a fantastic performance and I couldn't have been more proud!!!
Saturday 21 December 2013
Sunday 24 November 2013
A brilliant, beautiful game that can be lost because of shameful behaviour...
I've had a pretty good day today. I played in a vets game this evening and we managed to win 4-3 and I bagged a hatrick. It was what you might call a direct approach and a battling performance against a very good Sundon Vets team. It shows that it's not always the best 'proper' footballing team on the day that wins. We struggled a bit to start off but tactically our coach decided the way to win was play quick balls to a target man (me!) and play off him. It worked a treat and they couldn't handle it.
This morning though was completely different. My son Matty plays for a fantastic team and their coach happens to be my vets team coach too. This morning, though, he played a 3-1-3-1 formation that really suits the players they have. The boys were brilliant and moved the ball around really, really well. To be fair, their opponents weren't a bad side and they've got some pretty tasty players, but the behaviour of their coach and one parent in particular was absolutely awful. We started off really quickly and were soon on top. The opposing coach started raising his voice, hollering and generally being horrible. By half time he was screaming at his team. He was joined in his 'chorus or terror' by one of the boy's parents. The dad was repeatedly heard swearing about how bad the team were playing. Now I'm not a prude, but we're talking about 10 year old boys here in the prime of their development years. The half time talks were what you might call a bit different. The opponents were sat down while the 'coach' (and I use the term loosely) balled them out about effort, commitment and just generally being bad. Our coach basically let the team listen to them and then said "I bet you're glad I'm not like him!".
The second half was much the same with both teams trying their best but our team coming out on top. The coach continued his barrage of abuse along with the father. It was awful to watch, witnessing the poor lad looking over at his father yelling abuse. I mean, clearly the lad was trying to play badly just to upset him! Eventually the dad said "f%ck this, I'm not staying here to watch this pile of sh*t" and promptly walked off. His son just stood there, started biting his nails and you could see the tears welling up in his eyes. To make it even worse, at the end of the game with the score 5-1 to our team, the coach again sat his team down and told them how rubbish they were. It's strange, because if he'd actually watched the game and not worried about the score, he might have realised that they were actually a decent team and the kid who's dad walked off was probably their best player!!!
What really worries me the most is the journey home the poor lad had to put up with with his disgruntled father and if he'll even bother playing in their next game. This is the time that the boys need encouragement and positive reinforcement, not screaming abusive coaches and parents. Sadly I see it all too often, where the only people that really care about the results in kids football are the adults. Is it really that hard to just watch and support your kid, even when things aren't going well? Do we really believe they're trying to not do their best?
Something I'd really like to do is video the parents and the coaches and then play them repeatedly at the next game...
This morning though was completely different. My son Matty plays for a fantastic team and their coach happens to be my vets team coach too. This morning, though, he played a 3-1-3-1 formation that really suits the players they have. The boys were brilliant and moved the ball around really, really well. To be fair, their opponents weren't a bad side and they've got some pretty tasty players, but the behaviour of their coach and one parent in particular was absolutely awful. We started off really quickly and were soon on top. The opposing coach started raising his voice, hollering and generally being horrible. By half time he was screaming at his team. He was joined in his 'chorus or terror' by one of the boy's parents. The dad was repeatedly heard swearing about how bad the team were playing. Now I'm not a prude, but we're talking about 10 year old boys here in the prime of their development years. The half time talks were what you might call a bit different. The opponents were sat down while the 'coach' (and I use the term loosely) balled them out about effort, commitment and just generally being bad. Our coach basically let the team listen to them and then said "I bet you're glad I'm not like him!".
The second half was much the same with both teams trying their best but our team coming out on top. The coach continued his barrage of abuse along with the father. It was awful to watch, witnessing the poor lad looking over at his father yelling abuse. I mean, clearly the lad was trying to play badly just to upset him! Eventually the dad said "f%ck this, I'm not staying here to watch this pile of sh*t" and promptly walked off. His son just stood there, started biting his nails and you could see the tears welling up in his eyes. To make it even worse, at the end of the game with the score 5-1 to our team, the coach again sat his team down and told them how rubbish they were. It's strange, because if he'd actually watched the game and not worried about the score, he might have realised that they were actually a decent team and the kid who's dad walked off was probably their best player!!!
What really worries me the most is the journey home the poor lad had to put up with with his disgruntled father and if he'll even bother playing in their next game. This is the time that the boys need encouragement and positive reinforcement, not screaming abusive coaches and parents. Sadly I see it all too often, where the only people that really care about the results in kids football are the adults. Is it really that hard to just watch and support your kid, even when things aren't going well? Do we really believe they're trying to not do their best?
Something I'd really like to do is video the parents and the coaches and then play them repeatedly at the next game...
Sunday 10 November 2013
How can we get more people to help and how can everyone help?
Every club has a few people that do most of the work. It's the same everywhere and certainly not restricted to football clubs. Our club for instance has about 6 or 7 people that do virtually everything. I'm not taking away anything from the hours and hours that every coach puts into his team because, without the coaches there wouldn't be any teams, but running a club is a time-consuming business. You also have to remember that to get your team onto the pitch every Saturday or Sunday, the teams need registering, players need signing on, kit needs buying, pitches need booking, arrangements with the opponents need making, the team selection, formation and tactics need to be decided, the parents need informing of the details and the list goes on and on and on. This happens week in and week out and it could be made so much easier of more people helped out.
As the kids get older, more and more parents stay away, that's just one of those things (don't get me started on parents that treat kids football as a baby-sitting service!!!), but how could we spread this load? After all, the majority of stuff that needs doing is long before the whistle blows for kick-off. A couple of clubs I know offer discounted registration fees to parents of players that help out. They might arrange the pitch booking each week, or they might make the arrangements with the opponents. Some clubs even offer free registration for a player if the player's parent coaches the team. I'd like to see some sort of incentive scheme set up to include benefits of some description given to those parents that do offer their help. The FA National Development Manager For Youth Football is a guy called Nick Levett ( @NLevett on Twitter) and he recently tweeted "It's hard to get a volunteer to give twelve hours a week, but much simpler to get four volunteers to do three hours a week each". But while there's people like me that will do everything so their own lad can get a game with his mates, it's hard to get any help if there aren't any tangible benefits.
If you're still reading this by now, you're probably someone that would offer some help. Why don't you call your coach now and see what help he needs? I can promise you this, he will be extremely grateful and you might even be the reason he keeps coaching next season. I heard a story yesterday of a coach that called all the parents of his U11s team over at the end of a league match and asked for help. They all nodded, agreed to see what they could do and then went home. He then walked across the pitch and took the goals down on his own. He packed it in at the end of that season and the team folded because no-one else stepped forward to coach the team...
What would you do if your coach decided it was too much and walked away at the end of the season?
As the kids get older, more and more parents stay away, that's just one of those things (don't get me started on parents that treat kids football as a baby-sitting service!!!), but how could we spread this load? After all, the majority of stuff that needs doing is long before the whistle blows for kick-off. A couple of clubs I know offer discounted registration fees to parents of players that help out. They might arrange the pitch booking each week, or they might make the arrangements with the opponents. Some clubs even offer free registration for a player if the player's parent coaches the team. I'd like to see some sort of incentive scheme set up to include benefits of some description given to those parents that do offer their help. The FA National Development Manager For Youth Football is a guy called Nick Levett ( @NLevett on Twitter) and he recently tweeted "It's hard to get a volunteer to give twelve hours a week, but much simpler to get four volunteers to do three hours a week each". But while there's people like me that will do everything so their own lad can get a game with his mates, it's hard to get any help if there aren't any tangible benefits.
If you're still reading this by now, you're probably someone that would offer some help. Why don't you call your coach now and see what help he needs? I can promise you this, he will be extremely grateful and you might even be the reason he keeps coaching next season. I heard a story yesterday of a coach that called all the parents of his U11s team over at the end of a league match and asked for help. They all nodded, agreed to see what they could do and then went home. He then walked across the pitch and took the goals down on his own. He packed it in at the end of that season and the team folded because no-one else stepped forward to coach the team...
What would you do if your coach decided it was too much and walked away at the end of the season?
Monday 21 October 2013
One weekend, two games and a complete contrast...
This weekend saw me coaching both U11s sides I'm involved with in what turned out to be very competitive games. And this weekend I have seen both the fantastic and not so fantastic sides of people involved with youth football.
My Saturday side had a home game against a team we've not played before. The match itself was a cracker that finished in a 1-1 draw, but there was an unpleasant undertone from the opposition players, coach and supporters almost from the off. Our ref, like many other refs on a Saturday morning, isn't qualified, but is a qualified coach and also a deputy head at a local school. He gives what he sees and explains every single decision in a clear way so that no-one is in any doubt as to what he's given and why he's given it. There were two players in particular that argued almost every decision that went against them. This isn't great at the best of times, but when it's coming from ten year olds you have to question where they're getting it from. I soon found out... My team watch Match Of The Day as much as anyone else, but we've taught them not to argue decisions. I'm sure they will as they get older, but at the moment it simply doesn't happen. During the second half a free kick wasn't given to our opponents because the ref thought they had a clear advantage. As it happens they made a couple of decisions that cost them that advantage but play continued. The assistant coach was heard to swear loudly in front of my subs before running around to the other side of the pitch where he started remonstrating with the ref. At this point some of the parent supporters joined in. It can only be described as unpleasant and even their linesman standing near me was embarrassed. Shortly afterwards a free kick was given against a player for pushing. He clearly used both hands to shove someone in the back and immediately started arguing when the whistle was blown. At this point he told the ref to "get a grip of your game". It's not the sort of game I want to be involved in...
I was asked to help out my son's Sunday side as their regular coach was doing his Youth Award Module 3 training. The team play in the Chiltern Sunday league in division 1 and they are a very capable bunch of players. They were due to play Luton Old Boys in a league match at the Luton Recreation ground and I was expecting it to be another really tough game. Say what you like about Luton, but if you're not from there, it's not got a great reputation! We didn't start too well, in fact it was a bit of a disaster. We were 0-4 down after 20 minutes and it didn't look too good but a free kick worthy of MOTD status got it back to 1-4 at half time. The truth be told it was actually 4 mistakes that cost the goals, so the half time talk was really positive. What happened next was an absolutely amazing advert for all that is brilliant with youth football. After conceding a goal almost from the kick off, an incredible 20 minutes saw the scores at 6-6. The 50 or so people watching were enthralled and everyone was praying for the ref to blow for full time. The home side forced a last chance and when the long-range shot was fumbled by our keeper into his own net, their linesman actually slumped and said "oh no, I can't believe that". When I asked him what he meant he said "that was such an amazing game that it should've finished in a draw". The final whistle went and we lost the game 6-7 but the applause from both sets of supporters showed me why I love coaching kids football. I'd happily be involved in games like that every week and the contrast between the two games was remarkable.
I reckon I could guess which coach has done more coaching badges and has done the Youth Module Awards...
My Saturday side had a home game against a team we've not played before. The match itself was a cracker that finished in a 1-1 draw, but there was an unpleasant undertone from the opposition players, coach and supporters almost from the off. Our ref, like many other refs on a Saturday morning, isn't qualified, but is a qualified coach and also a deputy head at a local school. He gives what he sees and explains every single decision in a clear way so that no-one is in any doubt as to what he's given and why he's given it. There were two players in particular that argued almost every decision that went against them. This isn't great at the best of times, but when it's coming from ten year olds you have to question where they're getting it from. I soon found out... My team watch Match Of The Day as much as anyone else, but we've taught them not to argue decisions. I'm sure they will as they get older, but at the moment it simply doesn't happen. During the second half a free kick wasn't given to our opponents because the ref thought they had a clear advantage. As it happens they made a couple of decisions that cost them that advantage but play continued. The assistant coach was heard to swear loudly in front of my subs before running around to the other side of the pitch where he started remonstrating with the ref. At this point some of the parent supporters joined in. It can only be described as unpleasant and even their linesman standing near me was embarrassed. Shortly afterwards a free kick was given against a player for pushing. He clearly used both hands to shove someone in the back and immediately started arguing when the whistle was blown. At this point he told the ref to "get a grip of your game". It's not the sort of game I want to be involved in...
I was asked to help out my son's Sunday side as their regular coach was doing his Youth Award Module 3 training. The team play in the Chiltern Sunday league in division 1 and they are a very capable bunch of players. They were due to play Luton Old Boys in a league match at the Luton Recreation ground and I was expecting it to be another really tough game. Say what you like about Luton, but if you're not from there, it's not got a great reputation! We didn't start too well, in fact it was a bit of a disaster. We were 0-4 down after 20 minutes and it didn't look too good but a free kick worthy of MOTD status got it back to 1-4 at half time. The truth be told it was actually 4 mistakes that cost the goals, so the half time talk was really positive. What happened next was an absolutely amazing advert for all that is brilliant with youth football. After conceding a goal almost from the kick off, an incredible 20 minutes saw the scores at 6-6. The 50 or so people watching were enthralled and everyone was praying for the ref to blow for full time. The home side forced a last chance and when the long-range shot was fumbled by our keeper into his own net, their linesman actually slumped and said "oh no, I can't believe that". When I asked him what he meant he said "that was such an amazing game that it should've finished in a draw". The final whistle went and we lost the game 6-7 but the applause from both sets of supporters showed me why I love coaching kids football. I'd happily be involved in games like that every week and the contrast between the two games was remarkable.
I reckon I could guess which coach has done more coaching badges and has done the Youth Module Awards...
Thursday 17 October 2013
Some moments make it all worthwhile!!!
Last week I knew we were in for a tough game. We'd been drawn in the local cup against AFC Dunstable and I know from experience they're a very good side. They've got some great little players and their coach, David, is a really top bloke. I felt our best chance would be to shoot at every single opportunity and hope to score more than they would, Kevin Keegan style.
So with this in mind I put on a shooting session with particular emphasis on shooting from range. I arrived early and set up the Samba goals, laid out the pitch and had my plan all sorted. The boys had a great time and the session went really well. At the end I asked the boys if they had enjoyed it and all but one of them said they'd loved it. One lad was quiet and when I asked him one on one if he was ok he said he'd not really liked the session. He said he didn't feel like he'd got as many chances to shoot as the others and felt his shot was too soft to shoot from a long way out. I told him that sometimes I felt like that when I'd played but I practiced and practiced until I could shoot in a variety of ways and with both feet.
The next day I went to watch my son play in his school team and while I was their the lad I'd been talking to the night before came running up to me. He was playing in another team and had just been taken off. But he was thrilled to bits when he told me he'd scored a cracker from outside the box. He'd said he didn't really think he'd score but took a chance anyway and it had "whizzed in the top corner". I was ad pleased as he was :-)
We played Dunstable, got hardly any shots off and they beat us 0-3, but it didn't matter because both sides had played some great football and we all went home happy.
Tonight we had a session on passing and running into space so I expect there'll be a lot of dribbling on Saturday!!!
So with this in mind I put on a shooting session with particular emphasis on shooting from range. I arrived early and set up the Samba goals, laid out the pitch and had my plan all sorted. The boys had a great time and the session went really well. At the end I asked the boys if they had enjoyed it and all but one of them said they'd loved it. One lad was quiet and when I asked him one on one if he was ok he said he'd not really liked the session. He said he didn't feel like he'd got as many chances to shoot as the others and felt his shot was too soft to shoot from a long way out. I told him that sometimes I felt like that when I'd played but I practiced and practiced until I could shoot in a variety of ways and with both feet.
The next day I went to watch my son play in his school team and while I was their the lad I'd been talking to the night before came running up to me. He was playing in another team and had just been taken off. But he was thrilled to bits when he told me he'd scored a cracker from outside the box. He'd said he didn't really think he'd score but took a chance anyway and it had "whizzed in the top corner". I was ad pleased as he was :-)
We played Dunstable, got hardly any shots off and they beat us 0-3, but it didn't matter because both sides had played some great football and we all went home happy.
Tonight we had a session on passing and running into space so I expect there'll be a lot of dribbling on Saturday!!!
Sunday 6 October 2013
It's a funny old game...
If you read my previous post you'll know that I had a woeful session last week, with discipline problems and a distinct lack of attitude. After the talking to I gave the boys I was hoping for a vast improvement on Saturday morning. Most of them turned up on time, but you can't really blame being late on a 10 year old when there's 15 miles to travel.
We were scheduled an 11am kick-off so we started our warm-up around 10:30. I normally start with some gentle jogging and dynamic stretching and throw a couple of balls into the marked area to give the boys a focus. We move on to some side skipping and a few other "normal" movements to get the muscles moving. After about 2 minutes one of the boys says "Tim, I need the toilet". "Me too", "and me". Before you know it 7 of my 10 players were trotting across the field to the changing rooms!!! By the time they all got back our opponents were well and truly into their warm-up and we'd barely started. I was frustrated to say the least but tried not to show it.
The game itself started well and we quickly went 1-0 up, but then I can only think the team got complacent, expecting a comfortable win, and before you know it we were 1-2 down. A stolen equaliser left the score at 2-2 at half time. My half time talk was basically that the other team were pretty poor and if we put our minds to it we could beat them comfortably. We played some decent football for the first 15 minutes of the second half and both teams created a few chances but no goals came. What happened next was straight from the training ground. The move started with a short goal-kick, a couple of short passes through the defence and holding midfielder saw the ball moved to the left midfielder. He pulled off a great trick and crossed from the byline. The ball was then laid off by the centre-forward and followed up with a precise side-footed finish from the edge of the area into the bottom corner from the attacking midfielder. Brilliant! Both sets of supporters applauded the goal and it was the talking point of the game by everyone after the final whistle. The game itself was then fairly even after that and saw an equaliser after a defensive mistake. We then somehow managed to sneak the winner in injury time. It was a win in the end but I can't help thinking that if the boys had a different mentality towards the game that we could have and should have walked this game. I just don't understand it?
How can I get them to change their attitude? It feels at the moment like they treat it as just somewhere to come and meet their mates and have a bit of a kick-around. Maybe that's all it is and I'm not the right man to run the team...
We were scheduled an 11am kick-off so we started our warm-up around 10:30. I normally start with some gentle jogging and dynamic stretching and throw a couple of balls into the marked area to give the boys a focus. We move on to some side skipping and a few other "normal" movements to get the muscles moving. After about 2 minutes one of the boys says "Tim, I need the toilet". "Me too", "and me". Before you know it 7 of my 10 players were trotting across the field to the changing rooms!!! By the time they all got back our opponents were well and truly into their warm-up and we'd barely started. I was frustrated to say the least but tried not to show it.
The game itself started well and we quickly went 1-0 up, but then I can only think the team got complacent, expecting a comfortable win, and before you know it we were 1-2 down. A stolen equaliser left the score at 2-2 at half time. My half time talk was basically that the other team were pretty poor and if we put our minds to it we could beat them comfortably. We played some decent football for the first 15 minutes of the second half and both teams created a few chances but no goals came. What happened next was straight from the training ground. The move started with a short goal-kick, a couple of short passes through the defence and holding midfielder saw the ball moved to the left midfielder. He pulled off a great trick and crossed from the byline. The ball was then laid off by the centre-forward and followed up with a precise side-footed finish from the edge of the area into the bottom corner from the attacking midfielder. Brilliant! Both sets of supporters applauded the goal and it was the talking point of the game by everyone after the final whistle. The game itself was then fairly even after that and saw an equaliser after a defensive mistake. We then somehow managed to sneak the winner in injury time. It was a win in the end but I can't help thinking that if the boys had a different mentality towards the game that we could have and should have walked this game. I just don't understand it?
How can I get them to change their attitude? It feels at the moment like they treat it as just somewhere to come and meet their mates and have a bit of a kick-around. Maybe that's all it is and I'm not the right man to run the team...
Thursday 3 October 2013
It can't be great all the time...
So what do you do when it all goes pear-shaped?
There are some days when things just don't go to plan. Faulty equipment, forgetting to bring things and players not turning up are the most common, but sometimes it's the ones that do turn up that can really throw a spanner in the works. It's what you do with the situation and what you learn from it that can make a difference in the future. Last night was a prime example of a session you initially just want to forget but then realise it could be an excellent opportunity...
Kids of 10 have all sorts of pressures at home and school and sometimes when they turn up to football they just aren't in the right frame of mind. They couldn't concentrate, they couldn't understand what I wanted them to do even though most of them have done it before. Some of them weren't listening when we went through the session, some just simply couldn't pick it up and some had no intention of learning anything! Whatever the reasons, we seemed to spend half the session either sat down explaining and simplifying it and then simplifying it further. In the end, with the light fading, we abandoned it altogether and played a game. I didn't want the boys going home dejected so I thought a game would be the best thing. What I should've done is explained that because of their behaviour the session was over, but I didn't and that's a lesson I've learned. Unfortunately because of the way some of them were feeling, a couple of reckless tackles went in and I had to severely reprimand a couple of boys.
I have to see this as an opportunity. At the end of the session I left the boys under no illusion as to what I expect from now on so it gives me the chance to make some changes. Hopefully some of the parents will realise what's expected of them too! I wonder what their attitudes will be like when they turn up for our match on Saturday?
There are some days when things just don't go to plan. Faulty equipment, forgetting to bring things and players not turning up are the most common, but sometimes it's the ones that do turn up that can really throw a spanner in the works. It's what you do with the situation and what you learn from it that can make a difference in the future. Last night was a prime example of a session you initially just want to forget but then realise it could be an excellent opportunity...
Kids of 10 have all sorts of pressures at home and school and sometimes when they turn up to football they just aren't in the right frame of mind. They couldn't concentrate, they couldn't understand what I wanted them to do even though most of them have done it before. Some of them weren't listening when we went through the session, some just simply couldn't pick it up and some had no intention of learning anything! Whatever the reasons, we seemed to spend half the session either sat down explaining and simplifying it and then simplifying it further. In the end, with the light fading, we abandoned it altogether and played a game. I didn't want the boys going home dejected so I thought a game would be the best thing. What I should've done is explained that because of their behaviour the session was over, but I didn't and that's a lesson I've learned. Unfortunately because of the way some of them were feeling, a couple of reckless tackles went in and I had to severely reprimand a couple of boys.
I have to see this as an opportunity. At the end of the session I left the boys under no illusion as to what I expect from now on so it gives me the chance to make some changes. Hopefully some of the parents will realise what's expected of them too! I wonder what their attitudes will be like when they turn up for our match on Saturday?
Wednesday 18 September 2013
Do we expect too much physically?
I had ten boys at our training session tonight, that's pretty good out of a squad of thirteen. Two couldn't make it because of prior commitments but one wasn't there because he's got a painful heel. Normally I'd have just brushed it off but I watched him play in a school match yesterday and he was struggling. You might not notice it normally, but as his coach I'm used to how he plays. Tonight a couple of the other lads got what seemed innocuous taps on their ankles or feet and went down quite easily too. Even my own son mentioned how the bottoms of his feet ached when he got home. With all this in mind and the fact that they're ten or eleven years old, I can only put it down to two things: over-playing or growth spurts. I learned a lot about this on the Youth Appropriate Module 2 I completed recently
I spoke to the boys about it after training and asked them what else they've got coming up. Most have got rugby or PE at school tomorrow and then some have got a rugby match on Friday AND football training in the evening. So I've decided to call off our friendly on Saturday and I'm going to try and plan a session for next week that gives them a rest physically and is much more technical based. I'm sure I can think of something I can do to set a challenge for those that are ok.
I'm sure the parents will be glad of the break, but I need to make sure they actually get the boys to rest. I wonder if many other coaches would do the same?
What would you do?
Thursday 12 September 2013
Putting the theory into practice
So I'm back from my course, I've got all this new info I've learned (anyone that coaches kids sport should really look into this stuff!) and I'm keen to put it into practice. Tuesday night is training night so an excellent opportunity to plan a session. I sit down with my pad and decide to do a session on defending. I'm going to do a whole-part-whole session starting with the idea of the second leg of a cup-tie meaning one team needs to score and one doesn't. Then I'll break it down and do some 1v1, 2v2 and maybe 3v3 defending and then back into the game.
I've got 13 in the squad so 6v7 is perfect for this as it gives us a natural overload, or I can stand in goal and possibly change the course of the game by good or "accidentally" bad goalkeeping. Out goes the teamer invite and almost immediately I get 3 declines. "Sorry, rugby practice is now on a Tuesday"...
Ok, that slightly changes things, but not much. Tuesday comes and we start training with a warm-up, gentle jogging, some dynamic stretches and I throw a couple of footballs into the square with the instruction of "don't pass to someone who's standing still". This makes sure all the boys keep moving. I found out at that point that the majority of the boys had just done a school football training for an hour so we kept the warm-up to a minimum. "Right, let's have a game" I said. That really threw them! Steve and I were going to go in goal to allow the boys to play 5v5 on pitch, giving them the chance to use different formations. I told them the scenario and we discussed separately how the teams should play and they came up with the formations straight away. The team leading on away goals said immediately "we don't need to score so we need to pass the ball about. Let's play 3-1-1". The team needing a goal said "we need to attack quickly so can we play 1-2-2?".
I let them just play, without really any interventions apart from reminding them of the score and whether the team in possession needed a goal or not. There were a couple of occasions when a striker rushed in to two defenders and was taken out the game with a simple wall pass and it gave me the perfect opportunity to set up the defending "part" of the session. We set up two mini pitches with offset target areas and played the 1v1 and 2v2 with the objective of dribbling the ball through the targets. After the defending "part" we went back into the game under the same conditions. The team in the lead scored a quick goal and then they relaxed and played really nice controlled football. The other team really stepped up their efforts as they would need to. A couple of dodgy bits of keeping on my part changed the game and at that point we stopped it, talked about what needed to happen and the boys changed their formations accordingly.
Perfect!
It was a fantastic session overall. I got a great piece of advice from a really good coach, Matt Smith. He said if I put the goals on the same side and get the boys to change ends half way through, they get to practice defending both the right back and left back positions instead of just one side. Simple and obvious when you think about it! Thanks Matt, you're a genius :-)
I've since found out that another lad has school rugby on a Tuesday and school football is now going to be every Tuesday too so I think we'll be training on Wednesdays from now on...
I've got 13 in the squad so 6v7 is perfect for this as it gives us a natural overload, or I can stand in goal and possibly change the course of the game by good or "accidentally" bad goalkeeping. Out goes the teamer invite and almost immediately I get 3 declines. "Sorry, rugby practice is now on a Tuesday"...
Ok, that slightly changes things, but not much. Tuesday comes and we start training with a warm-up, gentle jogging, some dynamic stretches and I throw a couple of footballs into the square with the instruction of "don't pass to someone who's standing still". This makes sure all the boys keep moving. I found out at that point that the majority of the boys had just done a school football training for an hour so we kept the warm-up to a minimum. "Right, let's have a game" I said. That really threw them! Steve and I were going to go in goal to allow the boys to play 5v5 on pitch, giving them the chance to use different formations. I told them the scenario and we discussed separately how the teams should play and they came up with the formations straight away. The team leading on away goals said immediately "we don't need to score so we need to pass the ball about. Let's play 3-1-1". The team needing a goal said "we need to attack quickly so can we play 1-2-2?".
I let them just play, without really any interventions apart from reminding them of the score and whether the team in possession needed a goal or not. There were a couple of occasions when a striker rushed in to two defenders and was taken out the game with a simple wall pass and it gave me the perfect opportunity to set up the defending "part" of the session. We set up two mini pitches with offset target areas and played the 1v1 and 2v2 with the objective of dribbling the ball through the targets. After the defending "part" we went back into the game under the same conditions. The team in the lead scored a quick goal and then they relaxed and played really nice controlled football. The other team really stepped up their efforts as they would need to. A couple of dodgy bits of keeping on my part changed the game and at that point we stopped it, talked about what needed to happen and the boys changed their formations accordingly.
Perfect!
It was a fantastic session overall. I got a great piece of advice from a really good coach, Matt Smith. He said if I put the goals on the same side and get the boys to change ends half way through, they get to practice defending both the right back and left back positions instead of just one side. Simple and obvious when you think about it! Thanks Matt, you're a genius :-)
I've since found out that another lad has school rugby on a Tuesday and school football is now going to be every Tuesday too so I think we'll be training on Wednesdays from now on...
Monday 9 September 2013
Day 4 completed and all signed off
Day four was basically the groups putting on their sessions and then receiving feedback from the rest of the guys (and gals) on the course and from the tutors. We were the third group on out of eight, so I watched the first session, listened and contributed to the feedback and then our group set up for our session. We were only given approximately 20 minutes to put our sessions on. We (myself, Jason - a very good coach and although still young has a lot of experience, and Damien - very similar to me and coaches a kids team as well as an adults team) sat down to discuss what we were going to do and how we'd put the session on.
We thought about a constant, random, variable practice, which starts with a simple practice of a technical subject - the constant part. You then move on to a variable practice which focuses on the same technical subject but introduces more options or some kind of interference or obstructions. The random part is normally by putting the subject into a game like scenario. The other option we had is what is known as a whole-part-whole practice. This is where you start off with a game and set a target and let the players play (I spoke about this in an earlier blog). You then break the session down and focus on the particular aspect of the game you want the players to work on. Once you've completed the "part" session, you put it back into another game scenario and see how it differs from the first one.
Because we only had 20 minutes, we chose to do a "part" session on "counter-attacking from deep" and explained in the intro that this would be the part of the whole-part-whole. Jason and I have both done similar sessions with our own teams and Damien was happy for us to lead it. I won't go into the actual session details now (I'll post it another day, unless people want to see it sooner rather than later) but suffice to say it went really well. All the guys playing in the session really enjoyed it and we got some great feedback from them. The only real criticism came from Mark, one of the tutors, and that was that our subject was "counter-attacking from deep" and the way we set it up meant that the defending team was always organised, even though there was potential for a 4v3 overload in favour of the attacking team. We talked about ways of tweaking it so the defence wasn't always organised and that one of the defenders would need to make a recovery run. It was some great advice and I'll certainly incorporate it into my sessions when I do this subject again.
To get through everyone's sessions as quickly as possible we decided as a group that we would just grab our lunch during a session we weren't involved in. I tried to be part of as many as possible and I'm paying the price now. My legs are REALLY stiff!!! The other sessions were all really good and all very different. The good thing was that you could see everyone on the course had taken on board what we'd been taught and used either a whole-part-whole or constant-variable-random session. They were split fairly evenly between the two as well so it made it even better.
Once we'd done all the sessions we went back into the classroom, finished off our paperwork and got our books signed off. There was some great feedback given, all very positive, and well received. We then watched a couple more slides just re-capping and then we were done. The funniest part of the whole four days was when Richard (the ex-pro tutor) was about to do the summing up and one of the candidates did a really loud yawn. As you can imagine there were jokes flying around and we were all in hysterics for about fifteen minutes.
Overall, the course was brilliant. It's a really worthwhile course for anyone that coaches football, regardless of age group. There were a couple of guys there that don't do kids coaching but still got a lot out of it and will use what they've learnt with their adult teams. If you already coach or are thinking about coaching kids, get yourself booked on one of the YAM1 courses as soon as you can. You WILL learn a lot and you WILL think differently about what you coach and how you coach it. And you'll become a better coach for it.
We thought about a constant, random, variable practice, which starts with a simple practice of a technical subject - the constant part. You then move on to a variable practice which focuses on the same technical subject but introduces more options or some kind of interference or obstructions. The random part is normally by putting the subject into a game like scenario. The other option we had is what is known as a whole-part-whole practice. This is where you start off with a game and set a target and let the players play (I spoke about this in an earlier blog). You then break the session down and focus on the particular aspect of the game you want the players to work on. Once you've completed the "part" session, you put it back into another game scenario and see how it differs from the first one.
Because we only had 20 minutes, we chose to do a "part" session on "counter-attacking from deep" and explained in the intro that this would be the part of the whole-part-whole. Jason and I have both done similar sessions with our own teams and Damien was happy for us to lead it. I won't go into the actual session details now (I'll post it another day, unless people want to see it sooner rather than later) but suffice to say it went really well. All the guys playing in the session really enjoyed it and we got some great feedback from them. The only real criticism came from Mark, one of the tutors, and that was that our subject was "counter-attacking from deep" and the way we set it up meant that the defending team was always organised, even though there was potential for a 4v3 overload in favour of the attacking team. We talked about ways of tweaking it so the defence wasn't always organised and that one of the defenders would need to make a recovery run. It was some great advice and I'll certainly incorporate it into my sessions when I do this subject again.
To get through everyone's sessions as quickly as possible we decided as a group that we would just grab our lunch during a session we weren't involved in. I tried to be part of as many as possible and I'm paying the price now. My legs are REALLY stiff!!! The other sessions were all really good and all very different. The good thing was that you could see everyone on the course had taken on board what we'd been taught and used either a whole-part-whole or constant-variable-random session. They were split fairly evenly between the two as well so it made it even better.
Once we'd done all the sessions we went back into the classroom, finished off our paperwork and got our books signed off. There was some great feedback given, all very positive, and well received. We then watched a couple more slides just re-capping and then we were done. The funniest part of the whole four days was when Richard (the ex-pro tutor) was about to do the summing up and one of the candidates did a really loud yawn. As you can imagine there were jokes flying around and we were all in hysterics for about fifteen minutes.
Overall, the course was brilliant. It's a really worthwhile course for anyone that coaches football, regardless of age group. There were a couple of guys there that don't do kids coaching but still got a lot out of it and will use what they've learnt with their adult teams. If you already coach or are thinking about coaching kids, get yourself booked on one of the YAM1 courses as soon as you can. You WILL learn a lot and you WILL think differently about what you coach and how you coach it. And you'll become a better coach for it.
Sunday 8 September 2013
Day 3, and what a day!
Today was a day of very mixed feelings. Firstly I was really looking forward to getting back to the course. Secondly, it was my team's very first 9v9 match and I was going to miss it because I was on the course :-(
I got to Bracknell about 9:15 and was ready to start straight away. We started off with a quick recap of the first two days and then went straight into a group exercise discussing a variety of different topics. We had to present on "The birth bias and how can we eradicate it". The birth bias is basically a way of describing the numbers of young academy players and what month they were born in. Did you know that 57% of academy players were born between September and December and only 13% were born between May and August? At the younger age groups in particular, but not exclusively, players born between September and December tend to be bigger and therefore stronger. There are pros and cons to being bigger. Primarily, academies tend to look for athletic players. These bigger kids tend to use their size to win the ball and their speed to go past players. Where does that leave the smaller players? Well they need to develop their technical skills much quicker so they don't get involved in the physical battle with the bigger kids. So, on the flip side, what happens when the smaller kids grow and catch up? Funnily enough they tend to be better all round players because they have more advanced technical skills. So why do academies let the smaller players go? Short term gain over long term development... :-/
Once we'd had a coffee, we went outside to do a practical demo. Today was a whole-part-whole session, which means you play a game with a specific focus, break it down into smaller part once you've observed what you want to work on, and then play another game again and see whether what you've worked on is remembered. We did defending today. Chris told us once team was Man Utd and the other was Barca. Man Utd had got a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp and only needed a 0-0 to go through to the next round of the Champions League. We were to play an 8v8 game and should decide our formation. Strangely both teams chose to play 2-3-2. Our thought was that we didn't need to win, but if we imposed ourselves on the game our opponents wouldn't get the time they needed on the ball to generate measured attacks. we played for about 20 minutes and scored to go 2-1 up on average. We relaxed even more and could've scored another. Then Barca scored an equaliser. It's amazing how serious a few guys that are on a coaching course actually take a game that doesn't really mean anything!!!
We then broke the game down and Richard (or other tutor) took the "part" session. This went from 1v1 to 2v2, then onto 3v3 and finally 4v4 with the aim to dribble to ball through a scoring gate. The focus was on how to defend, showing a player with the ball to the side you wanted him to go and finally about dropping into a covering position when your player releases the ball.
After about another half an hour we went back and played another game. The focus was the same as the first game, but with the scores now tied it was virtually next goal wins. We decided to change formation and I dropped from up front (where I had hardly touched the ball) into a sweeper role, pushing on when possible. We used our new found defensive skills to good effect and the extra player paid dividends. It was a great demo of how to use the whole-part-whole method of coaching. After lunch we got into groups of three and decided on the sessions we will give tomorrow. We're doing "Counter attacking from deep". I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
But the most important thing: the boys played out of their skins! They found their shape after a few shaky minutes and ran out comfortable winners. I don't care about the score, it's the performance that counts. I just wish I'd been there to see it...
I got to Bracknell about 9:15 and was ready to start straight away. We started off with a quick recap of the first two days and then went straight into a group exercise discussing a variety of different topics. We had to present on "The birth bias and how can we eradicate it". The birth bias is basically a way of describing the numbers of young academy players and what month they were born in. Did you know that 57% of academy players were born between September and December and only 13% were born between May and August? At the younger age groups in particular, but not exclusively, players born between September and December tend to be bigger and therefore stronger. There are pros and cons to being bigger. Primarily, academies tend to look for athletic players. These bigger kids tend to use their size to win the ball and their speed to go past players. Where does that leave the smaller players? Well they need to develop their technical skills much quicker so they don't get involved in the physical battle with the bigger kids. So, on the flip side, what happens when the smaller kids grow and catch up? Funnily enough they tend to be better all round players because they have more advanced technical skills. So why do academies let the smaller players go? Short term gain over long term development... :-/
Once we'd had a coffee, we went outside to do a practical demo. Today was a whole-part-whole session, which means you play a game with a specific focus, break it down into smaller part once you've observed what you want to work on, and then play another game again and see whether what you've worked on is remembered. We did defending today. Chris told us once team was Man Utd and the other was Barca. Man Utd had got a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp and only needed a 0-0 to go through to the next round of the Champions League. We were to play an 8v8 game and should decide our formation. Strangely both teams chose to play 2-3-2. Our thought was that we didn't need to win, but if we imposed ourselves on the game our opponents wouldn't get the time they needed on the ball to generate measured attacks. we played for about 20 minutes and scored to go 2-1 up on average. We relaxed even more and could've scored another. Then Barca scored an equaliser. It's amazing how serious a few guys that are on a coaching course actually take a game that doesn't really mean anything!!!
We then broke the game down and Richard (or other tutor) took the "part" session. This went from 1v1 to 2v2, then onto 3v3 and finally 4v4 with the aim to dribble to ball through a scoring gate. The focus was on how to defend, showing a player with the ball to the side you wanted him to go and finally about dropping into a covering position when your player releases the ball.
After about another half an hour we went back and played another game. The focus was the same as the first game, but with the scores now tied it was virtually next goal wins. We decided to change formation and I dropped from up front (where I had hardly touched the ball) into a sweeper role, pushing on when possible. We used our new found defensive skills to good effect and the extra player paid dividends. It was a great demo of how to use the whole-part-whole method of coaching. After lunch we got into groups of three and decided on the sessions we will give tomorrow. We're doing "Counter attacking from deep". I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
But the most important thing: the boys played out of their skins! They found their shape after a few shaky minutes and ran out comfortable winners. I don't care about the score, it's the performance that counts. I just wish I'd been there to see it...
Tuesday 3 September 2013
Best laid plans... turned out well though!!!
This evening was my first training session since starting the YAM2 course. I was hoping for 12 or 13 of my squad to come as our first league match in the new 9v9 format is this Saturday. Unfortunately a couple of the boys were committed to rugby training so we ended up with 10. I had planned to do the session I talked about in my previous blog but the best laid plans...
So we started off talking about the formation I want them to play on Saturday. We have 12 outfield players signed on so it fits perfectly into a squad rotation. Every player will get 40 minutes of a 60 minute game. 10 of them will play in the same position for the whole game and two will play in two positions. I know we should rotate positions, but as it's a new format I want to get as much consistency as possible. Once I was happy they understood their positions, we discussed how I want them to attack using the wide areas, which should also create some space to attack through the middle. We're really fortunate to have some excellent ball players throughout the team so passing the ball around has always been one of our strongest assets. I talked about how the players should remember the shape of the team and how I wanted the wide players to go wide at certain times and when to tuck in. We then talked about how important it is to drop off and get our shape back when we lose the ball.
After a bit of a warm-up we went straight into a game. I stressed about holding shape, which wasn't easy playing 5 v 5, so myself and Steve decided to be an extra player on each team at the back to allow the boys a bit of freedom. We stopped the game a few times to demonstrate what we had talked about and I also stressed about when to press the ball and when to leave it to them in their own half. There's no point in one player wasting energy by charging in if he does it on his own. The only things to come out of that are tired forwards and a player taken out of the game!!! They picked it up really fast and played some fantastic football. There were a couple of kids that weren't that keen on the work rate, particularly the wide players, but when they saw the benefits they were fine.
I just wish I was going to be there on Saturday...
So we started off talking about the formation I want them to play on Saturday. We have 12 outfield players signed on so it fits perfectly into a squad rotation. Every player will get 40 minutes of a 60 minute game. 10 of them will play in the same position for the whole game and two will play in two positions. I know we should rotate positions, but as it's a new format I want to get as much consistency as possible. Once I was happy they understood their positions, we discussed how I want them to attack using the wide areas, which should also create some space to attack through the middle. We're really fortunate to have some excellent ball players throughout the team so passing the ball around has always been one of our strongest assets. I talked about how the players should remember the shape of the team and how I wanted the wide players to go wide at certain times and when to tuck in. We then talked about how important it is to drop off and get our shape back when we lose the ball.
After a bit of a warm-up we went straight into a game. I stressed about holding shape, which wasn't easy playing 5 v 5, so myself and Steve decided to be an extra player on each team at the back to allow the boys a bit of freedom. We stopped the game a few times to demonstrate what we had talked about and I also stressed about when to press the ball and when to leave it to them in their own half. There's no point in one player wasting energy by charging in if he does it on his own. The only things to come out of that are tired forwards and a player taken out of the game!!! They picked it up really fast and played some fantastic football. There were a couple of kids that weren't that keen on the work rate, particularly the wide players, but when they saw the benefits they were fine.
I just wish I was going to be there on Saturday...
Sunday 1 September 2013
Days 1 and 2 of the FA Youth Award Module 2 complete...
and I'm knackered!!!
Days 1 and 2 have been really enjoyable. It's always a bit difficult to fit straight in to a group that mostly know each other, most of the guys on the course did the Module 1 together in April, but it's been really easy. The age range goes from early 20s to 50+. There's some guys that have only recently started coaching, some that have no youth coaching experience, and a couple that are already coaching at pro clubs. The 2 tutors are both excellent. Chris and Rich are both really experienced and have their own unique style. They're both very funny in their own way and they bounce off each other all the time.
The course itself, developing the practice, promises to be about 70% practical and so far that's pretty accurate. The pre-course reading explains all about how repetition of the correct things is key to the development of young players, how the neural pathways are defined by those repetitions and how, what and the way we teach could make all the difference to a players development. I'm finding it fascinating! The classroom stuff has been re-capping Module 1, discussions about the pre-course stuff and a lot of talk about constant, variable and random sessions. A great demo of this was done on day one starting with the constant session. We had to set up in lines of 4 starting with two at one end, one in the middle, and one at the other end. It started off with player one passing to player two and then following his pass. Player two received the ball, turned and passed to player three. He then followed his pass to the other end. Player three then passed back into the middle (player 1) and so on. The first progression was that the central player moved so the could receive at an angle. The variable session was basically the same exercise, but had three teams all passing though a central circle. This introduced some interference for the central player. The final session involved a game situation with the pitch split into thirds, with the midfielders acting as the central player, receiving the ball from the defenders and trying to turn to play to a forward. So far the practical content has been mostly about demonstrating these different ways of coaching similar sessions to achieve different results and introduce different levels of complexity.
The message has been that for a player to developer properly and be able to make decisions in a game, we need to first teach them the technical skills of the action we're after and then gradually introduce opposed versions into a game scenario. This will lay those muscle memories and neural pathways so the actions they need to perform don't even need to be thought about, they just happen!
I'm really looking forward to next weekend and the rest of the course.
The only downer is that I'll miss my team's first ever 9-a-side match because the course is being run at the same time the season starts. Surely the county FAs and the leagues could get together and arrange not to do this???
Days 1 and 2 have been really enjoyable. It's always a bit difficult to fit straight in to a group that mostly know each other, most of the guys on the course did the Module 1 together in April, but it's been really easy. The age range goes from early 20s to 50+. There's some guys that have only recently started coaching, some that have no youth coaching experience, and a couple that are already coaching at pro clubs. The 2 tutors are both excellent. Chris and Rich are both really experienced and have their own unique style. They're both very funny in their own way and they bounce off each other all the time.
The course itself, developing the practice, promises to be about 70% practical and so far that's pretty accurate. The pre-course reading explains all about how repetition of the correct things is key to the development of young players, how the neural pathways are defined by those repetitions and how, what and the way we teach could make all the difference to a players development. I'm finding it fascinating! The classroom stuff has been re-capping Module 1, discussions about the pre-course stuff and a lot of talk about constant, variable and random sessions. A great demo of this was done on day one starting with the constant session. We had to set up in lines of 4 starting with two at one end, one in the middle, and one at the other end. It started off with player one passing to player two and then following his pass. Player two received the ball, turned and passed to player three. He then followed his pass to the other end. Player three then passed back into the middle (player 1) and so on. The first progression was that the central player moved so the could receive at an angle. The variable session was basically the same exercise, but had three teams all passing though a central circle. This introduced some interference for the central player. The final session involved a game situation with the pitch split into thirds, with the midfielders acting as the central player, receiving the ball from the defenders and trying to turn to play to a forward. So far the practical content has been mostly about demonstrating these different ways of coaching similar sessions to achieve different results and introduce different levels of complexity.
The message has been that for a player to developer properly and be able to make decisions in a game, we need to first teach them the technical skills of the action we're after and then gradually introduce opposed versions into a game scenario. This will lay those muscle memories and neural pathways so the actions they need to perform don't even need to be thought about, they just happen!
I'm really looking forward to next weekend and the rest of the course.
The only downer is that I'll miss my team's first ever 9-a-side match because the course is being run at the same time the season starts. Surely the county FAs and the leagues could get together and arrange not to do this???
Friday 30 August 2013
Hello, welcome and here we go...
I was sat on the office, waiting for the next two weeks to pass until I start my new job, when I decided to write a blog. "What should I blog about?" I asked myself.
Well, the biggest things happening to me in the near future are obviously my new job, although I used to work there a while ago so it's not exactly new in the truest sense of the word. My daughter is about to turn 13, but I don't really want to even think about that, let alone air my thoughts in public! So what else?
The only other thing in my life that's happening to me that might be vaguely interesting to anyone outside my family is my football coaching. I'm a really enthusiastic grass roots coach and I'm about to go on the FA Youth Appropriate Module 2 course being run at the Berks and Bucks FA. For anyone that doesn't know, the Youth Appropriate Modules have been designed by the FA for coaches of all abilities to learn more about what it means to coach kids between the ages of 5 and 11. The first course ("Developing the environment") focuses on the Social corner of the FA's 4 corner model (Social, Psychological, Physical and Technical) and covers how kids learn, motivation, self-esteem, managing mistakes, managing differences in the 4 corners and planning activities to suit your group. It really made me think about how I coached and has made a huge difference to how I coach now, particularly around the self-esteem and managing mistakes areas.
The FA Youth Appropriate Module 2 ("Developing the practice") is a further step forward in my development as a coach and is intended to help me develop the practical side of my coaching, as well as understanding how players develop physically and mentally. The pre-course reading took a good few hours and has already got me thinking about how I can change my coaching sessions. When you don't come from a science background, talk neuro plasticity is a bit daunting at first, but once I'd read the introductory booklet sent to me, I wanted to find out even more!
Apparently the course is mainly practical sessions, and as a slightly overweight, 45 year old youngster I'm really looking forward to it. The only football I normally get to play is against 10 year olds and my regular Sunday night vets league matches. I wonder what the other coaches attending will be like?
The only thing I'm not really looking forward to is the 90 minute journey at the beginning and end of each day. I was meant to go on this course a couple of months ago with the Beds FA, but I got the chance to spend the weekend at St Georges Park so that had to take preference!!!
I'll post here tomorrow evening when I've (hopefully) completed the first day.
Well, the biggest things happening to me in the near future are obviously my new job, although I used to work there a while ago so it's not exactly new in the truest sense of the word. My daughter is about to turn 13, but I don't really want to even think about that, let alone air my thoughts in public! So what else?
The only other thing in my life that's happening to me that might be vaguely interesting to anyone outside my family is my football coaching. I'm a really enthusiastic grass roots coach and I'm about to go on the FA Youth Appropriate Module 2 course being run at the Berks and Bucks FA. For anyone that doesn't know, the Youth Appropriate Modules have been designed by the FA for coaches of all abilities to learn more about what it means to coach kids between the ages of 5 and 11. The first course ("Developing the environment") focuses on the Social corner of the FA's 4 corner model (Social, Psychological, Physical and Technical) and covers how kids learn, motivation, self-esteem, managing mistakes, managing differences in the 4 corners and planning activities to suit your group. It really made me think about how I coached and has made a huge difference to how I coach now, particularly around the self-esteem and managing mistakes areas.
The FA Youth Appropriate Module 2 ("Developing the practice") is a further step forward in my development as a coach and is intended to help me develop the practical side of my coaching, as well as understanding how players develop physically and mentally. The pre-course reading took a good few hours and has already got me thinking about how I can change my coaching sessions. When you don't come from a science background, talk neuro plasticity is a bit daunting at first, but once I'd read the introductory booklet sent to me, I wanted to find out even more!
Apparently the course is mainly practical sessions, and as a slightly overweight, 45 year old youngster I'm really looking forward to it. The only football I normally get to play is against 10 year olds and my regular Sunday night vets league matches. I wonder what the other coaches attending will be like?
The only thing I'm not really looking forward to is the 90 minute journey at the beginning and end of each day. I was meant to go on this course a couple of months ago with the Beds FA, but I got the chance to spend the weekend at St Georges Park so that had to take preference!!!
I'll post here tomorrow evening when I've (hopefully) completed the first day.
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