Volume 1
Since I was a kid I always loved football, sadly when I got older I developed zero talent in becoming an actual footballer so the next step was to coach. I discovered that I had an ability to teach, more importantly I got a real buzz from the rewarding environment of player development. A while ago (pre twitter) it was difficult to track down decent sources of information in order to develop your ability further so I made the decision to write them all down, I already had my own skill level when it came to online work (currently at university getting a degree in that!) and so a tumblr blog was born. Over time it grew and grew to a point where a friend of mine ended up showing it around to an academy in florida.
After a time I had wanted to make it official, thecoachingcolumn.net was born.
I had wanted to write something in terms of a PDF instead of people having to visit the web site regularly, so the following chat is a conglomeration of a lot of the information from my web site into a relatively presentable word form. I really hope you enjoy it, or find at least some of this information useful for your own players development. Thanks for reading.
The first subject is professionalism, an interesting thought occurred recently, throughout my time as being a coach I often spent time thinking about certain aspects of conduct and so on, one that confused me the most is arguing with the referee. Its not something I spend anytime doing as personally I feel that in this case you would lose the respect of the referee, also on a more superficial basis it isn’t like the referee is going to listen and decide to change his mind based on your argument, the decision is final and he will not be persuaded based on your argument. As the great Brian Clough once said “people forget the referee doesn’t have a slow motion eyeball”
Another aspect in terms of applying professionalism is your conduct on match day, go and meet the opposition management/coaching staff, shake a few hands and have a decent conversation. Ensure that your demeanour is positive and enthusiastic, this is turn I have found that you will earn your immediate respect from the opposition. During the match if the opposition have some injured personnel you may find yourself in a position where you have better medical supplies available to you, take the opportunity to share this. It is your job to be there for the well being of your players, and everyone else there. This will develop a positive reputation on yourself and to be honest I don’t find any of these demands strenuous, do you?
There can be occasions, and don’t get me wrong they are rare, where the opposition are highly disrespectful, where teams argue and generally do everything in their power to breach the unwritten rules of sportsmanship. This may anger you or frustrate you, keep it in mind that this is not your problem, focus working towards maintaining your established high values and standards in terms of your attitude and conduct.
Inspiration.
You can call your training what you like, a drill, routine, exercise or even go down the FA and call it a function. This is one that I love, I spent time using it every week and it has provided me with an end product. The idea is to use it as a potential template please spend time adapting it to your own requirement or just simply use it as it.
Layout
Based on 10 players we will have 2 rondo boxes 7×7 although the spaces can be expanded depending on the amount of players you have.
Action
Split the players into 5 and 5 – create a 4 v 1 in each rondo box – time the routine to 1 minute each and leave balls around the parameter of the boxes to ensure the players have free access to footballs. The reason for this is to encourage the players to be responsible for the routine they are taking part in, also improves the fluidity of the routing cutting down on the stop start problems that can often occur.
Outcome
A rondo can be adapted for several focuses, this one we will use the ball movement focus, part of your standard would be to make that point during the routine to your players. Here’s some additional notes on material, most of which I have used and have had a positive outcome during training.
“Picked up from the world of Futsal.
Ball goes out of play the team in possession has to bring the ball back into play within 4 second or they have to hand over possession.
Encourages quick thinking and impact opposition's ability to regroup and organise”
“Really simple idea, sometimes you will see kids or adults time wasting pre-session, common occurrence and to be fair understandable.
Decent attention spans are nowhere to be seen, so a recommendation would be simply to implement a rule, do what you want pre-session whether it be chat or whatever, as long as you have a football at your feet”
“Corner taking is an important aspect of football, ideas on how to mix it up a little is always ideal. Have a player work with your regular corner taker to come short with a decoy run. This drags the opposition player out of the game, provides a potential advantage”
“Evolution of coaching these days has introduced more and more terminology, a new one is SAQ. Which is of course Speed Agility and Quickness.
A standardized layout is an ideal option, three channel and split your team into three groups. Use one of the channels for ladders, another of zigzags and last simply quick feet. When time expires everyone moves to their left.
Again this is open to customization, ideas to suit your team’s development”
“A player doing keepy uppy with a rugby ball….
Why would they do this I hear you ask?
The key part of a rugby ball is its shape, if you ask one of your kids to try this sort of thing, the unpredictability of where the ball will end up will demand the players mind to work harder, this in turn develop the player’s anticipation and first touch.
The application has been used regularly with goalkeepers, former Swansea player Michel Armand Vorm regularly voiced his appreciation for this concept”
“Always remain open minded to the potential versatility of a player, have a look at what the player can and can’t do. Maintaining that state of mind may work to your advantage, what is your problem, what alternative’s do you have at your disposal, think what alternatives do you have and what further alternatives are your afraid to use. Take the risk as there will be the reward. At what point does this disallow you from adding the player to the potential position?”
“Why are there always shapes involved in the routines we do, triangles and squares and so on? Football is often played in squares and triangles, the routines are set out to look the same”
Academy Thoughts…
The following is some information I picked up through experience.
A recent development that I witnessed was a restructuring of an academy. Presents several challenges, including accommodating a massive range of abilities.
It is scientifically proven that players with similar ability will progress more quickly, avoiding a sense of intimidation. If you are provided with the opportunity to separate the players into groups, ensure you avoid using words like elite and development and so on. This I have found has a detrimental effect on players confidence despite their varying abilities, suggestions I would say to you would use shirt colours or I have recently seen clubs using reoccurring European words like Milan, Rovers or Wanderers.
The third team can become a bit of an experiment for you, If you are still enjoying an influx of players this can be used as a platform for football, an experience perhaps for younger players to experience of being part of a team, to experience pitch side environment and the right attitudes to show. You could use this team as a sort of exhibition group, send them to be part of tournaments, training abroad. then you could use it as a platform to recruit further players.
More and more we are seeing some basic coaching drop in sessions, effectively this is used simply for people to get a taste of football without the pressure and intimidation of other experienced players, something that it proven to be a productive concept.
Academy staff ideas…
Minimum 3 coaches per age group, this allow training sessions to flow and for it to be a more enjoyable experience for each one of the players. You can never grow short of coaches. The better quality the training sessions the more chance you have of player retention.
I don't know what access you have, but have a chat with your local educational school. A common thing that happens here is on a short term basis a lot of physiotherapists are sourced from universities or colleges in Scotland, it allows the students to enjoy some real life experiences using their knowledge and gives the club some professional protection against potential injuries.
Apply the same idea and principle to other potential roles within your club, good examples would be sports analysts, personal trainers, coaches, medical related subjects and so on.
This sort of text again is purely through experience and ideas that have either been presented by me or perhaps ideas that have shown up through conversation. Take the information and again don’t take it literally, consider the idea potentially reshape, reconstruct, reorganise or simply use it at is. What matters is wether it is useful to you.
Coaching Delivery
This was an idea I came up with to improve my delivery, this was during nights when I was bored with college work, cables and computers and wanted to invest some time in something else.
When delivering a routine consider three statements.
Three steps for each drills. First being what do you need for that drill in terms of kit and people.
Second – Explain the action in the drill.
Third – Point of the routine, what do we learn from that exercise.
Hashtag Rondo
“Everything that goes on in a match, except shooting, you can do in a rondo. The competitive aspect, fighting to make space, what to do when in possession and what to do when you haven’t got the ball, how to play ‘one touch’ soccer, how to counteract the tight marking and how to win the ball back.” Johan Cruyff
Timing of games
You have 90 minutes training available to you
To start with complete your standard warm up, then emphasizing the point of interval training start the session with a small game, 15 minutes after stop the game for a breather, water intake and reshuffle the teams.
Maintains freshness and improves fitness.
Remember you have the opportunity to play with the idea.
Conditioning
I picked this up from the world of Futsal.
Ball goes out of play the team in possession has to bring the ball back into play within 4 second or they have to hand over possession.
Encourages quick thinking and impact oppositions ability to regroup and organise.
Waving to football
Another routine that worked out quite nicely for me, highly flexible also.
Split your group into 2 teams one with bibs, start with having one team attack vs defence. In order to keep the intensity of the routine up ensure the pool of footballs is accessed immediately once the active ball leaves the pitch. When you run out of footballs get the 2 teams to go and start the shuttle running, afterwards switch the attacking team to defending and vice versa – once completed do another set of shuttle runs.
The idea behind it is to get the players to adapt to a sense of intensity, the routine can be adapted to suit younger or older age groups.