Dribbling & Turning: Tonight’s U8s session

Tonight’s session had the topic of Close Control, Dribbling & Turns, so the session I planned & carried out was as follows.

Key objectives:

• A ball with every player at all times
• No player stood waiting / queueing at any time
• Dribbling & turning both unopposed & opposed

Warm Up / Starting Session: Gates

Each player had a ball and to begin with we allowed them to dribble through the games and try/perform different turns as they went through the gate.

We then demonstrated and asked them to try the following turns/skills when going through gates (each time pausing to demonstrate):

• Step over (inc exaggeration as if they were going to shoot)
• Drag-back
• Inside / Outside hook

Key points were the players were to also ensure they were keeping their head up whilst dribbling to see where other players were and to visit a different gate if another player was going to the same one. Lots of positive praise for good turns and where players were experimenting.

We then changed a player to be a defender who’s job was to tackle players and that player would then become a defender. Key for the attacking players here was to use the turns to avoid the defender.

Pirates of the pugg

Next we setup and played Pirates of the Pugg as described in the link above. The game continues to work on the players dribbling, with a defender in place but it also provides the defender with an objective as opposed to aimlessly kicking the ball out of play.

Each player who was tackled became a pirate until one player was left. We then rotated to allow each player an opportunity to start as a pirate.

So more dribbling under pressure & also a chance to test their knowledge of characters from Pirates of the Carribean.

Castles

We used the game Castles next as described in the link above. We asked players to turn in the inside box, avoiding the defender and had the first player to visit all four corners as the winner. Again rotating the defender in the middle and praising where good turns were used & also where they were being clever and waiting for the right time to enter the box and turn. It also requires the player to perform a turn and exit at a higher speed which is great practice for them.

3v3 SSG

We then ended with a 3v3 SSG.

Summary

This is a new group of players we’re working with so it’s important to build rapport at the beginning of the session which we did by asking how they’d got on at school that day, what they’d learnt at school, what clubs they played for, what they did at the weekend, what team they supported etc etc – light hearted and jokey.

We used a whiteboard to described the castles session & also had the players reflect on what they’d learnt at the end of the session and wrote it on the board to demonstrate what they’d learnt.

It felt like a fluid session which kept to the topic and the players enjoyed it – they were also very tired at the end despite regular drinks breaks.

I’ve put this session up as a) it might be useful for someone new to coaching this age group or b) more experienced coaches may be able to critique and question to help with my learning. I’d be happy to see comments from either band

 

Two footed tackles

The recent two-footed tackles from Kompany (sent off) and Glen Johnson (not sent off) have caused quite a lot of controversy and discussion this week in football circles with opinion seemingly divided regarding the decision to send off Vincent Kompany during Sunday’s FA Cup fixture versus Man United.

Given it’s a hot topic I felt like using a blog post to get across my opinion, and my opinion is that the referee was correct to send off Kompany on Sunday and Johnson should have been sent off last night.

I accept that tackling is a huge part of the game and I would hate for the physical nature of the game to diminish any further but we must draw a line somewhere and two footed tackles should result in a red card, intended force or not.

Firstly, we need to avoid the potential for there to be judgement to be made when a two-footed tackle is used – whether the player wins the ball or not should not be a deciding factor because you’re then opening it up for players to think they can use two feet to tackle. A two-footed tackle increases the chances of a player being seriously injured.

If I play in the Premiership and I break my leg I get immediate medical attention. I get first aid, I get oxygen, I get my leg seen to immediately and I’m on my way to hospital in a short matter of time. If I play in a local Saturday league (which I do) and someone chances their arm with a two-footed lunge which breaks my leg I’m not likely to get first aid, or oxygen or anything other than an agonising 30-45 minute wait for an ambulance or helicopter to arrive and take me to hospital – time which could seriously impact on my ability to play again.

Secondly, when is there ever a valid need for a two-footed challenge to be used? I accept that players need to leave the floor to challenge but two feet? I don’t think that’s needed and you only ever see a player use it where they’re really struggling to make a tackle, which is where the danger comes in.

We don’t have separate rules for grassroots football & Premiership football but it is for the good of the game and for the safety of players that two-footed tackles must be thoroughly discouraged and punished in the game of football.

FA Youth Development Proposals – Final Recommendations

The FA have recently released their final recommendations for young player development and I think the general consensus is that the proposals are positive and that’s certainly how I view them. I’m still to fully digest the proposals from the FA (there’s quite a bit of detail in there) but from what I’ve seen I think it clearly demonstrates that the FA have done their homework and for this they should take great credit.

My experience of youth football has mainly been limited to what I’ve seen & done so far which is U7 & U8 football but the proposals for these age groups make good sense.

Changing from 7v7 to 5v5 will ensure players are getting slightly more time on the ball, more touches and therefore this will hopefully improve decision making from our players and give them more time with the ball at their feet.

Having a retreat mark is also positive – my first impression when our U7s played their first match last season was that “a large percentage of goals are being scored direct from goal kicks”. The moves to allow a side to play out, even if it means you limit the number of opposition players allowed in an area will breed the right skills & mindset and will avoid some of the embarrassing and un-productive goals which are currently scored in football at this age-group.

To conclude this short post regarding the proposals, I also think it’s great to see the FA directing that football for young players is about development and fun and it allows clubs to get this over to parents and for them to hear it from an authority and from the experts, rather than via a club, local FA or coach.

There’s a lot to digest so I’m sure I’m not alone in needing more time to go over the proposals and the committee at our club will also be discussing during tomorrow’s meeting so I’m sure the proposals will ignite some passionate discussion in there!

Hopes & Aspirations for 2012

It’s only when you reflect back that you realise how quickly time passes. I first started coaching in Sept ’10 and we’re already in January ’12 and that’s felt like the blink of an eye!

As we head in to 2012 I’m primarily focussed on two developments – one being my Level 2 which I start in February and one being the Youth Award Module 2 which I’m going on in April. I’m trying not to rush through qualifications as I know experience is key but this is being balanced with a thirst to learn & improve!

Outside of the qualifications & courses I’m continuing to enjoy coaching our U8s and I think it’s even more rewarding now they’re playing matches as the things you teach them in training can be seen during a game. I’ll carry on coaching the U8s whilst also looking at outside opportunities to increase the amount of time each week I’m coaching and I’d also like to expand in to coaching at an older age group as we move toward the summer.

I hope that I can pass the Level 2 course and that’ll build my confidence and potentially open up other avenues but ultimately, if I’m allowing kids to enjoy their football, develop and do this in a safe environment then I’m achieving the main objective.

Good luck to your all and your teams in 2012.

Coaching Day 22: “Combining To Score With One Touch”

I’d decided to use a session which I’d seen on Dan Wright‘s blog recently tonight because I felt it provided a training exercise which was game realistic, which (as Dan describes) provided the players with lots of decisions to make and which works on some of their core footballing skills (pass, dribble, control, find space).

The session as Dan described can be found here. I altered the session slightly and used an end zone instead of goals which meant players needed to stop the ball in the zone rather than shoot. We play on a multi-pitch all weather surface so the area I used was actually a tennis court with the zone being the service line to the base line (and the singles sideline) which actually provided a good playing area.

I had 2 groups of 8 players and spent 10-12 minutes with each which realistically only provided enough opportunity to give each player a go as a defender (approx 3 each) whilst allowing time for tears, tantrums and a couple of opportunities for me to talk to the players where they did something very good or I felt the need to explore a decision they’d made.

The session actually works very well as it forces the players to frequently decide whether to pass or dribble, they need to find space, they need to be able to control the ball to score a point and the defenders HAD to get the ball to me on the side in order to score a point so there was lots going on and lots for them to take on board.

In addition to the attacking/possession aspect to the session it also provides the defenders with good practice. They have to defend 1v1, 2v1 and 3v1 and once they get the ball they HAVE to do some with it in order to score a point which gives them a focus.

Definitely a session I’ll use again and there are progressions which can be added if I have more time in the future. I’d certainly like to use this and then progress to a 4v4 game to see how it compares to a conventional 4v4 game at an Under 8 age group.

Opinion: Did his celebration show a lack of respect?

It’s Saturday morning and our striker’s just scored a goal which completed his hat-trick and put us 5-0 up. To celebrate he cupped his hand behind his ear and ran along the side of the pitch which had both home (our) and away fans along it.

Two minutes later and the final whistle blows, the kids shake hands and their manager walks over to our manager and asks, “Is your striker your son?”. “Yes”, replies our manager. “Well you ought to teach him some respect because that celebration showed a lack of respect”. “He does it every time he scores”, said our manager. At which point their manager grumbled snarled again about the celebration and walked over to his team.

There are a couple of ways I look at this:

• As a good judge of character and based on the way in which he came across, I think this was just sour grapes because of the score
• It’s a 7 year old boy enjoying scoring a goal / hat-trick by celebrating as he see’s players do on TV and on computer games
• However, as a celebration it IS usually one senior players use to wind up opposition fans

Personally I felt the celebration could be taken with a pinch of salt. If I saw an opposition player do it with a great big smile I wouldn’t have a problem with it, he’s 7 years old. The unfortunate matter was that our striker caught what was said and it took the shine off his hat-trick (although I don’t expect this would have lasted long).

What’s your opinion fellow coaches? An opposition manager who needs to see the celebration for what it was or a goal celebration which is a bit over the top at U8 level?

Managing young expectations

I had a chat with one of players after training tonight. He’d trained well, played well and made some good decisions so I wanted to tell him and make sure he knew that he’d done well and that I was impressed with him. He said to me, “I’m trying to work hard because I want to be scouted”, which is clearly on the back of two other players of ours being “scouted” recently.

I told him not to worry about being scouted at his age (7) and that I felt he should just enjoy his football and worry about being scouted when he’s older. I wasn’t really expecting the question but I don’t want a 7 year old boy becoming obsessed or even concerned because he’s not been scouted – especially when he’s a class act.

I worry for our kids who’ve been “scouted” – I hope they do well but I really hope they don’t just get dropped after a few weeks and become despondent, especially when they’re also good young players.

Celebrating small successes

A short post this time but just something I wanted to share as I think it’s important to celebrate small bits of success or improvement.

We’ve had a player at our club since the summer and whether it was in training or during a match he just wanted to smash the ball as soon as it arrived at his feet and clearly this was something I wanted him to develop. He’s strong for his age-group and had demonstrated glimpses of being comfortable on the ball but he’d generally just kick the ball as far as he could whether we were playing a 2v2 game or playing a friendly game.

To try and develop him I took an opportunity to talk to him at a point when he’d lumped the ball forward during a practice match. I took him to one side briefly and asked him what he could have done differently and was happy when he replied, “Controlled it”. I then asked what he could then have done with the ball, to which he replied, “Pass it”. I think the second answer was him saying what I thought he wanted me to hear so I also told him he could dribble the ball forward if he wanted to.  I didn’t want to make him feel like he HAD to control & pass it, he has to know he has options and learn to use his own judgement to decide what to do with the ball.

After covering this with him initially we had a couple of weeks without a game so I was able to take one or two more opportunities to talk to him when he choose to “hoof” the ball in training and remind him that he could control the ball and dribble or pass in certain circumstances.

When we finally got to match day I was keen to see whether he’d taken our training-ground conversations on board and was delighted when he turned in a really improved performance. Each time the ball came to him he controlled it and was then able to make a pass or dribble the ball forward – it was his best game for us. In addition to being pleased that he’d had a good game it was also great to hear others (parents etc) had also noticed his improved performance and told him that he’d had an excellent game, something which put a big smile on his face.

I took an opportunity after the game to re-enforce that he’d had a great game and that his decisions to control the ball were what had resulted in him having a good game. It was great to then see him put in another positive performance the week after (the weekend just gone) and his confidence had clearly developed as he was starting to take on more players and demonstrate a higher degree of confidence on the ball.

It’s an incredibly small success but it’s been very rewarding and I hope he continues to learn & progress. It’s my challenge as a coach to provide him the opportunities and environment to do this whilst also supporting the other players in our team.

I got in to youth coaching to help young players and it’s great when you feel you’re able to contribute small improvements to them as players which helps with their enjoyment of the game.

Off-topic: Movember

I’m taking part in Movember, an excellent idea which seeks to raise money for cancer research and helps increase awareness of men’s illness and cancer – such as prostate and testicular forms.

The requirement’s are simple, you do away with your usual choice of facial hair style (if appropriate), grow a moustache for the month of November and people then sponsor you for this hardship and help provide funds to some great causes.

 

To find out more go here: http://uk.movember.com/?home

To sponsor me or visit my movember page go here: http://mobro.co/simongodfrey

Coaching Day 21: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Last Wednesday’s training session was something of a learning experience for me because of the phone call I received 15 minutes before the start of the session. Those of you who read the blog regularly will be aware that two of us run the session and that we usually start & end the session with the kids together but split out in the middle for 15 minutes of sessions with half of the players each.

So, as I’m arriving home last Wednesday afternoon and thoughts are focussing on making the best use of the 15-20 minutes where it’s just me and 7-8 players I receive a phone call. “Hi Simon it’s Phil’s wife Kerry, he’s broken down and isn’t going to make training. I’ll bring the balls down, is there anything else you need?”. “The cones, bibs and a whistle if his is around” came my reply. As I put the phone down I must admit to feeling a bit panicked – from planning for 20 minutes I now had to plan for a whole session with 18-20 7 year olds and no support.

I arrived 5 minutes before the session (work doesn’t allow me to get there any earlier) and the first thing I did was to make sure that one of the parents was going to be around for the duration of the session. I needed to have someone there to be a second pair of eyes and asked one of the parents just to help if (when) any of the kids were injured or started to cry so that I could try to keep the session going one of the parents duly obliged and assisted a couple of times during the session.

I had a few ideas on what I could do with the session because, whilst I hadn’t planned for a whole session I have enough experience now to know what games you can use with a larger group of players but I decided I’d go through the warm-up and go from there – using the kids mood as a factor in deciding what I’d then move on to do later in the session.

Before we started the warm-up it was evident that the kids were hyper which, in all honesty, appears to be the norm this season. I expect this is due to a) their age and b) the fact that most go to school together. I gathered them together at the start and explained that Phil (the manager and usually “bad cop”) wouldn’t be there so I’d be running the session – I also explained that I’d be telling Phil who was well behaved during the session with Saturday’s game(s) in mind.

For a warm-up each player had a ball and I started with the kids dribbling from one-side of the all-weather pitch to the other, using different surfaces of the foot to dribble and trying out turns etc before progressing to a sharks v minnow type of game. This further expanded to other types of dribbling and passing combinations (inc work in pairs) and kept the players reasonably engaged whilst keeping them warm and giving them maximum time on the ball. There were a few kids who were playing up and were no doubt mindful that the manager wasn’t there but I made an effort to ignore them and keep the session going which ultimately saw them join back in rather than continue to be disruptive.

In an hour session we spent the first 20-25 minutes doing ball work with the players being encouraged to express themselves by trying different turns & tricks. A lot of our players are often very keen to show me their tricks, turns or skills they’ve learnt or tried and I take this as a positive. I hope it reflects that I encourage & praise their efforts and show a real interest in what they’re trying – I also try to help them correct their technique every now and then which they’re receptive to as it usually improves their success rate.

Whilst the first 20-25 minutes had kept going it had certainly been a challenge trying to get their attention, explain any progressions or changes in what we were doing and there were times where it was organised chaos. However, how can one person and 19-20 seven year old bos & girls not be??

Once the first part of the session was complete I decided that the best way to keep the session successful was to move to a game but I got them together after a quick drinks break and explained that some of the behaviour wasn’t very good and that I expected better behaviour during the game – once again using Saturday’s game as a reminder.

The game I believe was the best step to take during the session and in the circumstances. The game ran well, the players did a number of things which allowed me to praise them and I was also able to take time to talk to certain players for short periods to ask them a question about what they’d just done or congratulate them on something they’d done really well (and explain or ask if they knew what it was they’d done well).

At the end of the session a number of parents (who’d watched) were complimentary of how I’d kept the session together and managed the kids at certain times (i.e. explaining the behaviour I expected) and thanked me for running it despite Phil’s absence – which was nice.

There are a number of learning points I took from Wednesday night, such as:

• I need a plan for running this size of session in future
• The plan needs to include elements which perhaps allow a parent to become involved without too much explanation required
• The kids did respond well to me talking to them about behaviour and I should probably have intervened a couple more times than I did
• It was enjoyable having full-ownership of the session, although it was incredibly hard work
• In all it was a very useful experience

There are elements I need to improve as a coach; the warm-up needs to be better and avoid dribbling in straight lines and with better planning I could have avoided the need to move straight in to a game so I’m glad I had this experience to acknowledge these and write this post.

Finally, based on what I’ve written above I’d love to hear from other coaches, especially those who’ve worked with similar age groups and to be challenged on some of the above, e.g. what sounds good, what looks strange, is there anything you strongly disagree with?