A new season ahead

We’ve had a four week break over the summer holidays to give both the players, parents and coaches a bit of a break but in the blink of an eye the new season is already upon us and we’re back together tomorrow night.

I had hoped the break would give me chance to reflect on my first season with the team and start to think about the new season but with commitments to our new adult side the summer has allowed for anything but some quiet time!

As both club secretary and assistant manager for our new adult side the last 4-6 weeks have been pretty hectic as we went about the following tasks:

• Checking we had enough interest to get a team together and then registering with a league
• Finding sponsorship for a new kit
• Talking to local players and getting them interested in the team
• Forming links with the youth setup (who I coach the under 7s for)
• Planning training sessions
• Finding a kit
• Arranging pre-season friendlies
• Getting players signed on
• Purchasing training kit and equipment

Thankfully we’re now at the point where the league is about to start so we can relax in to the relative calm of training and matches(!). Being involved with a club in this capacity has given me an appreciation for the organisational side of a football club and the enormous amount of work which goes on behind the scenes.

Going back to the Under 8s…and we’ll now have organised friendly matches to play which will be great for the team as I think they really grew as players when they started to play in matches toward the end of last season. As a coach it also highlights their development needs far better than any training session does and therefore I’ve been able to see how playing matches really helps with young player development.

My primary focus for our (now) under 8s is going to be development of 1v1 play and comfort with the ball. I believe both of these are very relevant to players at this age due to the nature of the matches and the importance of learning these skills at a young age. I’ll therefore be hoping to use 1v1 and 2v2 games regularly in the opening sessions of the season. After that I hope the output of matches will help define our sessions.