Another season of coaching over! Brief self review.

Well that’s the season over for the U10 & U16 teams I coach/manage in terms of competitive fixtures and it’s been a great season. Both teams enjoyed success in their respective leagues and most importantly they finished the season as better players and a better team than they started it!

It’s been my first season with the U16s and I’m glad I took up the opportunity to coach them as it provides a different experience to that of the U10s who I’d previously been working with. Is it a different challenge? Well, I guess you are working on different topics at points and obviously the age is a difference but you’re still trying to engage players, keep them interested, keep sessions interesting & design sessions which meet their needs so there are huge similarities.

We’ve spent time working with the U10s on technique but also possession, movement, creating space and lots of 1v1s. The U16s worked on topics such as playing out from the back early on but then when it got dark (and space became a factor) we looked at topics such as pressing and then did many different possession games. Now the U16s are back on grass I’m going to look at team shape (attacking & defending) and start to really emphasise those areas as we move in to being U17s.

I’ve essentially managed the U16s (picking team/formation, teamtalks etc) which has been good as that’s never been my responsibility for U10s and so it provides another new experience. I always got in to coaching so that I could continue in the game once I finish playing and the U16s has so far provided a good starting point for starting to build experience which will help at the point I retire from playing!

I attended the Youth Award Mod 2 in October/November 2013 and have tried to embed what I learned on that course but there’s so much you forget when you revisit your notes, I can see why they tell you to “play with it (session content)” for 18 months + after going on the course!

All this alongside playing, helping to run sessions for the team I play for, being the match secretary & starting to help setup a new reserve team means a summer break is very much on the agenda! Next season will be weighted towards the U17s from a coaching perspective and really pushing them on as they move toward adult football. Development wise the UEFA B will be on the agenda for 2015 (or maybe 2016).

Haven’t blogged for a couple of months so felt it was time for an update!