Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Training | Tags: better soccer coaching, Valentine's Day
What age does youth soccer lose out to love? We’ve puzzled over this one in the Better Soccer Coaching offices all day. At
training last night – Valentine’s Day – the under 12 girls were well represented, the under 13 boys and even the under 14 boys were well represented. But the under 15s had only four boys turn up.
When I asked the loyal ones where their team mates were they shuffled about a bit and muttered something about a Valentine’s School party. That was the first I had heard about it, and none of their parents sent me the usual contrite email to say their son couldn’t make training that evening.
So, making a mental note to cancel plans for cheerleaders at the under 16 games, I will not be running training for under 15 and above next season.
But if anyone has any other tales of soccer losing out to love Better Soccer Coaching would love to hear about it.
Dave Clarke, Better Soccer Coaching editor
Filed under: Andrew Griffiths, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Team Management | Tags: better soccer coaching, Soccer Coaching, teacher in soccer coaching
Should a coach be an expert or a teacher? Or both?
I was surprised to read recently that up until the 1970s most people’s understanding of the role of a coach was as an expert.
The coach instructed his or her players from a position of superior knowledge, or put more simply, perhaps they just knew more about the particular game than the people they were instructing.
That was all fine. The drawback with this approach however is that development is restricted by the limits of the coach’s knowledge.
So the absence of certain expertise in the coach could actually hold back players, who were reliant on their coach as their single, trusted source of skills and advice.
Once this was realised, a school of thought emerged that for coaching to be effective and achieve measurable improved performance the coach need NOT be an expert, although, of course, it helps.
However to be successful, they must:
1) Believe in the potential of the coachee to achieve superior performance.
2) Have credibility in the eyes of the coachee in order to build the relationship.
So it turned out that the coach doesn’t need to be an expert, but should be at least skilled in the process of coaching to make progress.
I’m indebted for this insight to Roger Jones, a coach at AFC Holmer Green, based at The Misbourne School in Great Missenden, England, who sent me the fruits of some of his research into the origins of coaching.
Roger referred me to the following rather neat definition of coaching from the Defence Leadership Centre, part of the British government’s Ministry of Defence, which I think sums up the true nature of the concept.
“Coaching is the art of releasing the potential in another in order to improve performance”
I’m conscious that I’ve managed to take up a whole entry on Soccer Coaching Blog without (until now) mentioning the word soccer, and some of you may be wondering how relevant these thoughts are to you.
I think they are, but what do you think?
I’d be grateful if you’d let me know. Are you an expert at soccer or an expert at coaching? And does it matter?
I look forward to your feedback and will return to this subject in a later post.
Andrew Griffiths
Managing Director, Better Soccer Coaching
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: astro turf, better soccer coaching, David Beckham, passing drill, Ronaldo, Soccer, Stamford Bridge, turn 3v2 into 2v1
I came in from training last night feeling a slight annoyance at the session. We were running the “turn 3v2 into 2v1” passing drill from Better Soccer Coaching (Soccer Coach Weekly, 25 July 2007, page 3) and it was going perfectly. Bang, bang, bang the passes were drilled to feet, controlled and drilled back. My Better Soccer Coaching colleagues would have looked on with a mixture of admiration and jealousy!
But at the back of my mind I know that come Sunday the boys will be on pitches that resemble ploughed fields and the ball will stick in the mud. You see, the problem is we train on astro turf. Outstanding if you play at Stamford Bridge or the Nou Camp every week, but on grassroots English pitches it doesn’t quite go hand in hand. When I write about training sessions in Better Soccer Coaching I am often tempted to give drills purely for astro turf and explain how you translate that onto the pitch on a rainy weekend.
Of course the best answer is to get your players to the match at least half an hour early so you can push them through some intense passing practice. One of the best ones is to get your players into fours and make a triangle with one player trying to win the ball off the other three, featured in our warm-ups in Better Soccer Coaching (Soccer Coach Weekly, 1 August 2007, page 2). Get them on the pitch and get that ball moving between the players. This is the best way to get the players used to the pitch before a match.
Astro turf is a great all-weather solution to training in rainy countries, and it is great for games like soccer tennis. It allows the ball to move around quickly for your passing drills – you just have to beware the stick-in-the-mud factor and take heed of what we say in Better Soccer Coaching: warm-ups work!
I looked at the pitch last night and wondered if David Beckham was to hit a crossfield pass to Ronaldo who beats a player then turns it inside to Lionel Messi, quick turn and on to Didier Drogba and bang into the net, would it work in the mud? I have my doubts, so why should I expect my players to do it?
David Clarke, Better Soccer Coaching editor
