Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: ball control, coaching skills, roy keane, shielding the ball, Soccer Skills
Showing your players how to do techniques is a lot easier for them to understand than if you tell them how to do it. Often coaches will tell players what to do then get hot and bothered when the players are not doing it right.
When it comes to shielding the ball it is far easier for you to show the position of a player’s feet and body rather than spending a lot of time explaining what the players must do.
By way of example, watch this clip of Roy Keane showing young players how to shield the ball. Obviously it helps if you’ve played the game, but you can always get out into the garden after work and try it yourself before you do it in front of the players.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills | Tags: England, Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Michael Owen, ole gunnar solskjaer, Real Madrid, ruud van nistelrooy, sir alex ferguson, World Cup
England’s chances of winning the World Cup in South Africa got a massive boost when Sir Alex Ferguson decided to take a huge gamble and sign Michael Owen.
Manchester Utd have not played with a goal poacher since Ruud van Nistelrooy was sold to Real Madrid and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hung up his boots.
But it will take all the coach’s finest attributes to change the fortune of a striker who has not scored since January and was unable to score goals to prevent Newcastle being relegated.
England could do with a fired up Owen if he finds his goal scoring touch again. There are few goal poachers in the England set up, indeed there are few in the English Premier League with the exception of Jermaine Defoe.
England manager Fabio Capello will be watching with interest. So will I. A coach can do such a lot for players and if Owen fits in at Manchester Utd expect to see a different player when he runs out on the pitch. At Newcastle his head was often down and that was evident in his play.
A coach can restore confidence and give a player their touch back. Remember when he was scoring goals for fun for England, Liverpool and Real Madrid? Here’s a reminder:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: attacking, Celtic, losing games, possession, Skills School, Soccer AM, Tony Mowbray, West Brom
It was refreshing to see that Celtic has chosen a manager not on the latest results his team produced but on the way they play the game.
Relegated from the Premiership at the first attempt, Tony Mowbray’s West Brom have been praised for the way they play. When they won promotion in 2007 from the Championship against teams who played with one up front and nine men behind the ball – Mowbray remained true to his ideals. Much as he has this last season only to see his team fail. But Celtic have recognized in his team the core of something special, something that will excite the fans and bring more trophys.
The words he spoke at the time reminded me of my own experience a couple of seasons ago when I took over an U14s team that hadn’t won a single game for two seasons. Eventually the team was turned around and I can look back on the first 5 or 6 games when we played well but lost every one in the same way that Mowbray does:
“It hasn’t always been easy. There have been times I have been sitting in other managers’ offices having a beer after games and they have been drooling about our style, telling me how great it is and what good footballers I have almost to a sycophantic extent… on the back of them beating us 2-0. That is hard to accept, but you don’t change what you do, you just try to become better at it,” said Mowbray.
I remember well after losing 2-1 the manager and his coaches coming over and expressing surprise we had lost considering how well we had played. We hadn’t won a game all season and their words made us even more determined to play the way I was coaching them, and if you cannot retain possession, master the football, attack on the flanks and in expansive fashion, your team will never progress.
At West Brom Tony Mobray has introduced a culture right through the club that is based on skills, technique and the ability to hold onto the ball. Here is the Academy team at the Soccer AM Skills School:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: David Villa, gus hiddink, Ji-sung park, Kaka, Manchester United, player rewards, psv eindhoven, Real Madrid, Ronaldo
Rewards for soccer players are enormous if you’re playing at the top. Ronaldo, Kaka and David Villa all having millions spent on them and are reaping the benefits of their skills. Of course very few players make it to the top but usually the ones that do have a tale to tell of when they didn’t think they would make it – and usually the person that helps them is the coach.
In Manchester United player Ji-Sung Park’s autobiography he tells of how praise from Guus Hiddink helped him believe in himself. Here’s an extract from his autobiography:
‘Sitting alone in an empty locker room, I look at my injured left leg. I was crestfallen because I missed out my opportunity to prove my worth in these crucial moments.
Then, Coach Hiddink appeared out of nowhere with an interpretor and spoke to me. Wondering what he had just said, I looked at the interpretor.
“He said you have great mentality. With that kind of mental strength, you will become a great player.”
I was astonished. Before I could say anything, he was already out of the locker room. My heart was pounding, I felt a new strength rousing inside me. Coach always seemed like an distant person but coming up to me and saying that I have great mentality have boosted up my confidence… I have nothing else to boast but mentality. I may not have great skills or technique, but one thing I can do is never give up.
Coach took notice of that. Those words gave me great strength and courage, it felt ten time better than someone saying I am a football genius.
Within a minute, Coach Hiddink had changed my life forever. Without Coach Hiddink I would have not been able to become who I am right now. I owe him everything and I won’t be able to repay it in my lifetime.’
As a coach it is important you reward your players with personal interaction and praise, earned for many things during the course of a season.
To be like Guus Hiddink you need to do little other than give them verbal praise for the good things they do. So how should you do it?
Here are a few tips on praise:
I usually shake a player’s hand.
Make good eye contact with the player.
Go to the player, do not wait for him to come to you.
Lean slightly forward to your players when shaking hands and talking to them.
Use my 10 ways to say well done to a player blog to get some tips on what to say.
This clip is an animation of the meeting between Hiddink and Park, I think you’ll agree it is a really heartwarming story in these days of 80m Euros transfers.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Manchester United, skills, Leeds United, eric cantona, coaching clever players, coaching technique
Young players are always making decisions on the pitch, some simple like putting one foot in front of the other to move. Some are instinctive yet they have been practiced many times. As a coach I am constantly coaching my players to run, pass, receive and move, simple things yet I am always seeking to get them to run faster, pass better, receive better and make better movement.
The same can be said if you are lucky enough to be coaching those innovative and creative players who stand out on the pitch.
I was reminded of this by the release of the film Looking for Eric, about one of the greatest mavericks of them all. Yet the thing about Eric Cantona was that he brought a new era of training to the English game. He used to practice all those touches and moments of brilliance. Every night he would go out onto the training pitch just like he did when he was a young player and went into his back garden, and throw the ball up a 100 times and trap it with left foot then right foot until he could control the ball first time, every time.
One of the skills of a coach is to get the best of their players by coaching the right techniques. Then advance their knowledge by helping them to make the right decisions in the time they have in situations on the pitch. You will have some players who have the ability to see all of their options and chose the right one in a very short space of time.
A good way to coach this is to set up drills where there is more than one right option. You can walk playes through exercises and techniques and increase the pressure slowly so they can get used to the techniques and skills you are coaching and use them in matches.
While I was looking at clips of Eric Cantona to show his technique I came across this old Nike video where Cantona, Ian Wright, Maldini, Del Piero, the old Ronaldo, take on the devil’s team and Cantona dispatches the ball into the net with an “Au revoir”. It is one of my favourite Nike ads so I thought I would share it with you.
I have also put up a couple of clips of Cantona in action showing superb technique in scoring a goal.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Manchester Utd, passing, Barcelona, champions league final 2009, passing and receiving
Watching Barcelona play against Manchester United in the Champions League made me think about the basics of the game. If I could get my youngest players to pass and receive along the lines of the Barcelona team they would be on their way to success.
I love simple passing and receiving because it is such an effective way to play the game. When you see teams like Barcelona do it you can see how fantastic it is and how it can win you games.
I found this great little video which shows you how to get your youth players passing and receiving like Barcelona – why not give it a try!
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills | Tags: AC Milan, paolo maldini, defender, best defenders, famous number 3 shirt, raul
The official website of AC Milan has run a simple tribute to one of the best defenders I have had the good fortune to see in my lifetime. The message simply reads – 25 SEASONS. 900 GAMES. ALWAYS AND ONLY MILAN. GRAZIE PAOLO.
His is a career to savour. Aged 41 he wore the number 3 shirt for the last time at the weekend. He first pulled it on in 1985 25 seasons ago when aged 16 he made his debut in the Italian Serie A against Udinese.
He is the son of Cesare Maldini, a former European cup winner with Milan who captained the club and went on to manage Italy.
It is a phenomenal career to have played so long at the top – over 1,000 professional games for Milan and Italy, only Milan and Italy since the age of 10. He has won five European Cup medals and seven Serie A titles along the way probably a career record that will never be matched. Not even Real Madrid’s Raül can think about matching that.
He has done this at one of the world’s best clubs, the best left back for all that time. Amazing. He was skilful and powerful, a master of his art.
But the Maldini line and links with AC Milan are not yet broken. Milan plans to retire his number 3 shirt, but it will be bequeathed to one of his sons if one makes the club’s senior side. The third generation of Milan’s Maldini dynasty is Paolo’s 13 year old son Christian who plays for the Milan youth team.
We may yet get the chance to watch another Maldini grace the San Siro for years to come.
Here are two clips to watch, one of the great Paolo Maldini in action, and one of his youngest son Daniel dispossessing Clarence Seedorf at the Champions League celebrations in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVRy4Y_Q9_U&feature=related
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Michael Owen, messi, zola, peter crouch, small players, tall players, young in their year players, ronaldinho aged 10, messi aged 5
Watching a young player running rings around bigger boys of the same age I began to wonder if players like Messi, Zola and Michael Owen were brilliant at what they did because they had to try so much harder.
Let me explain.
When I was coaching an all conquering under 9s team one of my best players was a big lad, with a big shot on him. He could tackle and win the ball and looked something special.
When he grew older he found that as the other players caught him up in size he began to lose his ability to win the ball and shoot better than every body else. And because he never had to try hard to be more skilful than everybody else he never developed as a player.
So when he got to the older age groups he became less and less effective and more and more frustrated until one day he gave it all up.-
So back to my question. If you’re a small younger player in your age group it makes sense that you have to be more skilful to make up for your size. In this way you develop as a player quicker – you’ll just never make it as a centreback or a goalkeeper.
Perhaps that is why Peter Crouch will never jump to head the ball because he never had to when he was younger.
Look at messi aged 5 in a video from 1993 the smallest person on the pitch running the game! And one of a young Ronaldinho showing the same skills as an old Ronaldinho.
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Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Amref, football in uganda, tournament
On June 6, 48 teams from the rural district of Soroti, in north-east Uganda will compete in a week-long football tournament, which will be held in Katine, where development work is being carried out by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref).
The sub-county of Katine is one of seven in the Soroti district which was once a prosperous area, but it has been hit by war, cattle raids and insurgency over the past two decades.
Twenty four teams have been drawn from Katine sub-county, and 24 from the six other sub-counties that make up Soroti.
Each team has paid to register and has slotted into one of four age groups – under 10s, under 14s, under 18s and over 18s.
Prizes will be a cow for the two winning teams from the older age groups and a goat for the younger winners.
The tournament is being organised by the Guardian newspaper, COSSEDA, a German-based organisation that seeks to build bridges between Europe and Africa for economic development, the Soroti Rural Development Agency, the Teso League Project, the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and Amref. Barclays is arranging for the Premier League trophy to be flown out to the district to mark the launch of the event.
Football has been identified as an important tool in development, particularly in areas touched by war and insurgency, like Katine. It is also seen as a way to promote healthy lifestyles, discipline, teamwork and other areas of social development.
It has also been successfully used to help reintegrate young people who have been involved in conflict back into their communities.
The organizers need to raise £25,000 for the tournament. The money will be used to upgrade pitches, run the training academy, help with transport costs and the price of football kits, as well as health resources.
All teams will be allowed to keep their kits and balls and the improved pitches will provide a place for people to meet and continue building their skills.
Click here to make a donation.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Ronaldo, ball control, Kaka, keepy uppies, simple juggling, messi, billy wingrove, freestyle soccer
Getting young players to juggle with the ball is a great way of getting them used to just kicking and controlling the ball and gives them a headstart when they practice drills and exercise that involve ball control.
Showing them a simple way to juggle and how they start off doing it will help them to develop as players. When they watch players like Ronaldo, Messi and Kaka tell them they started off by juggling the ball on their own, and if they want to be players like them they must do it also.
This video shows a simple way to get your players to start juggling the ball. And once you get them going they could end up like Billy Wingrove in the video below.
