Coach Education

This is an intensive technical practice to improve a players ball control skills and their ability to not only control the ball, but protect it away from a pressurising defender.

One of the hardest skills in football is the ability to run quickly and positively with the ball. Young players will run with the ball, but very often pick the wrong time to run with the ball, run with it in the wrong areas of the pitch and run with their heads down and end up running the ball into defenders. But, running with the ball is a very effective attacking tool and done correctly can be devastating. In this practice, Run with the ball – Break out, we have created a session that encourages the players to create and recognise run with the ball situations and how, technically they can run with the ball correctly.

I am often asked how coaches can effectively coach a team. Many coaches can put on practices and drills to improve players’ techniques and skills, but coaching a team to work together to achieve a specific team objective can be difficult and intimidating for many coaches. In this blog, we look at the topic of coaching a team to defend effectively as a team. In this example, we look at a UEFA B practical curriculum topic and play an 8 v 8 game. The principles and structure of defending shown here are equally applicable to coaching 4 v 4 games through to 11 v 11 games.

Following on from the previous blog article, we now look at how to coach a team to defend deep and then counter attack. In this UEFA B coaching topic, the defending team are giving up ground and defending deep, in and around their own penalty area. Typically, this might be an away team who are 0-0 or winning the game.

In a recent FA survey children were asked what they felt was the most enjoyable thing about playing football... 'Meeting with and making new friends' topped the list by a mile. Far ahead of winning, scoring, league tables, medals and trophies, all identified as adult preoccupations. With the media hype that surrounds the game, the ridiculous salaries and tabloid antics of some high profile players it’s easy to forget the wide ranging and long term social benefits that football brings. It develops the socialisation of children and communities and like all sports football brings together people from different social and cultural backgrounds.