09: Grow Coach Newsletter

Soccer Coaching: A framework to guide you toward success.

Feb 22, 2024

A warm welcome from JustCoachMD. We are happy to have you on board. We are looking forward to providing you with helpful content.

Here is what to expect:

This simple acronym to get you started in football coaching.
Session Share: Dominate the duel with this 1v1 practice
Problem/Fix: 1v1 Attacking.
Spotlight: Benefits of build-up play.
Coach Project: Helping players to develop their attacking skills.

In football coaching, the most important thing to do is to turn up with an open mind, a willingness to learn, and a clear idea of what you want your players to come away with. Next, you need a great plan that can be adapted for higher or lower numbers.

Football coaching is about connecting with participants positively. It’s about making players feel like they can progress and they belong there.

Players want to have some control over their development. The coach needs to high set expectations with high levels of responsiveness, care, and support.

Don’t get caught up trying to deliver perfect practices with perfect coaching points. This improves as you gain experience. It’s more important to put yourself out there, get on the grass, and start coaching.

If you take action on some of the following steps you will be well on your way to becoming a better coach. Of course, there are things you may need to develop and learn but sometimes we get so overwhelmed, that we do nothing.

‘‘ Work hard to get good, then work harder to get better ’’ (J. Mourhino)

Getting Started in Football Coaching (C.O.A.CH)

The acronym C.O.A.C.H provides a summary of basic attributes and actions that will lead to an effective session delivery. These fundamental factors should be considered each time you step on the field. Developing these skills will ensure that you become a competent coach who can engage players.

The C.O.A.C.H acronym is based on the following factors:

(C) - Connect: Coaching is about connecting with people.

(O) - Organize: You need to be organized with your planning, and timings.

(A) - Activate: You must have the skills to activate your participants, they must learn and be motivated.

(C) - Communication: It is essential to coaching that we communicate well verbally and through our body language.

(H) - Help: We are there to help players understand, improve, learn, and develop.

Connect

Connecting with others is about being open and available to players. The coach should have a feeling that the players are open and available to you. Examples of this include:

Having conversations about a player’s performance and listening to their opinions.
Making the time to listen and feel empathy for a player’s struggles.
Showing gratitude for the effort and commitment that players demonstrate.
Sharing experiences, learning together, and having fun at the right times.

Creating trust is the first stage of any meaningful connection. The coach can do this by creating practices and playing environments that are initially free from judgment. The player needs to be able to feel like they can express themselves. An example of this would be using small-sided games as arrival drills with the players. The coach can give the players some time to be creative and have fun.

Organise

Before any session delivery, it is important to be organized and clearly understand the session sequence. The sequence must suit the age and ability of the players. The session sequence is the order of planned activities in your session. Having one of these is helpful. All your topics can feed into the sequence. The session sequence can be changed.

Example of a session sequence:

Arrival: As the players arrive try to assign them a space to work with the ball.
Technical: Work on dribbling, turning, feints, and ball mastery.
Skill: Move into an overloaded activity such as 2v1 or 3v2.
Conditioned Activity: Use these to practice tactics such as pressing or build-up play.
Games: Remember the player wants to play so give them the game.

Activate

Part of football coaching is helping players to learn and understand. Players need to be motivated to improve. This occurs when organized, challenging, and engaging practices are designed. Then within the practices, the coach needs to provide clear pictures with supporting detail.

This detail is about meeting the objective of the session or how a player could do better. Equally important is catching the players doing things well and telling them.

Activating players can include using challenges, competitions, and coaching points. A coach can use each one of these concepts individually or collectively. The use of these methods is great for ensuring that the players are engaged and there is a tempo to the session. I have summarized each one below.

Challenges: This could be a technical or tactical challenge for an individual, unit, or group. For example, a player could be challenged to only pass forwards. A unit to keep a clean sheet or a team to win back the ball in a set period.
Competition: Everything seems to flow at a higher intensity once you add this element. You could use competitions in different ways. A player is trying to beat their own time or score. A player versus another player or the team versus another team.
Coaching Points: The use of coaching points is vital. The points should provide clear details about how to achieve the session objectives. Coaching points can be provided collectively to the group but the best coaches can individualize them to target the specific needs of players at the right time.

Communication

Your communication is very important, it should be clear and concise. Your lines of communication must be open between all of the people you need to communicate with.

You might need to speak with players, parents, staff who work with you, members of the public, or senior managers. The initial interactions will give a lot away about your current ability to communicate.

There are two basic types of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Some verbal and non-verbal methods were summarized in a table earlier in the article. In addition to this, the coach needs to consider their communication within a session delivery.

Tips on In-Session Communication:

Verbal Do’s:

Give concise instructions.
Keep coaching points brief (20-60 second interventions)
Provide players with precise details about how to?
Change your tone and speed of voice to match the situation.

Verbal Don’ts

Scold players for making mistakes.
Talk for too long explaining drills or tactics.
Do a running commentary on everything within the session.
Use bad language or disrespectful comments.

Non-Verbal Do’s

Use thumbs-ups, high-fives, and pats on the back.
Face the audience or person you speaking to.
Use hand signals to help enforce detail.
Use positive facial expressions (Smile, relaxed, happy).

Non-Verbal Don’ts

Stand with crossed arms or hands in pockets.
Invade people’s personal space.
Looking around or away when someone else is talking.
Be fixed in the same area for the full session.

Help

Coaching is about helping players to make good decisions whilst under pressure. The best coaches can help the players to help themselves. There are different tools available to the coach to do this. It is about tapping into these tools at the right time.

I have listed some tools that a coach has available at their disposal to help the players.

Coaching Styles: A blend of styles available, and shared: players and coaches communicate to clarify detail. Command, the coach demands intensity, commitment effort. Q/A Guided discovery, the coach encourages problem-solving with good questions.
Practice Design: The coach designs the practice so it forces the players to work on actions or in areas of the field they would like them to work on. They can use conditions, scenarios, or constraints to get repetition, relevance, and realism.
Post-Practice Feedback: The coach summarizes the key messages of the practices. The coach will review the details or pictures they want to cover, questioning players and checking their understanding.

‘‘ A coach is someone who sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness’’

Session Share: 1v1 Combine then Score

Aim:

Work on combining with teammates and then finishing the attack.

Set-Up:

30 by 20 space, create 4 smaller zones for a target player to occupy, and place a mini goal at each end of the field.
8 players: 2 x pairs of players play 1v1 in the central zone. 1 x target player is placed in each of the shaded zones.

How to Play:

One of the central players starts as an attacker and one as a defender. The attacker must find 2 x target players of the same color and then score in a mini goal.
The defender tries to win the ball and finds their 2 x target players before trying to score.
Progression, the attacker finds 2 x different color target players before scoring.

Problem: 1v1 Attacking!!!

Do your players struggle to dribble past defenders?

They are approaching the defender and have space to attack. You expect your player to go past their immediate opponent and create a scoring chance. Instead, they lose possession and your team ends up reacting poorly to the turnover in possession.

A player’s inability to exploit space in 1v1 attacking duels often results in limited scoring opportunities for a team. Having players who can unlock defenses are qualities that all great teams possess.

This common mistake can be a problem, especially if your players are reluctant to dribble at opponents.

Fix: - Skill and Speed !!

If this is a mistake that you see, the solution is encouraging the attacker to use a skill to shift the defender to one side and then use speed to escape. The final aspect of 1v1 attacking is the end product.

There are many times when players dribble past opponents then lose the ball, miss the chance to shoot, or run into trouble. Get the players to attack with the end in mind. The end product means they have kept the ball following the dribble.

On a final note, the defender planting their feet to one side is the trigger for the attacker to move through the gears and accelerate away.

Topic: Playing out from the back!!

Why is it important:

Maintains Possession: It allows teams to keep control of the ball, reducing the opponent’s chances of scoring.
Creates Space: Patient build-up play can draw defenders out of position, creating gaps for attackers to exploit.
Controls the Tempo: Teams can dictate the pace of the game, slowing it down to conserve energy or speeding it up to catch opponents off guard.
Opens Passing Lanes: By circulating the ball patiently, teams can create passing lanes and angles to advance up the field effectively.

How to Coach It:

Show and Spread: Encourage players to constantly move and take up positions that provide passing options whilst maintaining good spacing across the field.
Stay On the Ball: Develop players who are composed under pressure. Try to get them to tempt the pressing player toward the ball before releasing it. This helps to create more space and elicit greater control.
Slice Through Pressure: Develop players’ decision-making abilities to recognize when to play short, safe passes and when to attempt longer, more penetrating balls.

On a final note:

Before the ball arrives encourage players to scan the field constantly to assess options and anticipate potential passing opportunities. The main idea is to develop players who are press-resistant.

Players should be comfortable receiving the ball under pressure, shielding it from opponents, and be willing to stay on the ball to draw in pressure and then retain possession.

Coach Project

Objective: Explore the variety of ways for your players to demonstrate attacking qualities.

Task: Categorise them and decide which methods you will encourage the players to use:

Identify the best method of attacking for each player.
Create duel-based activities that allow the players to practice their attacking strengths.
Act on the information and develop some intervention steps to help your players or team cope.

Definitions of Attacking Qualities:

Skills: Using tricks and feints to beat the defender.
Speed: Using changes of speed to accelerate past opposition.
Strength: Holding players off and progressing forward whilst carrying the ball.
Shielding: Hiding the ball with your body to stop the opponent from getting access.
Stop-Starts: Stopping the ball with one foot then dragging it past the defender with the other foot.
Sharing: Bringing the defender in close then lending it to a teammate to get it back.

Extension Task:

Practice Design: Design a 1v1 activity to practice one or more of the qualities above.

Coach Task :

Design a practice activity for 6 – 12 players to work on dominating the attacking duels against opponents:

•Keep it SIMPLE

•Ensure it is REPETITIVE

•Include a COMPETITION

Note Down:

•The rules and organization

•Progressions and regressions

Please feel free to get in touch or share your ideas, actions, and interventions. We would love to hear from you. If you have any questions, post them here; we will do our best to answer them.