25: Grow Coach Newsletter

Football Coaching: Constraints Based Coaching

Jun 13, 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:

Education: Constraints Based Coaching.
Activity 1: Controlling Possession in a 3v3 (+2).
Activity 2: Controlling Possession in a 5v4 (+2).
Project: Create a Constraints Framework.

Using constraints within your football coaching sounds like a negative and difficult experience. There are so many different ways to constrain players while you are coaching them. I decided to share some ideas about using constraints to develop the players you coach.

What do you mean about the use of constraints in coaching?

Constraints are the introduction of limits or boundaries to your sessions where certain actions from the game are excluded, this leaves other actions up to the learner to explore. Manipulating constraints such as game rules can direct players towards intended behaviors thus promoting skill development and improving performance.

The 3 Primary Constraints Categories

The task relates to the session objectives, the boundaries of the practice, how goals are scored, and how the opponent is set up.
The person relates to the performer's height, speed, strength, and skill level and how they manage and use these things during the practice to gain an edge or solve a problem.
The environment relates to the weather conditions, the surface, and distractions around the playing area. quite often these things are out of your control.

Constraints are sometimes referred to as conditions. During small-sided games, the coach will often manipulate rules to encourage skill-based actions. This would fall into the task category of constraints.

Affordances occur when practice constraints are added. These affordances create opportunities for players to problem-solve, overcome or explore solutions.

‘Football is played with your head, your feet are just the tools’
(A, Pirlo)

Before You Use Constraints

Before constraints are used in your practices coaches should ensure that they have thought about the session planning and organisation in terms of a session topic and how the session is going to be set up.

Once basic factors have been considered the coach can start to think about the task constraints such as pitch size and shape, scoring rules, locations of the goals and match conditions.

For example, pitch markings may restrict players to certain areas or zones or the players may have to play through, over, or around certain areas on the pitch before they can score.

The coach can think about the players’ roles and responsibilities. Do players play in their normal positions or are they trying to carry out a technique or tactic which makes positions irrelevant?

Player responsibilities will link to the session theme. If the session theme was defending then the defenders in your team should probably play in their positions, however, if the theme was dribbling and running with the ball it may not be essential that players play in their normal positions.

Why are Constraints Useful?

Constraints are useful because they can be applied to some, many, or all the aspects of actual practice. The key is to ensure that each constraint is relevant to the game and that the players can see which aspect and or area of the pitch the session is relevant to.

For example, a coach could apply a constraint on everyone such as all players must play off two touches. The coach could apply a constraint to a few players such as you must screen the goals in this area of the pitch, or the coach could apply the constraint to an individual, you must have touched the ball before your team can score.

The constraints can be applied to different moments of the game as well, such as IN possession constraints and OUT of possession constraints. Each team in a specific practice may have one constraint for IN possession such as the ball must pass through each third of the pitch before a goal can be scored.

A constraint for OUT of possession could be, a regain and goal in the opponent’s attacking third is worth 3 goals.

Each of the constraints mentioned above is relevant to specific topics and moments of the game.

To simplify the use of constraints further, it can be helpful to subcategorise specifically what you want your constraint to do for the players. You can do this by restricting, reviewing, or rewarding the performers through your constraints. Let me explain each sub-category along with some of the positives and negatives of each.

Restricting

Restricting this would mean that within a coaching topic, the coach could limit the number of touches, the movements players can make, or the decisions players must make within a practice.

The restrictions can have a positive effect on performers in the sense of simplifying the task for them, you have three touches to retain the ball and progress up the field.
Another benefit of restrictions is that they provide players with lots of opportunities to practice due to the repetition of the constraint. Restrictions also help to develop a player’s ability to solve problems as they have to figure out how they can be successful within the boundary of the constraint.

Some potential negatives to constraints are that they may hold certain players back who are exceptionally good and successful with specific skills.

For example, a player who is successful at dribbling, if the constraint does not allow many opportunities to dribble, may make that individual feel that their development is being hindered due to the constraint on touches.
The positive of only having a few things to think about as a player could also be negative because opportunities to use other correct techniques or skills may be turned down in favour of achieving the constraint. Therefore, the normal decision-making process of a player is interrupted by the constraint.
A final negative of restrictions is that they may affect the game's realism. Therefore, coaches applying a constraints-based concept must carefully consider the restriction to ensure that game realism is minimally affected.

Reviewing

This type of approach is more around making sure that the constraint is relevant to the real game and that the player who is provided with a relevant constraint is clear on what action to take based on the situation of the game.

This type of constraint is useful for the individual. A coach may wish to place an idea into a player’s head around what they would like them to do based on a set type of situation and then review the outcome once it has been attempted.
For example, asking an outfield player to spot opportunities to turn and face forwards without a touch.
The coach should explain why the constraint is helpful to the player so in this case, the use of a no-touch turn correctly executed means that the individual has looked for space before they received the ball and it speeds up the attack because the player is now facing forward.

The constraint should help players understand what the coach would like them to do at specific times or in situations in games or training. The player’s role in this is spotting when to do it.

This type of constraint is useful to help develop a player’s understanding of the game.
The coach must spot the correct time to step in and ask thought-provoking questions about the player’s decisions while it is fresh in their heads after they have attempted to use a constraint.

Questions the coach could ask the players during the previous example could be.

What situations did you find were successful for you?
When would you say is the best time to turn without a touch?
Are there any moments when you should not use a no-touch turn?

This type of approach will make the players think and review their performance which is good for developing a growth mindset in the performers. because it helps them learn and review their successes and failures.

A negative of this type of approach is that it can take time to set this process up and also the time it takes to get a response from the player. The questions you wish to ask them can take time away from you as the coach and practice time away from them as players.
The coach, therefore, needs to develop the skill and ability to get to the answers quickly, without taking too much practice time away from the players and moving your attention off the other players in the team.
Another time issue will be that the coach needs to develop the right types of challenging questions based on the constraints before they coach the session.
This takes time on behalf of the coach, therefore the coach needs to ensure they put time into this process or decide if the process is worth the time and effort for the returns it brings.

Rewarding

The third category is rewarding, this type of constraint is where the coach rewards a team or an individual for attempting or completing the constraint placed upon them. The coach must set the scene about the context of the game-based situation, and then they would offer the reward to the player once it has been successfully executed.

These rewards can be based on IN-possession and OUT-of-possession objectives.

For example, in possession a coach may reward a team for scoring a goal in a certain way to encourage a playing approach ‘Goals scored from crosses are worth double’. This example provided should encourage wing play from the teams attacking.
OUT of possession, the constraint may be ‘if you can keep a clean sheet for a set amount of time you are rewarded by that amount of goals, five minutes without a goal is worth 5 goals’ or each 5-minute period without conceding is worth 1 goal’.

This out-of-possession constraint should ensure players remain focused on defending as a main priority.

A benefit of using the rewards-based constraint is that the task is not compulsory so players can still play the game as normal but they are rewarded if they achieve the constraint set.
The potential downside of rewards-based constraints can be around the focus of the players, if they get too engrossed in the reward they may not make correct decisions.
For the examples used above let’s say during the IN possession moments the wingers may not pass because they are trying to set up an attacker for double goals.
For the OUT-of-possession example, the defending team just kicks the ball as high and as far up the pitch because they don’t want to concede a goal. The key here is that the coach sets the context correctly and relates it to the teams' or clubs' values and playing style.

‘The most important quality a player can have is not skill but mentaility.’
(J. Mourhino)

In Summary

A constraints-based approach is a great way of challenging players around different aspects of the game of football. It requires players to think and helps them to develop decision-making of when and where to perform certain aspects of the game.

Coaches need to decide what type of constraints the players are most receptive to and build these into practices. There is nothing wrong with working through each constraint category within a session, for example starting with a restriction on your session theme and then moving into an activity that requires some review followed by a reward-based constraint on the game aspect of the session.

It is down to the coach and their understanding of what their players need and when. The examples provided above are based on the game moments but coaches could think about creating constraints for various parts of their coaching for example they could create constraints for different themes of coaching or psychological aspects of performance. Constraints are an excellent way of creating the right environment for your players.

Activity 1: 3v3 (+2) | Reverse Goal | Controlling Possession.

Created on: @SSP

Aim: Recognise when to speed up or slow down possession.

Space and Set Up:

30 by 20 space corners of the pitch are sectioned with 4 x mini goals reversed.

Teams:

⚫️s and 🔴s compete for possession.
🟡s act as support players.

Play the Game:

Before scoring in any mini goal with a 1st time finish:
The possession team must receive in a corner- receive in the middle zone and play off a 🟡.
It doesn’t matter what sequence this occurs in.

Activity 2: 5v4 (+2) | Controlling Possession

Created on: @SSP

Aim: Control the possession to score.

Space and Set Up:

30 by 24-yard space.
Add 2 x mini goals at each end.
Add a pair of escape gates (blue) at both ends.

Teams:

5 x ⚫️s attacking team.
4 x 🔴s defending team.
2 x 🟡s support players.

Play the Game:

⚫️s have to play from one 🟡 to the other 🟡 then score in a mini-goal off a 1st time finish or dribble through a gate.
🔴s must win back the ball and attack the goals/gates of the last 🟡 to touch the ball ⚽️.

Adaptation:

Change 1 x ⚫️ to a 🟡 and both teams have the same attacking objective as above. The game becomes a 4v4 (+3 🟡s).

Coach Project

Objective: Design a framework to help you identify a range of different constraints.

Task: Use the image below to help, some example content has been added:

Identify some of your own ideas for the heading provided
Complete the two empty boxes for themes you would like to coach.

Extension Activity:

Objective: Design a practice based on a chosen session theme related to the previous task.

Why: To develop your session planning skills and help you put theory into practice.

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.