33: Grow Coach Newsletter
Football Coaches: Develop your Coaching Craft.
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:
Coaching Craft: Feeding Forward instead of Feedback.
Full 60-Minute Practice: Receiving to turn and play forwards.
Coach Project: Design a small-sided game.
“The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.” – Lionel Messi
Feeding forward instead of feeding back focuses on providing detailed future-orientated guidance to help a player improve and develop.
Here are some essential actions for implementing this approach effectively in your coaching.
Steps to Feedforward…
Focus on the future: Instead of dwelling on past mistakes make suggestions on how a player can improve future actions. For example instead of saying “You were sloppy and gave away the ball” say “Scan before you receive the ball and use a faster-paced pass”.
Be specific and make it Actionable: Instead of using statements like “You must do better” or “That’s not good enough” Try using “I love it when…you use changes of speed after a dribble” or “It’s great to see you… use a big first touch when there is space in front of you”.
Encourage a growth mindset: Empower the potential for learning and improvement. Reinforce the ideas skills can be developed through effort, commitment and practice.
Highlight strengths: Acknowledge what players are doing well and encourage them to build on them. This will help to boost confidence and motivation.
Support and Positivity: Use positive body language and be supportive during the feedforward process. This will create an environment where players feel safe to make mistakes and learn from them.
Use visual and verbal cues: The coach should combine verbal instructions with visual demonstrations to help players see what is expected. Show them what excellent looks like and ask them to try.
Encourage self-reflection: Encourage players to self-reflect on their performance and identify areas for improvement. Ask questions like “What do you think you could change next time?”
Involve the player and celebrate success: Engage the player by asking them first about what they need or aspects of performance that are important to them. Catch the player taking action and celebrate improvement, no matter how small. This keeps the player motivated and reinforces the value of effort and persistence.
By focusing on these steps you can implement a feedforward approach. This will help the players you coach to improve their skills, confidence and application. Pick three bullet points from above and give them a try.
Here are a few additional steps that are important to the feedforward process. Implementing these can enhance the effectiveness of using the feedforward approach.
Timeliness: Give your feedforward information immediately or shortly after the event. This timely approach ensures that the experience is fresh in the player’s mind thus it’s easier to relate and act upon.
Consistency: Be consistent in the feedforward approach to create a reliable and supportive process to help your players. Inconsistency can lead to confusion and a loss of trust if the coach does not act on what they hear or attempt to help.
Balance: The coach needs to strike a balance between challenging the player to improve whilst supporting them with emotional control. Players can become frustrated if there is no support when they are highly challenged. Too much support without challenge can lead to complacency.
Active listening: Take time to understand the player’s perspectives and concerns. Model the behaviours and attitudes that you want to see in your players. Your actions set a powerful example and reinforce the feedforward messages you provide.
Check-In: Establish regular check-ins to review performance progress, adjust the challenge level, and ensure the feedforward remains relevant.
Feeding Forward Examples?
Here are some specific feedforward examples for a variety of football skills:
Dribbling
Current situation: The player loses control of the ball whilst dribbling at speed.
Feedforward: Try to push the ball out of your feet when dribbling at speed. Practice using the inside and outside of the foot to direct the ball into your stride pattern.
Passing
Current situation: The player’s passes are often intercepted.
Feedforward: Look away from the ball and scan for a teammate. Increase the ball speed of the pass to ensure it arrives at its destination. Use the inside of the foot to increase accuracy.
Defending
Current situation: The defender gets beat by faster attackers
Feedforward: Work on positioning yourself to gain a head start and force the attacker wide or into the corner of the playing area. Practice your footwork to stay balanced and not go to the ground.
Shooting
Current situation: A player frequently misses the goal
Feedforward: Focus on good contact and missing the goalkeeper, zone in on the corners of the goal and use the insides of the feet to improve the accuracy of the shot. Keep your eyes on the ball and your chest over the ball to ensure the ball stays low.
By providing specific, actionable and positive guidance you can help your players to improve their skills and develop a stronger mindset toward improvement.
“I’d rather fail while trying to be brilliant, than succeed being mediocre.” – Samuel Eto’o
Full Practice:
2v2 | Receiving to Turn and Score.
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Use quality techniques to receive turn and score under pressure.
Set-Up:
1 big goal and 2x small goals.
Use an 18-yard box or similar size based on the age of the players.
How to Play:
⚫️s vs 🔴s
Attackers- Pass into Coach (C) then combine to score in the larger goal.
Defenders - Win the ball and get into the shaded zone to score in any mini-goal. (Can play off Coach (C) to score.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: The winner (who can get the most consecutive wins) stays on.
🚫Restriction: You must combine once before you can score.
👨🏫Review: Scan for pressure, skill with speed, surprise shooting to catch out GK.
3 Team Possession | Receiving to Turn and Escape.
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Receive, turn and secure possession.
Set-Up:
On a 30 by 20 pitch split the field into thirds and run a 6-yard channel through the middle to create the zones.
How to Play:
🟢⚫️ and 🔴s are the attacking teams that keep possession.
🟡 The defending team trying to win back the ball and score.
🔴and 🟢⚫️s connect three passes in their outer zone then a play from the opposite outer zone must drop into the central zone to receive, turn and pass out to the opposite side.
🟡s send two players into an outer zone, win the ball and score a goal.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Double goals for an around the corner pass from the central zone to an outer zone.
🚫Restriction: Can only transfer between zones via a set and pass through.
👨🏫Review: Players moving into the central zone checking behind them for passes to teammates.
Big and Small Goals Game | Earn the Right to Score.
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Break out of central spaces to score.
Set-Up:
40 by 30 for the main playing area plus a 5-yard shaded zone (blue) and a 5-yard dribble zone (black). One large goal and 2 x mini goals.
How to Play:
⚫️and 🔴s compete for possession. To start the game one team plays out from the back towards the two mini-goals. If they score they keep the ball and earn the chance to attack the large goal.
The defending team has to win back the ball score in the mini goal and become the attacking team.
There are two ways of scoring for the defending team: Finish in the mini-goals after dribbling into the black-shaded zone or use 1st time finish from anywhere within the blue-shaded zone.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Keep the ball if you score in the large goal and attack again.
🚫 Restriction: Time limit on the attacks toward the large goal or possession flips.
👨🏫 Review: Fast reactions to go from defence to attack or attack to defence.
“Football is all about passion, it’s about fighting for the shirt, for your team, and for the supporters.” – Jürgen Klopp
Coach Project
Objective: Design a small-sided game to work on any tactical topic.
Considerations:
Pitch dimensions: Split into thirds, half or quarters, does the pitch space need to be funnelled or gridded?
Conditions to ensure that the game-related challenge occurs?
Goals required: Use larger goals or mini-goals, is there a set amount of touches to score?
Are there any individual challenges? Players with touch limits or instructions to attempt different types of finish.
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.
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