39: Grow Coach Newsletter
Football Coaches: Develop your Coaching Craft.
Welcome from JustCoachMD. We are happy to have you on board and look forward to providing you with helpful content.
Here is what to expect:
Coaching Craft: Winning Behaviours
Full 60-Minute Practice: Playing in Tight Spaces
Coach Project: Developing Winning Behaviours
“If you train badly, you play badly. If you work like a beast in training, you play the same way.”– Pep Guardiola
10 x Yourself by using these 10 winning behaviours!!!
Here are 10 winning behaviours of football coaches, inspired by Pep Guardiola’s leadership style. Each behaviour has actionable ideas for coaches to implement into their teams:
Visionary Thinking:
Have a clear vision of the game and know how you want your team to play.
Action: Map out your team’s playing style. Communicate your philosophy to players from day one. Use video analysis and tactical sessions to reinforce this vision consistently.Meticulous Preparation:
Prepare obsessively for every match, leaving no detail unexamined.
Action: Study opponents’ strengths and weaknesses thoroughly. Structure your training sessions based on upcoming challenges, focusing on how your team can exploit opposition vulnerabilities.Innovative Tactics:
Be bold and creative with your tactics, always looking for an edge.
Action: Introduce tactical surprises when appropriate, like fluid formations or unconventional player roles. Use small-sided games in training to teach tactical flexibility and encourage players to think dynamically.Player-Centered Leadership:
Understand your players on a personal level, and get the best out of them.
Action: Hold regular one-on-one meetings with your players. Show them that you care about their development on and off the pitch. Adapt your communication style to each player’s personality.Demand Excellence:
Set high standards for every detail, from passing drills to tactical execution.
Action: Develop a culture of excellence in training. Constantly push players to improve their skills, decision-making, and fitness levels. Make clear that good enough isn’t good enough.Adaptability:
Always be ready to adjust, whether it’s during a match or throughout the season.
Action: Teach players multiple systems and how to switch between them seamlessly. In training, use situational scenarios to challenge players’ ability to think and react under pressure.Promoting Positional Play:
Emphasise understanding of space and positioning for both attack and defence.
Action: Run practices that teach players how to create overloads, find pockets of space, and transition smoothly between attack and defence. Use rondos to sharpen positional awareness and quick decision-making.Building a Strong Team Ethic:
Create a team where every player understands that the collective comes first.
Action: Design exercises that emphasise teamwork and collective pressing. Regularly highlight examples of selfless play in matches, and reward players who put the team’s success ahead of individual glory.Calmness Under Pressure:
Stay composed in high-pressure moments and transmit that calm to your team.
Action: Create high-pressure training situations to get players used to playing under high demands. Reinforce the importance of maintaining control, even when emotions run high, and model this calmness during matches.Relentless Pursuit of Improvement:
Never settle for where you are—always look to improve, both as a coach and as a team.
Action: Keep innovating your training methods. Encourage players to reflect on their performances and strive for continuous improvement, no matter how successful the team has been.
Coaches: You are only as good as the players you have.
Here are 5 different ways your players can help you to establish a culture of high performance.
Mental Sharpness:
Stay on top of the players and keep them mentally alert and ready to adapt during training and matches. They need to be fully engaged in tactical sessions. Ask them questions if something isn’t clear, and support them in developing answers to any questions they have about game scenarios.
Positional Awareness:
Help them to master their playing positions on the field, so they know where to be at all times. Encourage constant scanning of the field to understand where the space is and where your teammates and opponents are. Use the “Pep” principle of always being in the right position for passing lanes, pressing, or covering space.
Relentless Work Ethic:
Push the players to give 100% in every training session and match. Encourage them to always bring intensity to training. Whether it’s a rondo, a small-sided game, or a fitness drill, treat it like a match situation. The best players are willing to work just as hard off the ball as they do on it.
Desire for Continuous Improvement
Embed the need to always seek ways to improve, even when things are going well.
Get the players to take individual time to reflect on their performances after games and training.
Help them to identify areas for improvement, such as positioning, passing, or decision-making. Encourage players to seek feedback from coaches and teammates.
Mastery of Ball Control and Passing
The players must be dedicated to their development and have a strong focus on technical excellence in every touch and pass. Players have to commit to perfecting, scanning, first touch, and short passing.
Assign time before, during or after training to improve technical skills under pressure. Use conditioned games and possession practices to challenge players to control the ball quickly and make the right decision within split seconds.
“The important thing is to never stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”– Arsène Wenger
Full Practice: Controlling Possession.
Cross ❌ Ways | 1v1s | Escaping Pressure.
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Using moves to beat players.
Set-Up:
On a 20 by 20 space place a coned 5 by 5 area centrally and a support player (🟢) in the middle of this zone.
👕 Teams:
⚫️s only play against ⚫️s nominate 1 defender to start.
🔴s only play against 🔴s nominate 1 defender to star
⚫️s and 🔴s can use 🟢 to help them keep the ball ⚽️
How to Play:
The aim of the practice is to dribble beyond the central zone and then play into the waiting target player outside of the playing area = Goal ⚽️.
The defenders for each team win the ball and pass to an outside target player
🟢s can help any player or team to keep the ball.
Defenders stay as defenders for a set period then swap roles.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Using the 🟢 to wall pass around the defender before scoring is worth x2 goals.
👨🏫 Review: Using skills and speed to beat the defenders
🚫 Restriction: must dribble out of the area (line to line) before passing to the next attacker
Controlling Possession | 3v3 (+3).
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Keeping the ball under pressure.
Set-Up:
30 by 30 box plus a 5 by 5 central box (red shaded circle).
⚫️ attack and defend.
🔴 attack and defend.
🟢 Support player for the team in possession, (no players can enter the shaded area).
How to Play:
Both teams keep possession and score by moving the ball from one target to the other.
⚫️s score by working the ball north to south
🔴s score by working the ball east to west
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Double points for using the 🟢 before playing out to your target player.
👨🏫 Review: Body position to get on the ball, forward-thinking with any passes, show quickly after a pass or dribble.
🚫 Restriction: touch limits for the central and outer targets (one or two).
Multi Ball Practice | 1v2 Attacking into 4v2 Attacking.
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
To develop creative attacking and fast passing to score.
Set-Up:
30 by 30 box with a large goal offset by around 10 yards.
In opposing corners place a pair of coned gates (blue & red on the image)
In the centre of the pitch create a 5 by 5 zone (shaded red circle on image)
👕 Teams:
⚫️s 1v2 attackers into 2v4 defenders
🔴s 2v1 defenders into 4v2 attackers.
🟢 Gk for the x2⚫️s
How to Play:
The first player to score by dribbling through a coned gate or into the central zone unlocks the 2nd ball ⚽️ for the 4v2 attack.
Defenders (🔴) serve the ball into a single ⚫️ attacker - two games of 1v2 happen simultaneously.
As soon as one of these attacks is complete the game breaks out into a 4v2 toward goal.
If 🟢 collects the ball they ⚫️an escape via any of the coned gates (blue or red) they originally attacked.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: If the 🟢 does collect the ball during the 4v2 let two waiting ⚫️s join the game for a 5v4 build-up.
👨🏫 Review: Reactions to losses and regains of possession.
🚫 Restriction: Time limit or pass limit for the 4v2 attack.
"In football, the worst blindness is only seeing the ball.”– Nelson Rodrigues
Coach Project
Objective:
Create a culture where players and coaches regularly assess performance and look for growth opportunities.
Ideas:
Reflective Journals: Encourage players to keep performance journals where they can log personal objectives, self-assess their recent performances, and identify areas for improvement.
Post-Game Analysis: Hold team meetings after each match to review footage. Highlight both positive and negative aspects of the team’s performance.
Set Personal Development Goals: Work with each player to set specific, measurable goals they want to achieve by the end of the season, such as improving passing accuracy or defensive positioning.
Actions:
Design a self-reflection page to identify/ track performance of the the players. Link this to the core skills of the game and any important tactical demands.
Create a notational analysis page to capture key details from a game, consider designing one for individuals and one for team play.
Implement player development plans by collecting measurable goals and targets for the players to go after. Host regular reviews to check in with players and remind them about their targets/progress.
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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