77: 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: Using mindset to enhance performance.
Full 60-Minute Practice: Forward Passing and Fast Support.
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John C. Maxwell
Coaching and Playing with Leadership, Teamwork, and Mental Resilience
Success in football isn’t just about who has the best feet—it’s also about who has the best mindset, the strongest team habits, and the clearest sense of identity. As coaches, we influence that environment every day. As players, it’s our responsibility to step into those values and live them, especially under pressure.
This guide explores how to develop leaders, teammates, and resilient competitors through a combination of coaching actions and self-application by players. Every section includes reflective questions to drive deeper understanding and progress.
Leadership Through Action, Energy, and Instruction
“Leadership is a behaviour, not a title.”
🔹 Coach’s Perspective:
Great leaders aren’t always the loudest. Train players to lead through:
Action – Show commitment in pressing, recovery runs, and defending on the front.
Energy – Change the mood in a drill or match with tone, enthusiasm, and effort.
Instruction – Speak clearly, with purpose, especially when others are unsure.
Create moments in training where players lead a small group or task. Reflect afterwards: What leadership showed up? What was missing?
🔹 Player’s Perspective:
Even without the armband, you can lead by:
Doing the right thing consistently
Encouraging teammates when they drop off
Taking ownership in transition moments
🧠 Player Questions:
“How do I lead when I’m not playing well?”
“What do I bring to the team’s energy?”
“What would I want a teammate to say to me in tough moments—do I say that to others?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“Who led by example today?”
“What moments required clearer instruction?”
“How can I design sessions that give more players leadership opportunities?”
Teamwork: The Everyday Role Every Player Can Own
“You might not be a leader, but you can always be a teammate.”
🔹 Coach’s Perspective:
Teamwork is often undervalued but is critical for long-term team success. You can coach it by:
Encouraging peer-to-peer support during training
Recognising emotional intelligence—players who help others, notice mood, or offer a lift
Giving team roles: e.g. buddy systems, team energy leads
🔹 Player’s Perspective:
To be a great teammate:
Ask how you can help
Listen before speaking
Stay positive, especially when others struggle
Lead with care, not just criticism
🧠 Player Questions:
“Did I help someone today without being asked?”
“Do I lift the team when I’m subbed, or drop the mood?”
“Do I understand how my teammates feel—or just how I feel?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“Who is consistently a glue player in this team?”
“How am I rewarding supportive behaviour—not just technical execution?”
“What systems can I create to foster more listening and peer connection?”
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. — Phil Jackson
Self-Talk: Managing the Mind in Real Time
“The best players don’t just control the ball. They control their thoughts.”
🔹Coach’s Perspective:
Model and teach self-talk as part of training. Help players:
Create personal phrases for calming (deactivation) or motivating (activation)
Reflect on emotional regulation after games
Use breath + language in warm-ups and cooldowns
🔹 Player’s Perspective:
Use deactivating self-talk when anxious:
“Relax… calm… I’ve done this a thousand times.”
Use activating self-talk when effort is needed:
“Come on! Stay sharp. Keep going.”
🧠 Player Questions:
“What words help me reset under pressure?”
“Do I talk to myself like I would to a teammate I care about?”
“Can I notice my mindset before it spirals?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“Have I asked players what their inner voice says?”
“Do I coach mindset like I coach technique?”
“When a player is off-form, do I challenge the mindset before the skill?”
Focus on Mindset Over Mistakes
“Performance is inconsistent. Mindset can be consistent.”
🔹 Coach’s Perspective:
Shift the debrief lens from: “Did we play well?” to “Did we compete with the right mindset?”
Normalise mistakes but challenge poor attitude or detachment.
Reinforce growth: “We’re not judging your performance—we’re growing your habits.”
🔹 Player’s Perspective:
Mistakes happen—how you respond is what matters.
Be neutral about outcomes. Be relentless about your mindset.
Stop rating yourself on goals or passes. Rate your focus, energy, and reactions.
🧠 Player Questions:
“Do I sulk or switch on after a mistake?”
“Am I proud of my attitude—even when the game didn’t go my way?”
“Do I bring the same mindset when I’m losing as when I’m winning?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“Do our players fear mistakes—or see them as part of the game?”
“What mindset language do I model during errors or bad moments?”
“How often do we reward mindset after matches, not just stats?”
Body Language: Move Like Who You Want to Become
“Body language isn’t just how you stand. It’s how you move, act, and recover.”
🔹 Coach’s Perspective:
Include body language as part of technical development. For example:
“Can we recover with energy after a mistake?”
“How do we walk and communicate in the final five minutes?”
Film and reflect on how players look when confident vs. when they struggle.
🔹 Player’s Perspective:
Every action sends a message. Choose what yours says.
Keep your head up—even after a bad pass.
Sprint back like it matters—because it does.
Act like the player you want scouts, coaches, and teammates to see.
🧠 Player Questions:
“What does my body language say when things go wrong?”
“Am I carrying myself like a top player or waiting to feel confident first?”
“Can I choose how I look even when I can’t choose the result?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“What energy do we project as a team?”
“Who holds their body with intent? Who collapses under pressure?”
“How can I reward the right body language choices?”
Technique + Mindset = Game-Ready Skill
“Technique on its own doesn’t prepare you for game pressure. Technique + mindset does.”
🔹 Coach’s Perspective:
Every practice should have a technical and a mental focus:
“Can you execute this under time pressure?”
“What’s your self-talk while doing this?”
“Are you attacking the practice with intent or going through the motions?”
Train skill execution in context, not in isolation.
🔹Player’s Perspective:
To master the technique:
Be intentional. Ask: What is this for?
Stay connected. Don’t drift mentally while you repeat.
Imagine yourself using it in a match, with body language and mindset included.
🧠 Player Questions:
“Am I mentally present when I practice?”
“Does my technique look different in pressure situations?”
“How would I perform this if I were being watched by someone important?”
🎯 Coach Reflection Prompts:
“Am I helping players connect practice to performance?”
“Where is the mindset being trained in this session?”
“Do I ever separate technique and mindset in ways that weaken performance?”
Your body language shapes who you are. — Amy Cuddy
🧩 Final Thoughts
The best environments are built through shared responsibility: coaches who guide with intent and players who own their journey. When we build teams where players lead, team, talk to themselves with strength, and carry a mindset that outlasts performance, we build competitors who thrive under pressure.
As a coach, your role is to shape these habits. As a player, your role is to live them. Together, they form the foundation of not just good footballers but good people.
Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing. — Chuck Noll
The Practices: Forward Passing & Fast Support
5v5 | Possession | Stepping In and Playing Forward
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Spotting opportunities to step into the field of play and pass forward.
Set-Up:
On a 30 by 20 pitch. Cut the field in half and section each end line horizontally (dashed lines). Place a target player for each team on each corner of the pitch.
👕Teams: 🔴’s vs ⚫️’s
How to Play:
Teams aim to maintain possession of the ball and score each time they move the ball from target to target. When a player passes to a target player, they swap places with them.
The target brings the ball into the main playing area and then tries to attack in the opposite direction.
Once the attacking team has swapped the target players 3 times consecutively, the out-of-possession target players swap with central players from their teammates to maintain the intensity of the defending.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: If a central player can play a wall pass, then find a target, they get double points for that action.
👨🏫 Review: The decision to run with the ball or pass forwards.
🚫 Restriction: You cannot pass backwards to a target; the IN possession team can only play to the target in front of them.
2v2 | Fast Breaks to Goal
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Exploiting space using fast passing and forward running
Set-Up:
30 by 20 pitch space. Split the field in half and place a pair of mini goals at each end. Create a 5-yard scoring zone (dashed lines) in front of each pair of goals. Players start at the same end of the pitch.
👕Teams: 🔴’s vs ⚫️’s
How to Play:
A pair of players break toward the mini goals at one end of the pitch. The aim of each round of games is for 1 team to achieve 10 goals.
Players score by getting the ball into the end zone (in front of the dashed lines) and then finishing into the mini goals.
As soon as one team’s ball leaves the pitch, the opponent can attack. Each team attacks, then defends, then leaves the pitch.
If the defenders win the ball, they score in the same way but in the opposite direction. Regardless of whether the defending team wins the ball, the sequence of attack, defend, and leave the pitch remains in place.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: A pass into the scoring zone onto a first-time finish is worth 2 goals.
👨🏫 Review: Player awareness to pass into feet or space.
🚫 Restriction: There is an 8-second limit on each attack.
3v2 | Directional Forward Passing
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Combine using forward passing and fast support.
Set-Up:
30 by 20 pitch space with a pair of mini goals at each end of the pitch and a 5-yard scoring zone (dashed lines) in front of each pair of goals. Each team has a target player operating between the mini-goals.
👕Teams: ⚫️’s and are attacking the mini goal vs 🔴’s attacking the single larger goal.
How to Play:
Each round of games aims to score 10 goals.
The attack starts from one end of the pitch. The attacking team has two ways of scoring. Dribble into the scoring zone and score in a mini goal or play to their target and receive the ball back for a 1st time finish.
Teams always follow the attack, defend and leave the pitch sequence regardless of whether they score or concede.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Double goals for a 2-player combinations that lead to a finish.
👨🏫 Review: The decision to pass forward or run with the ball.
🚫 Restriction: 1st time finishes only.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. — Henry Ford
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