When coaching stoppages, do you only focus on the player on the ball?
For example, the player is struggling to win their 1v1. You stop, coach them, and then restart play?
What about looking at the bigger picture?
The player on the ball, the players around the ball, and the players away from the ball.
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To break this example down further:
Your wide player struggles to beat their defender, so you coach them on how to do that.
They then cross, and if your furthest away wide player is standing still instead of making a back post run, do you stop the play again to coach their movement?
And if the type of cross is wrong, do you stop again to coach the cross?
It's a flippant example, but everything is connected in football.
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If you were to consider coaching on the ball, around the ball, and away from the ball, then it would be one stoppage.
One stoppage, with three quick coaching points, with maximum impact.
and this would be throughout all phases of the game. In the image below, around the ball we have stability to counter-press if we lose the ball.
A really important consideration in this phase of the attack.
Players who understand how their actions and their inter-actions impact the team will see the game differently.
Every stoppage is a choice between fixing a problem and building understanding.
I've found that if you choose understanding, the problems will fix themselves.
You connect actions to outcomes.
If you choose to constantly stop and fix problems, players may lose contact time with the ball and tune out of sessions, learning very little.
All this information is taken from courses in my community.
So, learn the what, why, and how in the Football Coaching Academy.
Check out the How To Coach Technique and 360TFT Game Model courses there:
But when it comes to coaching the technique behind winning small-sided play?
They can explain WHAT a player should do, but many struggle to explain HOW it should be done in teachable technical detail.
Here are some different examples of how to coach attacking technique from 1v1 through 4v4...
@SundayShare #SundayShare
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1v1 Technique: "Explode Away"
How to coach this:
1 - Assess the Space:
"Scan ahead to identify open spaces and potential blockers, such as 2nd or 3rd defenders or the touchline."
2 - Big First Touch into Space:
"Take a larger initial touch with the instep to push the ball into open space (away from the blockers), allowing for quick acceleration."
3 - Accelerate After the Ball:
"Quickly follow your first touch with an explosive burst of speed to gain ground and separation from the defender. Turn on your jetpack"
2v2 Technique: "Draw the First Defender"
How to coach this:
1 - Commit:
"Engage one defender to hopefully draw the second defender. This creates a numerical advantage for your teammate. Your teammate needs to keep a passing lane open."
2 - Combine or Go Alone:
"If the second defender is not drawn in, then you have created a 1v1. Use your 1v1 dribbling skills to unbalance the defender and create opportunities for combinations or to go alone."
3 - Assess
"You should continually assess the situation to make the best decision (combine or go alone). Good decisions make a good player."
At the development stage, formations are often used to help try and win a game of football. However, I was always a big believer in using formations as a further developmental tool.
But how? ⤵
Changing your formation to place your players in different 1v1 and 1v2 scenarios on the pitch will always have a longer-term developmental impact than not doing so.
Here's a handy graphic that helps break down how you can do that
Lots of chat around clubs advertising for youth players to play in a certain position.
but this chat rarely explains why playing one position at youth level can potentially harm a player's development
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At grassroots level, players sometimes get placed in positions based on their physical makeup – the fast kid is a winger or striker, the slow kid is a defender or goalkeeper, and so on.
At a young age, if you label a player as a defender then what's the problem?
If an 8-year-old starts out as a defender and plays there for three years, then think about the experience she is gaining by just playing that position.
She will probably play the majority of the game facing the play.
🧵 In response to some fans of other teams dismissing Arbroaths season, here's a thread breaking down my take on why it is *the* Scottish Football fairytale.
Dick Campbell, with his staff, was appointed 6 years ago this week. Arbroath were 3rd bottom of league 2.
His first game ended in a 3-0 defeat to Berwick Rangers, who leapfrogged Arbroath into 8th.
Kilmarnock, Inverness, Hamilton, & Partick all played in the Scottish Premiership during this season (and the next season).
The financial gap between these leagues must be/is massive.
Ricky Little, Bobby Linn, and David Gold all played for Arbroath in Dicks first season.
Over the next 2 seasons, Colin Hamilton, Michael McKenna, Gavin Swankie, and Tam O'Brien joined the club.
All of these players are still with the club and playing regularly.