Why we do what we do
The end of the season is always a good time for coaches like myself to reflect on the year that was, and on what is coming up next. This was our team’s second season and it was a good, busy year. The highlight for me: seeing how much progress the boys have been making, each one in their own way, over the last 9 months.
Next year is already looking very promising, with lots of changes (bigger squad, pitch and goals and the introduction of the offside rule), and also several new players joining our team. Which made me think about what we should tell the new players and their parents when the new season starts.
Community club
Being part of a community club, we (as coaches) are volunteers. Hence we are just like other parents, we just happen to have volunteered to dedicate some of our time to organising a youth team with their training, matches and tournaments. Why did we volunteer? Because we like football, because our son or daughter joined a team and because we like helping a group of young players learn about playing football.
As it happens, this is a pretty significant investment of time. Planning and doing a training session, organising a match, liaising with parents and the club - this quickly adds up to a full day each week. And you can add to this personal development time (eg taking the FA’s Level 1 Coaching course, attending mid-week evening workshops) and special events (eg at the end and start of the year), plus some financial commitment too (eg to buy extra equipment, book tournaments, etc).
That said, coaches don’t expect any kind of special treatment in return! Just some respect for the effort we put in, and if possible as much constructive feedback as parents can provide. We may look busy putting cones around the pitch, picking up bibs, arranging drills - but please grab us any time and tell us if you’ve spotted anything which could help us and the team!
Safe, fun, learn
Whenever I coach, I have a checklist in my mind to verify if the session is going well: are the boys safe? Are they having fun? Are they learning? (Disclaimer: this didn’t come from me - it’s recommended by the FA)
Safety during training is not negotiable. If a session is safe and fun, but the boys are not learning - that’s nice, but not good enough. If the boys are learning in a safe environment, but not having fun - the same. Our core philosophy of coaching is for the players to be learning while having fun, in a safe environment.
More precisely, we will aim for the long-term (rather than short-term) learning and development of players. We know they’re unlikely to turn professional, but children (like adults) enjoy an activity more if they become better at it, over time.
These are the reasons why:
We don’t “just play a match” during training sessions. It wouldn’t be ‘training’. Instead the sessions are structured to provide learning (see further below)
We give all players equal play time, regardless of their ability. This will likely change once we get to Under-14s or thereabout, but at a younger age all players deserve equal play time, for their own development
We rotate players through all squad positions. Again this will change in later years, but for now it helps their long-term development. A striker learns from playing in defense by experiencing first-hand what good attacking opponents do. Right-footed players learn from playing on the left, and vice versa - and just look at Rashford, Mata, Martial, Salah, Firmino all playing on the ‘wrong’ side
Build, Develop, Extend
When watching from the sidelines, it may be difficult to make sense of what is going on during a training session. In fact, our sessions tend to follow a pretty simple pattern, the only one taught to coaches at the Level 1 Football Coaching course: Build, Develop, Extend.
Build: a gentle warm-up activity with a technical component (eg control, pass)
Develop: a drill which focuses on one aspect of the game, with one or two progressions to expand the players’ learning - typically a small-sided game with a specific setup and rules
Extend: a match during which we highlight what the boys have been learning earlier in the session
There are other session formats (such as Whole-Part-Whole), covered at upper levels and which we will experiment with soon. But so far this has been the way we’ve done it.
I hope this gave an interesting insight into what we do as community coaches and why - thanks for reading!
