Remember Wembley doubles?
Hi everyone, welcome to another issue of the Coach Insight newsletter. The title/subject this week is quite UK-specific, although if you do live outside the UK and played Wembley then I'd love to hear about it. For those that don’t know “Wembley” was a school kid game of football with one goal, one goalkeeper, and everyone else playing against each other. The aim of the game was to score, if you did you went through to the next round, 1 person dropped out each round until the final! Wembley doubles was the same but was played in pairs. So many great memories, including where I learned to fake and disguise especially when it to came to shooting! I always think back to those school ground/kids games and think about how could I incorporate those into my training sessions. As fun as they were, they taught you some great lessons. What games have you incorporated into your training? I love to hear about them and see if I can add them to my repertoire. Anyway enough of me and on to the Top Ten of the Week…
I remember playing "Wembley" as a kid and it was always so much fun. You learned how to dribble under pressure, predator instincts for following up, anticipation as a defender, also strategic ways of playing the game. Would you ever have a session along the lines of "Wembley"? Might be a nice one for the players to get back into once we can start training again.
Five great videos in this thread from Paul McGuiness. He's a big believer in the quadrant tool and I can see why. So many use cases and applications. Have you ever used the quadrant tool when helping players with their awareness?
Some graphics here from Paul on the quadrant tool to back up the earlier work.
“You can observe a lot by watching” - the analyst has a VITAL role in helping all the interdisciplinary team focus and look through the same lens - to get a shared view of the game to link the staff - in order to connect with the players https://t.co/l3Biry464d
@atom_davidson Well done tonight some really insightful questions - the analyst has a vital role in bringing clarity to all the staff and helping to get everyone looking through the same football lens 🔥⚽️
Paul McGuinness @Paulmcg8Do you know how to get the most of your number 9 in the build-up phase? You watch a lot of games and you see ineffective runs and play from forwards, especially if their team has been under consistent pressure for a period of time. Here Carl outlines some key points that you can pass on.
Eric Laurie here with some out-of-possession principles when using a 4-4-2 low block. what I like about this graphic is its simplicity. You could give this to YDP players and it should help them understand the team’s processes a bit more.
A thread from Adin Osmanbasic, Head of professional development analysis at Atlanta united in the MLS, talking through the high press, what it does it the team on the ball, and the support needed off the ball.
Sport Psychologist Dan Abrahams here on some key points for confidence building as a grassroots coach. I really like the part of helping players reflect on their best. This is something that was taught to me when I was a kid, whenever I was down about a performance, my coach would always reminded me of at least 3 things I did well.
An interesting study on the effects of training players to cope with pressure. The study indicates that training in the right context can help players with their coping skills when it comes to pressure.
Article here from Erica Suter with her 10 principles of player development. A couple of points are US-specific, like helping players through college recruitment but the rest are transferrable to anywhere around the world. How many can you tick off in your club?
Taking time to reflect on your coaching journey is always something I promote, you always need to take stock, see where you've improved, where you need to improve even more, and reset the goals you previously had. What would be your 5-10 points of self-reflection on your coaching journey so far?
Thanks again for joining me on this latest issue. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did researching it! As always if you know anyone who would love or benefit from reading this post or newsletter then use the share buttons below. Have a great weekend and week.