Systems or Solutions

Hi Everyone. I was working on the title and that was the best one I liked. I didn’t mean for it to be cryptic but it’s a thought that two of our top ten touches upon this week. Do we have a system or systems that the players play in and get used to. Knowing roles strengths weaknesses etc, or do we give them situations where they solve problems from training that they then take into a game. They still have roles but this is less rigid. I’d love to know what you think and how you apply this to your team. Anyway on to this week's top ten…

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Top Ten of The Week

1. Jose Mourinho here talking about models of play and their significance in his eyes. What do you think? is there too much emphasis on playing one certain way? Should we be coaching our players to be problem solvers rather than sticking to rigid rules?

   𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 @skillacq

   Top Teams don’t have a Model of Play • They have a Tactical Culture enabling them to Play in Many Different Ways

   

2. Again another video to get you thinking more about how your players play rather than the specific system they play in. This time from Brendan Rogers

   Andrew Brownhill @AndrewBrownhil

   Brendan Roger's on having a philosophy👇 🗣"It's about having a football philosophy and not necessarily a system. So you don't get fixated on the system because you can play football out of any system, it's the principles of how you play"

   

3. I posted about scanning before and another excellent video talking through the key points of scanning

   Training Ground Guru @ground_guru

   Good explainer on how to scan properly, from the world’s leading expert @GeirJordet

   

   youtu.beGeir Jordet: Why scanning is about more than just frequencyProfessor Geir Jordet explains why it’s not only frequency that matters when it comes to scanning. Geir was speaking at TGG’s Big Data event in December, whi...

4. Another mental health one here again just to emphasize the point but a nice two-tweet thread on different infographics for mental health. for players, parents, and coaches.

   Mr Bell @mrbell_1

   Have a look at the infographics from @BelievePHQ for some ideas on how you can get ready your day of online learning and stay motivated! @MarrColOfficial @MarrPC_Suggest

   

   

   

   

5. A good resource for those coaching in the foundation phase from Michael Beale former Chelsea, Liverpool, and Sao Paulo coach now working with Steven Gerrard at Rangers.

   Foundation Age Coaching @FAgeCoaching

   “Focus on the individual, not the group” Great article on the Foundation Phase from @MichaelBeale

   

   michaelbealecoaching.comFoundation Phase CoachingCoaching advice for foundation phase coaching (u6-11 age groups) & 5 free coaching booklets to download with practices and training ideas

6. Sam Holmshaw has put together some fantastic resources which he has outlined here. I suggest you get a cuppa, sit down, and take some time to read through. You'll definitely pick up some things to take into your sessions.

   samholmshaw.com @SamHolmshaw_MSc

   Check out my coaching blogs👇 Ajax philosophy👉bit.ly/3izxsLJ Tactical periodisation👉bit.ly/3p6Dd5R Play vs practice👉bit.ly/393uFHp Ecological dynamics in coaching👉bit.ly/3pb8lS4 Coaches DM👉bit.ly/3900Qrf Part 1/2

   

7. some excellent psychology of sport and exercise articles here. As always papers can be very in-depth and hard to read. I usually try to go over them 3 or four times and see if I can take some key themes from them. These are based on resilience which is such a great skill for both yourself and your team to develop.

   Dr Mustafa Sarkar @MusSarkar

   Great to have three papers in PSE's most downloaded articles list (journals.elsevier.com/psychology-of-…) exploring resilience at three different levels: Individual (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…), team (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…), and organizational (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…).

   

8. Have you got a coaching pledge? I saw this from Dr Sergio Lara and got me thinking about the fact that we have players and parents sign up to commitments but sometimes forget those commitments from us to them. A great start here if you're thinking of creating some

   DrSergioLara_EU @DrSergioLara_EU

   @davidcolly Hey David! Thanks for your kind words about the @iCoachKidsWorld Pledge. The below is the latest version. Agree with you - it works at all ages - it's good coaching 👍

   

9. How many of these top ten coaching mistakes have you made?????? I have to confess to a couple. I'm actually happy to admit them though as couching for me is a journey and self-improvement is continuous. Recognise and learn from your mistakes is always a key point for me to my players so the same has to be true of me if I'm to set an example.

10. Finishing the attack. Great video from the FA learning website.

Thanks for joining me again this week. I appreciate you taking the time to read. We’re getting more and more subscribers so thank you for sharing. As always if you know someone who would like to read or to subscribe use the buttons below. Have a great weekend and week.