The best way way to use competition to develop?
Hi Everyone, welcome to another edition of the Coach Insight newsletter. This week we have using competition to develop players, another professional club letting kids be kids and recruiting later, counter-attacking, not copying and pasting sessions and development, plus lots more.
The Top Ten
First up this week is a podcast well worth listening to as its subject matter, “using competition in a developing way” is a tough one. Luckily it’s The Belgian FA’s director of coach education, Kris Van Der Haegen talking through the best way to do it. youtu.be/f6NcAeZn3Ro
We’ve seen a few professional clubs start to do the same as Australia’s Brisbane Roar, I highlighted before that Bayern Munich, Real Sociedad, etc have moved to later academy selection and more investment into the grassroots clubs in the area. Who will be the first English club to do it or are they too afraid of losing talent (which is strange because only 1% of kids make it to pro football)
Right on the back of the previous article comes this one by the Player Development Project team on over professionalism of youth sports. Do you agree is youth sports moving away from the fundamentals of play, fun, learning, and developing lifelong skills and passion for the game? https://playerdevelopmentproject.com/breaking-the-machine/
There is always lots of talk of managing the game, whilst we as coaches may know what that is and what we mean by it, do our players? Here’s a helpful infographic from the Coaching Manual team on different elements of managing the game.
Peter Motzenbecker here with an infographic on being between the lines. Again another confusing and sometimes misunderstood concept that may be better explained with an infographic.
Counter-attacking can be one of the most effective ways to attack. Generally, the defending team isn’t set and there may be an opportunity for an overload. Coaching Manual team again with another helpful infographic but this time on counter-attacking.
Great blog from Mark O’Sullivan around the copy-and-paste culture in football coaching and training. “player development frameworks should evolve in, interaction with the socio-cultural context in which individuals are embedded- THERE IS NO COPY and PASTE TEMPLATE” is a great quote and for you and I, it basically means you can just do what someone else does and think it will magically work for your players as it did theirs. The context of the player and their environment must be taken into account and applied. https://footblogball.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/there-is-no-copy-and-paste-template/
When we’re coaching either at training or during games we can get so involved and taken in by what’s happening that we may miss vital cues and information. Laura Seth with her 9 tips on how to be better at observing your team on the England learning site. https://learn.englandfootball.com/articles/resources/2022/How-to-get-better-at-observing-your-football-team
Have you ever made a list of things you’d like to see in your training sessions? It can be a great way of guiding you on whether you’re providing the experience your set out and if your players are engaging/you're seeing the outcomes you want. What’s essential and desirable to you?
Dr. Suzanne Brown with a fantastic thread on receiving feedback. It can be such a difficult thing both as a coach and a player, especially when it’s constructive. Have a read through the thread and let me know what you think.
When getting feedback a few things happen psychologically. These shape the response you give. Let’s take a look 👀That’s it for this week. Thanks again for joining us. As always if you know anyone who has a passion for coaching football or is involved in football please share using the buttons below.
