I’ve got the coaching feeling back.
One thing I’ve experienced this past year and a half is going after your dream is not straightforward. Sometimes you can stray and become sidetracked with things that are not important. That’s where I give thanks to the masterclass event held by the London Football Coaches Association I recently attended, with guest speaker John Cartwright for putting me back on track.
I’m on the verge of being able to create something close to the perfect environment that the coaching family on twitter wants to see. A club run from scratch that will create a positive, fun learning environment for kids and also coaches.
Right now it is at an infant stage in terms of getting up and running, however Continue reading
England’s recent failings at all levels this summer has caused more concern from English football fans about the amount of quality players we are producing for our national team. Fingers have been pointed at The FA, Premier League, coaches of grassroots and others.
However we all have to take some blame for this.
The FA have started to make changes; the change of format to the grassroots game and the appointment of three good coaches to head up youth development in the country. The Premier League has the power to do what it wants and our voices are unlikely to be heard when the FA can’t influence the Premier League to make positive changes.
So what are YOU, the people working at grassroots level, doing to create change to our football in England? Continue reading
It has been a busy year!
For those that don’t know, I left grassroots football in September to finish my last year of University studying Economics. Luckily enough I was able to get the coaching role for the Women’s second team at my University through the use of Twitter. Those two combined have been the reason for my lack of activity on the blog, but that’ll change from now on because I have officially finished University! I’ll be going through my future plans in another blog post but I’m going to use this post to share my experiences of coaching this year.
I’ve only been involved in coaching kids, but I’ve always wanted to test myself with adults and there was a different kind of pressure this past eight months. Results are Continue reading
Ferguson-Guardiola: Definitely have a coaching philosophy
A coaching philosophy. What is it? Why do we even need one?
Here’s a definition I found of a coaching philosophy that brings it down to what it’s really about:
An attitude held by a coach that acts as the guiding principle for the training and development of an athlete or team.
The words that jump out at me are ‘attitude’ and ‘guiding principle’. It has to be a collection of ideas that determine everything you do as a coach; from how you handle situations you face with your players and parents to how you want your team to train and play. A coaching philosophy should give an insight into how you are as a person and a coach.
The benefits of having a coaching philosophy will Continue reading
Is this an underused piece of equipment at Grassroots Level?
Is this a part of your coaching equipment?
We see professional managers and coaches using a tactics board on a regular basis to explain what they want from their team. So why can’t we use it?
We as coaches of grassroots teams may not need to go into the same tactical depth as professional managers. However as a visual aid for Continue reading
Never waste a moment to develop your players’ understanding of a topic. Too many coaches are not extracting the maximum learning potential of a match situation. Treat a match like a training session.
It’s pre-season and in the last 2 weeks I’ve started working on the defensive side of the game with the U15’s boys team; more specifically the topic of pressing and dropping. Before I leave for University in a few weeks, my aim is to help players understand the basic mechanics of pressing and dropping; both individually and as a team. It is near impossible that they Continue reading
Hello fellow coaches!
Hope you’re all well. Thought I would update you on where I’m at in my coaching career as there have been some significant developments.
Last June I decided to take a gap year from University to pursue a career in coaching. Exactly a year later and I’ve surpassed my expectations. In this year, I have passed my Level 1 and 2 qualifications. I work for a coaching company and deliver football sessions in primary schools and also assist other coaches in PE lessons. I’ve also attended CPD events Continue reading
Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you need to improve as a coach?
These are the kind of questions that you need to ask yourself on a regular basis. Self analysis is very important if you are serious about improving as a coach. Evaluating your performance in the session and the session itself is a great way of finding out your strengths and weaknesses.
However, it is also important to find out what other people think of your coaching style and your sessions. The players you coach and other coaches that assist you may see things differently to how you see them. The players Continue reading
Experimentation – something more coaches should be doing.
Yesterday I decided to experiment with my session and allowed the kids (11 year olds) to do whatever they wanted for the first 10 minutes of the session. I gave no direction and merely pointed to the fact they could use whatever equipment (Balls, Bibs and Cones) they wanted.
The aim of this experiment was to Continue reading
Rise of the Coach 