CoachingFootball

50 games a year with 33% being against a more challenging opponent, 33% against a like-for-like opponent and 33% against an opponent you’re stronger than. The games program then takes on a varied approach too where some games are heavily learning focused. Training / playing / ball work almost daily (a healthy mix)… doesn’t all have to be club structured but more and more the opportunity a youth player has to “play” and the amount of distractions or limited education on what a player can be doing with a ball and themselves mean that can’t magically just happen to most.

10 questions I ask myself about my own behaviour on the touchline. For years, I copied what I saw, the gestures, the intensity, the constant stream of instruction. If it was good enough for the Premier League, it was good enough for a Sunday morning under-10s. It took me a long time to realise the most important difference. ➥ Those are adults, and mine are children. Everything I show on that touchline, every reaction, every expression, every word, has the potential to shape how a child experiences football. Whether they stay in the game or whether they trust themselves on the ball. Over the years, I started asking players directly what they wanted from me on the sideline. Across different age groups, the feedback was remarkably consistent. They wanted calm, they wanted space to make decisions, and they didn't want the shouting. That feedback, combined with my own reflection and my coaching education, changed how I showed up. These are the ten questions I now ask myself 👇

I didn’t get better as a coach just by turning up every week. For a long time, I told myself I was improving because I’d been doing it for years. Sessions ran smoothly, the cones were set out, the time was managed, the children enjoyed it. On the surface, everything looked right, but if I’m honest, I wasn’t really coaching. • I was organising. • I was coordinating activities. • I was getting through the hour. What I wasn’t doing was thinking deeply about what the players were actually learning. I wasn’t asking: • What do I want them to leave with today? • What am I trying to improve in my own coaching? • What am I avoiding because I’m not confident in it? That shift didn’t come from more experience, it came from a decision, a deliberate one. To stop treating coaching as something I just do, and start treating it like something I’m trying to get better at. That meant asking uncomfortable questions. • Watching myself more closely. • Listening to others who saw the game differently. • Trying things that didn’t always work. Slowly, things changed, not overnight, not dramatically but gradually. Yes, experience matters, of course it does, but experience without reflection just repeats itself. It’s the cycle that makes the difference: Try → reflect → adjust → go again. That’s where and when I felt I began developing as a coach. The moment you become intentional about your own development, is usually the moment your players start feeling the difference.

Foundation phase ideas 👇🧵 Individual → small units → game Simple structure. Lots of repetition. Deliberate play. Players learn through the game. Set problems to solve. See exploration as progress.

"I don't have time to develop as a coach." Every coach says it. Most of them are wrong. Here's what development actually looks like depending on the time you have. 👇

If you copy other coaches' drills, you're copying their coaching points, too. He's solving his team's problems. Your team has different ones. If you start with the game (with your problems), you know exactly what to coach (improve). And you don't need to remember coaching points.

【体の向きは「作る」もの？それとも「結果」？】 まず「良い体の向きを作る」ことで、 ・視野を広く持ちやすい ・ボールを受けやすい ・判断もしやすい などのように、プレーしやすくなることは多い。 ただ、ここには少し注意点がある。 ⸻ ボールと次のプレーで向かう方向の両方が見える位置に体を向けるのが、正しいプレーです。 体の向きは、次にどういうプレーをするかという決断の表れ。 【ダビド・ビジャのサッカー講座】 ⸻ つまり、良い体の向きは「作る」というより、 「次にどこにボールを届けたいかを考えた結果として、自然に現れるもの」 という認識を基本にした方がいいように感じる。 なぜなら、 手段が目的化してしまう可能性があるから。 例えば、 良い体の向きを作るために、 ボール保持者に対して斜めに立ったとする。 確かにそれによって 視野は広がり、プレーもしやすくなる時もある。 ただ状況によっては、自分が動いたことで 味方のパスコースやスペースを消してしまうことも少なくない。 サッカーは 「自分が受けた方がいい」時もあれば 「味方に受けさせた方がいい」時もある。 だからこそ、 「良い体の向き」を作ることを目的にするのではなく、 「どこにボールを届けたいのか？」 という行き先を先に設定し、 それによって自然と決まる状態を基本にした方が良さそう。 これは展望台で見たい景色（場所）が決まれば、 自然と体の向きや立ち位置を微調整する感覚と一緒。 体の向きは、 次にどういうプレーをしたいかによって、全く変わる⚽️

🚫 Most coaches waste time on formations instead of teaching players HOW to find space. A kid with elite positioning sense beats a kid with elite pace every single time. Teach movement patterns. Teach angles. Teach decision-making. What's your biggest coaching gap right now?

Ball mastery doesn’t just improve technique — it improves decision-making. The more comfortable a player is on the ball, the more options they can see and execute under pressure. Poor technique limits decisions. Strong technique expands them. That’s why time on the ball isn’t separate from the game — it’s what allows players to solve it.

💯 20 Coaching Essentials

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles from education that can be applied to coaching. Multiple means of engagement, representation and expression. A short 🧵 @JPSoccerCoach @power_ray @coach_kevin_m @cutinside @_ToddBeane

I never understood the obsession with collecting drills. If you need 500 drills, you don’t have a training philosophy—you have a playlist.

⚽ Salida de balón del Manchester City. Diseña tareas tácticas como esta con una de las pizarras tácticas más profesionales y valoradas por entrenadores. Crea ejercicios, anima movimientos y organiza toda tu metodología 👇 👉 protacticalboard.com

Good coaching isn’t about covering everything. It’s about fixing the right things at the right time.

Sleep quality and duration drives our appetite, mood, focus, concentration, health, recovery and overall performance! 📊 70% of high school athletes are not getting enough sleep. ⚠️ Student-athletes who regularly sleep < 8 hours per night are 1.7× more likely to get injured and fatigue faster. Meanwhile, the pros do the opposite. They sleep more, not less because recovery, hormones, strength, focus, and injury prevention depend on it. 👉 Testosterone, growth hormone, muscle repair, and brain recovery are all driven by sleep. You cannot out-train poor sleep. And this doesn’t just apply to athletesadults need it too. Many adults crave sugary foods high in kcal but low in nutrition to "focus". A simple rule to live by: Never stay up late for something you wouldn’t wake up early for. If you want to understand: • How much sleep student-athletes actually need • Why sleep deprivation sabotages performance and health • What parents and athletes can do now Read the full breakdown ⬇️ 🔗 nutritionwithwendi.com/blog/how-much-…

In a study of English soccer coaches, researchers found coaches went against their training and were likely to be prescriptive with less effective skill-drills. Their reason why was: 1. Lack of space 2. Trusting experience more than research findings 3. To keep doing what worked in the past 4. Needed to mimic the training of the 1st team to appear competent

Kids crave the freedom to move. Adults crave structure. The best learning environments accommodate both. Create directed activities with freedom so we aren’t limiting the wrong things.

Connect these four activities together to create a full session. Two small sided games linked to playing forward and creating overloads. A larger numbers game linked to rotational movements and playing wide. Finally the infinite build up game that connects playing out, midfield build and creating/finishing in the final third. Created with @SSPlanner

🔥 New Release to Start the Week: 3 Phase Clinical Finishing! Key Coaching Points: 🔵 Focus on finishing technique 🔵 Read GK positioning 🔵 Show disguise with eyes and body shape 🔵 Speed and timing of movement 🔵 Quality of set 🔵 Crossing delivery accuracy and pace

Study the angles of play available to a football player.