Our finished product - what it takes to be a great player

I think that in a job such as youth coach or teacher we must always have in mind how we want the final product to look like.

This is why a football (soccer) youth coach must ask himself: what makes a player good?

We have the 4 traditional aspects of player training: technical, physical, tactical and mental.
In my country (Romania), many times when a player is better than other players we would say something like: "he knows more football".
If we were to think about the best players in the world what sets them apart from the rest?
Technical skills - are they the most skilled? Tactical knowledge - are they the best at applying what the coach says? Physical ability - are they the most powerful, do they run the most, are they the fastest? Mental power - do they deal best with setbacks, do they motivate themselves better than others?

Of course it is a bit of these all.
Technical skill is probably the most important. A good player must be able to give great passes or take great shots. But giving a great pass is part the ability to send the ball where you want to send it and part the ability to send the ball to the right player at the right time. Taking a good shot and scoring a goal is part the ability to send the ball where you want to send it and part choosing the right moment to take the shot.
Physical abilities are important. Out of these, probably speed is the most important. But I know a few very fast players that are not very good because they do not know how to use their speed or what to do with the ball when they have it. On the other side, there are very good players that are not faster than the average professional players.
Tactics are important, but there are players that are good at respecting the tactics and yet they are not remarkable.
Mental power is important too, but again, there are many players with mental power that are not remarkable.

Off course a player needs to have a good amount of all of these to be good, but what makes a player very good is usually something else. Most of the times we call it talent, in my country we say "he knows more football", actually it means to make the right decisions.

The best players in the world are the ones that make the most right decisions on the football (soccer) field.

Horst Wein calls this Game Intelligence.

A great pass is great both because of the technical skill and of the right decision it took to make it.
A great dribble is great both because of the technical skill and of the right decision it took to make it (should I pass or dribble? in what direction to dribble? what move to choose?).
Most of the times the player doesn't have time to consciously think about all these. Yet he has to make these decisions and he does. The decisions are based on his previous experiences.

We, as coaches must ask ourselves: can this be trained or not? The answer is obvious in my opinion and we can see this with kids playing football (soccer) without a coach around. Usually the ones that play more often football are not only more skilled but also make more right decisions.

If 'game intelligence' is so important and we know that it can be trained, how do we train it? We must look at our training plans and ask ourselves: are we developing the 'game intelligence' of our players? Will our players "know more football" then other players?

Horst Wein has a book called Developing Game Intelligence in Soccer. I recommend it.

The Dutch Circle

The Dutch Circle is one my favorite warm-up activities. I want to thank my friend Florin Orga, who coaches youth in Austria, for showing me this drill.

How it's done:
Half of the kids are arranged in a circle, each of them having a ball. The other half of the kids stay in the middle of the circle.
In this set-up we can practice many technical skills.
We can have each of the players in the middle go make a short pass exchange with one of the players that form the circle. After you made a pass exchange with one player, you have to go make a pass exchange with another player that forms the circle, but not the two that are next to the one you just exchanged passes with. Of course we can require specific kinds of passes.
Also, we can have the players in the middle go take the ball from one player that forms the circle (receive a pass) and then take the ball and give it to another player that forms the circle, but not one of the two players next to the one that he received the ball from (moving with ball at his feet and then giving a short pass).
After a while change the players roles.

Why I like this drill:
(1) It involves movement. The kids in the middle of the circle have to move and it makes sense to them. The alternative would be to place the players in pairs and have them exchanging passes with the added task of running a few meters back and forth before they receive the next pass. It can work in this way too, but usually the players are not very motivated to do this and they will be kind of static. The Dutch Circle involves a lot of movement and the kids like to do it.
(2) It involves communication between the players. They have to agree verbally or non-verbally with one another before making a pass.
(3) Players have to look around and be aware of what the others are doing. They have to lookout not to bump into other players and also they have to find a player that they can take the ball to (or from).
(4) When moving the ball on the ground they have to avoid other players. This involves a lot of ball control. The kids also like the fact that they don't know in advance what moves they will be required to execute. It is more fun for them to have the 'obstacles' (the other players and their balls) coming from unexpected directions and having to avoid them.
(5) It is fun. Players like it.

How to use it most effective:
In order to have the players pay attention and also to vary the kind of skills that the players practice, the coach can give every few seconds instructions on what skill to execute next. In another post I will write more about why it is recommended to alternate the practiced skills instead of repeating the same skill over and over for a few minutes.

As you can see this is a great activity. It can be used for warm-up, but also for practicing technical skills.

Learning vs Performance

This is a very interesting topic. I have read about it in the book "Youth Soccer, form Science to Performance", written by Thomas Reilly, Dave Richardson, Gareth Stratton and Mark Williams.

Obviously, the concept of performance refers to how good one performs at a given time and the concept of learning refers to how much one is learning.

There is this very important fact that can also be applied to football (soccer) training sessions and games: what is good for performance might not be good for learning.

I will give just two simple examples:
(1) During a game the coach can give a lot of instructions telling the players all the time to whom to pass the ball or when to take a shot. This improves his team's performance, but does not help his players learn a lot. Instead of trying to find solutions on their own, they will be forced to listen to the coach.
(2) Let's say we have a U12 team. If their coach spends a lot of practice time to teach them tactics and if he teaches every player to play a single position, then their results will probably improve, but they would have lost valuable time in which their training should have concentrated more on technical skills.

I think this idea goes against the common belief that the coach of the winning team is generally the better coach. And if the players of the winning team seam to have less technical skills then even more we are tempted to say that their coach is the better one. This is often not the case.

Coaches that care too much about winning and think more about performance than about learning will not give the best possible football (soccer) education to their players.

In youth coaching learning should always come first!

Coaching youth explained - The JOB of the youth coach

The job of the youth coach is to create "the learning situation". (I have taken this idea from the book Science and Soccer edited by Thomas Reilly and Mark Williams.)

This basic idea comes even before my 3 coaching principles that I have wrote about in previous posts. I would say that the 3 principles help me in finding out the answer to the question: "how can I create good learning situations"?

I know that the sentence "The job of the youth coach is to create learning situations" seems so obvious that you might say that it doesn't deserve special attention, but I disagree.

All coaches have a number of drills and games that they like to use. Of course it is important to have a good collection of drills, but in today's world, with so much access to information, most coaches have good drills. Does this mean that all coaches are good? No.

Besides having good drills one must know what feedback to give, when to give it and how. This is a big factor that makes the difference between coaches. But besides this, I believe that many of them are not good enough because they do not give enough attention to creating the right learning situation.

There are two ways in which a coach can go wrong just by not placing enough emphasis on this basic concept of creating the learning situation: first by not choosing the right drills for his players and, second, by not adjusting the drills for his players level (distances, density of players, difficulty of tasks, etc).

There is no recipe in developing a player. There are guidelines, but no recipe. Each person is different, each player has different qualities, each group of players has a different dynamic.

A youth coach can have knowledge and can have a good collection of drills and games in his book, but it is not enough. He might also have a well defined model of player development in his mind, which might be a very good model or a 'not so good' model. He might be very good at giving feedback. But he can still fail if he doesn't give enough attention to this one concept: "the learning situation".

We should ask ourselves: "am I creating enough learning situations for my players?"

Relay for basic ball control with head up

This is a drill that I have first seen in a textbook of the Italian Football Federation. It is a variation of one of the most basic soccer drills.

This can be done with 3 players and a ball. It is a simple relay.
Have player 'A' standing without a ball and two players 'B' and 'C' facing him at some distance away. Player 'B' has a ball and has to bring the ball to player 'A'. At the same time player 'A' shows different numbers of fingers. Player 'B' has to look up while controlling the ball and say what number player 'A' is showing. When 'B' reaches player 'A', it starts again, this time with player 'A' running with the ball towards player 'C' that will show him different numbers.

I'm not a big fan of relays but I know other coaches use them a lot. Even if I have my favorite types of activities, I will post on the blog activities of all types. I know that even if I might not like a drill other coaches could find it very useful.

The reason for which I am not a big fan of relays (and many other drills) is that they straitjacket the kids. Isn't it enough that they have to stay in their bench in school all day? Don't get me wrong, I know that relays can be fun, specially if you turn them into a competition, but I think we should use them sparingly.

I have to admit that for some purposes relays could be the best way to develop the players.

To better understand why I consider this a very good relay I invite you to read (again) my previous post, about the principle of bicycle learning wheels.

My third rule for developing players

A few principles should be at the core of one's training system. I use three principles (or rules).

If you haven't read my previous two posts, please do. I talk there about my first two principles of developing good football (soccer) players.

This third principle is my favorite one. I know that many of you will like it too. We could call it: the principle of the bicycle learning wheels.

The idea is to teach someone to do something without him even realizing that he is learning it. You give a kid a bike with learning wheels and let him ride it for fun, from time to time you put the learning wheels a bit higher and after a while the kid will be able to ride the bike without the learning wheels. And it was fun all the way!

In the old days of street soccer this is how everyone learned to play soccer. And it was so much fun!

How to incorporate this principle in football (soccer) coaching? I will give just an example: instead of always giving your players indications, in practice and in games, to keep their heads up when they have the ball, why not use a practice game or drill that makes them keep their head up. My following post will give an example of such a drill. Use such a drill a few times and they will get into the habit of having their head up.

Me second rule for developing players

One short observation: as the title says, these rules are just the ones that I use and you may agree or not agree. If you do not agree on them and have other ideas I would be glad if you shared your ideas with me.

While I think that there can never be a universally accepted set of "rules" or principles for coaching football (soccer), I also think that every coach should have his well defined philosophy based on a few principles.

In the previous post I talk about my first principle of developing good players: have them play with better players or at least with other good players. The level of play that you can offer him dictates the level he will reach.

My second principle for developing football (soccer) players is: offer them as much time on the ball as possible.

I am saying "time on the ball", but actually it can go for everything: it is important to have them involved in the action as much as possible. Having to fight for the ball, trying to disposes an opponent, trying to find some space to receive the ball, trying to close down some space when in defence, having to sprint for the ball or to change direction - all of these are important too.

In adult football (soccer) each player is "on the ball" only around 2% of the time. The rest of 98% is played without the ball. The way a player knows to play when he is off the ball is very important, but still we all know that if a player is not good with the ball then he will, most probably, not be a good enough player. I think that it is almost impossible to compensate for being weak on the ball with the "off the ball" play. There might be exceptions on some central defenders, but even those are required more and more to have good ball skills.

While the general idea of having the players involved in the action as much as possible is true and important, I consider that particularly the "time on the ball" is the best indicator of a good practice, specially in youth coaching.

From this principle come 3 ideas that many coaches use in their practices:
First, do as much as possible of the session using balls.
Second, have a ball for every player.
Third, use many small sided games or activities where there is a good ball/player ratio.

The first rule about developing football(soccer) players

I am a big Arsenal fan and Arsene Wenger is my favorite coach. A few years ago I heard Wenger say that the first thing you need to do with a player if you want him to improve his level is to offer him the opportunity to play against better players.

One of the principles of sports training theory is that of adaptation. This principle is a good argument for what Wenger said. By having the player play against better players you force him to adapt. Off course, the difference between the level of the player and that of the 'better players' mustn't be to big, or else he won't be able to adapt and might also lose confidence in himself.

If we were to look from a different angle at what Wenger said, we could say that the level of a player is influenced (and sometimes even dictated) by the level of his team-mates and by that of his opponents.

It seems to me that many youth coaches tend not to take this reality in consideration and I will explain why.
First, most coaches are glad if their opponents are weak - this is because they want victories too bad.
And second, many coaches tend to offer little attention to the weaker players in their team. Most of the times they concentrate their efforts on the players 'that have a chance to make it'.

When judging the chances that we have of developing a good football(soccer) player we must always ask ourselves: what is the level of competition that I can offer him?