What went well?

Inter Centre tournament - Friday 21st Sept - Under 10's + Under 11's

Traditionally these have been the usual 8 v 8 inter Development Centre games - However we decidied to try a different approach for this session. The pitches were arranged with 8 x 4 v 4 games - including the goal game, The line game - the 4 goal game and the cone goal game.

Instead of playing the respective centres against each other we decided to mix the players up and thus enable our coaches to evaluate the abilities of the players on display, not who was winning or which centre they represented.

To further supplement this parents were given sheets to record how many touches a selected player (not their son) managed in each of the games

The evening proved to be an immense success - a summary of the findings is shown below:
The positives:
1. Number of touches per player off the scale
2. Player social development excellent - took them no time to integrate with other palyers they didn't know
3. Player problem solving - more dynamic - sustained exposure to specific problems e.g 3 v 4 enables more experimentation and thus more success and refined problem solving
4. This approach enables coaches to concentrate on player evaluation , not on team performance - Personally I thought this element was a revelation, I found myself completely absorbed by the talents and the potential talents on display . As we were looking for outstanding players I spent very little time evaluating errors or poor performance - can't believe how much I learnt about the new intake at our new centre
5. Greater integration from the coaches
6. The approach is player focused
7. Kids loved it - everyone scored at least 1 goal - not bad with 60+ kids
8. Game Structure - created a positive environment
9. Parent observations
10. All coaching interventions were re-inforcements of positive actions - no negative feedback, this has to be good for player development

Areas for improvement
1. Identify the team sheets before we arrive at the venue
2. Get the kids at the venue 15 mins earlier e.g. 45 mins before kick off -more time to get the kids ready
3. 1 of the vulnerabilities of the approach is that it does not encourage an expansive game - play is dominated by short passing and dribbling - Thus the balance between 4v4 and 8v8 is a necessity
4. Make the parental contribution more systemised

Overall
I thoroughly enjoyed the evening great watching football in its purest form, we will use 1 of the 2 games per 6 week block in this form and the other for conventional 8v8 format

I don't get this?

under 11 - 17 children - 17th September 2007

The purpose of this session was recieving to pass or shoot. General overview of the session was very positive, 6 individual interventions during the session, immensely influenced by the Skillful neglect approach. The kids now demonstrate much deeper understanding when answering the questions. The drills were predominantly 4 v 4 based games with lots of opportunity to pass or shoot.

However when explaining 1 of the new drills 1 of the kids shouted, I don't get this? Interestingly he quite often shouts this prior to a new drill starting. This has enlightened me in a number of ways:

1. I've resorted to instructing the kids rather than showing a picture and letting them experience the drill before starting it i.e. I'm only helping the kids who favour auditory learning thus not helping the visual or the kinistetic learners - Ill rectify this next session

2. The lad who frequently shouts I don't get this is a Kinistetic learner i.e. He needs to experience the session before he can understand what is expeected of him

I'm sure he's not the only 1 but he's the 1 who is prepared to tell me - more learning for me

warm ups?

September 10th - Under 13's - 16 children

A good session, utilising the 4 v 4 + 4 approach. The session centred on the players ability to undertake fast transitions from defence to attack. Session quality high, understanding of subject matter , high when tested during and after the session.

Since the course in July I have given much consideration to the content from the Sports Scientisit elements of the course - particularly the SAQ. I have chosen to adddress these issues with all ball based exercises. During this session our warm up comprised of numerous decision making exercises concluding in an aerobic ball based exercise.

The other realisation from this type of approach has been that the text book prescription of an ldeal session is a linear progression from warm up to end. I now approach the warm up as the time to prepare the body and the mind - so lots of gentle aerobic work coupled with high dexterity decision based drills- Hence many of my warm ups are not directly related to the session.

Old habits die hard?

Under 11's - transition from defence to attack

A good session tonight, The format of the sessions have become more centred on the 4 corners of player development, with considerably more emphasis on enabling decisions via the design of drills, even within the warm up every opportunity is utilised to exercise a players decision making options.

Our warm ups have more emphasis on preparing the player to train, rather than the traditional mantra of ensuring a linear progression throughout the session

Very noticable tonight some of the players had delayed responses when possession changed - Post session the group have been asked to work on this singular component when training with their club teams

I felt tonight at certain stages of the session I was looking for what went wrong rather than encouraging what went well. This seems to have been fuelled by a level of frustration caused by the delayed transition responses. Good lessons learnt tonight - I'll work on this in the next session

On the plus side the questioning methods are now fully accepted by the players, they now take that as the norm, we rarely get the throw away cliched answers such as "PASSING" etc

Went to se Barcelona beat Inter last week - what a team - great to watch always entertaining