During your session planning design, how much consideration do you give to the direction of the practice or how many defenders you have? What moment of the game do you want to focus on, within your training structure? Your players currently take part in the game on a regular basis and will know that there is always 2 goals used, for the game to be universally correct. There are also opponents present, lines on the field and 1 ball used.
On the training pitch, coaches all over the world will be planning lots of different practices with a huge variety of outcomes. If you were to view another coach at work, you would probably see something, from the list below;
Children in lines – Players lining up with/without a football, waiting for their turn to have a go at a certain exercise, possibly kicking the ball at the goal.
1 ball, 1 player – Typical on the continent and with many academy set ups in the UK. Players might move around with the ball, executing a given movement with a certain name. The ‘Maradona’ turn or the ‘Ronaldo’ chop for example.
Kicking exercise – This is usually at the discretion of the coach and he/she would intrust the players where they need to kick the ball. There would also be no opposition in this exercise, meaning you would just be kicking and not passing.
Passing exercise – In this exercise you would be passing the ball to a team mate, with opposition players in close proximity. This could look like a typical typical, ‘Rondo’.
Position game – The position exercise is an opportunity for players to execute actions, that could be familiarised with that certain role. Using this practice would have goals in play, meaning it is directional.
Possession game – In this exercise you would use no goals, so beware of the behaviour you will be conditioning. The objective would just be about keeping possession of the ball as an individual or team.
Tactical game – This would be used for the largest format you would have available and be best fit, in order to refine the communication of the team. Goals would be needed as you would be replicating the closest part of the game.
While there could be another method that a coach could use, the above summarises a number of exercises that could quite possibly be seen.
Now, within each session there has to be some kind of objective that you wish to achieve. Using different exercises is merely a tool, to help you the coach and your players, in understanding where competencies lie.
If you use the small steps listed below, you will see that you can identify the key areas that you may need, in order to reach success.
Football – 11 v 11, 9 v 9, 7 v 7 or 5 v 5
Team function – Attacking, transitioning (to defence), defending & transitioning (to attack)
Team task – Building up, creating goalscoring opportunities, disrupting the build up & preventing goalscoring opportunities
Football actions – Passing, pressing, running with the ball and intercepting etc….
You have the game and the format that your players compete in
There will be a certain function that you wish to focus on. This will be dictated by the ball and which moment of the game that it is
When you have/don’t have the ball, you will then be participating in a certain task
Finally, there will be football actions to execute the above intentions
The power of zooming out completely and looking at the game as a starting point, could help you in identifying exactly what you want to work on. Zooming in and specifically looking at a player first, will lead you down a pathway that maybe be confusing, as you won’t be coaching a specific part of the game, more what a player may do.
Next week, we will look at tools you could use, when zooming into the training session structure.
To begin the process of sharing my thoughts on a number of different areas within shirt collecting, I feel it’s right to start on how my own collection started.
Exploring social media and reflecting on my own journey, it’s apparent that a visit to a city or town, is a good enough reason to purchase a shirt. You may also acquire one through a recommendation or even just because you like a certain pattern. The possibilities here are endless and are exclusive to that respective person.
For me, there have been a number of factors, to now start buying shirts on a frequent basis;
Previous experiences – Growing up watching Serie A was where my love for the Italian culture came from, where as my obsession for football in general would come from a Sunday morning. Match of the Day was on far too late when I was a child, so my father would record the programme on VHS, with me watching it first thing on a Sunday morning. The only opportunity for me to watch football from a South American viewpoint was the occasional viewing on a programme called, Trans World Sport. There was of course the World Cup’s, with my earliest memory being 1994, with 1998 being extremely fresh in my brain as we speak.
Club visits – As a full time football coach, I’ve had the opportunity to visit many professional clubs across the world. These vary from non – league clubs in Spain to top clubs in Germany. In between and along the journey, I’ve worked across the globe, interacting with many different players. Photo’s obviously work well at preserving memories, but so do shirts. With each visit I’ve had, I’ve always tried to purchase a shirt as a keep sake.
Work – I currently own a football coaching company and one of my main jobs, is to educate players from a young age, all the way through to senior football. I’ve used various ways of doing this, with a new concept coming this summer. I’ll be taking children ‘back in time’, to educate them on some of the greatest players, games, tournaments, moments and of course kits! I’ve recognised that there is a strong emphasis on the present, with everyone knowing about Messi and Ronaldo, but you rarely hear about Zidane or Cruyff. So, I’ve now taken it upon myself, to take everyone on a journey and will need more shirts to help me with this.
General interest – Being a lover of all things football, shirts are just a small part of what brings me joy. I also own many programmes, scarves, magazines and pictures. Most recently, I won some signed cards from the 90’s as well as securing some 1996 Panini stickers from my beloved, QPR. This could be something small for someone else, but the memories it brings, is a huge welcome.
While there could be many other reasons to start collecting, I decided that those 4 were the foundations of where I am now. The next question is, where does this burning desire come from, to keep spending money?
Knowing a little bit about science and how the brain operates, I can usually tell when something takes my interest. I look across pictures, photos and sales adverts, burning away my time, in search for that huge dopamine hit. This hormone is key, in a lot of things we as humans use in making a decision.
For example – Like it or not, I don’t get any satisfaction in looking at a Real Madrid shirt. After reflecting, I know it is due to the very plain colour scheme, with not much going on. I’ve been fortunate to visit the club within a coaching capacity and love everything they do for the sport, but for the shirt, it’s a no from me.
Now, if I take a shirt with a number of bright colours on and a very alternative design, this catches my attention almost immediately. This is apparent in what I own and when I’m also browsing websites, who display pages upon pages of offers.
So, if the colour and patterns ignite that desire, what’s next for me? Do I have a positive affiliation with this club? Can I see myself wearing it? Does it bring back any positive experiences from my childhood?
While I don’t always answer those questions with a ‘yes’, I usually get an internal feeling that pushes my decision further. As humans we have to evolve everyday and we go through thousands of decision’s each day. This process (consciously or unconsciously) will get to a certain threshold, where you’ll act on something, or you simply won’t.
One of the contributing factors for me here, after I’ve identified the shirt, is looking at the financial commitment it will take to secure it. The decision is nearly made and once it’s done (by the click of a few buttons), I receive this large dopamine hit and the shirt is on it’s way…..
While this hobby could turn into some form of problem (look up shopping addictions), it’s vitally important that we all don’t keep chasing the next purchase and instead, reflect and be grateful for what we have in our possession.
Next week, I’m going to share my thoughts on a large part of shirt collecting, the finances!
Before I start blogging, it’s important I introduce myself. I’m a football coach by profession and by looking through my website (that you’re currently on), you’ll be able to follow my journey to date.
I only actively started purchasing shirts in recent months, as previously I’d have been collecting unconsciously and slowly building a cluster of different shirts. On my travels with work, I’ve been lucky enough to visit many countries (too many to name here) and visit some of the worlds top clubs. On these trips I picked up some shirts as you do and put them away, upon my return. Fast forward to 2022 and an impromptu clear out at home, I soon realised I had a few in my possession.
Alongside coaching on a daily basis, I organise a variety of football courses throughout the year, where children come to me and learn about various parts of the game. This coming summer I had a new idea that I wanted to launch (details to be released soon) and I needed more football shirts. My next steps after this were opening an account on twitter and to also start searching for any bargains I could find, via eBay.
I’m now into my 2nd month, of officially collecting and I’ve bought some excellent pieces, that I’m now pleased to own. Many are classic items that I remember from childhood, with others ticking the ‘like’ box. One thing I have learnt in the last few months though, is that there is obviously a lot available on the market, so you have to know in what direction you wish to go!
While this intro is only brief, I will now be blogging regularly, with weekly articles. These will mainly be about collecting, but also some lessons I’ve learnt already. There are many connections between football coaching and buying shirts (this may seem very strange to you), but I will start explaining my reasoning for this, from next week!
Please give me a follow on Twitter @AscotFooty and feel free to give me any feedback on my blog posts!
How often do you evaluate? Throughout your everyday life, you execute millions of decisions – a lot of which are unconscious – to progress throughout your day. During your work place you will be given tasks to complete, with some needing to be completed by a certain deadline. When you arrive home, the choices down’t stop there, with more tasks required to complete your day. While you wouldn’t be expected to sit down and evaluate what you had for dinner, the process itself can be very rewarding.
You currently manage/coach a team and all the players within this squad are looking to you for direction, guidance and inspiration. Throughout the week, you probably host a minimum of 1 training session, as well as a game. The question now is, how much of this process do you evaluate?
Evaluations could come across as tedious, but if done in the right way, they can be very effective and give you a solid foundation for the future.
A few areas of evaluation you could consider, are;
Preparation – Did you correctly analyse your current situation and plan as well as you could? We’re the players prepared accordingly?
During practice/game play – Once the players are taking part in their task, there will be lots of things happening. So much so, you probably wouldn’t be able to view everything in front of you. The ability to think ‘in’ action, is very tricky. One tip – focus on what you can control and divert attention away from what you can’t.
Your coaching actions – Your communication (verbal/non-verbal), is pivotal in starting off this process. Once you display certain types of communication, the receivers will attempt to understand what is requested of them.
The responses you observed from the squad – When the players step back into the competitive arena, you should take a step back and observe competency levels. Without reviewing this, you won’t be able to know if the players understand, what you have requested.
While this list isn’t exclusive, there are many other areas that can impact the outcomes of what you set out to do.
To ensure your evaluation is as accurate as possible, did you take the previous steps into consideration, previously?
Planning – Were your intentions aligned with the team objective and that of the players?
Information – Was the information you delivered, objective and accurate?
External factors – While you can’t control these, did you at least consider them?
One error a lot of coaches and managers make, is that they evaluate what the players did and the actions they executed.
“Why didn’t you get closer to your opponent?”
“ He was available for a pass, did you not see him?”
“How did you miss?”
This approach is wrong, because you can’t control the decisions of the players as they only contribute to the overall team intention.
The evaluation process, should begin at what information was delivered BEFORE the activity took place and how it was delivered. By doing this, you are reflecting on your own performance first and not that of the team. Your the coach, you make the decisions, so surely you should be evaluated first??
An evaluation of anything can be tricky and most certainly a challenge, as you are putting yourself in a position, where you have to basically admit, that something could be better. You executed the choice first, so now you’re trying to see if you’re incompetent in this area.
One way you can do this, is by reverse engineering a situation and this is what we will look at from next week, in the next coaching blog!
During your coaching journey, you will probably encounter some challenges very early on. Whether you deal with these yourself or seek advice, is clearly down to you. After this, a few months pass and again, you encounter further challenges. This time, you feel you have matured and gained more experience, but you still don’t have a clear solution to solve the issues you have.
What can do you?
Look online for answers
Try and solve the situation in practical terms
Leave the situation and try to ignore it, in the hope it passes
Have someone who can help you and guide you to a more objective solution
The list could go on, but to get to my point across, it’s clear to see that you can either go about things on your own or, have a mentor who can help you.
Before we go any further, it’s important to know that a mentor isn’t in place to give you all the answers or to be the ‘phone call’ away, with the solution that you need. These people are in place to help you learn, by asking you questions, in order for you to get to the objective you so need. If you don’t understand, then maybe your mentor has to ask clearer and more precise questions.
In 2016, I began a new journey and tried to find a mentor, who could help me progress as a person and a coach. I stumbled across a Dutch educator, called Raymond Verhejien, who from the Netherlands, has an outstanding CV. He has worked on the worlds biggest stage, with the largest clubs and in the biggest competitions. He was available, so surely I had to take the opportunity? It’s now 2022 and I’m coming to the end of my 6th year with Raymond as my mentor. Would I have changed any part of this process? No. Am I glad that I took this route, 6 years ago? Without a doubt, yes!
Over the course of the last 6 years, I’ve learnt;
That being in extremely uncomfortable situations, at the time feels horrendous, but in the long run, it improves you massively
Never assume that a job is complete. There will always be parts to improve, just look harder
Value objectivity over subjectivity, everyday of the week
You can see football in an extremely different way, if you zoom out, remove emotion and try to understand the processes that are taking place
Having a mentor to support me along my journey, doesn’t give me the confidence that I have someone behind me, with all the answers – it has made me feel that, I have someone watching (with good intentions), who will push me and try to guide me to the answer I need
You have to create your own opportunities
Standard coach education does’t seem to push you, to the absolute limits. I’ve had someone in place who has never lowered the bar and has always encouraged me to keep trying
If something is challenging, don’t take it personally. You need more time to improve your football references, so in time, this would probably help you
Venturing into the unknown (a new culture or a top professional football club) is the best thing for you, as it will expose your incompetencies extremely quickly
You won’t always have someone who can watch over you in the times of failure. Learn to deal with these situations yourself
There have been many other moments that I feel I could share, but I don’t want to take away from the fact that quantity over quality, is best practice. Throughout the last 6 years there has been many ups and downs, with thoughts to quit in my thinking, on more than 1 occasion. The best thing to do in these situations, is to look back on how far you’ve come in your journey and, will you regret this in the future? These answers usually lead you to the better decisions…..
Starting in July, 2022, is the 3rd (new improved) edition of the Park to Pro coach mentorship programme. While I don’t profess to know all of the answers, I do feel I have firm foundations, to deliver an objective development programme, that will improve you as a coach and person.
Are you stuck at your own glass ceiling? ‘Lost’ with what to do next? Or, do you just want to improve your football ‘toolbox’?
With a very competitive cost, access to content you may not of seen previously and the opportunity to learn more about yourself, this programme may just be the pathway you’ve been looking for.
I was very cautious 6 years ago, but I now know it was one of the best decisions I’ve made and has improved me massively. Consider where you want to go and what you need to do, to get there? Our coach mentorship programme will be able to assist you, in reaching your personal improvement goals and who knows….you could find yourself in a much better position in 6 years time.
For details on the 2022/23 edition, please email adam@parktopro.com
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