As a difficult year of coaching comes to a close we can all look ahead with hope that the vaccines that have been developed to control Covid-19 begin to work and the world of coaching looks a bit more normal.
It has been a year of educating myself during the various stages of lockdown my club has been through and helping develop my players through Zoom meetings and giving them something to do in the back yard!
I launched my podcast this time last year, totally oblivious to the problems that were developing in the world. But as ever there is no difference to how I feel about coaching and once again by the time it gets to New Year’s Day I find I’m itching to get back out on the pitch! So I read books, listen to some podcasts and generally boost my coaching knowledge sitting in the house.
It all started through a podcast with Gordon MacLelland CEO of Working With Parents in Sport and developed from there at the United Soccer Coaches convention in Baltimore and onwards through the year.
Gordon talks about how to deal with the difficulties that parents and coaches face in today’s world including:
The ‘did you win?’ question
Creating a positive culture
Meeting the parents
Getting parents involved
The car journey
Since then I have had all sorts of different coaches and experts in their field like Dan Abrahams and Tony Mee. Also I started a look at how coaching works at a club with the head coach and the goalkeeper coaches of Leatherhead YFC giving their advice on working at a grassroots club in the Touchline Tales series.
There is much more for you to read and educate yourself during the first couple of days of the New Year in the SCW Podcast section.
Here’s to a happy, fun and successful New Year – and a coronavirus free one!
In this podcast Dave Clarke talks to Tony Mee about his session in Elite Soccer aimed at developing play in the attacking third, one that coaches players to finish from balls crossed into the penalty area. Tony explains the coaching points, what to say to players and talks about good coaching practice MORE
Dave Clarke talks to sport psychologist Dan Abrahams discussing how to motivate players, social/psychological, winning/losing, working with parents and much, much more MORE
We had a meeting this week at my club, where we were discussing the changes we face in a few months time. My U10s team goes from 7v7 into 9v9 and that means we are facing offside decisions. So how does a coach go about preparing for that? MORE
As coaches we are all obsessed with keeping possession of the ball... of course we are the best teams all do it and if you've got the ball the opposition can't score. And there is just that other coach called Pep Guardiola who swears by it... MORE
Fast is a word I like to use when my teams are attacking. Do it with speed and watch the opposition shrink away from it. It makes life difficult for your opponents and helps your team to dominate when in possession of the ball. MORE
The season has suddenly taken off again after 4 months of Coronavirus lockdown. I've been coaching for 14 hours for the last two weeks in an attempt to get the players back into some kind of shape for playing matches. It has its benefits but also it has a downside. Two of my players picked up injuries, one an ankle injury and the other had what he called "tired legs". Find out how we got on... MORE
Defending against overloads can happen whether your team is in an organised or disorganised state. You can plan defending when organised much easier than when you are defending disorganised. MORE
I was talking to a coach this week about how to control balls in the air, especially when heading the ball in training is off the menu for most clubs. I imagine that there will be much more of a contest to win the ball with a volley once it has dropped from head height. So how do you coach controlling balls in the air? MORE