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.
In Getting Parents Onside Gordon talks about
Gordon talks about how to deal with the difficulties that parents and coaches face in today’s world including:
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 Coaching Classroom, Email newsletters
It is a very difficult time to be coaching our players around the world. So to help you I have created the Coaching Classroom where you can download lessons to give to your players online. Here I have focused on Compactness and Penetration MORE
in Ball Control and Footwork, Email newsletters
I was out walking on the local golf course where I live this week and in the distance I saw a child running from what seemed miles away at top speed. As the child got closer I realised that it was someone dribbling a ball. Of course on the fairways it was like being at Wembley on a well cared for football pitch! It was great to see a child enjoying dribbling a ball, chipping over the bunkers and swerving around the patches of heather that catch out an unwary golfer. MORE
in Email newsletters, Tips and advice
At the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention yesterday I was in the presentation by Dan Abrahams on performance of your team with well being in mind. He explored three environmental approaches and combines them to help you establish a healthy and safe coaching environment for players of all ages and levels. MORE
in Email newsletters, Psychology
I'm usually high up in the sky on my way to the United Soccer Coaches convention in America at this time of the year – last year I was at the convention in Baltimore and there was loads of coaching education on offer. Yet it is still exciting to be entering the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention 2021 on my computer in the home office. MORE
in Ball Control and Footwork, Email newsletters
Turning with the ball has always been a skill that draws names from the great players through the ages – think of the Cruff turn or Zidane spin turn. It used to make me wonder how players like Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Zinedine Zidane or Johan Cruyff could turn their opponents inside out, game after game – I now know it needs practice and from a young age. MORE
in Email newsletters, Small Sided Games
One of the ways to improve your team in 2021 is to get them communicating on the pitch. Players do this by verbal and non verbal actions, like pointing where they want a ball to be passed or calling for the ball when overlapping from behind like a fullback running outside a winger. MORE
