Student of the Game Issue 14 - November 2014

@SOTGMAGAZINE WWW.STUDENTOFTHEGAME.CO.UK

OF THE GAMESTUDENT

DEVELOPING GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL SINCE 2012

ISSUE 14 NOVEMBER 2014

WITH THANKS TO OUR OFFICIAL PARTNERS: SPORTSESSIONPLANNER.COM AND INSPIREFOOTBALLCOACHING.COM

THE LEGACY OF

THE NEW ZEA;AND

ALL BLACKS

DEVELOPING

A COACHING

CULTURE

INSIDE WELLINGTON

PHOENIX FC

THE ART OF

WHOLE PART

WHOLE

BOOK REVIEW

UNIVERSALITY

14FANTASTIC

TRAINING

SESSIONS

Ann PetersenVISIT WWW.JUSTGIVING.COM/2014IN2014 AND DONATE

MORE INFORMATION ON PAGE 54

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08 the art of whole-part-whole

14 the all blacks legacy

20 creating a coaching culture

CONTENTS:

FEATURES REGULARS10 wellington phoenix fc

12 in the spotlight: jess ibrom

30 between the posts

5STUDENTOFTHEGAME.CO.UK

SESSION PLANS SOTG EXTRA:

COVER

24 switching play

26 individual awareness

26 intercepting passes

27 individual defending

27 retreating defense

32 book review: universality by matthew whitehouse

33 twitter this month

33 my team.com

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In this issue we bring to you the inside story of Wellington Phoenix FC Academy and interview the academies head coach, Jess Ibrom.

We also take a look at what football can learn from the New Zealand All Blacks and get an inside perspective from Steve Dillon on the Auckland Football Coaches Network and the importance of creating a coaching culture.

We hope that you enjoy our selection of features, articles, topics and session plans. If you have any particular coach-ing needs or questions please let us know and we will try and provide answers to these in future issues.

Thanks as always for the continued support of our contrib-utors and subscribers. We hope you enjoy the issue.

Dan Slaughter, Editor / @danslaughter12

WELCOME

WWW.STUDENTOFTHEGAME.CO.UK / TWITTER.COM/SOTGMAGAZINE

EDITORIAL

Email [email protected]

Tweet us@SOTGMagazine

PHOTOGRAPHYPlease see references

CONTRIBUTIONSDan SmithJess IbromSteve DillonMark McLuckie

ADVERTISEMENTPlease send an email to [email protected] stating your requirements and the editor will get in touch asap.

8

Although quite a new concept within football, the Whole-Part-Whole learning model itself has been around for quite some time. It was first demonstrated in 1973 by Malcolm Knowles. So... what ex-actly is the art of the whole-part-whole coaching process? Firstly we must choose a topic (we have

chosen; finishing in and around the area). The whole practice should be game related in an oppossd or semi opposed environment that promotes decision making and cre-ates pictures that the player will see in a match. The whole practice gives the coach an excellent oppor-tunity to make observations and

identify any areas for improvment. In practice we would now start go-ing through the coaching process; explaining the game and outlining any rules. LET THE KIDS PLAY and observe, observe some more and encourage, motivate and praise ef-fort. Now we need to evaluate how we intend to break down the whole practice into a practice that has lower game context. With this eval-uation complete we should have a idea of any changes that we may need to make to our part practice. The part practice should simplify the pictures from the whole ses-sion and have have more focus on the technique and skill required to be successful in the whole practice. Players should also experience suc-cess from the broken down con-tent of the whole session. Again, we start the coaching pro-cess and this time intervene where appropriate. We can consider how we encourage decision making and allow players some leadership through guided discovery and ses-sion facilitating.Fianlly, we start to build our prac-tice back up to the whole practice which we started with. This is to check understanding and to check improvement from the first whole practice. As always, its time to refelct and develop ouir delivery and session for the next session.

ARTICLE

THE ART OF WHOLE PART WHOLE


THE ART OF WHOLE PART WHOLEWHOLESet up your pitch so that it is suitable for your age group and your format. In this instance we are looking a 7-a-side; adults.

The game is essentially a 4v4 + GK’s, with 4 wall players. The wall players are instruct-ed to work anywhere outside of the pitch including the byline, to encourage bounce passing in and around the area.

PARTHere we have split the group into half (in our team we have 4 x GK’s and have access to a GK coach. You may not have this luxory, therefore you can send the second gropup off to do a second part practice and carousel them around. That way everyone will get the full experience of the session. Essentially in this practice we are looking for our two strikers to ro-tate off of eachother and utilise the wall players.

WHOLERepeat the first whole practice.

When planning consider how a player may transfer their learning throughout the session. Think about how you may check understanding and improvement. Consider what success looks like to you and how you can track that and perhaps feed that back to your players. Reflect and learn for next time.

FINISHING IN AND AROUND THE AREA IN A WHOLE-PART-WHOLE SESSION

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CASE STUDY

ABOUT USThe Wellington Phoenix Football Club is New Zealand’s only profes-sional football club and competes in the Hyundai A-League.The Club is an important and inte-gral part of New Zealand’s sporting

landscape, enjoying passionate support from all over New Zealand and the world.

The Wellington Phoenix Football Club is committed to the devel-opment of talented young foot-

ballers. The Wellington Phoenix Football Academy (WPFA) offers a proven youth player development programme that brings high school education and football together in an inspirational and creative en-vironment. Multiple future path-

INSIDE THE ACADEMYOF WELLINGTON PHOENIX FC

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ways are available and the WPFA is therfore open to both domestic and international student players. The Academy has been successfully operating its development model in New Zealand for over 5 years and current operations are focused on a main training base in Strathmore, Wellington, New Zealand.

The programme focuses on provid-ing a tailored programme and envi-ronment for each member to max-imise their football and academic potential. The well-being of the footballer is prioritised to ensure on-going success, with future path-way options at the forefront of each individualised programme.

The WPFA accepts New Zealand and International footballers (aged 12 to 17) on an invitation basis with membership of the Academy re-vised yearly in line with sport and academic performance targets. The academy programme includes, weekly, full-time and full-time res-idential programmes available to enable each participant maximal opportunity to reach their goals.

WPFA offers players a range of pathways. Clearly as the Welling-ton Phoenix FC’s Youth Academy, there is a close operating relation-ship with the Phoenix First Team and Reserves’ squads. However, as shown below, WPFA is also experi-enced and committed to develop-ing individual pathways suited to all players, according to their specific

circumstances, which may include overseas professional clubs and sports scholarships to Universities in NZ , USA and other countries.

The WPFA Development Pro-gramme has been operating in New Zealand since 2010 and has achieved some notable pathway successes, key highlights include:• 1 current full-time member of the Wellington Phoenix First Team Squad• 4 current full-time Wellington Phoenix Reserve players• 3 other full-time professional contracts with European profes-sional clubs (including Olympic Marseille and Burnley) and an ad-ditional 8 players have progressed into overseas professional club academies in Europe, USA and Mexico.• 3 full All Whites (Senior NZ Men’s Internationals)• 14 Youth Internationals (NZ and other countries U17 and U20)14 players accepted into Universi-ty Football Programmes (NZ and Overseas) VISION“TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF ELITE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALASIA AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA”

MAIN GOALTo develop players for the Welling-ton Phoenix first team who com-pete in the HYUNDAI A LEAGUE.

RECRUITMENT AND TALENT IDEN-TIFICATIONPlayers are recruited throughout New Zealand, Asia, Australasia and South America.

FULL TIME ACADEMYThe Wellington Phoenix Football Academy (WPFA) offers a prov-en development programme that brings education and football to-gether in an inspirational and cre-ative environment. The Academy’s training base is at Scots College in Strathmore, Wellington, New Zea-land.

The fulltime academy model has been operating for over 5 years in New Zealand and includes the fol-lowing programmes:• Full technical and tactical foot-ball programme 6 days a week• Core performance programme• Performance analysis pro-gramme• Physical conditioning and devel-opment programme• Regeneration programme• Mental conditioning• Personal health and nutrition programme• Pastoral and player welfare/aca-demic support• Games programme

MY FAVOURITE SESSION

MY COACHING PHILOSOPHY

4 v 3 Transition - The session exposes players to a number of different ele-ments both technically and tactically whilst developing the players within the academy both defensively and at-tacking wise within one session.

Download my session by visiting studentofthegame.co.uk

‘To develop and give the tools nes-sarary for players to develop techni-cally all aspects of there individual development to play at the highest possible level. The environment with which the players train in a heavy em-phasis is placed upon discipline, struc-ture and most importantly ‘ training to compete’.

Through an holistic full-time playing model players are developed in all aspects of being both technically and tactically proficient to be multi-posi-tioning players.

In terms of playing philosophy – at the Wellington Phoenix Football Academy we play an attacking style of football usually a 3-4-3 system. To bridge the gap in the wider world players with-in the academy usually play up in age groups 2/3 years so they are able to compete and have a higher level of competition.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT


Name: Jess Ibrom

Position: Head Coach

Nationality: British

Since January 2014 Jess has held the role as Head Coach of the Wel-lington Phoenix Football Academy. Previous to this from April 2011 to December 2013 he held the role of High Performance Academy Coach and Head of European Operations at the Asia Pacific Football Acad-emy in association with Chelsea Football Club in the south island of New Zealand. Jess’s unique role saw him work with a number of elite national level players through-out New Zealand that have gone onto professional careers in the game throughout the world. As well as spending time in South-East Asia, Australia, the USA and Mexico recruiting elite level players.

Originally from the UK Jess spent 2000–2005 working throughout the Northeastern side of the Unit-ed States predominately as a Play-er Development Officer for Major League Soccer in cities such as Bos-ton, New York and Pittsburgh.Upon moving back to the UK in

2005 Jess held the role as Football Development Officer at the King’s Lynn Community and Advanced Football program catering for over 1000 players from the ages of 5-18 whilst managing a team of 8 full-time coaches and 15 part-time. The scheme at the time was direct-ly under the banner of King’s Lynn FC who played in the Conference South at the time (Step 6 of football in the UK). Jess been fortunate to spend time closely observing over 40 professional clubs in the last ten years.

From Chelsea FC, Tottenham Hot-spur, Manchester City to Celtic, San Jose Earthquakes, Houston Dyna-mo, to Newcastle Jets, Chivas Gua-dalajara, Singapore S league teams, Maungthong Utd, Juventus and To-rino to name but a few his coach-ing career has taken him to every corner of the Globe. This has re-sulted in a number of international contacts throughout the world of football.Jess holds the USSF A License and USSF B License. As well as the UEFA A License Part One and UEFA B Li-cense, FA Level 1 & 2.

JESS IBROMWELLINGTON PHOENIX FC

ACADEMY HEAD COACH

THE ALL BLACKSWHAT WILL BE YOUR LEGACY?

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COVER STORY

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THE ALL BLACKS

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WHAT WILL BE YOUR LEGACY?


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COVER STORY

New Zealand; a small island in the South-western Pacific Ocean with a population of around 4 million peo-ple, has arguably produced the world’s best sport team, outclassing the likes of USA Basketball, Team GB Cycling, FC Barcelona, Wooden’s UCLA Bruins and even Walsh’s 49ers’. The All Blacks have not only done this once, but on recurring occasions for the last century. They have also boast-ed an extraordinary 75% win record and since 2004 this has been improved to an amazing 86%. This period of time also included an undefeated year in 2013, where the All Blacks went on a run of winning seventeen test match-es and they have fielded talents from farmers who are as tough as teak to Jonah Lomu, a player we are unlikely to see again in our lifetime.The answer to the All Blacks success can be found in a little black book; called Legacy, written by author, James Kerr. However, the All Blacks have their own black book written by past and present All Blacks. It is a living docu-ment that is picked up, read, re-writ-ten and left in a better place; this is the legacy of the New Zealand All Blacks. This little black book has 15 rules that make the All Blacks. These rules signify pride, passion, guts & glory and have Maori flair and passion at its core.An All Black is selected based on their character and not just their ability. ‘Sweep the sheds’. Professional rug-by players are not too big to clean the changing rooms after a game or more simply put ‘do the small things’. This rule teaches the All Blacks to be bal-anced, show pride and humility. John Wooden once said that “winning takes talent” but to keep winning “it takes character”.The All Black’s must never stand still, they must adapt. ‘Go for the gap’. When the All Blacks become the best or at the top of their game, they ulti-mately change their game. They adapt to their surroundings to keep their op-ponents guessing.They ‘play with purpose’, they ask why? There is a sense of inclusion and

connectedness amongst the All Blacks which intrinsically brings them closer together. Their motivation and drive comes from within and surrounds the camp. They use the power of storytell-ing to develop their real world. Aiming for a higher purpose, they use vivid stories, mantras and colourful imagery to guide them in direction of their col-laborative mindset, their ultimate goal – that little gold cup. This begins with asking why? Why am I doing this? Why am I sacrificing myself for this?It is the beginning of the being of team.Each All Black rugby player is responsi-ble, they are leaders not followers. An All Black ‘passes the ball’. They create leaders, because they themselves are leaders. The All Black coaching staff deliberately hand over responsibility to their players to make them better decision makers, give them ownership, autonomy and initiative.All Blacks are leaders. Leaders are learners and All Blacks are teachers. They learn to become ‘better people’ because ‘better people, become bet-ter All Blacks’. An All Blacks sets out to improve 100 elements of themselves/the team by 1% to build a competitive advantage.An All Black must ‘follow the spear-head’. The All Blacks are Whanau; there is no place for ‘dickheads’. Whanau are you family, friends and/or team. The All Blacks are one mind, they fly in formation like the Kawau and they follow the spearhead.The All Blacks create a narrative of extreme, even unrealistic ambitions. They ‘embrace expectations’ and aim for the highest cloud.They prepare themselves by having a ‘train to win’ mindset. The All Blacks practice under pressure. Practice is where skills are mastered. The All Blacks believe that practice must be a test; therefore training conditions are intensive, random and unexpected. The All Black training environment has been carefully developed to put play-ers under pressure to problem solve and make correct decisions quickly and in stressful conditions. Develop a


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mindset to win.All Blacks ’Keep a Blue Head’ they control their attention under pressure environments. They remain loose, ex-pressive, in the moment, calm, clear, accurate and on task. The refrain from becoming the opposite or having a ‘red head’ and being tight, inhibited, results orientated, anxious, aggres-sive, over-compensating and desper-ate.They ‘know thyself’ and keep it real. They show authenticity, are honest and demonstrate integrity and get the job done. All Blacks thoughts become their words and their words become their actions. They recognise their deepest values and understand who they are. They know what life they

wish to lead.All Blacks are champions and ‘Champi-ons do extra’, they sacrifice the things that second place don’t have the abili-ty to do so. The All Blacks kill time they see that as slow suicide. They donate their lives to winning rugby matches and they keep doing so all the time that they see it worth doing.There is a language only known to the All Blacks. This language is made up of specific words, phrases, mottos and mantra’s that have become the binding culture of the team. They ‘sing their world into existence’.The famous ‘Haka’ of the New Zealand All Blacks. This is much more than the team’s brand or pinnacle marketing tool, it is core to the culture of the

team. It not only intimidates the op-position but it connects them with the earth and their ancestors. It is to ‘create a culture’ and a togetherness amongst the team.Whakapapa – ‘Be a good ancestor’ and plant trees that you’ll never see. An All Blacks time is limited, their greatest responsibility is to honour those that have come before and those who will come after. The All Blacks job is not to win rugby matches, but to ‘leave the jersey in a better place’.An All Blacks action’s today will echo beyond their time. It is their time. They must write their legacy. These actions become their Legacy!

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COVER STORY

Best-selling author James Kerr, was given exclusive behind the scenes ac-cess to the most successful sporting outfit; the New Zealand All Blacks, who are undefeated in over 75% of their international matches over the last 100 years.

Kerr, went on a mission to discover the secrets of their success? And to find out what we could learn from them?

In this beautifully written book, Kerr has produced a compelling story that is an intelligent and insightful re-source for effective leadership.

It is an easy to read, true and honest reflection of the pitches, locker room and practice sessions of the All Blacks.

Kerr’s research shows just how much work goes into becoming and main-taining a great performing team.

You don’t have to like sport to learn from and enjoy this book. It is truely inspirational and provides the read-er with thought provoking material, which is easy to implement within your own sports teams, companys and life.

To find out more order James Kerrs book; Legacy from Amazon today.

BOOK REVIEW


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ARTICLE

You often hear about the work that coaches do to help create positive cultures for their players or with-in their teams. The discussion of-ten extends to different strategies, with varying success and are reliant upon many external factors specif-ic to those players, but all with the intention of positively affecting performance and cohesion.

What we rarely see is discussion on how to create cultures of coach-ing and strategies on how to make groups of coaches’ gel and func-tion together and how to make coaching a profession of choice. What we have attempted to ex-plore in the last 4 years has gone some way to addressing this within our own context at Auckland Foot-ball Federation (AFF) in Auckland, New Zealand. What we have tried to create at AFF over the last near 4 years is exactly that. Creating a culture of coaching. Add into the mix, creating a culture of coaching where coaching is seen as a hobby in a country were football is not the number 1 sport. Difficult task, but hugely achievable and I am confi-dent we have built this through the Auckland Football Coaches Net-work (AFCN).

I have read a number research ar-ticles around the types of coach development and would define these in 3 strands; ‘Formal’ coach development, ‘non-formal’ coach

development and ‘Informal’ coach development. These 3 terms help me define my experiences from a personal coach point of view as well as in my role as a coach educa-tor in addition to the responsibility of leading the coach development programme in Auckland.

‘Formal’ coach development to me is defined as accredited courses and awards from the Coach Devel-opment Pathway offered through your football association that have both classroom and practical sections and could include an as-sessment element. We know and studies support that these experi-ences make up only around 15% of a coaches total professional devel-opment.

The ever developing Auckland Football Coaches Network is part of the ‘non-formal’ learning strand. It is still largely a classroom and practical based design but it is non-accredited, often delivered by external staff with the intention of sharing new ideas that are not addressed in the formal learning and accreditation structure. There are also huge benefits for face to face coach interactions and you can also help retain coaches in the system that have been through a large number of the formal coach development courses in the past. We have found so far these are the best learning environments.

Both Twitter and Facebook are vi-tal ‘informal’ coach development tools largely down to the sheer volume of unstructured, unscript-ed and incidental exchanges and interactions that occur between coaches. I appreciate what you see and read isn’t always what you get on the other end of the screen but the principal alone of this kind of learning environment is vital and I believe more sports organisations need to be more active in this area.

There are a number of principle contributing factors across the three strands that count towards to development of the AFCN over the last 4 years. Opportunities. No off season. Coaching is a multi-fac-eted process that shouldn’t stop just because the football does and we have to make sure we can offer the opportunities for coaches to develop all year around.

We had coaches fly in from a far afield as Canada due to the op-portunities to that we continual-ly make available throughout the course of the year. These oppor-tunities are made available both during the regular football season as well as during the traditional off season months. Both have their positives and drawbacks but the important message to take away is that coaches are given the choice and are not bound by the short 20 week football season.

CREATING A COACHING CULTURE AUCKLAND FOOTBALL COACHES NETWORK


Inclusiveness. All in it together. We try to ensure that our events are as inclusive and as relative as possi-ble. There have been some excel-lent examples, certainly recently where we have national members of staff sharing ideas with junior grassroots coaches, former players and volunteer mums and dads sat together and sharing their expe-riences. The by-product of these chance meetings mean that the benefits extend beyond the con-tent of the presentation. These connections are not manufactured but are hugely powerful when try-ing to create a culture of coaching within Auckland and demonstrate that every coach that attends are there with a mutual desire to im-prove.

Sequencing. Timing is everything and is certainly true with the se-quencing of our courses through-out the year. Sounds like a simple principle to work by but is vital for the smooth transition and reten-tion of coaches throughout the workshop calendar as well as fitting around the already busy Auckland events calendar. Coaches must feel like they are always working to-wards a new goal, much like a play-er, and this is in the forefront of our thinking when designing our yearly development programs.Quality – The 1%ers. We strive for the best, strive to keep the bar high and strive to ensure that the

experience that the coach receives on our workshops is of the highest quality. These are often only mi-nor organisational details but all designed to help ensure the most productive environment conducive to learning. Add this to the calibre of guest hosts we are now able to attract and you have a very power-ful mix.

We certainly have a quality over quantity approach to the AFCN working to a target of around our-selves to 6 events per year. These are outside our Formal Courses, which are part of the New Zea-land Football Coach Development Pathway. These 6 events allows us to have good coverage over the course of the season whilst not flooding the calendar too much and devaluing the events.

Reflection. We constantly seek feedback and reflections from both our tutors and guest coaches on the organisation, content and delivery of the courses. This then drives the themes of future events and give scoaches genuine ownership over the hosts that they see and is one of the prime reasons why coaches continue to return time after time.All of these key factors have en-abled us to finally get to a point where the demand is there for a regional coaches conference. Com-mon place in many countries, in-cluding our own in other sports,

but rarely executed on a regular basis in football in New Zealand. The idea has been around for a while, but I didn’t feel the culture or demand was quite there yet and hadn’t been convinced that we were in a position to launch with the velocity that we needed. I was pleasantly surprised at the response once the initial blueprints were drawn up and the response since public release has been far bigger than I had expected. The lure of a 2 day event at one of New Zealand’s most historical football clubs has certainly had the desired effect.

In what other country will coach-es get the opportunity to network, observe and listen to a number of National Coaches, Technical Di-rectors and other industry experts all in a format that gives guests the opportunity to view 18 of the countries sharpest minds in less than 48 hours? The event encapsu-lates everything that we are trying to achieve with the Auckland Foot-ball Coaches Network as it a fitting end to the most successful year in Coach Development history at Auckland Football Federation.

CREATING A COACHING CULTURE AUCKLAND FOOTBALL COACHES NETWORK

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SESSION PLANS


SESSION PLANSSPONSORED BY SPORTSESSIONPLANNER.COM

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SESSION PLAN LIBRARY

The whole group split into two groups and work on two seperate part practices before progress-ing back into the whole practice.

TO COACH SWITCHING PLAY

PRACTICE TYPE:Whole-Part-Whole

WHOLE PRACTICE ORGANISATION:• Set up using the full half of a 7-a-side pitch.• 5 attacking players versus 1 + 1 + goalkeeper.• Defending players and the GK are restricted to their areas.• The attacking players must stay within their designated channels.• 3 A’s in the central channels and 1 A in each wide channel.

WHOLE PRACTICE DETAIL:• Attacking players must complete 3 passes before they can progress to the next

3rd of the playing area.• The attacking team must also visit both wide players before progressing

through the thirds, this will hopefully encourage sideways and forward play.• The defending team can only defend in their thrid of the pitch and not in the

wides areas.• The players in the wide areas start the practice as Active Target players.• To progress the activity you may include an additional defender in each third to

create a 3 + 2 V 2 + 2 situation.• An alternative progression would be to include a defensive player in each wide

area.• You should also consider how your players rotate in and out with the wide play-

ers. As this will generate rotation in midfield and wide areas.



The whole group split into two groups and work on two seperate part practices before progress-ing back into the whole practice.

PART PRACTICE ONE DETAIL:• The attacking team must complete a related challenge before breaking into the

end zones to score. If the defenders win possession they are tasked with either breaking into the end zones or completing the same task to score a goal.

• Challenge one may be that the attacking players must visit at least 5 of the 9 squares before visiting the end zone.

• Challenge two may be that the attacking players must visit all 3 channels before visiting the end zone.

• Challenge three may be that the attacking players must complete 5 passes be-fore visiting the end zone.

KEY COACHING POINTS:• Pace, Movement and Rotation of players including communication• Patience, Penetration and Pace of ball including technique

PART PRACTICE TWO DETAIL:• The attacking team must complete a related challenge before scoring in one of

the goals. If the defenders win possession they are tasked with completing the same task.

• The attacking team must complete at least 3 passes and nominate a colour. That is the colour of the goal that they must now attack.

• If the attacking team nominate blue they are then unable to attack the red goals until the defenders win the ball back, there is a stopage in play or a goal is scored.

KEY COACHING POINTS:• Pace, Movement and Rotation of players including communication• Patience, Penetration and Pace of ball including technique• Decision making

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INDIVIDUAL DEFENSIVE AWARENESS

PRACTICE ORGANISATION:• Area 30x30yds with line across width 10yds into

practice area, with cones, goals & target boxes ar-ranged as illustrated.

• 10 players organised 4v2 in 10yd end zone, palus 4 Defenders in large area, 1 ball.

DETAIL:• Players restricted to designated zones.• 2 Target players 5yds behind 4v2 zone, defending

goals.• Practice starts with: ball fed-in to 4v2 by T player.• Objective: retain possession in 4v2 in the end zone

& look for opportunities to clip passes into target boxes, at other end.

• Alternatively: players can run with ball out of end zone to get through one of the coned gates to score.

• D’s must be aware of players looking to break through gate, or when to drop-off to intercept or deflect lofted passes into target boxes.

• If D’s gain possession: they try to make long passes past T’s at opposite end to score & practice con-tinues.

• If pass is intercepted by T’s defending targets: play continues as they feed back into 4v2 game.

INTERCEPTING PASSESS

PRACTICE ORGANISATION:• Area 30x20yds with 10yd radius circle in centre

(eg. centre circle of pitch), squared-off to make 20x20yd box, with each end extended 5yds, as il-lustrated.

• 10 players organised into 3 groups of 3, plus 1 Tar-get player on side of practice area.

• 3 players operate in each zone.

DETAIL:• Practice starts with: ball fed-in by coach to 3A’s.• 3A’s in end zone retain possession unopposed,

looking for opportunities to pass through defend-

ed central area to opposite zone.• On receiving: 3A’s opposite, look to transfer ball

back.• If 3D’s in central zone intercept: they play ball to T.• Practice restarts with ball fed into an end zone by

coach.• Rotate A’s & D’s at regular intervals.

KEY COACHING POINTS:• Read & react to ball movement.• Organise & Pressurise.• Support presser & maintain spacing & balance of

unit.• D unit change roles, depending on movement of

ball.



INDIVIDUAL DEFENDING

PRACTICE ORGANISATION:• Half pitch with two 10yd channels marked with

cones & goal at one end, set-out as illustrated.• Players work in 3’s, with 2 Attackers & 1 Defender

in each channel,• 2 balls (1 ball for each D).

DETAIL:• Practice starts with D passing diagonally to one of

the 2 A who then proceed to attack 2v1 in channel to cross the 18yrd line and shoot at goal.

• Once pass released: D’s react to flight of ball & ad-just accordingly.

• To increase intensity: A’s have 6 seconds to beat D & score in goal.

• If D gains possession: ball is played back to start (next D’s begin practice).

• Players rotate during practice.

KEY COACHING POINTS:• D initially splits the 2A’s.• Recover towards goal in a controlled manner, giv-

ing ground only at speed of the attack.• Decision as to when to confront A in possession

of ball.• How to confront player in possession AND deny

passes to 2nd.

RETREATING DEFENSE

PRACTICE ORGANISATION:• Full pitch with boxes marked by cones set-out, as

illustrated.• 8 players, arranged 2Reds & 2Blues in centre cir-

cle, plus 2Reds & 2Blues who serve as target play-ers, one in each of the 4 boxes, as shown. 1 ball.

DETAIL:• Practice starts with: 4 players in centre circle pass

randomly.• Either Reds or Blues initiate attack with one play-

er breaking from circle supported by team mate, looking to gain entry into the target box.

• Opposing player in circle, closest to box being at-tacked; drops-off to defend against the counter (1v2).

• Defender delays attack whilst team mate from cir-cle recovers from behind ball (to make 2v2).

• Players in possession can only pass (below head height) through front of box or run ball into box.

• If recovering players gain possession: they pass to either of their target players located in boxes to conclude practice.

• Practice recommences with players from circle & boxes alternating position & changing point of at-tack from circle.

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BETWEEN THE POSTSWITH GUEST WRITER

MARK MCLUCKIE

BETWEEN THE POSTS

ACTIVITY 1: BASIC WARM UP

Players perform a variety of movements, jog, sprint, skip etc as well as dynamic then static stretches as required.

4 sets x 4 reps of footwork exercises, set up as shown

ACTIVITY 2: HANDLING AND MOVEMENT

Set up- 2x2 yard square. feeders 6-8 yards. GK takes feed then moves sharply into next position as shown. Work from 1-4-1 contin-uously for 13 feeds Set 1 - volleysset 2 - 1/2 volleysset 3 - scoop saveset 4 - low dive (when changing direction from feeder 4 work dive to opposite side and only 7 feeds total)


ACTIVITY 3:PASS AND ANGLED STRIKE

Set up as shown. Bib up wide feeders and nominate them as right/colour and left/col-our GK exchanges passes with central player us-ing 1 or 2 touches. Coach calls R/C or L/C and GK must quickly adjust position to deal with strike at goal.

ACTIVITY 4:DISTRIBUTION AND SHOT STOP-PING FUNCTION

Set up as shown. Work from both sides. Feeder 3 can adjust position anywhere along the ‘D’ GK spins into line with the ball and makes a low diving save left or right (1)Distributes using overhand throw to wide player on 18 yard box (2)Immediately into position to deal with strike at goal (3)

ACTIVITY 5:PROGRESSION

Set up as activity 4 and work both sides again. GK spins into line with the ball and makes a low diving save left or right (1)(movement A)Distributes using overhand throw to wide player on 18 yard box (2) and supports the ball (movement B)GK receives ball and plays back to wide play-er (3)(pass back to gk can be varied to make control more difficult)Sharply back into goal for strike (4)

32

UNIVERSALITYTHE BLUEPRINT FOR SOCCERS NEW ERABY MATTHEW WHITEHOUSE

SOTG EXTRA

“UNIVERSALITY IS THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED AND WELL-WRITTEN”Universality is a thoroughly researched and well-written book produced by author Matthew Whitehouse; a professional football coach who has worked across the globe. A UEFA ‘A’ licenced coach with a Masters degree in Sports Coaching he has extensive experience both academically and practically on coaching and youth development. Matthew is also a prominent and influential writer and is the editor of the award winning The Whitehouse

Address blog. Universality is an in-depth examination of the tactical evolution of football in England and the rest of the world. covering a vast number of themes that can get even the most experienced coaches thinking. Whitehouse has provided readers with clear diagrams and descriptions with references to the modern game. Highlighting the individual traits, roles and responsibilities of the modern player from the sweeper keeper

to the interchangeable forward. Referencing the philosophies of various professional coaches, Whitehouse takes the reader through the tactical history of the game, providing explanation on how the modern game has been shaped.If you are interested in the tactical evolution of the game or want to understand the game further. Universality is the book for you.

To order go to bennionkearny.com.


RefMyTeam.com was launched to help connect football teams look-ing for referees with referees look-ing for matches to referee. If you are a manager, coach or secretary enter your match details onto our website and let referees find you. If you are a referee you can search our database of matches and get in contact with teams looking for ref-erees.

PlayMyTeam.com, our partner site helps you find opponents to play. Whether you play football or futsal, 11 a side or 5 a side, add details of when you would like to play or search our website to find a team who is already looking for a match.

Both of our websites are FREE to use so why not give us a go. Please share our websites with friends, coaching colleagues, managers and referees to help grow the number of matches on our websites and let you find opponents and referees easily.

TOUCHLINE FRACAS PODCAST: UniversalityFurther to our book review you may be interested in this podcast Mat-thew did recently talking about his new book, the concept of univer-saliy in football, tactical evolution and much more.

It’s well worth a listen and has proved very popular already!

Link is here http://www.touchlinefracas.co.uk/pod-casts/023-matt-whitehouse-interview/

TWITTER THIS MONTH:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dan Wright @CoachDanWright Nov 18Video; Rodgers discusses playing 1-2 or a 2-1 in a 4-3-3

http://youtu.be/9jINu-ZucO8-------------------------------------------------------------------------------MyPersonal⚽️Coach @MyFootballCoach Nov 13Please check out and share my VideoBlog with Alexi Sanchez technical practice http://vimeo.com/m/111752246 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Peter Prickett @PeterPrickett Nov 13@SOTGMagazine Hi,could you RT - @OldActoniansYou seeking coaches in W5/W3 area of London for U7-U11. Con-tact me for more details. Thanks-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Inspire Football @Inspirethegame Nov 13Interested in making a change in coaching?Come and join our #nextgencoaches conference

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/boxoffice/select/JQEW-JfESlQGG …-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Joe Smith @flowinfootball Nov 9Is St George’s park a success? Interested in people’s opin-ions?-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lee @cosmosoccerCA Nov 4Create #Futsal or Indoor Gym Session’s with @SSPlanner

Coaches can join here http://www.sportsessionplanner.com/?i=nb7 @SOTGMagazine

35

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Documents

Student of the Game Issue 14 - November 2014