Session #42: The Pre Season Series
Week 1 Session 2
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Recommendations
At the start of every piece For Coaches, I will give a couple of recommendations that have helped me or caught my attention. It will be anything from online articles, podcasts or books. This week I want to share two articles:
The Clamour for Contact Time: This short article from Mark O’Sullivan speaks on the (misconceived?) idea that more and more training is best. Specifically, coach led training. It made me reflect on a question I get asked a lot as a coach.. how much training should I - or my son/daughter - be doing? While the common answer is “players should be training as much as possible”, the reality is that volume is less important than the quality.
“As stated earlier, reducing player development to the number of hours spent in coach led training is a very narrow lens through which to view development when we consider the complexities involved in developing talent in sport.”
The Long Ramble: Tactics Don’t Exist: As much of what I post in this section, I came across this article from Gabriel Heidler by chance. In fact, it’s been saved in my Notion “to read” list for a while. Well it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article which questions tactics as we have been led to believe - and perhaps how little we actually understand what they and the game mean. I encourage any coach to give it a read and reflect and question some of their beliefs.
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Welcome to For Coaches on The Patient Build Up. Every week you will find educational content here that you can use in your own environment. The aim of this content - be it sessions, methodology ideas or general advice - will be to provide theoretical knowledge that coaches can adapt to their own environment. I will try my best to make sure that everything that goes in this section is as objective as possible and always taking football as the starting point. In fact I encourage all who read this section to reflect on it and understand how it fits into his or her environment. In simple terms understand the abilities and inabilities of your players and adjust it accordingly. Always remember that the players should be at the forefront of what we coaches do.
This week I will be continuing with the Pre Season Series. I will be sharing some of the training sessions I will be delivering with my Under 19s team in London. The sessions will be detailed and have three main objectives:
Build the on pitch culture.
Develop a strong and adaptable Playing Identity.
Gradually build the football fitness of the players.
Week 1 Session 2: Attacking - Progressing Centrally will follow the same theme as the prior session, however it will be a lot more focused on the Deciding and Football Fitness of players. In this session, we will find the zero point to begin building the conditioning of the group.
1. Player Led Warm Up
The first part/warm up for today’s session will be led by the players, organised by the Leadership group: four players who are responsible for leading the team over a two week period.
Players will be given a short outline of the session and then will run their own warm up for 15 minutes. I will have notified the leadership group the day before they would be in charge of this today so hopefully the would have something planned.
2. 4v4+3 Situation Games
ORGANISATION:
22 players (+/- 3) divided in 2 groups of 11.
2 x playing areas 24m long x 12m wide.
Footballs ready for restarts.
EXPLANATION
4v4+3 situation games focused on progressing centrally, using the central link player.
Two teams of four (blue and red) play against each other. The team in possession uses the 3 jokers (black), creating a 7v4 situation.
The possession team scores a point by connecting from one end joker to the opposite end joker through combination play (ideally via the central joker).
If defenders win the ball, they instantly become the possession team, using jokers in transition.
CONSIDERATIONS
How do we link with central player to play through opponent?
Player inside the pressure can receive and turn/turn out.
Use of third and fourth man principle.
Communication and rotations with wide players.
If I can’t receive the ball or support the ball, can I move to create space for other teammates.
Potential to start introducing transition element - particularly the defensive transition.
INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Player On the Ball
Timing & choice of pass (prioritise furthest and central).
Keep ball as central as possible and moving to keep passing options open but also possibility to disguise actions.
Direction and speed of pass - understand the needs of the receiving player based on the objective (progress) and opponent.
Dribble to eliminate or engage opponent.
Player Off the Ball (near)
Understanding of where to receive: behind, beside or in front?
Movement to become passing option OR movement to create space for a teammate to receive.
Different receiving skills to beat, protect and outplay opponent (both from a control and passing/combination perspective)
Player Off the Ball (far)
Become passing option in eye sight of the player on the ball.
Movement to become passing option towards the ball. When and why?
Communicate to help the player on the ball with his next action.
TIME:
4 rounds of 3 minutes, with a 2 minute rest.
Total duration: 20 minutes
3. 11v11 Football Conditioning Game
ORGANISATION
22 players divided in 2 teams of 9.
Full pitch large conditioning game (8v8/11v11).
EXPLANATION
11v11 football conditioning game.
As this is the first week, use this to find the baseline fitness level of players.
Time the first game and when you start to see a noticeable drop in the tempo stop the game. Players will have a 2 minute rest and then play a 2nd game for the same duration as the first game. This will be the baseline.
For example, 2x12mins/2mins rest.
Got questions or want me to break down a session in more detail? Drop a comment or DM me on Twitter - I’d love to discuss!
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