70% Ball Rolling Time

If you have attended any FA course recently you have probably heard of this 70% ball rolling idea. The idea of players actually playing for 70% of the training session, whether that be unopposed practices, opposed or games. Seems obvious doesn't it? Get your players playing during the sessions as much as you can!

I was introduced to this during my youth module 3 course earlier in the year and when our tutor mentioned this I thought 70% seemed too low! Its 42 minutes of our session, surely 18 minutes for reviewing, drinks breaks etc. is way too much? We only get our players for an hour or so a week so do we spend large parts of our session loading them with information without even realizing? It's something I'm sure I've been guilty of more than once. Maybe we like the sound of our own voice a bit too much sometime?

Our course tutor challenged us to get someone to time us in one of our sessions, now I didn't get round to it straight away but during one of 10 sessions for the YM3 I got one of our coaches start the stopwatch time as soon as the players stopped playing (for reviews, moving onto a different game, sorting teams and drinks breaks). For an hour session the players weren't actually playing for 19 minutes and we started a bit late so could add a few more minutes to this! Now i was pretty shocked, I knew it might be a bit high as it was difficult to get the players attention quickly when reviewing etc. More worrying was that it was a whole part whole session so we didn't spend ages moving to different practices. Following that session I really made an effort to take less time reviewing, getting players into arrival activities quickly and setting up practices in advance and maybe my times were a bit better. But following a summer of coaching camps in the states I fell into my old ways of breaking the sessions up for the players benefits (70% play time in a 3/4 hour practice in 38 degrees up in the Colorado mountains just wouldn't go well for u8/u9)

However attending the FA licensed coaches conference a couple of weeks ago, really opened my eyes again to the importance of aiming for this 70% and how it can be achieved.

Be clever with planning...

Something I used to do a lot and maybe something I still do sometimes is to send the players off to get a drink whilst I quickly set up the next part of the session. If we're lucky enough to have the space then we can quickly fix this by setting up the next part of the practice in the remaining space and quickly transition over to it. But the reality is that we probably don't have that space, especially this time of year when we are renting bits of the 3G, sharing with other teams. This is where we need to be a bit cuter with our planning. Now obviously the practices we use will affect our ball rolling time if we run the classic "shooting drill" you could argue the ball is rolling I guess but in reality most of your players are standing in a line. Try to utilize practices that keep all player involved.

How many of these players are playing?

Whole part whole can be a good session structure for moving to different parts of the practice quickly, the idea being to start with our Whole (game) then move specifically to the part we want to focus on then back to our game. It could be an idea to put players into the game as they arrive, giving a really quick start on the session.

 Whole-Part-Whole session on individual defending.

The channels for 1v1 work can be placed during the initial game for a faster transition to the "part"

Use different intervention methods...

One of the stand out take away points for me at the LCC weekend was how much individual feedback was given to the players during their practices. Now this feedback wasn't a drawn out lecture from the coach to the player; it was quick questions, little bits of advice referred to be some coaches as "drive bys" where coaches drop information into players during games. It's something I have tried in the past but I'm not sure how successful I've been. Perhaps now that I have known some of my group for nearly a year I can be more effective with this.

Traditionally I seem to use a "stop, everyone in" style to get points across, again this is probably linking to how I work on summer camps in the U.S but I plan to start stepping away from this and trying to use a lot more individual/small group feedback, that's not to say that group reviews don't have a place, they certainly do I just feel that I have started to use them too much and that they take up a lot of time (we all know getting ten 7 year olds to come in a listen nicely is a challenge!)

As difficult as it may be; limit the time of your intervention, can we keep it below 60 seconds? 20 seconds? Lets get them playing as much as possible!

Drinks breaks...

Something I have used in the past and need to start doing again is giving the players ownership of when to get a drink or take a quick break! I send them around half way into the session to go and get a drink and to be honest this is as much for me as it is for them (gives me a chance to quickly set stuff up).

Try this.. Get your players to bring their drinks down at the start of the session and keep them by the fence or in a designated square (maybe better if you're coaching younger ages). Set it out early, "you can get a drink whenever you need to" if your sessions are engaging and fun it may be a case that some of your players don't even go for a drink!

How many minutes of our hour do we waste with a designated drinks break? Some of my players don't bother and just kick footballs at the fence for a couple of minutes! However if you feel that stopping for a minute would be best for everyone get a player to time this break and make sure everyone is back after a minute or two.



These are just some ways we can get our ball rolling time up a bit, now as I understand there's no science behind the 70% as a number it's just a guide and something for coaches to aim for. Some sessions may require our ball rolling time to be lower than usual; perhaps when introducing a new topic? But I am certainly going to be challenging myself to get as much playing time in our session as possible! Maybe I'll find some other ways to help this.. watch this space!

England DNA

Last weekend I made my first visit to St Georges Park for the annual licensed coaches conference; where coaches from all levels of the game can come together and gather information directly from the FA. This years theme was the based around the England DNA, looking specifically at "connecting the game". Informing us how we can make a difference by beginning to input the DNA into our clubs at grassroots level.

England DNA - Foundation Age (5-11) 

For the past couple of years the majority if my coaching has been in this age bracket, so I will be looking at what the DNA means to me and how I can encompass it into my coaching.

"Love the ball, love the game"

Is the sort of slogan of the DNA, to me a sends out quite a powerful message as a foundation age coach. Love the ball: it is essential that we build the technical ability and confidence for players to be good on the ball. To be able to keep it under pressure and make good decisions in possession. Throughout my own playing time I have been subjected to the "2 touch"  school of football, even from a young age i remember playing 2 touch in our training games. Obviously this doesn't get players to love the ball. No risk taking, no decision making, just pass it off - job done. I'd like to think that the majority of coaches have moved away from this, but we still put so much emphasis on passing. I hear regualry at our u8s games comments from coaches/parents to players who lose the ball "should have passed it earlier" "easy option" "if it doubt kick it out" etc. this is killing of risk takers, exciting players and the opportunity to develop decision making skills, but it has very much been our English way. Love the game: should be the highest priority of coaching this age (and probably all ages), we have the responsibility of getting players to love the game. Keep it fun, close to the game and build a good environment for players to play in. Lets not pick up on all the mistakes players make and subject them to drill based practices.

How often are we guilty of this?

Reflecting on this personally I will be changing how I coach in the new year. Whilst I spent a lot of time working on individual ball mastery I feel like I have slipped into focusing on passing a bit too much and neglected encouraging dribbling and individual possession. I also need to make practices even more enjoyable for the players, now I don't run drill based games and unrealistic practices but one thing I have been guilty for in recent weeks is stopping practices too much to get my points across, i need to use other, more efficient intervention methods.

I'm sure we can all be more encouraging of risk taking, enjoying the ball in training. But this message has to be carried over to our games as well. Are we willing for our players to make their own decisions and take risks in games? At the expense of results? Even at mens level I see so many players that in training can do spectacular things but fail to do it in game due to taking less risks, playing "safe" all the time.

Pete Sturgess (head of foundation development at the FA) certainly had a few quotes to take away from the weekend, one that I have tried to stand by in the past that I think we should all try.

"At your next game, don't say pass it"

We need to build decision makers, no make decisions for players.

Each age phase breaks the DNA down into 9 components (3 in possession, 3 out of possession and 3 in transition).

The emphasis really was on building players who are confident on the ball and to help build their decision making skills. I have really bought into this DNA idea and will look to build my sessions in the new year around these priciples.

This may not be for everyone but may just be some food for thought as we go into our Christmas break.

Playing Forward

Since undertaking the YM2 and YM3 courses I have found it very difficult to plan sessions, it's not that I struggle with ideas but I seem to critically review every idea I have to the extent that I re-run some practices used in the past. One area where my practices look a lot different now is possession based topics, I am far more reluctant to use just "keep away" based games (although they certainly have there use). One area that I have spent a lot of time on with my u8s side is "playing forward". I still see a lot of possession based practices that aren't directional and the possession team have the overload all the time, we all know these practices but how realistic are they? I try to make the majority of my practice directional now as it creates more game realistic problems for the players. ne thing I have taken from the youth modules is "what does it look like in a game".

The below practices have been used with my u8s team but some of the ideas may be useful for your teams.

Playing Forward (foundation ages)

Unopposed

The first area we worked on was receiving to play forward, "where should i first touch be if we want to play forward the quickest way?"

I used the term "First touch forward" with my players and its a phrase that has stuck with them for months now.

Put players into 3s with one player as the center player and the other 2 as serving players. Begin with players transferring the ball through the central player, i made mine a little competition which team can do the most in a minute? Simple but gets my players a bit more engaged.

Questions:

• How can we do it quickly? - Good passing to team mates, moving in line to receive,

• Where should our first touch be? - FORWARD?!

• Can the side players passes make it easy for the center player - where do they want the ball to play forward?

Challenges:

• Try to play your first touch forward (center player) - looking for side on stance to be able to see more of the game

•  Outside players - can you pass to help them play forward?

Emphasis on standing side on was important for our team to be able to see who's behind you, see if there's actually space to first touch forward.



The practice is unopposed and gives players a lot of attempts at the receiving techniques.

Opposed

 Now we have grasped the technique of first touch forward we can start to look and how, where and when we can use it by playing an opposed practice. Keeping it directional obviously very important.

Below we keep the two outside players who now become target players. And a 2v1 is played inside the area. The 2 look to transfer the ball from one target to the other to get a point. If the defender wins it they can do the same (if they can in a 1v2 then great!) this give the defender a motive as well instead of just winning and kicking it out! What we want the defender to do in a game?

Questions:

• When can we play first touch forward? What if we can't? - With my team first touch forward is what we try and do if we have the space to do it, or first touch away (from defender) if opponent are near.

•  If we can't play forward what can we do? play back to target, use second player if they can support us.

Challenges

• Try to get side on to play first touch forward quickly.

• Find good supporting positions for the target players.

• Play quickly - don't let defender get a chance to close down - accurate passes needed.

• For advancing players - can the 2 of you touch the ball before transferring?  

Obviously you can develop your own challenges depending on your players. This game really started to build the decision making skills.

GAME RELATED

To enable us to play forward we need one thing... support in front of us! In the opposed practice we have been given this by using fixed target players. The game related focuses slightly more on how we support each other to play forward.

Set out field as below. One team play as defending team and have a GK the other team are attacking and have a serving player (could us another GK though if you have the players)

I decided to lock my defending players into zones and allow the attacking team to play wherever, this was to to also encompass combing to play forward - something we looked at for a couple of weeks along side just playing forward.


Questions

• Strikers:  What do we need from you? Where do we need to support when the ball goes here? Can you move to pull defenders out the way?
• If we can't play forward, what can we do?
• What happens if we try and force it forward? When is it good to risk possession?

Challenges

• Try to have someone in the team up field so we can play forward.
• As a team look after the ball (give teams a certain amount of balls to use say 4/5 how many can you score?)
• Try to be in that "side on" position to play forward quicker.

look to break down the practice where needed. We worked a lot on support when doing this. And worked a lot around strikers movement.

Again these practices were done with my u8s team, although they may be able to be adapted to suit older players. Also we worked on this topic for about 6 weeks; its important to link sessions to help learning as there are a lot of points to cover for a young age group.

Feedback welcome! :)

@dwalsh_91

These drills were made using the FA Coaches App, which is available to download via the app store.

Developing Creativity Sessions (2014 LCC event)

Using my old laptop for the first time in months and came across loads of my notes from courses and other events. This is one of my favourites from a LCC event focused around developing creativity around 18 months ago.. Enjoy!

Developing Creative Games 

 SSG - Bib challenge game

The first session was taken by two of the local Tesco skills coaches, set up was as below; a standard SSG played with one team taking on the "challenges" and the other team just playing as normal.

The team who were undetaking the challenges were given 3 bibs each (3 different colours: Blue, Red and Yellow) and could put these on in any order.

The idea being that each bib corresponds to an individual challenge. For example:

Red = Play a 1 - 2 with a team mate to get forward.

Blue = Take on an opponent.

Yellow = Run the ball from one third to another.

Once you had completed the task you could take that colour bib off. However you could only take off the one on the top i.e. if blue was your top colour and you ran the ball from the mid to the end third you couldnt take off your yellow. The team which could take of the most bibs wins, makes sense right?

Some ideas on how this can be adapted...

• Let the players come up with their own tasks.
• Give bibs to players instead of getting them to take them off, this can be a sort of "reward"
• Use a white board or other scoring system if you don't have the bibs. 
• Ensure its game related! Scoring goals needs to remain the key objective. 
• Be creative with the tasks!! Adapt them depending on your team. For 6 year olds you may earn a bib for playing a pass forward, or doing a turn. For older ages it may be playing a ball from the defensive third to the end third etc...

More, less or the same

This was a game delivered by FA tutor Martin Dighton, who has delivered both my YM2 and YM3

 

The set up was as below with 3 different areas going on at once. 2 areas are 3v2 and the smaller one is a 1v1. With a diamond marked out in the middle of the 3 areas.

The yellow team (attackers) attempt to score in the goals on the edge of the area, the red team (defending) score by running a ball into the blue diamond. Attacking team cannot enter the diamond.

Add scores from the 3 pitches and then swap roles.

Progressions/adaptions:

• If odd number of players, introduce a floating player who can be used to help either attackers or defending team. 
• If a player scores a goal they then must move to one of the other areas (to create more of an overload etc) this can also be applied for defending team.
• Replace diamond with goals, or replace small goals to some sort of end zone.

Again adapt the game to suit your players, can be changed to suit more of less numbers. 

2 Man Target Game 

Set as below, with 2 neutral target players in each end zones and 3v3 in the middle. The neutral team plays to the team that passed into them. A team scores a point when successfully transferring ball from one end zone to the other. 

When ball is played into the red (neutral) players in the end zone, they immediately switch to the other player in their zone and then continue play.

A simple game that can be used to coach many different aspects such as; turning, support, movement off the ball, exploiting space, passing etc.

Progressions/adaptations:

• Cannot play back into reds once they have passed out to you. Must look to play positive (forward) every time.
• target players can only play with 1 or 2 touches, to increase tempo of game. 
• Target players switch with centre players after receiving. 

With this i came up with a slight variation of my own which i think could work well with the majority of age groups. Where each team has a target player in both end zones they look to play into as set up below.

 This gives some objective to the players in the end zone who must now try to use their movement to loose the marking player.

Again, can progress this to players switching roles once pass is played into target man. 

As stated these drills are not my own, but ones taken from an FA conference. If you have a chance to attend one of these conferences then i encourage you to book yourself onto one. Its a great day and can give you some fresh ideas to take back to your teams. 

Its important to bare in mind that these drills were done with adult players, you should look to adapt them to the players you coach! Ensure you know what your trying to get out of each game, defending or attacking work, passing or dribbling etc.

If you have any queries on any of the above drills please feel free to drop a comment or message me via twitter: @dwalsh_91 

These drills were made using the FA Coaches App, which is available to download via the app store.

Rotating Positions

Rotating positions in youth football - My thoughts.


Social media is awash with coaches of youth teams signing the praises of rotating positions for their players, swapping goal keepers etc. I'll be the first to admit that prior to this season it's not something I've really put into practice with any of the teams that I've coached. However in our last game we switched out most players positions every 10 minutes (we play 4 10 minute quarters). Now I automatically thought to myself "this is the best thing for their development blah blah blah" but is this because I hear and read how good it is to do and we must do it? Or do I actually buy into the idea?

Sunday was definitely the most I have swapped players positions around in a game, this was mainly due to not having a regular goal keeper. And it was probably one of our worst performances since I've been coaching them. Now I'm not saying that it was down to the rotations, it could have been a number of things, but I started to question after the game was rotating regularly good for the players? As a player I personally don't like changing positions in a game, it can take time to get into the game. So would my u8s have liked playing 2 or 3 different positions in a game? Probably something I'll have to ask them. Could it have been a reason that some of them struggled to get into the game?

Looking at our opponents; they won the game comfortably, kept the same player in goal who had little to do all game, kept their 3 strongest players on the field for the whole game and in the same positions. This is the case with pretty much every team we have played, I can't recall any team swapping their GK. I'm not having a go at them, they obviously want to play as well as they can and probably measure success on results to some extent, but this is u8 "non competitive" football. The fact we lost doesn't bother me at all, but it was disheartening to see us play way below our normal level.

So my question to everyone is do you rotate your players regularly? What are your thoughts? Is there a balance to it?

Personally I'm looking at the long term picture with our players, but sometimes feel parents really want to see results, trying to strike the balance!!


Below is an article by Nick Levett from a couple of seasons ago, clearly a good argument for rotating. 

 http://www.thefa.com/news/my-football/players/2013/dec/to-stick-or-twist-141213

Passing and Receiving games (Foundation Ages)

Ball mastery is usually the top priority for coaches who are involved in the early ages of the game. Teaching our players the fundamentals of passing and receiving is usually the base to move onto other topics. I thought it would be useful to share some ideas i have picked up and used over the past couple of years. I have been using the sessions below for u6-u8 but they can of course be adapted to suit. Got any ideas on how these can be progressed for your age group? Let me know!


Passing shapes 

Players working in groups of 3. Each player starts on a side and starts the practice by passing the ball to each other, emphasis on not letting the ball go miles outside of the square. I usually challenge players to get X number of "perfect passes" in, challenge them to do 10 as quick as they can etc.

Progression ideas

• Once you have passed you must move to the free side of the square.
• Ensure that the person on the ball has a player either side of them (support play).
• Play one touch passes when possible. 

 Can be used with different shapes to suit numbers.

Move onto making it opposed. 

Challenges now:

• Try not to let your first touch go back into the square. Why? Defender is in there! 
• If you don't have the ball, try to move so you are not "hiding" behind the defending player.
• Try to play passes away from defender.  

Wall passes

 Usually used as a warm up but can be a good game to begin a passing and receiving session. 4 players begin outside the area as "bounce players" the other players work in the middle with a ball each. Players look to use each player once/twice before finishing, usually make this a bit of a race for the younger players.

 A big emphasis to begin with will be communication; players will try and send 2 or 3 balls at the same bounce player. Must ensure bounce player is ready for our pass!

Challenge players to think about how they can get around quicker,perhaps pass and move into the next quarter.

Importance of bounce player return pass: do they want back to their feet or in space? What triggers can we use (movement of player).

Can we take our first touch toward the next bounce player we want to use?


Another version can be used that is slightly more geared toward support play (player either side of the ball).

Passing gate

A practice that is probably already in most coaches locker, but always an excellent game for players just starting out. Can start it off really simple by having a gate per pair and challenging them to pass through the gate. Move up to trying to get as many gates as you can in 1 minute etc. 

 Can progress to introducing gate guards. Now can the players find and use the free gates to get easy points. 

Other progressions:

• Wall passes: one player in the pair plays one touch if possible through the gates. 
•  Players dribble though gate then look to pass to partner (support play).

Dribble ball 

Inspired from the youth module 1; players in a group of 3 or 4 look to keep the ball away from a defender who must also dribble a ball around whilst trying to intercept passes.

This is a great game for younger players to practice keeping possession opposed but not fully as the defender will be slowed down. This slower pace of practice helps player to build decision making skills.

• First touch: can you take your first touch away from defender, protect the ball.
• Movement of players, help the player on the ball, try not to hide behind defender. 
• When might we need to think about passing?

You'll notice that these games are not directional. Theses games are used to give players plenty of repetition to help build technical skills. I personally combine these games with more directional "game like" practices.

These drills were made using the FA Coaches App, which is available to download via the app store.