Coerver Coaching Diploma 1

This time last weekend I was undertaking the third and final Coerver Youth Diploma 1 being held in England. With courses already ran in Birmingham and London (Millwall FC) Scott Wright and his team hosted the final weekend course and Manchester Cities state of the art Etihad Campus. The 8 hours of travel via train were completely worth it as the course certainly exceeded my expectations, giving me a load of content that I will add to my coaching armory.

Prior to my attendance on the course my knowledge of Coerver and what its about was pretty limited. My impression was that this was a coaching method used mainly on the continent with young players with a high focus on working on technical skills. Course leader Scott Wright stated that people think that Coerver is solely about working on individual technical ability and 1v1 and to be honest this was probably what I had in mind prior to the first day, but I found out that it goes a lot deeper than that. The whole concept revolves around creating players who are masters of the ball and instilling these skills especially in the "golden ages" of learning (7-12 years) and coaching individuals opposed to just coaching the team aspects of the game (although small groups play and games are certainly a big part of the Coerver approach). A strong argument is that you can coach the team (positions, tactics) but this still relies on players individual ability to control the ball etc.

Lecture: Taken from Coerver UK Twitter account

On arrival we were given a course handbook which featured the key points from the 4 lectures and the games used in the practicals. For me, looking at the games (in the book) they came across as being static line drill type practices something that I have been looking to avoid in my training. But when these drills were bought to life in the practical, the benefits of the practices really stood out giving players focused, high speed and competitive practices with rest periods (although the intensity of drills can be adapted) from attending the youth module courses the idea of "line drills" comes under some criticism which is probably why I have lent away from them but I will certainly be using the Coerver style practices in the coming season. On actually watching the practices I was constantly thinking of ways these practices could be adapted in line with any given learning outcome, the course leader Scott also showed some simple adaptions than can be used. As coaches it is important that we don't just print a session off from the web or a book and use it exactly with our players. All drills/games need to be adapted to suit your players and what your looking to achieve within your session. I could see things that would work great with the groups I coach and some things that maybe wouldn't.

Yes, a blue 3G field!

I won't go in to any details on the content of the course, it's something you need to see and buy into. Do I think that the Coerver method will be beneficial to players? Absolutely! I think there is content you could take whether you coach u7 or senior level. It certainly has to be the way to build game changing 1v1 players though, and building these skills into young players will be massive in their development. Its rare to see a coach encouraging players to take on 1v1s, we've become fixed on trying to create perfect passing teams, I will be looking to make some changes in my coaching approach on the back of this course.


Despite being a fairly pricey 2 day course I would say it was completely worth it. Its unlike any of the other courses I have been on and will give you a totally different view point of coaching. If you can, I'd highly recommend dropping in on this course!