Month: December 2012

Categories
The Coach Diary

Happy New Year Everyone

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

This last one has convinced me even more, that change is a good thing and that their is nothing wrong with it, once it’s in the right direction. To all the great people out there, educating kids and providing them with knowledge and inspiring them to be better players and better people, I salute you all! Most of us our volunteers, we do this for the love of the game and because we are good teachers and we enjoying seeing what we do on a training ground transferred to the pitch. Remember we teach more by what we are, then by what we say and sometimes questions are more important then answers.

“Don’t change because a New Year is coming up, but change for your own personal growth no matter what the resolution you make, they start with you.”

Some of my favourite quotes of the year: 

“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.”

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”

“Nothing is more annoying than a low man raised to a high position”.

“Change is inevitable in a progressive country, Change is constant.”

“If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.”

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

“It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change.”

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

“Example isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.”

“Instruction does not prevent waste of time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all.”

“To teach is to learn twice.”

Happy New Year Everyone 

‘Let the kids Play’

Categories
FCBarcelona Ireland

Barcelona’s Seven Secrets to Success – By Simon Kuper

I love Barca’s philosophy and having spent a few days at the Academy, witnessing with my own eyes the beautiful way they teach kids, I’m always delighted to come across more insight into the way they play and coach.

Simon Kuper  is a British author. He writes about sports “from an anthropologic perspective. He is the author of several superb books, including “Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World’s Most Popular Sports,” and “Soccernomics.”

He is also a journalist for the Financial Times

This what he wrote.. Starts Here>

We all see that Barcelona are brilliant. The only problem is understanding just how they do it. That’s where my friend Albert Capellas comes in. Whenever he and I run into each other somewhere in Europe, we talk about Barça. Not many people know the subject better. Capellas is now assistant manager at Vitesse Arnhem in Holland, but before that he was coordinator of Barcelona’s great youth academy, the Masia. He helped bring a boy named Sergio Busquets from a rough local neighbourhood to Barça. He trained Andres Iniesta and Victor Valdes in their youth teams. In all, Capellas worked nine years for his hometown club. During our last conversation, over espressos in an Arnhem hotel, I had several “Aha” moments. I have watched Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona umpteen times, but only now am I finally beginningto see. Guardiola’s Barcelona are great not merely because they have great players. They also have great tactics – different not just from any other team today, but also different from Barcelona teams pre-Guardiola. Barça are now so drilled on the field that in some ways they are more like an American gridiron football team than a soccer one. Before getting into the detail of their game, it’s crucial to understand just how much of it comes from Guardiola.

When a Barcelona vice president mused to me four years ago that she’d like to see the then 37-year-old Pep be made head coach, I never imagined it would happen. Guardiola was practically a novice. The only side he had ever coached was Barça’s second team. However, people in the club who had worked with him – men like the club’s then president Joan Laporta, and the then director of football Txiki Beguiristain – had already clocked him as special. Not only did Guardiola know Barcelona’s house style inside out. He also knew how it could be improved. Guardiola once compared Barcelona’s style to a cathedral.

Johan Cruijff, he said, as Barça’s supreme player in the 1970s and later as coach, had built the cathedral. The task of those who came afterwards was to renovate and update it. Guardiola is always looking for updates. If a random person in the street says something interesting about the game, Guardiola listens. He thinks about football all the time. He took ideas from another Dutch Barcelona manager, Louis van Gaal, but also from his years playing for Brescia and Roma in Italy, the home of defence. Yet because Guardiola has little desire to explain his ideas to the media, you end up watching Barça without a codebook. Cruijff was perhaps the most original thinker in football’s history, but most of his thinking was about attack. He liked to say that he didn’t mind conceding three goals, as long as Barça scored five. Well, Guardiola also wanted to score five, but he minded conceding even one. If Barcelona is a cathedral, Guardiola has added the buttresses. In Barça’s first 28 league games this season, they have let in only 22 goals. Here are some of “Pep”’s innovations, or the secrets of FC Barcelona:

1. Pressure on the ball

Before Barcelona played Manchester United in the Champions League final at Wembley last May, Alex Ferguson said that the way Barça pressured their opponents to win the ball back was “breathtaking”. That, he said, was Guardiola’s innovation. Ferguson admitted that United hadn’t known how to cope with it in the Champions League final in Rome in 2009. He thought it would be different at Wembley. It wasn’t. Barcelona start pressing (hunting for the ball) the instant they lose possession. That is the perfect time to press because the opposing player who has just won the ball is vulnerable. He has had to take his eyes off the game to make his tackle or interception, and he has expended energy. That means he is unsighted, and probably tired. He usually needs two or three seconds to regain his vision of the field. So Barcelona try to dispossess him before he can give the ball to a better-placed teammate. Furthermore, if the guy won the ball back in his own defence, and Barcelona can instantly win it back again, then the way to goal is often clear. This is where Lionel Messi’s genius for tackling comes in. The little man has such quick reflexes that he sometimes wins a tackle a split-second after losing one. The Barcelona player who lost the ball leads the hunt to regain it. But he never hunts alone. His teammates near the ball join him. If only one or two Barça players are pressing, it’s too easy for the opponent to pass around them.

2. The “five-second rule”

If Barça haven’t won the ball back within five seconds of losing it, they then retreat and build a compact ten-man wall. The distance between the front man in the wall (typically Messi) and their last defender (say, Carles Puyol) is only 25 to 30 metres. It’s hard for any opponent to pass their way through such a small space. The Rome final was a perfect demonstration of Barcelona’s wall: whenever United won the ball and kept it, they faced eleven precisely positioned opponents, who stood there and said, in effect: “Try and get through this.” It’s easy for Barcelona to be compact, both when pressing and when drawing up their wall, because their players spend most of the game very near each other. Xavi and Iniesta in particular seldom stray far from the ball. Cruijff recently told the former England manager Steve McClaren, now with FC Twente in Holland: “Do you know how Barcelona win the ball back so quickly? It’s because they don’t have to run back more than 10 metres as they never pass the ball more than 10 metres.”

3. More rules of pressing

Once Barcelona have built their compact wall, they wait for the right moment to start pressing again. They don’t choose the moment on instinct. Rather, there are very precise prompts that tell them when to press. One is if an opponent controls the ball badly. If the ball bounces off his foot, he will need to look downwards to locate it, and at that moment he loses his overview of the pitch. That’s when the nearest Barcelona players start hounding him. There’s another set prompt for Barça to press: when the opposing player on the ball turns back towards his own goal. When he does that, he narrows his options: he can no longer pass forward, unless Barcelona give him time to turn around again. Barcelona don’t give him time. Their players instantly hound the man, forcing him to pass back, and so they gain territory.

4. The “3-1 rule”

If an opposing player gets the ball anywhere near Barcelona’s penalty area, then Barça go Italian. They apply what they call the “3-1 rule”: one of Barcelona’s four defenders will advance to tackle the man with the ball, and the other three defenders will assemble in a ring about two or three metres behind the tackler. That provides a double layer of protection. Guardiola picked this rule up in Italy. It’s such a simple yet effective idea that you wonder why all top teams don’t use it.

5. No surprise

When Barcelona win the ball, they do something unusual. Most leading teams treat the moment the ball changes hands – “turnover”, as it’s called in basketball – as decisive. At that moment, the opponents are usually out of position, and so if you can counterattack quickly, you have an excellent chance of scoring. Teams like Manchester United and Arsenal often try to score in the first three seconds after winning possession. So their player who wins the ball often tries to hit an instant splitting pass. Holland – Barcelona’s historic role models – do this too. But when a Barcelona player wins the ball, he doesn’t try for a splitting pass. The club’s attitude is: he has won the ball, that’s a wonderful achievement, and he doesn’t need to do anything else special. All he should do is slot the ball simply to the nearest teammate. Barcelona’s logic is that in winning the ball, the guy has typically forfeited his vision of the field. So he is the worst-placed player to hit a telling ball. This means that Barcelona don’t rely on the element of surprise. They take a few moments to get into formation, and then pretty much tell their opponents, “OK, here we come.” The opposition knows exactly what Barça are going to do. The difficulty is stopping it. The only exception to this rule is if the Barça player wins the ball near the opposition’s penalty area. Then he goes straight for goal.

6. Possession is nine-tenths of the game

Keeping the ball has been Barcelona’s key tactic since Cruijff’s day. Most teams don’t worry about possession. They know you can have oodles of possession and lose. But Barcelona aim to have 65 or 70 per cent of possession in a game. Last season in Spain, they averaged more than 72 per cent; so far this year, they are at about 70 per cent. The logic of possession is twofold. Firstly, while you have the ball, the other team can’t score. A team like Barcelona, short on good tacklers, needs to defend by keeping possession. As Guardiola has remarked, they are a “horrible” team without the ball. Secondly, if Barça have the ball, the other team has to chase it, and that is exhausting. When the opponents win it back, they are often so tired that they surrender it again immediately. Possession gets Barcelona into a virtuous cycle. Barça are so fanatical about possession that a defender like Gerald Pique will weave the most intricate passes inside his own penalty area rather than boot the ball away. In almost all other teams, the keeper at least is free to boot. In the England side, for instance, it’s typically Joe Hart who gives the ball away with a blind punt. This is a weakness of England’s game, but the English attitude seems to be that there is nothing to be done about it: keepers can’t pass. Barcelona think differently. Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid’s coach and Barcelona’s nemesis, has tried to exploit their devotion to passing. In the Bernabeu in December, Madrid’s forwards chased down Valdes from the game’s first kickoff, knowing he wouldn’t boot clear. The keeper miscued a pass, and Karim Benzema scored after 23 seconds. Yet Valdes kept passing, and Barcelona won 1-3. The trademark of Barcelona-raised goalkeepers – one shared only by Ajax-raised goalkeepers, like Edwin van der Sar – is that they can all play football like outfield players.

7. The “one-second rule”

No other football team plays the Barcelona way. That’s a strength, but it’s also a weakness. It makes it very hard for Barça to integrate outsiders into the team, because the outsiders struggle to learn the system. Barcelona had a policy of buying only “Top Ten” players – men who arguably rank among the ten best footballers on earth – yet many of them have failed in the Nou Camp. Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did, while even David Villa, who knew Barcelona’s game from playing it with Spain, ended up on the bench before breaking his leg. Joan Oliver, Barcelona’s previous chief executive, explained the risk of transfers by what he called the “one-second rule”. The success of a move on the pitch is decided in less than a second. If a player needs a few extra fractions of a second to work out where his teammate is going, because he doesn’t know the other guy’s game well, the move will usually break down. A new player can therefore lose you a match in under a second. Pedro isn’t a great footballer, but because he was raised in the Masia he can play Barcelona’s game better than stars from outside. The boys in the Masia spend much of their childhood playing passing games, especially Cruijff’s favorite, six against three. Football, Cruijff once said, is choreography. Nobody else thinks like that. That’s why most of the Barcelona side is homegrown. It’s more a necessity than a choice. Still, most of the time it works pretty well.  

You can follow Simon on twitter @KuperSimon

-End

I always like to hear your opinions and views. If you feel you have something to say, please comment below or email me info@thecoachdiary.com If, you don’t have anything to add then please forward this on to a friend. As always, thanks for reading.

I’m also on twitter @Coachdiary

Categories
Coaching

Possession is Nine-tenths of the Game – By Inside Soccer

Why us possession games in training? 

The most basic reason for using possession games in training is because they are CLOSELY RELATED TO REAL GAME SITUATIONS.

While there may be a compelling argument to hone technique with “choreographed” drills, it is in opposed situations where players have to problem-solve, analyze, decide and execute under pressure. Isn’t that exactly what happens in the game?

Look at Spain

This is the type of method many clubs in Spain are using with their young players, because opposition and pressure is exactly what they will encounter during regular competitive games. And rather than small-sided games, its the multi-player game that is practiced, played on a bigger field, again because it replicates the real thing.

The rationale is that the real game is played by 22 players, so if as near that number is incorporated in the training sessions, then real game situations will be created.

In most games, no matter which teams are involved, the possession of the ball changes fairly continually. A team that attacks and loses the ball also loses the initiative and must adjust to regain possession as quickly as possible to re-establish control of the game. These changes are crucial for the development of the players’ soccer skills. The more players that are on the field means that players have to make quicker decisions and execute skills and techniques more rapidly. Isn’t that exactly what happens in games?

 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Indeed, players who operate in multi-player games must be capable of making instant decisions. The capacity to choose the correct option in any given situation is a crucial factor in the development of players. Those who need to get the ball to their feet before deciding what to do with it will not be very successful. On the contrary those who know what they will do with the ball before it even arrives, will stand out as having the necessary technical abilities to get to the higher levels of the game.

This is one aspect that truly defines the great players. The ones who can anticipate their opponents movements, are aware of their teammates positions and can execute skills with quality and precision. Consequently, young players must become accustomed to thinking before they receive the ball, and should, therefore, be continually put in situations where that is necessary.

We are all learning

One of the main features in training young players is that they must take responsibility for their own learning. As Horst Wein writes “ In modern and effective football training the developer/teacher replaces the coach/instructor, allowing the players to construct their own learning”

Coaches shouldnt try to dictate every movement of the players. Instead let them experiment and discover solutions for themselves. This method will reap rewards in the long run even if mistakes are made in the short term, which itself is something many coaches today must learn to handle effectively. Its the developer/teacher who will subtly control the level of difficulty, introducing variations to rules or dimensions at the right time, allowing players sufficient time to familiarize themselves with all situations.

Offense & Defence, go hand-in-hand

Alberto Giraldez, for many years the Academy Director at Real Madrid points out “When constructing possession games its important for coaches to understand that the attacking team is often at its most vulnerable when they lose the ball. Thus emphasis on attacking play should be matched with a desire to get into a balanced shape once possession is lost”.

Accordingly, practice games should include such situations, allowing players to enjoy keeping possession, but changing the mentality and instilling a desire to win the ball back when possession is lost. Training games like these played at high intensity make it possible to work on attacking and defending principles simultaneously.

However, particularly at Real Madrid, Giraldez does go on to say,

“We do not encourage players to play just on instinct, physicality and energy…….what we want is the thinking player”

Keep it Fun

Most youngsters play soccer because they want to have fun. Some of the more “supervising” coach/instructors feel the need to impart their knowledge on the players, and so constantly stop drills and practices to tell the players what they know. What they fail to understand is that it is possible to play and learn at the same time. How many times have you witnessed players involved in drills far removed from the game itself, often standing in lines waiting to follow the coaches orders? In Spain, for many years, and obviously paying dividends now, the emphasis is on self-learning, motivation and hard work but having fun at the same time. Playing multi-player games stimulates all these aspects.

The Competitive Element

Most coaches agree that winning games is not the first priority for teaching young players. Particularly at the younger ages, the search for learning by playing well is far more valuable than the simple sum of three points for winning a game.

Therefore, the focus should always be on the satisfaction of playing well and working hard on development of the tactics practiced during the weeks.

Extracts taken from “Possession: Play Football The Spanish Way”– A coaching guide and collection of possession games for youth teams: by Jesus Enrique Gutierrez Mayor. – former Real Madrid coach, now with Madrid Football 
 Federation. (I highly recommend this book)

** copies of the book, published in different languages, can be obtained by contacting:
 jesus Gutierrez <susen_31@yahoo.es> mention my website for a discount.

TCD: This post was taken from Inside Soccer’s blog. I highly recommend this website, it has everything you need to know about coaching soccer. 

Follow Jesus on twitter @Susen_31

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I always like to hear your opinions. Please comment below or email me info@thecoachdiary.com If, you don’t have anything to add then please forward this on to a friend. Thanks for reading. I’m also on twitter @Coachdiary

Categories
Irish Grassroots Football

The Future of Youth Development in Irish Football: Lessons from Home and Abroad

 

I’m off to London on Thursday to attend a debate about the Future of Irish Football. It will be held  at Birkbeck College, University of London.

There is an excellent panel of experts assembled and this promises to be an excellent discussion that will appeal to anyone with an interest in Irish football or youth development in general.

 

 

A Roundtable Discussion

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London – UCL)
Medawar Building
Malet Place (off Torrington Place)
London WCI

Thursday 6th December 2012 at 6pm (For directions click here)

This event will operate under “Chatham House Rules” – no external reporting without the permission of the speakers

Synopsis

Ireland has long enjoyed a very successful record of producing talented young football players many of whom have gone on to enjoy successful playing careers in English football. Perhaps the high point was during the 1997-1998 period. Under the managership of Brian Kerr, the Republic of Ireland won the bronze medal in the 1997 World Youth Championship. In 1998 the national team won the UEFA European U16 and U18 championships. The squad included players who went on to be household names including: Richard Dunne, Robbie Keane, John O’Shea, and Damien Duff.

This success demonstrated that, despite Ireland’s small population size, it was possibly for a well-organised and coached Irish team to compete at the highest level.

However, whilst the recent wonderful result by the Republic of Ireland U-21 team against Italy demonstrated again Ireland’s capacity to produce great playing talent, the challenge remains as to how this process can be made more consistent and sustainable over time. This is a challenge that Ireland shares with other countries; witness the English Premier League’s substantial investment in youth development through its Elite Player Performance Plan; and the English FA’s investment in the National Football Centre at Burton on Trent. Football remains what it has always been, an intensively competitive sport. A successful youth development programme remains an absolutely fundamental foundation if Irish teams are to stay competitive in the future.

This Roundtable Discussion brings together three very experienced figures from the world of football development to debate how the organisation of Irish youth football development might be taken forward. A key focus of the discussion is a comparison between the best practice currently in existence in Ireland, with that in England and in Scandinavia.

Amongst the key questions to be addressed:

  • How can Ireland overcome the resource constraints presented by the current macro-economic crisis?
  • Is there a more efficient way to organise the structure of youth football development in Ireland?
  • Does the established pathway of Irish players to English football in particular blind Irish talent to the wider possibilities of career development in other European countries?

The Roundtable Panel

Chairman – Peter Clarke

Peter Clarke graduated from the Birkbeck MSc in Sport Management and the Business of Football programme in 2011 with a Distinction. From Dublin, Peter works in the finance industry and has lived in London since 1999. He also holds a MA in Economics from University College Dublin and is a professionally qualified investment analyst. His research interest at Birkbeck was financial instability in professional football. Peter has been a supporter of both the League of Ireland and the Irish national team since the late 1970s and until he moved to London he played in the Leinster Senior League.

Pat Walker

Pat Walker is a UEFA Pro Diploma level A coach, and graduate of the 2 year Sport Psychology Application education programme at Örebro University in Sweden. He was the first professional to represent his native town Carlow in an Irish national team (U-21.) He was a professional footballer with Gillingham FC in England for 7 years. Following a short spell with Leicester City, he enjoyed a successful playing career in Swedish elite football, first with BK Häcken and then with GIF Sundsvall. Since the early 1990’s he has managed Elite clubs in both Sweden and Norway. High points were promotion to the Premier Leagues in both countries with Örebro and Sandefjord. Through his long experience in Scandinavian football he is in strong position to offer an informed critique of the approach to youth and football development both in Ireland and the UK.

Niall Harrison

Niall Harrison is National Coordinator, the Emerging Talent Programme, at the Football Association of Ireland, and has held this post since 2006. He is also Head Coach of the Under 15 Republic of Ireland boys’ team. He holds a UEFA A coaching license. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University in the United States. He played in the League of Ireland with Sligo Rovers, and represented the Republic of Ireland at U18 level in 1982 when the now well-known Irish football media analyst, Eamon Dunphy, was the manager.

Seamus Kelly

Dr. Seamus Kelly is a former professional soccer player in the UK (with Cardiff City) and in the League of Ireland. Seamus is currently lecturing at UCD and Dublin Institute of Technology. His research examines aspects of management in professional soccer and he has consulted with numerous Irish & UK sports organisations on its application. Seamus has played for the Irish Universities, Irish Beach Soccer & Irish National League teams and has one Irish ‘B’ cap. Seamus also has goalkeeping coaching experience with Shamrock Rovers, Drogheda United and Shelbourne.

Selected Publications

  • Kelly, S. (2011). A Best Practice Model of Player Recruitment and Assessment in Professional Soccer. Presentation at the European Association for Sport Management Congress. Madrid, Sept 2011.
  • Kelly, S. (2011). The Role of Coaching Qualifications in Professional Football in the UK and Ireland. Presentation at the 10th Annual International Conference on Sports. Athens, June 2011.
  • Kelly, S. (2009). The recruitment of Professional Soccer Players in the UK and Ireland. Presentation at the European Association for Sport Management Congress. Amsterdam, Sept 2009.
  • Kelly, S. (2008). Understanding the Role of the Football Manager in Britain and Ireland: A Weberian Approach. European Sport Management Quarterly. 8 (4), 399-419
  • Kelly, S. & Waddington, I. (2006). Abuse, Intimidation and Violence as Aspects of Managerial Control in Professional Soccer in Britain and Ireland. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 41 (2), 147-164.

For further details on the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre Seminar Series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Sean Hamil CV

1. Premierleague.com (22nd October 2012). About Youth Development. Premierleague.com. Downloaded on 30th November 2012, from: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/youth/about-youth-development.html; and, Premierleague.com (27th July 2012). First Clubs Complete EPPP Academy Audit. Premierleague.com. Downloaded on 30th November 2012, from: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/first-clubs-complete-eppp-academy-audit.html
2. Thefa.com. The Future Game. Thefa.com.  Downloaded on 30th November 2012, from:http://www.thefa.com/st-georges-park/discover/coaching/the-future-game.
3. FAI.ie. Emerging Talent. FAI.ie. Downloaded on 30th November 2012, from: http://www.fai.ie/player-development/emerging-talent.html

Content taken from: http://www.sportbusinesscentre.com/news/2012-12-03