The Coach Diary Football Blog

Author: The Coach Diary

  • Albert moves to Dubai

    Albert moves to Dubai

    The very last FCB coaching clinic Albert Benaiges did was The Champion FCB at Carton House in February.

    Benaiges leaves for Dubai

    Albert Benaiges, technical director of the FCB Escola, has accepted an offer to join Al Wasl Football Club in Dubai from July.

    Benaiges will work as technical director of the Dubai based club’s youth system, overseeing the structure of its coaching programmes. Founded in 1960, Al Wasl FC plays in the United Arab Emirates League at the Zabeel Stadium.

    Future agreement

    FC Barcelona has given its full support to Albert Benaiges on this new venture, and wishes to publicly thank him for the dedication he has always shown to the club. Benaiges will be returning to FC Barcelona when his time at Al Wasl Football comes to an end.

    Grateful to the club

    The current technical director of the FCB Escola has thanked FC Barcelona for accepting his decision. Benaiges says he hopes to “transfer La Masia’s philosophy and the way we work here” to his new club, and knows that “Barça’s success has been fundamental in making them interested in me … This is a very interesting sporting challenge at a club that has some excellent facilities”.

    Almost 20 years with Barça

    Albert Benaiges has been at FC Barcelona since for 19 years, having arrived in 1990 and worked here over two stages, and has always worked in youth football. In recognition of this, Benaiges was one of the club’s representatives at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Zurich.

    The Coach Diary would like to wish Albert all the best in his new position.

  • Dutch Vision V Irish Vision

    Dutch Vision V Irish Vision

    The Dutch believe that football is learned by playing the game. They do not believe that the actions should be separate training sessions.

    This means that everything in practice should include the natural progression of the game, regardless of theme. There should be a build up, goal scoring, preventing a build up, and denying scoring. Basically, Attacking, defending and transition.

    Vision on Football

    What’s the aim of the game? – What are the characteristics of the game? – What is the structure of the game?

    The Dutch Way

    Individual development and team development – Youth development is a joined responsibility of the Association and the Clubs – The best players play with the best against the best. – Talented players have about 6 training sessions and 1 or 2 competitive games per week. – Well educated and football experienced coaches for talented players.

    Youth Development Process – “Developing Football Actions”

    • At U6 the objective is simple. The players should be learning to control the ball, the fundamental stage.
    • U7 through U9. Goal oriented actions with the ball. (Beating an opponent to score)
    • U10 through U11. Learning to play goal oriented together. The players must be introduced at this age to the concept of needing each other to be successful. Understanding teamwork.
    • U12 through U13. Learning to play from a basic task. This entails build up and scoring when in possession and disturbing a build up and preventing scoring when defending. This is accomplished by functional positional training that begins with simplified versions of the game tasks, then moves to 11v11 by the end of practice to see if there is transference.
    • U14 through U15. Fine tuning the basic tasks as a team.
    • U16 through U17. Playing as a team. The emphasis is learning to be a team player by understanding how the individual ability benefits the team.
    • U18 through U19. Learning how to be competitive.

    This is a very condensed version of the Dutch vision, but an interesting methodology with a  journey with a vision and a destination.

     

    Let us look at Irish Way

    I have my won way, you have your own way and they have their own way! Can you see the problem with ours? The problem is this, all clubs are doing something different, all leagues have different systems, some are competitive upto a certain age and some have intelligently introduced non competitive leagues. To be frankly honest I dont know what are vision is (I know what mine is) and the FAI have theirs! The player pathway was designed for player development from a young age, right up to the Training to win stage but the early phases can’t be implemented properly whilst we continue to have competitive leagues at 7s, 8s,9s and so on. Every nation should have a destination about what their playing style is, but we dont.

    The difference between the Dutch and us is that everyone in Holland is singing from the same hymn sheet, Everyone in Ireland has the same song but the lyrics they are teaching are different.

    I think the comparison speaks for itself. You draw your own conclusions.

    TheDutchVision PDF DOC

    -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 and @LetTheKidPlay

  • “let the kids talk”

    “let the kids talk”

    The art of asking questions.  You might say, what questions well we as coaches too often provide solutions immediately to our players without letting them learn on their own. I did a bit of statistical research and found a couple of very interesting bits of knowledge that really show how important it is to let the kids speak.

    Studies have found that students typically remember only 19 percent of what a teacher taught them 3 months ago. However recall increased to 32 percent when the information was demonstrated.

    Now here’s the real goal. Students that were given the chance to develop information on their own (with the teacher’s assistance) had a recall rate of 65 percent after 3 months.

    So how do we help player’s originate info on their own?

    As coaches we must develop the art of asking questions. Kids learn better when they have the opportunity to answer questions instead of being told solutions or answers.

    Ask questions that require descriptive answers. Avoid yes/no questions as these limit the player’s ability to deeply explore answers.

    Every coach is guilty of providing solutions instead of drawing the answers out of the players. I too sometimes rush and don’t ask, and on more than one occasion. It’s a change in coaching style that I am working on.

    I encourage you to do the same.

  • Shhhh “it’s just a game” Silent Sideline

    Shhhh “it’s just a game” Silent Sideline

    Silent Sidelines

    I first heard about this idea some years back even before I set up this blog. It’s something I have been meaning to try and push with all the leagues across the country.

    Too often in kids sports; adults, parents and coaches become overly vocal in their approach to working with young athletes. However well-intentioned some of them may be, the results are not always positive. With a Silent Weekend, the coaches and parents are asked to keep talking to a bare minimum on the sidelines. One coach from each team will be given the task to instruct, whilst everyone else stays silent. Supporters are allowed to clap to show their enthusiasm but fans are restricted from coaching their kids from the sideline. This is a weekend when kids can make decisions for themselves without having adults shout 5/6 different instructions at them.

    • No Shouting instructions.
    • No Shouting at the ref.
    • No Shouting at the opposition.
    • Absolutely No shouting when a player is about to receive to ball or pass it.

    With the sidelines quiet, players have the chance to make their own split-second decisions on the pitch and learn by them. Instead of being distracted by the stream of noise that usually exists, the kids on the pitch get the opportunity to communicate with one another, deciding who will take the throw ins, the goal-kicks, free-kicks or the corner kicks etc. This also gives them time to think and focus on what they are about to do.

    The focus of the weekend is not to take the atmosphere out of the kids game but instead try and encourage less coaching from the line. I want every team in Ireland in organised leagues in ever sport to conform the ‘Silent’ weekend. Not everyone is going to agree with this idea, but one thing is for sure, the kids will!!!

    I’m aware that many teams have some great coaches & parents who may already give minimal instruction and focus on the positives in a game more than others. This exercise is to highlight the over coaching from adults on the sideline across all kids sports in Ireland including soccer. I think a lot of kids will benefit from this even, if they are use to hearing encouraging words every week.

    You can be sure that one population that favours the silence is the referees. “They will love this, and I’m sure they would love to have it every weekend.

    The response will be superb, from both kids and adults and another step in the right direction. Lets make this happen; we can start by getting people to share this post! 

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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

  • Competition Time

    Competition Time

    Competition for YOU and our new friend…Be in with a chance to WIN 2 pairs NIKE Football Boots for the KIDS, size1 & size2 When you click “Like on our Facebook page. All you have to do is ask your friends to ‘Like’ our page.

    Don’t forget to tell your friends to tell us that it was you who suggested them to LIKE US.

    (Place a comment on our page)

    Competition closes March 10th. Names drawn from a hat! “You will automatically be entered into the contest”

    Terms and conditions apply

  • Get off my back

    Get off my back

    No Parents allowed!

    In Ontario Canada they have been asking Parents of players who participate in Saturday and Sunday sports to simply drop off their children and leave, the no-parent rule has been running for over 10 years and in a recent article a coordinator of the Youth soccer club, says the no parent rule is very popular with the kids, but not so with the parent.

    In all kinds of different ways adults send message to their children about how and why they should play sports, how important are these games and these score, what they achieve on the pitch, in the gym or in the pool. We need to take a step back to tone down the attention and seriousness; parents can make great leaps towards releasing some of the pressures that take hold in the stands and on the sidelines. I think in Ireland we are lucky that junior soccer is not shown on Terrestrial television as this would only influence the competitiveness of the sport. Unlike in the US where they show junior hockey & basketball games, soccer youth championships etc

    The reality is that many kids are paying a price every day, in many different ways. Emotional and Physical hurt all for the price of a win, repetitive-use injuries and total burnout. Since i started this site, I have heard so many stories of young boys and girls walking away from various sports all because of parent and coach pressure to win games. We might not notice it but children are being victimized physically or psychologically by this system of competitiveness at early ages by a coach or even the child’s own parent. This may sound extreme and have no relevance to your child or your team and you may be right, but you would also be wrong because the pressure kids are under within current soccer systems at times are what leads to what I’m talking about and have a lot to do with your child!

    How often do we ask are children if playing sports continues to be fun for them?  I mean we never hit our kids if they play badly, but do you offer rewards for when they play well? Do you pay money for goals scored? Are you the type to analyze your kid’s performance all the way home from the game? Maybe the coach does this? I read recently that up to 60% of children who play some kind of sport in an organised system will drop out of that sport by the time they are 13.

    How many kids now opt for gym over team sports, to many for my liking! And what it the main cause of this? Overheated competitive leagues, they way they operate and the way they demand so much are the main reasons for driving kids away and many reports done on this believe that if changes were made to the way these systems were run from the top down, kids leaving sport would be significantly lower. Basically, “we just push a lot of kids out” and it’s as simple as that.

    The number 1 reason for boys and Girls who dropped out of sports was “I was no longer interested”.  Keep an eye out for reason kids walk away from sports.

  • Are we getting somewhere?

    Are we getting somewhere?

    Latest News……..

    Steps are being made for drastic changes to the under age set-up; do you agree with all the changes I have been writing about? Let me know your feelings towards the small sided game?