The Coach Diary Football Blog

Category: Irish Grassroots Football

  • An opportunity to play in the US

    An opportunity to play in the US

    A new company has set up in the USA aimed at recruiting the best in soccer talent that Ireland has to offer and setting them up with scholarships to top universitites in the USA.

    Who

    Soccerscoutusa.com – The company has been set up by a licenced FIFA agent who also spent some time in the US as a College athlete.

    This could be an excellent opportunity for young enthusiastic players who wish to achieve a great education while playing football, could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

    When & Where

    Monday September 26th 2011 @ Morton Stadium Santry 5.30pm if you know of any players interested in attending they must register at website below.

    For more information look onto http://www.soccerscoutusa.com/

    Note: Please be advised that I have no connection to this site or organisation.

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  • The 10,000 Hour Rule

    The 10,000 Hour Rule

    The kids aren’t practicing enough and our system is not helping them to succeed, not allowing the required touches of the ball, to be brilliant players.

    Now we have another problem, not only are the kids not touching the ball enough, research has now found that they will need to practice much more the 4-5 hours per week to be a professional player. I question our culture and attitude towards development in this country, however the 10,000 hour rule could (no evidence) help you succeed.

    There’s a cliche that says successful people aren’t born, they’re made.

    10,000 Hour Rule

    Malcolm Gladwell calls it the 10,000-Hour Rule.

    What does that mean?

    Well, if you put in the work, as in after 10,000 hours, which is roughly 20 hours a week, 2.8 hours per day for 10 years, you’ll find success, if not perfection in a sport. (This can’t be true of everyone who does this and some succeed quicker than others and some don’t succeed at all)

    If you start playing soccer by age 6 or 7 then by age 16 you should be good enough to be a pro!!!??

    It’s not that simple of course. It’s the rare person who is dedicated enough to work at something day in and day out. You must absolutely love what you do and want to be the best at that particular sport.

    Do you love the game that much?

    What’s more, you have to love what you’re doing to spend 10,000 hours working at it. That’s probably the most important factor. If you want to play professional football then you must love playing the game and trying to get better – learning constantly is what you’re after, if you want to be the best you can be.

    The idea of 10,000 hours rings true though. If you put the work in, playing football day in and day out, then you’ll get better and reach a lot of the goals you set for yourself. (It doesn’t guarantee success.)

    The three (must have) keys to success in sports are good instruction, practice and variable repetition, and most importantly – trust in your skills.

    Luck is a big part of success!!

    However, you need some luck and some help, too, you also need to have a great attitude, bad attitudes don’t succeed. Otherwise you won’t get those chances to succeed. You’ll also need a good coach, to teach you the right technique and should probably being playing with kids of the same level as you, oh and hanging with them also..

    Of course you will need support from your family. Some say it would help to have a mentor, a player who’s better than you and will help you teach the game. But, if you love playing, and love training on your own, then it’s more than likely you’ll find success.

    Sure, not everyone is going to end up playing professional football, and not everyone is going to end up playing in the English Premier League. But if you are dedicated and put in the 10,000 hours, you just might get that chance. 10,000 hours is a lot of hard work and doesn’t guarantee success or a career at the top level. In fact players have done less and achieved more

    Passion for the Game

    What’s key though is the passion for the game. If you don’t love it then you’re not going to put in those 10,000 hours. And that’s where it gets tough sometimes. Since, things aren’t always going to go exactly as planned. 

    What if you don’t make that team you really want to play on? Will you give up?

    Do you love the game so much that you’ll take it in stride and keep working so you make it next year or the year after?

    This is where good coaches, mentors and your parents come into the picture. During tough times is when you need support and some encouragement, telling you that you can do it, that you’ll get another chance to prove yourself. It’s those players, who perhaps don’t make the elite squad right away, but work at the game until they do are the ones that have a better chance at making it in the game. Players who work hard and have a belief and a lot of support, some luck, guidance and help have a better chance than most.

    How much work will put in to be successful?

    What type of player are you? Are you putting in the hours, attending training and games, listening in training, dribbling at every chance, working on ball familiarity, shooting, playing the ball against the wall, using your left and right foot, learning from other players, hanging around with like minded people, watching games on TV, watching everything the pro’s are doing, like eating well, sleeping well?… Are u playing at every single opportunity you get.

    Is the football your new best friend? 

    Malcolm says, “research has shown that you don’t have to be a natural born talent to be successful at something, hard work and over 10,000 hours of it, can achieve that”

    Malcolm Gladwell talks about 10,000 hour rule, this guy is a very interesting person and his books are certainly worth the time. 

    Click PLAY to view Malcolm interviews with CNN

    Parent Support

    Support of parent and/or guardian is essential to any child success. You must believe in what they are doing and you must not want it more then they do. Many who have come before have fallen out of love with the game at a very early age, due to adults wanting it more then they do.

    “It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it’s what you put into the practice that could be the difference.”

    Published May 4th 2011, republished  13th Sept 2011

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  • 5 Steps to Being a Winning Parent..

    5 Steps to Being a Winning Parent..

    If you want your child to come out of his youth sports experience a winner (feeling good about himself and having a healthy attitude towards sports), then he needs your help!

    You are a vital and important part of the coach-athlete-parent team. If you do your job correctly and play your position well, then your child will learn the sport faster, perform better, really have fun and have his self-esteem enhanced as a result. His sport experience will serve as a positive model for him to follow as he approaches other challenges and obstacles throughout life. If you “drop the ball” or run the wrong way with it, your child will stop learning, experience performance difficulties and blocks, and begin to really hate the sport. And that’s the good news!

    Further, your relationship with him will probably suffer significantly. As a result, he will come out of this experience burdened with feelings of failure, inadequacy and low self-esteem, feelings that will generalise to other areas in his life. Your child and his coach need you on the team. They can’t win without you!

    The following are a list of useful facts, guidelines and strategies for you to use to make you more skilled in the youth development. Remember, no wins unless everyone wins. You need to be part of the team!

    One – Compete

    Competition in YOUTH sports is both good and healthy and teaches children a variety of important life skills. The word “compete” comes from the Latin words “com” and “petere” which mean together and seeking respectively. The true definition of competition is a seeking together where your opponent is your partner, not the enemy!

    The better he performs, the more chance you have of having a peak performance. Sports is about learning to deal with challenges and obstacles. Without a worthy opponent, without any challenges sports is not so much fun. The more the challenge the better the opportunity you have to go beyond your limits. World records are consistently broken and set at the Olympics because the best athletes in the world are “seeking together”, challenging each other to enhanced performance.

    Your child should never be taught to view his opponent as the “bad guy”, the enemy or someone to be hated and “destroyed”. Do not model this attitude! Instead, talk to/make friends with parents of your child’s opponent. Applaud for great performances, great play, Fantastic save, not just for the winner!

    Two – Encourage your child to COMPETE against HIMSELF

    The ultimate goal of the sport experience is to challenge oneself and continually improve. Unfortunately, judging improvement by winning and losing is both an unfair and inaccurate measure. Winning in sports is about doing the best you can do, seperate from the outcome or how your opponent played. Children should be encouraged to compete against their own potential (i.e., Jack and Jill Potential).

    That is, the boys should focus on beating “Jack”, competing against themselves, while the girls challenge “Jill”. When your child has this focus and plays to better himself instead of beating someone else, he will be more relaxed, have more fun and therefore perform better.

    Numero 3 – Do not define success and failure in terms of Winning and Losing.

    A corollary to TWO, one of the main purposes of the youth sports experience is skill acquisition and mastery. When a child performs to his potential and loses, it is criminal to focus on the outcome and become critical. If a child plays his very best and loses, you need to help him feel like a winner! Similarly, when a child or team performs far below their potential but wins, this is not cause to feel like a winner. Help your child make this important separation between success and failure and winning and losing. Remember, if you define success and failure in terms of winning and losing, you’re playing a losing game with your child!

    Four – Be Supportive, Do not Coach!

    Your role on the parent-coach-athlete team is as a Support player with a capital S! You need to be your child’s best fan. unconditionally! Leave the coaching and instruction to the coach. Provide encouragement, support, empathy..! Coaching interferes with your role as supporter and fan. The last thing your child needs and wants to hear from you after a disappointing performance…..

    Keep your role as a parent on the team separate from that as coach, and, if by necessity you actually get stuck in the almost no-win position of having to coach your child, try to maintain this separation of roles (i.e. At the game “Now I’m talking to you as a coach”, at home say, “Now I’m talking to you as a parent”). Don’t parent when you coach and don’t coach at home when you’re supposed to be parenting.

    Five – Make Sport FUN….!

    It’s a time proven principle of peak performance that the more fun a player is having, the more they will learn and the better they will perform. FUN must be present for peak performance to happen at every level of sports from youth to world class competitor! When a child stops having fun and begins to dread practice or competition, it’s time for you as a parent to become concerned! When the sport or game becomes too serious, athletes have a tendency to burn out and become susceptible to repetitive performance problems. An easy rule of thumb: If your child is not enjoying what they are doing, nor loving it to the max, INVESTIGATE!

    What is going on that’s preventing them from having fun? Is it the coaching? The pressure? Is it you?! Keep in mind that being in a highly competitive LEAGUE does not mean that there is no room for fun. The child that continues to play long after the fun is going, will soon become a drop out statistic..FACT!!

    6 to 13 next week…

    Sports Psychology tips taken from Dr. Goldbergs Excerpts – Thank you Dr.G

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  • PaR’A’NTS are ruining their kids game..

    PaR’A’NTS are ruining their kids game..

    We are not long into the season and already parents are playing a leading role in there childs development. Some have it spot on, allowing their child enjoy the game with no pressure to win, just making sure they enjoy every minute of every game they play. They never interfere with the coaches training, tactics or player rotation. They bring their child to and from training every single week, they thank the coach after training and wish them well for the match.

    Help with your child development

    They also make sure the child is getting extra training at home if needed and requested and depending on the level their boy or girl might be playing at, they work on various aspects of the game that might enhance his or hers ability as a player, (Never pressure them with your expectations, they must decide if they want to put in some extra training). They will never push to breaking point nor will they define success and failure in terms of winning and losing.

    They are always supportive and never negative or aggressive, they are fathers or mothers and not coaches!!!

    Children hate being told what they should have done…

    Most parents that get into trouble with their children do so because they forget to remember the important position that they play. Coaching interferes with your role as supporter and fan. The last thing your child needs and wants to hear from you after a disappointing performance or loss is what they did technically or tactically wrong. Leave the coaching and instruction to the coach. Provide encouragement, support, empathy, transportation, money, help with fund-raisers, etc., but… do not coach!


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  • Horst Wein Youth Development Clinic

    Horst Wein Youth Development Clinic

    Horst Wein  Youth Football Development Clinic in Ireland…

    THE YOUTH FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT MODEL OF THE FUTURE With Horst Wein

    When:

    Weekend Clinic Friday 30th September and Saturday 1st October or Sunday 2nd October

    Where:

    White Sands Hotel, Portmarnock (and Portmarnock AFC all-weather pitch)

    To find out more and REGISTER for this  event just visit: http://thebeautifulgame.ie/hw/

     

    If you have any further enquires please email dermot@thebeautifulgame.ie

    Teaching the Horst way

     

    If you want to know how to help all your players to reach their full potential and even develop some future stars, while contributing to the playing of the beautiful game, don’t miss this opportunity to learn how –  at the inaugural Irish coaching clinic of the world’s foremost youth coach mentor…

    Horst Wein who has trained over 11,000 coaches in 54 countries over the last 25 years has created, developed and perfected (with the input of 1000’s of coaches around the world) the most complete and up-to-date YOUTH FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT MODEL


     

    Contact The Beautiful Game, Phone: 01 8464047, Mobi: 086 851 3339

    Email: dermot@thebeautifulgame.ie

    Web: www.thebeautifulgame.ie

    Paper Review click → Beautiful Game looks good in Portmarnock

    Horst Wein Resume to date →HORST WEIN Resume

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  • To big to soon……but never too late!

    To big to soon……but never too late!

    Just 2 weeks into the organised kids football season and it already its quite evident that u12s football should not be played on adults pitches with enormous goals. On average a player it getting about 12 touches of the ball per game and this is nowhere near enough for any child to develop into a gifted technical football.

    Negative – into a Positive +

    A negative could be turned into a positive and the League who are playing 11v11 at u12s could even experiment by researching a team at every single level from Top to bottom; this could be easily implemented and I’m sure clubs would have no problem helping out with this bit of research. (I for one wouldn’t)

    And when we are found to be correct, the narrowed minded people who can’t see beyond their own administration and who think that u12s (10 and 11 year old) should be playing 11v11……….might eventually open up that narrow

    and unintelligent mind to see that the reason successful footballing nations are so successful is because they play age appropriate organised sports on pitches……..with balls…….that kids can actually relate too and where keepers don’t feel beaten even before they have left the house.

    One day…..these “fruit flies” will see sense and make the changes are country school boy leagues so badly demand…We can’t continue to driven on grit and determination alone!, we need to start developing technically sound players, ones that are comfortable on the ball.

    “I don’t need to mention our national team….”

    Make the change we so desperately need…

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  • Losing by Large margins is not good…Everyone loses!

    Losing by Large margins is not good…Everyone loses!

    Parents, managers, coaches and players who end up on the wrong end of a thrashing can experience a variety of emotions such as anger, sadness, worthlessness and embarrassment.

    With the season under way most teams in league would have played 2-3 games by now and some none. Looking around the tables of various age groups I can already see some mix matches and even 2 or 3 games into a season and already some teams should not be playing at certain levels. If you team is losing 5, 6, 7 or even 10 nil then you are clearly in the wrong league and you certainly need to take some action.

    Losing by big margins can even result in players and their managers/coaches giving up the game and it’s pretty obvious that scoring goals virtually at will is not going to do anything for the development of the players on the winning team. And children on the receiving end of a 10-0 stuffing are only learning that they’re not as good as the other team.

    Thinks kids enjoyment first

    It is not good for kids at age to be losing games by large margin and if you have already lost 2 or 3 by a big score then you can be guaranteed that not much will change for the rest of the season. Its is also not good for the coaches or Mangers of the teams, as parents will most likely put the blame on you and this can lead to divisions throughout the team and friction with certain parents, particularly the competitive ones.  Also the kids will have to hear it from the parents and the journey home every weekend will not be a pleasant one

    Most of us will know if our teams are good enough to compete in a league and although 6 months in a child development is a lot of time, you have to remember that the others teams will also be improving. If you feel like your team is and will be beaten by the higher single and or double scores every week, then I suggest you take action now and call the league administrators and ask them to help your team by placing them in a league where the games will be even with evenly matched teams. Everyone wins and certainly the kids will get more enjoyment out of games where the teams are of similar ability.

    There is absolutely no point playing football against teams that are beating you by more then 4 or 5 goals every week. Every team can have a bad day and sometimes 2, but don’t try and cheat your team by staying in a higher division just because it looks better on paper.

    If the league won’t help you then maybe the opposition can and something could be done before each game to make it a fairer contest.

    What about Mercy Rules….what are they?

    Some leagues in parts of the world have tried to introduce “mercy rules” or sanctions against teams that win by “too many” goals. In Canada, one league actually brought in a rule under which any team that outscored its opponent by more than five goals was declared the loser! (Could you imagine having that rule in Ireland)

    But did it last long…Following an outcry from the clubs, this rule was rescinded and the league introduced a more traditional mercy rule instead. This stated that matches would be stopped once one team had a lead of eight goals. Whichever team was ahead at that time would be credited with the win and teams could then play on for “player development”.

    Mercy rules like this do not meet with universal approval. Many take the view that making up rules that prevent big scores just sets children up for disappointment later on. “Life’s not fair, learn to deal with it!” is a fairly common reaction.

    I don’t believe any league in Ireland any such rule…but please correct me if i’m wrong? But regardless of this, there is lot that you, as a winning coach, can do, to turn a grossly one-sided contest into a learning experience for your players.

    Turn it into a development game

    If your team is five or six goals up before half time, you’re going to win the match. To the best of my knowledge, no team (and I am prepared to be corrected here!) has ever come back from being 5-0 down in a league or cup match.

    So the game is yours. There is really no need to score any more goals even if your league takes goal difference into account.

    Instead, you can put some meaning into the remainder of the playing time by taking one or more of these actions:

    Tell your players to play two touch football!

    Children who are playing in a team that is considerably superior to their opponents often try to show off. They usually become reluctant to pass, (‘I want to score another goal!’) and try to dribble the ball into the back of the net. This is not going to do them any good in the long term so why not impose a maximum touches rule?

    But this has to done discreetly! Shouting the instruction “two touch only!” across the field would be very embarrassing for the losing team. It could even be interpreted as making fun of them.

    Require a minimum number of passes before shot can be taken

    In other words, Ask your players (again, discreetly) to make six or seven passes before they can take a shot at goal.

    Move your players

    Your goalkeeper will be getting bored by now so get her out of goal and put him/her up front. Move your defenders into attacking positions and put your strikers into defence, everyone stands to gain!

    Use your bench

    This type of match is an ideal opportunity to give your subs as much playing time as possible. As soon as you see that the match is going to be one sided, take off your “star players” and give your weaker players a chance to enjoy themselves.

    Allow the other team to have extra players or take some of your players off

    If you’re in a winning position at half time you can have a quiet word with the opposition manager and see if he wants to put an extra player or two on the pitch in the second half. Or (and this isn’t something I would do) you can make the contest more even by taking off one or two of your players.

    Personally, I think it isn’t really fair on your players to restrict their playing time in this way but it is an option.

    Stop the Game and mix them up

    If the match turns into a shooting session during the second half you can stop the game, balance the teams by mixing them up and play any remaining time as a friendly.

    Whatever you decide to do, it is imperative that you respect the opposition and always keep Code of Conduct for grassroots coaches in mind: “Place the well-being, safety and enjoyment of each player above everything, including winning”.

    So whatever you decide to do their is always a solution for the better of the kids that play, but the first and foremost think to do is make sure the kids are having enjoying playing.

    Remember this is recreational football and the first element and key focus of this game is FUN!

    Research: The Coach Diary & Dave Clarke

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