STICK IT IN THE MIXER- A Coaching Thread

[SuperBacon]

We play 7s every week on a pitch bigger than 5s (it’s an odd size that has only popped up in recent years) for an hour and 20ish with no break and we’re usually fine tbh but a full sized pitch for 90 minutes scares my lungs just thinking about it. I’m the youngest by a good 5 years, and there’s some 50 year olds that can just keep going. 

Yeah, I’m gonna ask for rolling subs. It’s only a friendly against a vets team, hardly the pinnacle of the game. 

 

[SuperBacon]

@PunkStep thought these would be of interest. Bid fiddly and basic but easy enough to use. Been using the first one for Monday nights 7 a side.

https://www.buildlineup.com/

https://www.teampro.co/

http://homecrowd.io/formations/create

[PunkStep]

Cheers mate, I managed to find a really cool app as well along these lines. Can use it for formations, tactics and training drills too (it's called Football Board):

Btw, Mustafi is the name we give to the mannequins we have on the pitch, on account of them being immobile.

[SuperBacon]

20 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Cheers mate, I managed to find a really cool app as well along these lines. Can use it for formations, tactics and training drills too (it's called Football Board):

Btw, Mustafi is the name we give to the mannequins we have on the pitch, on account of them being immobile.

Should’ve gone with Ciro.

Thanks for that, I’ll have a look.

[PunkStep]

UPDATE

Our 2019/20 league season (and my maiden season as head coach) kicks off in 6 days time. The past couple of months have been a painfully endless stream of fucking paperwork. Ah, the admin side of this role which everyone warned me about. Still, with all players registered and the team entered into the league that's surely the most painful bit out of the way now?

We've played a few friendlies over the season, as well as a tournament, to extremely varying results. Our friendly results are: Won 18-2, lost 18-7, won 11-2, lost 7-4. Madness. I've decided we're going to go full Newcastle '96. It's been 3 months since I started this thread, but it certainly feels like 3 years!!

And that's not a bad thing, I've loved every minute of it. You take the pain-in-the-arse admin and the parents (who still aren't too bad to be fair, apart from one who keeps ordering my players to 'just boot it'- is that you @Keith Houchen?) in your stride as working with the kids more than makes up for it. Although training over the summer has been hit & miss, due to the players being away on holiday at various points, we've seen improvements already and the new player (the one my son scouted and scored 6 goals on his debut) has settled in very well. We have a new kit, I have a lot of new equipment (which I find far more exciting than I should) and I've built some good relationships already with the managers/coaches of some of the other teams in our league. One of the other parents has stepped up as my assistant for this season, much like I did last season, so that helps training sessions a lot.

Disaster struck a bit last Saturday, when we were at a kids party for one of the players. My midfield visionary slipped over whilst running after they had finished playing quasar, double fracture to his arm. Out for 6 weeks The Arsenal curse begins. I've resisted the urge to bring in another player to cope during his absence, given that the other 7 players in my squad are all very reliable and turn up to pretty much every game. Plus, to quote one of my biggest inspirations for this role, when he returns he will be 'like a new signing'!

I just need to get my son to be a bit more mobile. He has an eye for a pass, and is good on the ball, but he doesn't move around the pitch as much as the rest. He's the slowest in the team (which was always going to be likely as he's small), so I think it's a psychological thing where he doesn't run as much because he thinks he can't get the before anyone else. Either that or he's just a lazy 7yo boy.

But yeah, let's see how the first month or so of competitive* football goes. I could end up having a Jose-style meltdown before Christmas.

 

*well...as competitive as it gets for under 8s youth football. Unpublished results, no league tables...more or less glorified friendlies

[Carbomb]

#PunkStepOut #InBrewsterWeTrust

[SuperBacon]

I forgot to tell everyone that in our game against the vets team a while back we got pumped 8-1. 

Still cant have been that bad as I’ve been tapped up by them and played yesterday and put in a decent shift in a 5-1 win against a team from the Southern Area Christians Veterans League (yes that’s a thing). Some of the tackles were not very Christian like I can tell you.

Starting coaching an under 8s Girls team this week as well. I’ll take that fucking Phil Neville’s job by the time I’m 40.

[PunkStep]

First game of the new league season today (and my first league game ever in charge) and a routine 6-6 draw.

Fuck me, I'm exhausted after that. I'm going to end up like Joe Kinnear if it's like this every week. 5-3 down at half time, we scored 3 goals in the last 5 mins with the equaliser coming from the last kick of the game. Our keeper got upset because he really wanted to come out on pitch so we gave him a run out in the final few mins and he grabbed one of the goals. Extremely proud of them, they didn't stop working until the final whistle. We lost 7-4 against the same side in a friendly last week.

Had to run over to the parents at half time and politely ask them to not give the players instructions i.e. telling them when to shoot, pass, dribble etc. Lo and behold, it made a big difference. Imagine trying to play a game of football and there's almost a dozen parents telling you what to do whenever you have the ball.

[PunkStep]

It's been almost 5 months since the first game of the season, so overdue a bit of an update! This season has been a wild ride. The boys have improved so much and more importantly, they all seem to be enjoying their football so much.

In November I took my Level 1 course, which meant having to miss training for 4 weeks (which I was gutted about) but it was one of the best things I have ever done. As well as learning so much about coaching, teaching, safeguarding and being a role model, it was great fun. 4 weeks of talking about football, learning about coaching football and then playing football with the other coaches- what's not to like about that?! I went back to training with new ideas overflowing from my head.

We have endured some awful pitch conditions over the past 2 months, which has resulted in postponed games galore and mud baths when games have gone ahead. We won our first cup game a couple of weeks ago, against a team that beat us comfortably twice last season. I have two players battling to be top scorer for us this season and everyone is a genuine contender for most improved player of the season. We've already won more games so far than we did throughout the entire last season and this is all through persevering with our philosophy and technical style. They are not the biggest, strongest or fastest but they are damn good with the ball at their feet! There is no greater joy than watching them string a load of quick passes together and celebrate after a team goal. I've been putting our goalkeeper out on pitch for the last 10 mins of each game to help with his development- he's now our third top scorer! He's our Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (the supersub player, not the crap manager).

Our visionary midfielder recovered from his broken arm, I phased him back into training gradually from November. In his second game back he almost scored one of his trademark free kick goals, but one of their defenders decided to pull a 'Luis Suarez VS Ghana' and clear it off the line with their hand! He took the subsequent penalty and finished it with aplomb, so that was a nice moment for him. He also made me a card saying thank you for being so good with him while he was injured and his parents bought me some ciders as a thank you- which was really nice 🙂

I bought the boys custom water bottles for Christmas (with their name, number and club badge on them) and also secured a sponsor for a training kit so all the boys, me and my assistant are all kitted out in matching training gear. Started to already look to next season and sound out new players for next season, as we make the jump from 5-a-side to 7-a-side when moving to under-9s from the summer. We also have a summer tour in sunny Norfolk in May (@Fatty Facesitter represent) and a couple of festival tournaments in June.

It feels like the season is starting to wind down but it's been a bloody excellent journey thus far. It consumes a chunk of my weekends, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

[tiger_rick]

As your local FA if they're doing a transition workshop on the move from 5 to 7 aside. It's one of the most interesting CPD events. Makes you think about where you want to end up at 11 aside and how you want them to play and line up now.

[PunkStep]

Cheers Rick, I've had a look but bugger all from Herts or Essex FA, no webinars, no online courses- nothing from the FA that covers the 5vs5 > 7vs7 transition anywhere. 

It's hard to think about the 11-a-side game now because so much can change in the game between now and then. We play 1-3-0 at the moment and I'll probably look at adding another defender and introducing a striker. I'll probably have one defender push up to become another midfielder when in possession and the striker dropping when we are out of possession.

Is it too early to start introducing training sessions built around transitions? What about pressing- too young?

[tiger_rick]

I don't think they're ever too young to press. They do it naturally a lot, although the retreat rule has stopped that a bit, but hunting the ball is something to build sessions around.

Some of our teams are already playing 7v7 friendlies to get ready. There's not a massive difference. The size of the pitch is the biggest. By the end of 5v5, the pitch seems very small to some of them. They're shooting from half way. 

When I did the transition originally, there was only 7v7 and 11v11! Did it again a couple of years ago and it was interesting. We did 3-2-1 at 7v7. But that lends itself to playing 3-4-3 eventually. If you want to play 4-3-3, then 2-3-1 makes more sense, then you add the attacking full backs for 9v9.

It's interesting but the flaw in it is they don't do it until you've finished 5v5 so it's a couple of years late. Should add it to the Level 1.

[Fatty Facesitter]

On 2/10/2020 at 5:31 PM, PunkStep said:

I bought the boys custom water bottles for Christmas (with their name, number and club badge on them) and also secured a sponsor for a training kit so all the boys, me and my assistant are all kitted out in matching training gear. Started to already look to next season and sound out new players for next season, as we make the jump from 5-a-side to 7-a-side when moving to under-9s from the summer. We also have a summer tour in sunny Norfolk in May (@Fatty Facesitter represent) and a couple of festival tournaments in June.

I bet you'll be doing an Arsenal and all flying into Norwich International Airport from London as opposed to taking the coach? 😉

Where in Norfolk are you playing this summer? Hope the coaching is still going well good sir. 

[Statto]

1 hour ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Where in Norfolk are you playing this summer?

I'd be intrigued to know too as my brother coaches an u9 team here in Nelson's County (that my nephew plays for).

[PunkStep]

Mill Lane football ground near Great Yarmouth. Bloody pricey for a long weekend break.

8 hours ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Hope the coaching is still going well good sir. 

Coaching is going wonderful Nicko, some brilliant results lately and a loss against a good side today- but the boys never gave up and were still smiling at the end of the game, so I can't ask for more than that.

Had to hook my best player late on in the game today after an awful tackle on another player, which resulted in them both getting into a little scrap. Not having that at U8s. His dad is a fucking nightmare with a very short fuse, so sadly you can see where he gets it from.

My son scored his first goal of the season last week, which was a brilliant moment as both parent and coach because despite him being a skilful player with an eye for a pass, he struggles physically (he's tiny, like I always was) and so doesn't often get into goalscoring opportunities. All the parents cheered like crazy for him 😊