Elsewhere In Football #10

Developing Player & Talent ID Clinic

The first weekend of May gave me the opportunity to deliver a clinic to local coaches on "Developing Players & Talent ID".

I was especially excited about this because I was able to really get into the nuts and bolts of what local coaches believed made a pro player and give me more insight into Indian football culture.

The opening exchanges were interesting...

After giving a brief background of my career I asked the question:

What makes a great player?

We split the local coaches into groups and gave them fifteen minutes to discuss and jot down what they thought.

I had expected answers highlighting technical attributes with some physical ones alongside that. For example: great range of passing, quick feet and stong on the ball.

The answers given were very surprising. Every team were giving mental and environmental things they believed was needed, parental support, desire, discipline and focus. After eleven answers not one coach has highlighted anything technical, tactical or physical.

It's hard to pin point why coaches thought so much about the mental/environmental factors more than anything else. However for me it was a real interesting exchange of ideas.

Developing young players.......

I had a local group of ten players, aged 15, to work with. We opened with a technical circuit, which included ladder work and showed the coaches different timings and intensity to work with;

90 seconds - Low

60 seconds - Fast

30 seconds - High Intensity / Target Driven.

This was followed by variants of rondos exercises. We worked 6v2, 3v3v3+1 and 6v2 with 2 balls (one on the floor & one in hand)

After this initial group of exercises we had a group by discussion on which players they believed to be the most talented within the group and why. Once again I was opened to a real interesting exchange of ideas and opinions. Predictabily most coaches opted for the only left footed player within the group, who did have excellent technique but struggled with the rondos and ladder work. I highlighted to the coaches about my belief that left footed players DO stand out and DO tend to have excellent technical ability at a young age, but it's important for coaches to look beyond the left foot and not fall into the trap.

Focus on the strengths.....

As we took the coaches through a number of technical sessions or was becoming clear to me that the local coaches were very quick to highlight what kids could be doing better rather than praising or encouraging their strengths. This was a point I had to get across to the coaches. It's important with young players that we coach their strengths and continuously praise their ability. Of course we have to develop weaknesses in players but it should not be the focus of every coaching point and not every mistake in a session needs to be coached and highlighted.

The second major point we focused on was how to allow a session to flow instead of constantly being stopped. A few of the local coaches expressed their concerns about coaching methods and how they're taught to be very regimented in their approach. A military coaching style for lack of a better term. We discussed being okay with chaos, using a Q&A style method and allowing players the freedom to solve problems by themselves.

Another fantastic weekend.....

All in all it was another great weekend and another opportunity for myself to get involved with the local coaches and help guide them along a more positive pathway. The local knowledge and passion for football is fantastic and the foundations are in place for real devlopement here in Haldwani.

#coachcpomroy #bebold #bebrave #believeinyourself #india #haldwani #sahayakfc