As everybody knows we have a national curriculum (NC). But how do you implement the national curriculum into your club or representative system.  The people I talk to really don't understand how all "the pieces fit together". This is an extremely important point, one that the FFA needs to understand. A hit and miss approach to the national curriculum will end in "tears" for all. In fact if you have a very good read of the NC you will find a basic framework but not much in the way to do the job. Playing a single system may be fine for the elite pathways (can produce a neutral game) but what about the majority that plays the game? Football will always be football. Systems do not win games players do.

Welcome to my blog. I began as a parent on the sideline who became involved in football as a coach in a local community club. My sport was hockey although I played some football as well. I noted the many similarities and stepped into the role of coaching an U9 team five years ago. In my quest to learn more about the game, I did every FFA community licence, junior, youth, senior, goal keeping, and recently my AFC C Licence in 2008. One of the participants on the course was Andy Jackson.  He wrote a great article about his experiences during the course. The AFC C Licence opened my eyes on coaching and the state of football. The course still left me with a very empty feeling that I was not given the information and tools that I was seeking to make my players more effective.  In the last two years I set out to find out more. My information has come from personal experience and my colleagues in Australia, England, Holland, Brazil, Spain and the USA. I have coached in two representative systems and learned more about what not to do than what to do. I have witnessed inept administration of the game, poorly organized/confusing player pathways, shocking politics from grass roots to association and higher. Some of the best coaches I have met do not even coach in "the system".

The 2011 season sees new adventures with the setting up of a brand new club, Southern Lakes United FC. I have become a consultant and Coaching Director of this club and I am also venturing into coaching senior football. What this blog is all about is putting information into the mainstream to help and create discussion and thought about the technical and tactical nature of football in Australia from grass roots to elite level. As Coaching Director of a brand new club I will detail the development of our club which will be based upon the national curriculum. This is unique. It will not be a sanitized version, but real descriptions of the coaching problems that will be encountered.

The next blog will focus on where the 1-4-3-3 system came from, how the new club is progressing and to set out some training programs for the under 6-7yrs (4v4) the basis of the NC.