So how do you prepare for the new season with 32 ten year olds to work with for 30 weeks from the end of February?
There will be four of us coaching this group for the season and just to reiterate our system - these kids play with their clubs at weekends and come to us on a Monday night for an additional 90 minute session. They are still paying small sided football however part of our remit is to prepare them for rep football in 2012 where they will be playing on full field. These 32 were currently the best 32 in the Sutherland Shire at that age group - that trialled in the open trial process anyway. This would then put this 32 in the box seats for next year's representative trials however there will be open trials at the end of the season again so none of these boys are guaranteed a place but you would hope - if we do our jobs correctly - that this group will make up the lion's share.
The four of us coaches all got together over Christmas to discuss logistically how we manage the group and then what are our objectives for the season. I'm looking at this with a longer term view looking at both what we can achieve this season but also if I'm working with this group for the next three years where do we want them to be at 12 and what are the building blocks we need to put in place this year and how do we achieve this.
The first thing we all agreed at this age is it needs to be fun and absolutely everything needs to be done with a ball from (and including) the warm up onwards. For most of the session we will work in groups of 8 with one coach per group and most weeks ending with two 8v8 matches. We agreed that each coach will produce one session every four weeks prepared two weeks in advance so on any given week each coach is delivering the same session, emphasising the same key messages to ensure consistency. That means we have a week to familiarise ourselves with the next session and discuss among ourselves prior to the evening session.
Above and beyond the weekly detail - and I will share my sessions with you in due course - we discussed what are the over-reaching objectives we hope to achieve with this group at this critical stage of their development as players. What sort of footballers are we trying to create and what sort of football are we trying to encourage and enable them to be able to play?
It's a big question. And we spent a good hour trying to nut this out. The idea and aim being that every activity we incorporate in our sessions should be clearly linked back to achieving one or many of these objectives.
This is where we got to in our 10 point objective list - although we reserve the right to change it in the next 6 weeks! Some of these are measurable. Some are more philosophical and focus on the mentality of the players we want to develop.
1. Boys should be able to pass consistently and accurately with both feet along the floor a distance of 5m
2. Boys should be able to demonstrate consistent ability to choose correct surface for receiving the ball and control ball effectively with foot, thigh and chest
3. A consistently good first touch enabling them to get their head up as soon as possible
4. Show an understanding and developing ability to create width and depth to maintain possession of the ball
5. Encourage a "pass and move" mentality - raise awareness of importance of movement without the ball as much as movement with it
6. Demonstrate knowledge coupled with the ability and confidence to execute a range of skill moves in 1v1 attacking situation
7. Demonstrate a solid grasp of basic defending technique in 1v1 situation
8. Basic ability to head the ball
9. Basic ability to shoot/strike the ball with both feet
10. Juggling/ball mastery aim to improve their juggling by 10% per month minimum
Having not coached boys this young before I'm not sure yet how realistic this is but I'd hope we can set about achieving the majority of these in the 30 week progam. I'm sure some of these will prove more challenging than others - such as keeping their eyes open when heading I know will be a big call for most of the group!
Let me know what you think...if you have coached at this age group are we being too ambitious? Or not ambitious enough?
The aim is to give the boys the basic technical tools to then increase the complexity in years two and three and continue their technical development but also their tactical development whilst working towards their entry onto a full sized field the following season.
One thing is certain - I can't wait to get started!
Look forward to your feedback.
