Mike Trusson – FA Coach Educator
Other Football Stuff
Anything football related.
PROGRESSIONS AND CHALLENGES WHEN COACHING SOCCER – PART ONE
May 15th
Last summer I was invited to a football and soccer coaching seminar in Portugal to present a lecture on the need for football coaches to ensure there are challenges and progressions in their soccer training sessions.
To improve the enjoyment and development process for players, it is important that they have the opportunity, initially, to achieve success in the football training session. That they have lots of realistic, match like scenarios to practice the skill the soccer coaching session is promoting. This will increase and develop the players’ confidence and self belief.
But, after a suitable period of time, the players will need be tested and challenged, so that their enjoyment, learning and decision making process and technical execution under increased pressure are challenged.
This is where challenges and progressions become so important in training players. The challenges need to be suitable for the age and ability of the players and need to be judged by the soccer coach as suitable for the needs of the coaching session. By developing challenges and progressions in the session, a coach will be making the session more enjoyable and challenging for the players and assist in their learning and development.
Too much of a challenge so that More >
Why is the English game and their players considered technically inferior?
May 14th
Football and soccer coaching structure in English Football
Imagine a situation where students go to school and there aren’t enough schools, classrooms, facilities and a lack of qualified teachers who can motivate, inspire and teach the students. Would it come as any surprise that the whole education system would suffer and that students would fail to gain an adequate education and that the country as a whole would suffer.
This is the situation we find ourselves in at the grassroots level of coaching football.
Children can no longer play jumpers for goalposts football on the streets, or in the parks, unsupervised. Socially, the world has changed and that can’t happen any more. But, these kind of informal small sided games are where players develop their love and enthusiasm for the game and through a natural self learning process, develop and improve their football techniques and skills.
So what is the answer? We need more qualified football coaches, who in the first instance, can safely organise and facilitate small sided games for any and all young players who want to play, not only a grassroots clubs, but also at schools, in school holidays, at the parks and clubs around the country.
A programme like this would More >
Are Diving Soccer Players Cheats ?
May 12th
I’m sure for many football fans the sight of players blatantly diving, rolling around and generally play acting as well as running up to referees brandishing imaginary cards to try and get fellow professionals sent off is nauseating. It also sets such a bad example for all the young players who play the game. It is something the “beautiful game” should be will rid of.
But these things are still happening, week after week. The football authorities have managed to impose a rule that players are now automatically booked for taking off their shirt when they celebrate a goal! But fail to act on blatant cheating, gamesmanship and poor sporting behaviour.
I think there is a very simple solution. Just like the rule for booking players for taking off their shirt, there should be a rule that says, every time a player tries to influence the referee to get a player sent off, they should receive a yellow card. If, in the referees view a player is guilty of diving, then they should be booked. Yes, some referees do this now, but not all of them and not with any consistency.
In addition, any player that is booked during the game for diving More >
Football Technology and Soccer Referees
May 11th
There is an increasing clamour for technology to have a greater involvement in decisions in football. Cameras on the goal, to check if the ball has crossed the line for example. In my view, football in this country sells and is successful around the World because it is a fast moving, dynamic, exciting game. It also relies on controversy to sell the game. The experts on T.V, the newspapers and media all feed and sell their products on the controversy that the fast moving game of professional football provides. The decisions the poor referees have to make in a split second are endlessly debated by the fans after the game, in pubs, in phone ins. Slow motions relays are dissected, analysed and opinions given..Sometimes, even with the help of these slow motion replays, they get it wrong. This debate and controversy is the life blood of the game. So let’s leave it to the referees and linesman to be human, make mistakes, get it right and wrong and continue to enjoy the controversy that this creates.
Football Training – First Time Passing
Jul 24th
To be able to pass first time, players will need to try and think one step ahead. They will have to visualise where they are going to pass, before they receive the ball. Other factors that will influence their decisions will be the weight, speed and accuracy of the pass they are receiving and the early support and communication of the receiving players.
In this first video, we see a group of young players playing “Rondo” or “piggy in the middle” a simple possession game played by all the to European clubs, very often as part of their warm up. This can be played 4 v 1, progressing to 3 v 1. As the players get better the size of the grid can be decreased.
In this video, the young players are more advanced that the players in the first video. They are also playing 3 v 1 Rondo in a square. Notice the movement of the players off the ball, they way they move early to support the player on the ball and the decisions they make about passing first time or control and pass.
In this progression, the players are still playing 3 v 1 in a grid. But, now there More >
Becoming a referee
Jul 15th
TV Presenter, Tim Lovejoy takes part in a referee taster day at Liverpool County FA. Professional referee Chris Foy and Martin Keown also take part.
Chris and Martin inject a humorous approach to refereeing. Referees are seen as serious, officious, studious and boring. Well perhaps many of them are. But football needs them desperately and what is a game without ref’s?
England needs 8,000 new referees and maybe this video will inspire many to take it up.
Tim referees an actual match and his highlight? He enjoyed running backwards!
Have you ever fancied yourself as a football coach or a referee? Do you like the idea, but don’t have the time to get involved? Well, did you know that the vast majority of grass roots coaches and referees have full time jobs outside of football?
Football needs more trained coaches and referees in order to keep the game running. What’s stopping you? www.TheFA.com/FootballNeedsMe
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