Listen to the Podcast: Phil Tait about 1 on 1 coaching

In this podcast we talk about who Phil is. He tells me more about his past and how current coaching. He just started a soccer company that only focuses on 1 on 1 coaching. So Phil is coaching only 1 player at a time. This gives him some real benefits and the players to. He is able to work on the things this specific player needs to work on. This is a difference with the regular team training sessions.

As mentioned in the podcast, Phil’s contact information and website:
Website: http://www.philtait1on1.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/philtait1on1
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=681032812&v=wall
E-mail: philtait1on1@yahoo.com

Defensive priority 1: The opponent doesn’t receive the ball.

The first priority is to intercept the ball. Make sure the opponent doesn’t receive the ball. If your opponent doesn’t have the ball, he or she won’t be able to do something with it. They can’t pass it to an other player, can’t give a cross or take a shot. When you try to intercept the ball there is a big risk. If you don’t intercept it, you’ll be complete out of your position. This will make it a lot easier for the other player to dribble, pass, cross, take a shot or even score a goal. So I always tell my players that interception is the first option, but only if you are sure you will intercept. Of course this will go wrong a lot in the beginning, but when your players start to recognize the passes they can intercept, it’s a huge advantage for your team. I don’t mind if a youth player, especially a very young one, is making mistakes to learn. I love it and make them do it. It’s the best way to learn! (in my opinion)

Defensive priority 2: The opponent isn’t able to turn towards our goal.

The second option is not letting the opponent turn with his/her face toward our goal. Most of the times the opponent receives the ball the their back of should to our goal. By not letting them turn you take away the possibility they can take a shot or pass to someone else in front of our goal. This option should always be the one to choose if you can’t intercept the ball. To unable to opponent from turning towards our goal the defender has to defend very close and aggressive (without fouling of course). As soon as the opponent tries to make the turn the ball will be unguarded and our player should make his/her move to win the ball. It’s a good result if the opponent has to play the ball back.

Defensive priority 3: The opponent isn’t able to get the ball past the defender.

The last option a defender will have is pretty easy: Don’t let the ball pass you. It doesn’t matter if the opponent tries to pass it, cross it, take a shot or tries to pass the defender with the ball, the job is to not let it happen. To ensure this doesn’t happen the defender has to defend close and aggressive, but doesn’t try to steal the ball. When you try the steal the ball the chance of getting passed is the biggest. Just contain and wait for backup. By turning you body in the right way make the opponent go to the outside of the field, so he/she isn’t able to score a goal from that position.

As I already said in the first part of this article, I start practicing 1 versus 1 defence with these priorities at a pretty young age. What do you think about it? Is it a good idea to start practicing at a young age or do you think it’s better to wait a little longer and just focus on the ball skills only? Or maybe on something else? Please let me know by commenting, I appreciate your comments and shared thoughts.

The alarm goes at 7.00 AM o’clock and I mostly jump out bed, ready for a new day. I start with preparing myself by making and eating breakfast, taking a shower, brush my teeth and do my hair. I will leave my place around 7.45 AM. It’s a 20 minute drive to our facility. Because we have inside and outside fields our camps always go on. Last week it was really hot and some other companies cancelled their camps. We can take our children inside, where they don’t have the burning sun on their faces all day long.

When I arrive I’ll go inside and make myself ready. Putting my socks and shoes on. We’re setting up the sign-in for the camps. The children have to sign-in in the morning and the parents have to sign them out in the afternoon. We make sure we know their aren’t children who leave on their own. The sign-in is from 08.30 AM till 09.00 AM. At 9.00 AM one coach starts with the warm up. The other coaches are cleaning up the sign-in stuff. At 09.30 AM the warm up finishes and all the coaches are on the field. After the warm up the players will be divided in groups, based on age and skills.

For each camp we are using a premade curriculum. We work with an curriculum because not every group haves the coach each day. The curriculum makes sure we can cover all the most important topics and don’t work on the same topic 3 days in a row. I used the curriculum for a regular day in the rest of this article.

At 09.30 AM we started with practicing passing moves. I did the U12 group last week, so they should be able to do some passing moves. I started with some easy moves. Because they were able to them pretty good I moved up to the more difficult passing moves. We practiced these moves until 10.15 AM. After the passing moves we did a 1v1 tournament. For every win the player receives 3 points, a tie is 2 points and a lost game is 1 point. The player get an additional point for every goal they scored. With my coaching I always try to make the connection between different drills. Because we did the passing moves previously, I was coaching on this topic. Some of the players used the passing moves we practices successfully. Even though there we a lot of breaks, a 1v1 is very intensive. The players have to work real hard. Around 11.00 AM we had a winner of the tournament. After this tournament we did a juggling contest till 11.30 AM. At 11.30 AM we have the lunch break.

In the afternoon we start at 12.30 PM. In the morning we usually work more on technical skills and how to use them. In the afternoon we work on more tactical topics, if the age and level of the players allows us to do so. With the U12 group I could work on some tactical topics. From 12.30 AM till 01.15 PM we worked on how to get open. We did this in a 4vs2 possession game. After this possession game we did a fun game, kickball. It’s kind of like baseball, but you kick the ball away. The field team can’t use their hands. At 02.00 PM we started our daily returning 4vs4 tournament. We play this tournament every day of the camp. Because we rotate the players in each team every game we will get an individual winner at the end of the camp. This is the most prestigious trophy the player can win. The camp end at 03.00 PM.

There are 2 possibilities after the camp finished. It’s possible that I have evening practice with our summer select teams. If so we are working on stuff based on the tournament we played in the weekend before the practice. If I don’t have a practice I’m finished to the day. Mostly I try to watch some other practices, games or work on some planning. Or I write for GreatSoccerCoaching.com. I don’t really take time of from soccer. If I’m off soccer is still the thing that takes almost all my time.

Soccer Scoring Zones

In soccer there aren’t any marked scoring zones, but they are definitely there. There is a marked area, the 18 yards box, but this isn’t really a scoring zone box. It’s more a marked area that shows how far the goalkeeper can use his hands and when a direct free kick will be a penalty kick. Knowing more about the soccer scoring zones will help you when you try to improve the scoring skills of your team. You want to have as many changes as possible in the best scoring zone. So when you are practicing your finishing, you might want to focus on this area.

If you look at a soccer field, we can determine 4 different scoring zones. The 1ste scoring zone is the one that’s the most easy to score from, when you have a chance. Of course it’s the hardest to create chances in the 1ste scoring zone. In the image on the left side you can see the different scoring zones. In this article I’ll tell you more about the different zones and how to make sure you’re team is using the zones the right way.

As you can see in the image the first scoring zone is a zone real close to the goal. The reason this is the easiest zone to score from is the distance from the goal. There are two ways to create a change in the first scoring zone. One way is a cross from the wings. The second way to create scoring opportunity is through a backdoor pass. Against some opponents it won’t be possible to create a lot of chances in scoring zone 1. Or in a game you aren’t able to create a chance in the first zone because at that moment the opponents defence is doing a good job. What you want to create when facing this problem is a chance to score a goal from the second scoring zone.

The second scoring zone is a zone before and around the first scoring zone. Because your player will still be pretty close to the goal, there is a good chance to score a goal from this zone. Your players can also take a shot from just outside the 18 yards box. This will be in the second zone as well. An other way to score a goal from the second scoring zone is a backdoor pass when the defence of the other team isn’t dropping back all the way to their own box.

The third scoring zone is the green zone in the image. As you can see this zone is around a the first and second scoring zones. In the zones your team will get more chances to shoot on target, but it will be hard to score from this zone. Mostly you’ll need a lot of quality and luck to score from this zone. Most goals scored from this zone are shots. What you’ll see is that a lot of the goals scored from this area have been touched by the defenders. This makes it almost impossible for the goalkeeper to save the shot.

The fourth zone is the rest of the field. Hardly nobody scores from this zone. A goal scored from the 4^th scoring zone is a exception. Normally player aren’t even trying to score from this zone. If a player scores from this zone almost all the times the goalkeeper was not in his position. So when a goalkeeper is way in front of his goal it sometimes happens that a player can score from the 4^th scoring zone. But even when the goalkeeper is far in front of his goal, there are only a few goals scored from this area each season.

No you are aware of the scoring zones is the question: What are you going to do with it?

I use these information for all my practices. I know it’s easier to score from the first scoring zone, but how are we going the create chances from this zone? I work on that question a lot during my practices. I also practise a lot on how we can score from the second zone. The answer on how to score will be different for every team. This totally depends on your players and their skills.

What do you think about these scoring zones? Do you already use them or are you planning to do so in the future? Please let me know by commenting this article!

Key points of your pre-game speech.

Tell your players the key points of the pre-game speech is a possibility. You’ll tell them to use the whole field and go wide when we are having the ball and that kind of stuff. Maybe your players will remember their tasks better is you tell them again just before the game. Some players like to hear again what they are expected to do. The advantage will be that some of your players will be able to fur full their tasks. In my experience  there aren’t a lot of player who will remember their tasks better because it’s told them again, just minutes before the game. A disadvantage of giving this kind of information is that some players might mix up things. They hear things they haven’t heart before and because of that they will kind of panic. They have no clue what to do anymore and they are kind of lost. They get a feeling of insecurity and that will effect their game.

Most coaches who repeat the key point of the pre-game speech will talk real fast. They want to be sure they can tell all the key points, and the game is just minutes away. Coaches are talking so fast the players can’t keep up with it. So eventually the advantage isn’t there, because the coach is talking just to much.

A one minute motivation talk.

This is the part all sports movies are really good at. I think every sports coach saw Al Pacino’s speech in Any Given Sunday.

The advantage of this method is that you will give your players a motivation boost. They will try to give their best even more. But you can’t use this method every game, it something you can only use a couple of times, because otherwise it won’t work anymore. If you try to do a motivational talk  every time, your players will think you are an actor. In my experience a motivational talk only works if the coach means every word he sais. If he of passionate about the thing he’s saying. It has to come from the heart. A possible disadvantage will be that your players are only playing with the heart, giving everything they have in the field. This sounds like something great, but is only is when they are still doing their tasks. I’ve experienced that a lot of player have problems with keeping their mind in the game after a great motivational talk.

Talk about something completely different.

I know coaches who are always asking the players what their plans are for after the game. They want to take some pressure away and talking about things after the game will definitely do that. Because you are talking about things that will happen after the game you’ll give you players the feeling the is more than just this game. If the pressure isn’t there some players will play a better game. This will be advantage of asking something completely different. But taking away the pressure can also make the concentration disappear. The players aren’t focused on the game. This will of course be a very big disadvantage.  

Don’t say a thing, just let the players prepare themselves.

An other possibility is to just say nothing. Is you aren’t saying a thing, the players can prepare themselves. They can concentrate and focus on the game. A player who wants to thing about this tasks can, and a player who want to think about some motivational thing can do that. It allows every player to do what is best for them, I really like this advantage. But is your team is not independent enough, your team will need some guidance. When the are not independent the players expect the coach to say something. If you aren’t going to say anything, they will start to think you don’t know what to do. It will make the insecure and lose confidence in a good result. This will be a big disadvantage.

I’ve seen a lot of coaches just before games. In my experience most of them are just as nervous or even more nervous than the players are. Because this nerves they want to say something, to get a better feeling. The feeling you did everything in your power, because you gave them some more advices, motivated them or whatever. Most coaches are talking because of them, not to help to players. I used to be one of those coaches and probably annoyed my players with my nervous talks. They never complained, but I’m sure it’s true. The coach I am today it not talking because I want to feel better. I’m talking to help my players.

Of course, every player is different. What works for just one player doesn’t have to work for an other player. With talks and speeches to a group of people, soccer players in this case, you will always effect some players more than others. That’s why I can’t tell you which method is working the best for me. It’s different for every team I coach. By telling you my experience I hope you’ll try different kind of talks just minutes before your game. See to which kind of information your team is responding best, and use that method to say something just before the game. I’d like to hear about what you are telling your players just before the game. Please comment this article and tell me about your experiences. If you tried different methods after this article I would love to know which one was working for you and your team!

I’d like to start this article with telling you that the criteria I use to pick my Soccer team captain depends on the age of the team. At a young age I think it’s good idea to make all the players team captain by turn. So every player has the experience of being the soccer team captain. Some player will like to be the captain and some won’t. That’s no problem for me, I want all of them to try it. I think it helps their development and understanding for the captain. If a player did the job once, the will respect their soccer team captain when they are older. Until the age of U12 I’d like to rotate team captains. After U12 I will select 2 or 3 players who will be the team captains. I select the Soccer Team Captains on different kind of qualities.

A Soccer Team Captain needs soccer qualities.

One of the first thing I look at are the soccer qualities of the players. It doesn’t make any sense to me to have a team captain who is on the bench most of the time. He/She won’t be able to guide the team because he/she won’t be on the field. So my soccer team captain is a player who is playing most of the games. The position in the field is for some coaches a hot topic but not for me. The goalkeeper, left defender or striker, it doesn’t matter to me. Of course it is an advantage when your team captain is playing in the centre of the field so he/she can easily communicate with all the other players on the field, but it’s not necessary in my opinion.

A Soccer Team Captain needs a good work ethic.

A Soccer Team Captain is the example for the team. Because other players wants to compare themselves to the team captains, the need to have a good work ethic. If your team captains aren’t working hard on practices and during games, it almost allows the other players to do the same. I’d like to have a Soccer Team Captain with a lot of persistence. A player who won’t give up and always keeps going. This is something I want him/her to do on practice and in games. My captain has to be a player who is a fair player. He/She should know the unwritten fair play rules and always give the right example.

My Soccer Team Captain needs to keep up with our team agreements.

As I just explained in the previous part about the work ethics, the soccer team captains need to set the example. This also applies on keeping up with the team agreements. If the team captains aren’t following the rules, why should all the other players do so?  I want my soccer team captains to be “good guys”. They have to be the example in everything, so work ethics, keeping up with the team agreements and in behaviour. I don’t like to see my captain arguing with the ref or with the opponent. I don’t want my team captains to talk back to me on the field and give me an attitude.

At the right time, the Soccer Team Captain needs to give his opinion.

I just told you I don’t want my team captains to talk back to me on the field. But I also want him/her to give their opinion. This will probably sounds conflicting, but the key is where and when. I really value the opinion of my team captains, but not on the field. On the field everything has to be clear and with an argument this won’t get clear. But of the field, after the game or before a practice, I really like to know what my team captains think about certain issues.

The Team Captains have to be accepted by the other team members.

Last but definitely not least, the soccer team captains have to be accepted by the other team members. A team captain is a leader, someone who is in charge when the coaches aren’t there. Someone who other player have to listen to. So it’s really important the other players are accepting the team captains as their leaders. Some people call this a natural leader. Maybe that’s right, maybe there are some player who will be accepted straight away as the leader. I think this is one of the most important qualities a soccer team captain needs.  

How do you think about picking a Soccer Team Captain? Do you rotate or is the same player your captain? Please let me know what kind of qualities you are looking for in a captain by commenting!

I recently wrote an other article about the pre-game speech, ”10 Tips to make your pre-game speech stick”. If you are able to combine these 2 articles your pre-game speech will definitely help your players!

Start your pregame speech with some general information.
The first part of the pregame speech you have to give the players some general information. Who do we play against, what is their position in the league. Have they scored a lot of goals and did they get a lot of goals against them scored? Just some basic information. I always tell something about the weather and the field. If the field is real dry this inflects the dribbling possibilities. I also ask the players some questions about the last game we played. What went well and what didn’t?

Tell your players about the opponent, in a structured way!

The second part of the pregame speech is not for every coach. If you are coaching on a lower level or have no access to this kind of information, you can just skip this part. If you have played against your opponent before you can use that information.

Tell some about their system of play. Whether they play in the 1-4-3-3 system or the 1-4-4-2 system makes a huge difference. This information a critical. After telling something about their system you should tell how the opponent tries to attack. An example you can tell them: The opponent tries to pass the ball behind our defence and pick it up with their quick offence. Tell your players something about the strengths and weaknesses of their offence? After telling something about the offence of the opponent their defence is the next subject you talk about in your pre-game speech. You are telling the same kind of thing you did in the offence part. How do they try do defend? Maybe they play full pressure or just the opposite. Tell something about the strengths and weaknesses of their defence.

After you handled these key points you can choose to tell some additional things. You can tell about the strengths and weaknesses of their transition, remarkable point in their game and how they handle set pieces.

Tell your players about their own team, in a structured way!
After telling your team something about the opponent now it’s time to tell your players something about them. If you haven’t told your player anything about the opponent, that’s no problem.

You should tell them in this part of your pregame speech only thing about your team. Explain tasks to them. I always try to relate our strengths and weaknesses to the opponents. You are just going to do the same subjects as you did in the opponent part. So you start with telling something about your formation. Does your team use the 1-4-3-3 system of play or the 1-4-4-2 (or any other one)? You can announce the line-up and substitutes. After that tell something about your offence. So if you told something about the opponent try to relate it. With this strength we can take advantage of these weaknesses of the opponent. In this part you should be real concrete. Give the players tasks they understand.

After talking about your offence you will do the same with for your offence. So if you can, relate it to the opponent and give the players concrete tasks. An example of a concrete task can be: If the goalie is having the ball I want you to go wide, 5 yards from the sideline. After this part you can choose to tell something about transition en set pieces.

A short summary of the point your pre-game speech
You should keep this structure so your players start to recognize the pre-game speech and the points you will cover:
- system of play
- Offence, strengths and weaknesses
- Defence, strengths and weaknesses
- Transition, strengths and weaknesses
- Remarkable points
- Set pieces

At what age do you start with a pre-game speech?
If you keep the structure, you can start at a young age with a pregame speech. You always have to adjust the speech and structure to the ability of your players. So if you are coaching an u12 team you might want to only do the defence of the opponent and the offence of your team. That’s just it. If you see the pre-game speech is helping your players you can start adding other parts to your speech. So you can build up the speech so your players won’t get overwhelmed.

I’m kind of curious how you build up your pre-game speech. Please leave a comment and tell me and all other Great Soccer Coaching readers.

I mostly work with the same tasks for my captains. Some of the tasks will not apply at a certain age. I have 15 possible tasks for my team captains. I suggest you read the list and think which tasks could be helpful for you and your team

General Soccer Team Captain tasks:

1. The persons the coaches will talk to regarding team matters.
For everything the coaches want the team to do, they can ask the team captains. Like attending to special occasions or doing a money raise actions. Maybe schedule an extra practice? This kind of things I always talk about with my team captains.

2. The Team Captains will set the example by keeping up with the team agreements.
The team captain will show the other players who to act. By keeping up with all the team agreements he/she gives the right example. Because the team captains are giving the right example they can also:

3. Correct other players if the don’t keep up with the team agreements.
The best case scenario is a team the is correcting itself. If you’re players are able to correct each other when a player doesn’t keep up with the team agreements, the team has a very stable base. It means the players are responsible for this process and the coach can focus on other things, like team tactics.

4. Motivate teammates on practice and in games.
When a player or some players aren’t giving everything they have on practice or during a game, the team captains try to motivate them. This can be verbal and by choice with a positive tone. Try to help the teammate(s) by cheering them up.

5. Giving the coach a head’s up on things the players think and feel.
You can think about things like players bulling each other, players who think about quitting the team, busy school periods, other sports activities coming up, players who have problems at home.

6. The Soccer Team Captains are responsible for communication with the team.
In some cases the coach won’t be able to reach every player in the team. The coach can be in a place without internet connection or some problem like that. When the coach calls a team captain he/she has to send an e-mail or start a calling tree.

Soccer Team Captain Tasks before a practice:

7. The make sure all the players are together at the same place waiting to start the practice.
If player attend and they are walking around, watching other practices and stuff the team might not be complete when the coach wants to start the practice. The Soccer Team Captains keep the team together so every is there to start the practice.

8. Fill in the attendance list.
As a coach I want the players to be responsible for their own development and the development of the team. To develop as a team it is crucial all the player attend at practice sessions. By asking my team captains to fill in the attendance list I make them responsible and they are aware if there are player who don’t attend as much as the other player do.

9. Lead the warm-up.
When there is space to do the warm-up, the team captains are responsible to start and lead the warm-up. It’s very important to do a good warm-up, because it prevents injuries.

Additional Soccer Team Captain tasks before the game ( so the tasks before the practice are also tasks before the game ):

10. Be the host for the ref and opponent
I think it’s really important to be considered a good and nice team. I always want my Soccer Team Captains to go to the opponent and ref and introduce themselves in behalf of the team.

11. Pep talk
Before the game starts I want my team to come together on the field and the Team Captains give a pep talk. I could do this, but I want to team to be responsible for the result of the game. The pep talk is something I use to make it their responsibility.

Soccer Team Captain Task after a game:

12. Thanks the refs.
After the game every player has to thank the refs for their effort. I want my Soccer Team Captain to do this with more than just a hand. Thank them verbally and comment them on their performance.

After the practice or the game or practice:

13. Get all the gear we used cleaned up.
When the practice or game is finished, we have to clean up. We have to collect all the balls, pick up the cones and bring all goals back to their original position. The Soccer Team Captains are in charge of this clean up.

14. Make sure every body takes all their belongings with them.
When we leave the field or dressing room, we want to take everything that’s ours with us. So the last person to leave has to check the field or dressing room. The Team Captains have to remind the team to check it.

15. Make sure we cleaned up all our mess.
After using a field and/or dressing room, we want to clean up all our mess. Empty bottles, tape and other items left have to be cleaned. Everybody has to clean their own mess, and the last person to leave has to check everything is cleaned.

This are 15 tasks I give my Soccer Team Captains. At some ages I don’t give them all the tasks, I’ll do some of them.

What kind of tasks do you give your Soccer Team Captains? Please comment and let me know. Maybe I can add some tasks to my list.

This article is part of Coaching Staff series. The series is about the different staff positions. This is the first article in this series. 

 In this article I’m talking about a male (assistant) coach (with words like he and his). This is just for the writing purpose. A female (assistant) Coach can be just as good or even better than a male (assistant) Coach.

 Agree about the tasks and responsibilities.

The first thing you should do, and this is the most important thing to do, is agree on the tasks and responsibilities of the assistant coach. There is no point is being or having an assistant coach if all he is doing  is standing on the field doing nothing. An assistant coach should be able to work on his own. So the head coach shouldn’t be telling him what to do all the time. If you agree on the tasks and responsibilities it is clear what the assistant coach should be doing during practise and games.

The rest of this article is something I suggest. There are a lot of possible tasks and responsibilities possible for an assistant coach. My point of view isn’t the truth, just how I think about it. I hope my point of view will inspire you to think about what you want to be the tasks and responsibilities for an assistant coach.

What could an assistant coach do during practise?

Some assistant coaches are only standing on the field watching the practise. Some others are just cleaning up the cones after a drill is finished. I think a assistant coach should coach during practise. It’s for a reason the position is still called coach. An assistant coach should be somebody who knows something about soccer. My assistant coach is always responsible for the first drill. We call this the warm up drill, always with a soccer ball. So running laps is not what I want my assistant coach to come up with. When he is doing his coaching during this first drill I’m observing the players. Who is doing well and who isn’t. Who needs some extra attention to complete the tasks and who is doing really well. This information is helpful with the other drills. If a player is struggling a little bit, I know I have to keep an extra eye on him. Not to see if he is doing well enough, but to see if I can help him with the drill.

When I’m doing a drill with the team, I want my assistant coach to walk around. Observe the players and step in. I demand he steps in! Because I’m doing the drill I’ll never be able to watch all the players and their performance. When my assistant coach is around he can help the players with the tasks as well. So we can give all the players the attention the need and deserve.

I really like to do a large scrimmage at practice. When my assistant coach is available I really like to both coach a team. Depending the aim of the practice when split the players in two teams. I am coaching one team and try to help them achieving the sessions goal. My assistant coach is coaching the other team and tries to prevent my team from achieving our goal.

What could an assistant coach do during the games?

Before every game we play my assistant coach and I are talking about the tactics and line-up. I really want to know his opinion before I make a decision. Because we talk about this kind of things, the assistant coach is aware of the key points during the game. So he is able to help me with the coaching. During the game I like to talk with him about what he sees and what I see. During the game always one of us is doing the coaching. I think it’s not working if two people are giving the players tips and other information. Sometimes it will be me, sometimes it will be the assistant coach. I’m not afraid to give this out of my hands and I really trust the assistant coach. I believe he is capable to the coaching. When he is coaching I can observe and make a really analysis of the game. I can see which players are performing well and which players need so extra explanation during half time of during the practice sessions coming up next week. So we can make sure the player keep developing themselves!

Other tasks and responsibilities of the assistant coach.

their are a lot of other tasks and responsibilities an assistant coach can have. My assistant coach is in charge of documenting the attending forms, game line-up forms and PDP forms the players fill in. If there is a talk between the head coach and the assistant coach before they start working together, you can agree on all kinds of other tasks and responsibilities.

An Assistant coach is nothing less than a head coach

For an unknown reason some people think an assistant coach is someone who isn’t such a great coach as the head coach. This is so not true! It’s just an other position in the coaching staff. As you just read an assistant coach is having his own tasks and responsibilities. He is a very important part of the coaching staff. An assistant coach and head coach could complete each other. Every coach has other qualities and weaknesses. If the head coaches weaknesses are the assistant coach qualities and the other way around, they are forming a great team. That should be what coaching soccer is all about, forming a great team to develop your player the most possible. Provide them with drills and game plans they love, so they are having a lot of fun playing!

How do you think about an assistant coach? Maybe you are one? Please comment and let us know what you are thinking about this subject!

With the following 10 tips you can make your pregame speech stick. These tips are not about the soccer tactics, but about the organisation of your pre-game speech. . If you want to know more about what you should tell your player’s in the pre-game speech, you can read an other article I ‘ll publish later this month.

1. Prepare your pre-game speech.
This sounds pretty obvious, but it still is the most important tip I can give you. Prepare your pre-game speech. If you know what you want to tell your player, you probably can. I you have to think about what you want to tell them, standing in front of them will not work. I always use flip over papers (also see tip number 5). By using these papers I force myself to think about what I want to say before I’m standing in front of my team.

2. Don’t make your pregame speech everlasting.
If you want the things you are telling your players in the pre-game speech to stick, you have to make sure your speech is not too long. An average person can stay focused for about 15 minutes. For small children this will be even less. So how much time you can take depends on your player, but in general I advice to make sure the pre-game speech is not longer than 10 minutes. For u10 team and younger you might want to think about not giving a pre-game speech. Only use tip number 10 for these ages.

3. Keep the attention of your players.
After making sure you don’t make your pregame speech too long, you still have to keep the attention of your players. You can do this with some easy tricks. Do the speech in a quite location. If you choose for the dressing room, make sure they don’t change their clothes while you are talking. Of course the players aren’t allowed to use iPod or their mobile phone. Sometimes ask a player who he/she did that point on practice. This will help you keeping their attention.

4. Be as concrete as you can.
When you talk about a certain task in the field, always use the names of the players. For example: “Joe, when our goalie is having the ball I want you to go wide.” Try to be as clear as possible. Leave no room for second thoughts. For the most important task you tell them exactly what you want them to do.

5. Help your player’s imagination.
A picture is worth a thousand words. You must have heart this adage before in your life. With your pregame speech this also counts off course. So try to visualize want you want your players to do. There are a lot of possibilities to do so. You could use a whiteboard, a clipboard, flip over papers and even video from a practice or other game. When your players see what you mean it will be so much easier for them to do this on the field.

6. Repetition makes your players remember.
The tasks you give your players that are really important should you repeat a couple of times. You can do this easily by summarizing at the end of each part of your speech. When you finished your speech about attacking, summarize the most important tasks. Because you are telling them it again it’s more likely they see it as something important and will try doing the task in the field. You can also ask the player to give a summary of the covered point in the pregame speech.

7. Don’t tell your players something new.
Your players benefit from a good structure. So doing your speech in the same way every time. Always first start with defence and than offence. Don’t confuse them with new stuff in your pre-game speech. Only do your pregame speech about thing they already know. New tasks or tactical ideas should be explained in practice first.

8. Right motivation to do well.
Some coaches are their whole pre-game speech talking about things not going well and about strengths of the opponent. In my opinion this is not very motivating for your players. You do have to tell them they are doing things great and that you have confidence in them. Tell them you are one team, the coach and the player. You’re in it together.

9. Let your players ask questions.
Is anything clear should always be a very important question at the end of your speech. If thing aren’t clear you can explain them again. It is really important that everybody is having the same thoughts about how to play soccer. Always give your players the possibility to speak about their thoughts of the game. Maybe they have some additional points you didn’t cover in your speech. But don’t make it a discussion. You are the coach and you are making the decisions.

10. Wish your players a lot of fun in the game
This is not a real tip to make the pregame speech stick, but I think it’s very important. Every player is playing soccer because they love the game. If they don’t like to play soccer anymore, they probably won’t. So the most important thing to have is fun. Without fun they will not be able to perform. Maybe it sounds silly, but their coach wishing them a lot of fun takes away some of the game pressure. It remembers them why they play soccer. It makes them feel good, so they start the game with a good feeling. Let’s hope they end the game with the same feeling!

How do you do your pre-game speech? I would really like to know more about that. Please comment and tell me more about your way of doing the pre-game speech.