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Click on the front cover of the magazine to launch our latest issue which features all the usual high quality skills, drills, animations and videos BUT this time its especially for your Goal Keepers.  Brought to you in association with our friends at www.onesport.co.uk for the ultimate Goal Keeper resource.

How good are your players? How much better are they this week than last week? How good do you want them to be by the end of the season? How good could they become?

The accurate assessment of performance, learning and potential are at the heart of effective coaching. Yet answers to these critical questions are often left to opinion, subjective assessment or are not even considered. Skills tests and match analysis procedures are the two established strategies for a more objective assessment of performance¹. An alternative to these ‘one-off’ assessments that is available to every coach and player involves the repeated measurement of essential skills during practice².

Read on and then see an example of a practice record sheet at the end of the article ***NOTE ST – add link to download sheet ****

Action plan for developing and measuring mastery

1.      Be clear what your players must be able to do and when they can do it

Too often coaches and players don’t identify exactly what it is they are practicing to improve. Specify skills precisely to be able to track progress towards mastering them. Start by focusing on improving technique from individual practice such as ball manipulation or soccer ‘juggling’ tasks. Define the skill or challenge to be practiced and the criteria for successful performance so all players know how to perform and count it correctly. For example, very young or beginner players learning to juggle a soccer ball might start by dropping the ball from their hands, kicking it before or after a bounce and catching it. Every ball caught is a successful performance and thirty consecutive catches using both feet alternately is the mastery criterion. This is the level of performance that indicates when the skill has been learned sufficiently so that it can be performed correctly sometime later and in other situations³. Competent players can be involved in designing their own challenges and setting mastery criteria.

2.      Develop and measure accuracy and then fluency of performance

While players are learning to acquire a skill, the aim of practice should be to develop accuracy so it can be performed consistently. Accuracy of a skill can be measured by a simple count, or the number of successful occurrences, as with the previous example. Once the skill is acquired and can be performed correctly and consistently, building fluency should be the aim of practice. Fluency is the combination of accuracy plus speed that characterises expertise or mastery. It can be measured by the frequency of successful occurrences in a specified time, such as 30-sec or 1-min trials and is a more meaningful measure of learning. Highly fluent performance was demonstrated by fourteen year-old players at one English academy, who consistently scored over 150 alternate foot juggles in 1-min trials, or 2.5 contacts per second while being distracted by the coach! When it is not possible or desirable to measure frequencies directly, fluency can be built into specific task requirements.

3.      Provide sufficient practice opportunity and record or chart progress

A common failure of my coaching is not giving players sufficient time to practice a skill until it is mastered. Defining essential skills and repeatedly measuring them during practice provides players and coaches with up to date, objective feedback on their progress. Reliable data indicate which players have mastered skills and can support decisions regarding the potential of younger, smaller players who suffer relative age effects in physically competitive situations. It is important to record scores to compare performances towards personal goals and to demonstrate the need for further practice. A recent study has demonstrated the use of coach and peer-assessment during a group technical practice to give all players immediate, objective feedback on first touch and passing quality². Charting scores after each practice enhanced technical learning and visually displayed rates of progress towards self-set goals.

4.      Motivate players to practice deliberately more often more of the time

Recording and charting performance scores and setting goals are useful coaching and assessment strategies, but research has shown they are not sufficient to motivate sustained practice^4,5. Proactively encourage focused practice such as carefully considering task difficulty and progression. Improving physical fitness requires working in the ideal training zone. Likewise, keep players in their optimal ‘learning-zone’; practicing skills and challenges that are ‘just out of their reach’ so they always want another practice attempt⁶. Set deadlines or a specified number of practices to achieve personal goals and when appropriate, hold players accountable for performance gains with regular assessments particularly for any self-practice assignments. Rewarding goal attainment with easily managed bonuses such as extra game time in practice or a starting position in the next match are other effective motivators⁷.

Assessing performance is a critical coaching requirement. Specify essential skills and success criteria precisely and provide sufficient practice opportunity. Proactively encourage focused practice to develop accuracy and then fluency of performance. Finally, teach players to measure mastery and chart their progress towards realising their potential.

Download the recording sheet: Measuring Mastery recording sheet (391)

By Malcolm Cook

As a coach who, like every lover of the beautiful game is fascinated with the Barca phenomenon and keen to know what makes them tick. I will try to unlock their formula for success.

KEY 1: HEAD – UP AWARENESS

Barca players have great awareness of everything that is going on around the field because they have learned to play the game with their heads – up. Other clubs have excellent technical players who are good on the ball however, they need too much time looking at it to get it under control with the result that they fail to recognise opportunities to pass the ball to team-mates in advantageous positions.

“You see a kid who plays with his head up who can give a first – time pass when needed. We think ‘Yes he will do’ and start to develop his game with good coaching.” (Xavi)

The modern game at the top – level is lightening quick, so a player needs to be able to react quickly and correctly to the largely unpredictable situations as they evolve in front of them.

Another aspect of this awareness is the ability to play comfortably and effectively in any part of the field. By contrast all too many British players have been ‘pigeon – holed’ early in their careers to play in a set role, position as part of the field which severely limits their footballing development. The consequence of this is that many of them become ‘one-eyed’ in terms of their awareness rarely daring to venture into other areas of the field other than the ones that they are used to and when they do they perform poorly.

“Good players need to know the whole pitch.” (Johan Cruyff)

KEY 2: TECHNICAL SIMPLICITY

There are few extravagant actions, ‘showboating’ form effect, nor manufactured in any way from rigid coaching. All their dynamic techniques come from the head and heart with great economy of effort which makes them so much easier to apply.

By contrast, too many players work too hard to impress and look good, and in the process complicate things by thinking too much, which in turn affects the efficiency of their physical movement. Barcelona players understand the danger of this and do not let their egos get in the way. Every technique they use is based upon simplicity, end of story. If an easy pass to a better-placed teammate is ‘on’ – it’s quickly given or if a defender is blocking the way to goal and needs to be beaten – a drop of shoulder to unbalance him, followed by a little change of pace to go past him with the ball…….no fuss.

“Barca players need to think and act quickly. Look at Busquest. He looks, controls and passes in one movement whilst others need two or even three touches of the ball. That’s too slow in the modern game.” (Xavi)

Barca use the old coaching adage of….’Let the ball do the work’ better than any other when employing their brand of possession Football – their key is not to complicate things in any way, instead they keep it simple.

KEY 3: A POWERFUL IDENTITY

Historically Barcelona is a ‘Family club’. Their motto of ‘more than a club’ informs people of their aims, heritage and vision. They have a clear ideology based upon their Catalan culture and socialistic roots which is a powerful force and pervades the club today and everything that it stands for.

Too many top clubs pay massive fees for ‘star’ players to strengthen their teams, but find they bring poor attitudes with them which cause the team having to change their game in some way to accommodate them. New players can bring an extra- dimension to the team of course, and at Barca they are encouraged to do so, however, in recent years there has been an approach that ensures that no matter how big the player the club’s identity is made clear to all of what they are representing and what is expected on and off the field from them- end of story.

The club looks to instill good values, humbleness and attitudes in their players. When you see the players perform, there are no ‘stars’ with inflated egos and the negative behaviour to match- instead you will observe a group of highly gifted players who are smart in appearance. Have respect for each other and the club.

“Some clubs are paying big transfer fees for players but you can’t buy by tradition.” (Van Nistelrooy)

KEY 4: SUPERIOR WORK – ETHIC

It’s easy to overlook just how much running, action and sheer physical effort each Barca player puts in during a match.

Their unique way of playing the game demands intense mental concentration plus a high physical work rate over ninety minutes. Their game is all about possession of the ball and supporting each other to stay compact as a team. To do this each player needs to be constantly on the move to stay near to their teammates which requires a lot of running. Their work – ethic can be seen even more clearly when the team loose possession of the ball. This is the signal for the players to work together like a pack of wolves to get the ball back again as quickly as possible.

KEY 5: DIFFERENT COURAGE

One of the key factors that the Barcelona players demonstrate game-by-game is their sheer mental courage. There are two kinds of courage evident in the game of football – one is more physical in nature whilst the second could be said to be more mental.

In British Football, we give more importance to the first category. We tend to produce players who can generally give and take the tough physical tackles better than most. However, in the second type of courage, the mental sort, compared to Barcelona we are sadly lacking.

We do not breed the confidence, nerve or courage of our convictions (as coaches and players) when under some pressure to stick with the passing game so widespread in the world of football. There are a growing number of young coaches in the Premier League who are getting their team to play the possession – game (eg. Paul Lambert, Norwich; Roberto Martinez, Wigan and Brendan Rogers, Swansea) to join the elder statesmen of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp.

All too often though, we talk about playing the possession – game and sticking at it, but as soon as we are under pressure a lose a goal, we return to the direct way getting the ball forward.

“I admire their sheer guts in playing the ball out of trouble when under pressure – I would have just hoofed it into the channel in the same situation” (Gary Neville)

Barca players have been caught out at the back for losing possession but have the courage and belief to keep playing the way they have been brought up to do.

KEY 6: THE POSSESSION GAME

Barcelona players are brought up with the absolute mantra of keeping possession of the ball. They play a fast technical, athletic game which demands fast decision – making when ‘on and off’- the – ball. The amount of correct decisions that their players make on the field during the pressure of competition to keep the ball is truly staggering.

All this does not happen by chance. As young players they are encouraged not to be afraid of making mistakes and to keep taking risks, not only in practice but during matches.

Much of their everyday practice is devoted to games with the continuous rotation of players supporting each other, creating space, and moving the ball to pick the best pass in each situation.

“You can be the best passer in the world, but if your teammates don’t get into the correct positions quickly enough, you have no chance of keeping the ball.” (Iniesta)

Barcelona believes implicitly that possession begins at the back and as such they put more store on their Goalkeepers being able to pass the ball more effectively than other top clubs. Victor Valdes gave a master – class of how to maintain possession of the ball in the white – heat of a European Cup semi – final versus Real Madrid at the Bernabeu stadium. His performance would have put some of our Premier League centre – backs to shame with its excellence.

Keeping possession of the ball demands as much mental as physical or technical excellence. Barca players have been coached from an early age to take risks, be calm, confident and bold with their passing.

KEY 7: STAYING COMPACT

Barca have a dynamic and clear – cut way of playing which is unlike any other team. A key factor is their ability to stay together as a team retaining their shape when moving up, down or across the field.

They provide a basic structure for the team which allows the players to do their own thing in the moment within this framework. The compactness isn’t a static shape, it alters to deal with different game situations but always returns to its original compact shape. This is important to their game for a few reasons….when keeping ball possession the player on–the-ball always needs close support to ensure choice and accuracy. When passing and, in contrast, when the ball is lost and they need to defend, the team must press the ball close together and reduce the space the opponents have to work in and the amount of running they have to do to defend well.

“The best chance you have versus Barcelona is as soon as you win the ball against them, is to immediately inter pass through their first phase and get at their back – unit.” (Graeme Souness)

They believe in staying compact so much that they rarely counter – attack as a team from deep positions for fear of becoming over – stretched and exposed to a counter – attack themselves. At times they have found themselves in potential counter – attacking situations where they have the chance to get forward quickly with equal numbers but decide to wait to re-join their teammates in support before restarting their passing to get forward again.

“There are great teams around – the difference is that we have more players who can think and react quicker. Most of our players have come through twelve years of education in our youth scheme which gives them a head start.” (Xavi)

KEY 8: THE YOUTH FACTORY

Many acknowledge Barcelona as having the best Youth Academy in the Football world. So, how does it work? Boys as young as 7 years of age start the Academy as they all receive a well-tried, holistic and trusted education the ‘Barca Way.’ With a motto of ‘more than a club’, they set out to develop great players and great people with life education running in tandem with Football – they believe the two go hand-in-hand. They aim to develop young Footballers’ self-esteem, intelligence and mental-toughness to deal with the inevitable pressures which come further along the line.

The Barcelona Youth Academy put the onus back on the young players under their care to take responsibility for their own learning development. Rather than constantly instructing them and telling them what to do, they guide, monitor and encourage them to find their own solutions to problems in the game – this is a far more effective way to learn.

KEY 9: TELEPATHIC UNDERSTANDING

They appear to be able to ’read’ each other’s minds and their intentions before they decide what to do next. This ability does not come easy – it is the product of the mind and body of two or more people working temporarily in complete harmony. Sometimes two players in a team ‘tune-in-‘ to each other and can latch on to what each other is thinking and make it count. What is so different about Barcelona, is that as a team they seem to have greater compatibility, trust and familiarity of each other which allows them to be on the same wavelength when they play.

“Some teams have two players with this sort of instinctive understanding but we have a whole team that can do it.” (Iniesta)

This superior teamwork has been homed and developed on the training ground over many years of clever coaching in the form of continuous small-sided games practice day-by-day which gives them the advantage of knowing each other reactions to each game situation that they are confronted with.

KEY 10: THE ‘REAL SPECIAL – ONE’

Until recently Pep Guardiola was the young coach who singlehandedly masterminded Barcelona to its domination of World Club Football.

He was ideally placed to know all there is to know about the club’s history and where it has come from and where it needs to go in the future. He took the Cruyff ‘total football’ blue print that the legendary player and coach brought to the club and adapted it cleverly in his own special way so that it was way ahead of any other club in its effectiveness. His players respected him totally, and put their trust in him to provide the coaching expertise to maximise their talents as individuals and as a team. He managed to achieve the ‘holy-grail’ of coaching success that every coach dreams about – winning with beautiful Football.

Pep devised for the team an ideal balance between free flowing skills harnessed to an effective structure that suited all the players.

“Much praise has been given to Victor Valdes, the Barca goalkeeper after his terrible mistake in the first minute of the match versus Real cost his team a goal. To the astonishment and consternation of the Catalan fans he just kept giving short passes to Pique and Puyol, even when the risks were high, refusing to take the easy option of a big hoof up field.” (Matthew Syed, Observer)

The Barca code has taken the coach, his staff and all the players many painstaking hours, weeks and years of intensive practice, match experience and quality coaching to reach their superior performance level. It will be a great challenge for the rest of us to achieve.

Let’s hope that the beautiful football continues even though Pep Guardiola has now moved on…

“At Barcelona you are first taught to think, think, and think quickly.” (Xavi)

Malcolm Cook played professional football for a number of clubs including Motherwell and Bradford Park Avenue, after which he went into coaching roles with Doncaster Rovers and Huddersfield Town and was then appointed Director of Youth at Liverpool FC. He has degrees in PE, Sports Psychology and Sports Science and has written 5 best-selling football coaching books endorsed by top managers in the game including Sir Alex Ferguson and Mark Hughes. Most recently, Malcolm has created his own unique coaching method called Freeflow and delivered training to coaches at over 30 top clubs and national associations including the French FF, Irish FA and Swedish FA.

Written by Jamie Harris

Someone told me the other day that there used to be a match when a representative team of the best South American players took on Europe’s finest in a kind of Ryder Cup of Football. Now, I know that I should have at least checked this out on Wikipedia but that would have wasted my time wishing this game could take place today, and picking my South America XI V Europe XI…

SOUTH AMERICAN XI (4-2-4)

1. JULIO CESAR (Brazil and Inter Milan)

2. MAICON (Brazil and Inter Milan)

3. MARCELO (Brazil and Real Madrid

4. LUCIO (Brazil and Inter Milan)

5. THIAGO SILVA (Brazil and AC Milan)

6. JAVIER MACHERANO (Argentina and Barcelona)

7. KAKA (Brazil and Real Madrid)

8. LUIS SUAREZ (Uruguay and Liverpool)

9. CARLOS TEVEZ (Argentina and Man City)

10. EDINSON CAVANI (Uruguay and Napoli)

11. LIONEL MESSI (Argentina and Barcelona)

TEAM EUROPE (4-4-2)

1. MANUEL NEUER (Germany and Bayern Munich)

2. SERGIO RAMOS ( Spain and Real Madrid)

3. ASHLEY COLE (England and Chelsea)

4. GERARD PIQUE (Spain and Barcelona)

5. NEMANJA VIDIC (Serbia and Man Utd)

6. XAVI ( Spain and Barcelona)

7. GARETH BALE (Wales and Spurs)

8. ANDRES INIESTA (Spain and Barcelona)

9. ROBIN VAN PERSIE (Holland and Arsenal)

10. ANDREA PIRLO (Italy and Juventus)

11. CRISTIANO RONALDO (Portugal and Real Madrid)

Have your say – tweet us 

@Soccer-IQ #soccerrydercup

               Edgar Davids

THE PRO

Name: Ian Stonebridge

Credentials: Ex Plymouth Argyle, Wycombe Wanderers , Torquay United and England U18s

V

THE STREET PLAYER

Name: Darren Laver

Credentials: Managing Director of International Street Soccer Association

In our previous issues we have proved that ex-professional footballer Ian Stonebridge can learn and perfect new tricks dreamed up by street soccer player Darren Laver – so it was time to go head to head!

Who will prevail as champion?

The Rules of Street Vs Pro:

Ian and Darren had to demonstrate a challenge for the other to achieve in three weeks. Victory for Ian would be vindication for the traditional 11 a side game, success for Darren would mean that the street version would rule.

Ian’s Challenge For Darren (and Freestylers Michael Hindle and Craig Gorey): THE WHEELIE BIN CHALLENGE

 

Darren’s Challenge For Ian: THE AKKA 3000

SIQ: If you had to prioritise the following roles of a coach being winning, fun, developing a player, and developing the person,  what order would you put those in? .

PR: I think a lot of them come hand in hand. I really do,  I think that for me, the developing the player thing is the most important thing, because if that’s right, everything else to me will follow. I really do.

I think that with regards to youth development in the ages that you talked about, I think that if you’re developing a player and it’s done the way that you want it to be done, it’s in a structured discipline, hard working environment, and if you’re looking at those areas, in that area, so when you’re developing players that in life, if you’re disciplined, hard working, put everything into it, then you’re going to develop as a person. So I think that if you get that development of the player right, the development of the person will come with that.

The fun element, again if you were to speak to a player and you were to say “do you want to go and play cowboys and Indians with a football, or do you want to learn how to, I don’t know, how to play off from the back, do you want to learn how to make better runs from midfield”, those types of things, he would say the latter. He would say that he wants to develop more as a player, that way.

So the fun element, I think the older a player gets, comes from yeah, the training is exciting, it’s demanding and they’ll get fun from that, but the fun maybe becomes a little bit more round the boundaries, the outskirts of it before a session, in the breaks of the session, after a session, because the main content for me, the development of the player is where the business gets done, and I think that as we talked about before, the winning mentality and winning, if you go out to win every game as a coach, I think sometimes what happens there, is because you send your team out to win, you lose sight of in the end what’s the overall goal.

If the whole team goes into the first team and develops through the years, then he’s done fantastic, but it’s very difficult for that to happen. So you’re only really talking about one or two individuals, so you may have a team that loses every game, but there’s an individual in it who has got the winning mentality and he’s got the ability to progress to the first team. You may have a team that wins every game but no one gets through.

So in the end, all those things that you’re working on, you want them to win, but as a coach, if you’re focused on winning, it detracts a little bit from what the overall aim of everything is, and that’s not the game that you play for the under 14s against, I don’t know, Man United. It’s the game that they’re playing for Man United in the premier league. That’s the goal, the ultimate goal. It’s getting them to there.

So I would rank it as developing as a player, developing as a person, fun, and winning, but for me it’s not a clear defined one, two, three, four.

SIQ: Academies or youth development in Britain has been criticised for not developing talented footballers when we compare to  Spain, Holland, Brazil etc. If that’s true, what would you put that down to?

PR: I think when you talk about a country like Brazil, you’re talking about a country that in areas, there’s a lot of poverty, and I think that what the children in our country are able to do at a young age compared to others are able to do in Brazil is greater, this means the need for a boy to go out in Brazil and play football and train and practice is greater. In countries such as Spain and Holland, particularly the schooling, academically it’s more structured to early starts and early finishes. The way their school academically pans out, you are able to get the boys earlier in the afternoons for greater practice. This means that from a young age from certain countries young players possibly can have greater focus on why they need to become a player (The internal rewards) and also due to the issues talked about above they are able to have more opportunities to practice with the ball so at the young and crucial ages for technical development they are blessed with greater opportunities to practice.

When you also talk about countries like Spain and Holland, you naturally think of Barcelona and Ajax. You cannot forget though that these clubs in these countries have a massive recruit zone compared to an area such as the North West of England where you have a significant presence of Premier League clubs all vying for the elite players. How does this effect the development of young English players? Well if you’ve got a talented school child and you put him in a class with other students who are okay, he will progress, but if you put him in a classroom which is full of children who are academically better or at the same level as him, he will obviously become more academically bright, because those children will challenge him. He will have to raise his game to live in that classroom environment, and it’s exactly the same on the football pitch. In the clubs highlighted such as Barcelona and Ajax they arguably because of the area they are able to recruit from and the lack of competition to do so locally are able to have the best players training with each other which only improves the level of competency of the player.

SIQ: What are your initial thoughts on the EPPP proposal from how it may help to develop players?

PR: I think it’s a good idea. I really do. I think it adds quite a privileged position because I’m at a club which is in the premier league, and because of that, you may have the ability to be able to finance your project around your football more than you would do maybe if you were a division two club where it’s not seen as a greater priority, or you just haven’t got the finances to get to where you need to be in the EPPP proposal.

I think that it will mean in the end that the best players will play with the best players if it works out the way that the proposal wants it to, which again can only be proved as we talked about in Spain, it can only be good for English football and the club that the player’s going to.

I think that if you’ve got a talented school child and you put him in a class with other students who are okay, he will progress, but if you put him in a classroom which is full of children who are academically better or at the same level as him, he will obviously become more academically bright, because those children will challenge him. He will have to raise his game to live in that classroom environment, and it’s exactly the same on the football pitch.

I think that facilities at clubs are fantastic anyway. I really do. I think that we go to some clubs and their facilities are better than our in terms of what they’ve got, in terms of pitches and so on, but you can have all the facilities in the world, but it’s being able to make sure that you’ve got the best players and they’re being coached by the correct coaches and coached the correct way.

And I think that if anything comes out of it, I think it’s, we’ve got something like, I think it’s over 38 academies now, if you grade those academies and then obviously centres of excellence after that, if you grade those academies to grade one, grade two, grade three, grade four, and you’re a grade one academy, then it will go from being 38 plus to maybe, and this is just me guessing now, to maybe 10 to 12, maybe 14.

So that naturally says that for us to become or for a club to become a criteria one club, they can’t just become one. They’ve got to raise the levels again, so all the levels just get raised, and I think for a child who’s a talented footballer; that can only help them. I really do, and I think that if some clubs who maybe can’t become a category one, category two, maybe category three club, maybe a category four club who doesn’t have a centre of excellence, just run a youth team, then surely you’re looking out even more intently then for players who’ve been released from other clubs to run your youth team.

So I think again, the players who don’t make the level at category one, category two clubs, the avenues open up even more for them in lesser clubs, in those clubs if I don’t think it’s worth running a nine to 16s programme, then I would run an under 16s team that would potentially just house players who have been released or who are going to be released, and then the chances of them getting a trial, getting a contract, scholarship wise or professionally at my club would surely increase, and I just think that the knock on effects would be great.

Obviously there’s issues around compensation, and I think that here, if it’s not agreed between two clubs it can go to tribunal, and that figure can escalated quite highly, so the initial payment that a club would receive if any other club came and bought the player, at the moment is quite high, but I’m sure with the proposals that the premier league have got in place with regards to add ons and sell on clauses and so on, if that player gets to where we all want him to get to, the rewards for a club that has sold them will be greater anyway. I really do.

SIQ: If you could change one thing about existing youth development in football in the UK, what would you go for?

PR: The increased chance of employing more coaches and support staff to work with specific age groups within an academy. For example a full time coach at under 12, 13, 14 and so on. This would mean that the focus on each group by the full time coach would allow for further support for the players both on the field technically and tactically but also off the field from an educational, welfare and mental point of view supporting staff that are already in place in these areas in guiding the players to become the best player and person they can be. These further opportunities will also raise the standards of coaching within the country as the expectations of clubs to employ the best coaches to work with the best children will see the emphasis on quality rise and also the chance to progress for coaches who gain their badges, experience, work through the age groups etc more realistic.