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COACH DEVELOPMENT
"The key factor in any learning programme - more important than a good syllabus, flashy equipment or state-of-the-art venue - is the quality of the teacher"
- Mark Carter, MoF Director
MoF is very proud of its coaching staff. A side-product of the programme is the development of effective, confident coaches. Most coaches will work on other sports programmes too, and can bring new ideas with them from other environments. This is essential for the long-term growth of all our coaches and the MoF programme in general.
1. Learning from each other
The best way of getting new ideas is to steal them! Coaches are encouraged to arrive a session early, or stay a session late, and watch other coaches work or be an Assistant Coach in someone else’s session. This is a great way to gain new inspiration, new ideas and new activities. We want to create an environment where we can share skills and knowledge – so feel free to discuss activities with other coaches.
2. Team coaching
There may be circumstances that require two Lead Coaches to work together on a session. For example, if only a few players attend a session, it may be that the coaches decide to join the two groups together. In this instance, they will need to discuss quickly how the session will operate and what activities and learning will take place. There are various ways of doing this, and coaches need to decide on the best course of action given the situation.
3. Evaluating sessions
Evaluation of sessions needn’t take a long time, but is absolutely necessary in order to improve and grow. Try finding 5 mins the day after a session to think about:
- What activity worked best? Why?
- How many minutes of the hour included skill activity (ie opposed)? Why not more?
- How did children react? Was there any misbehaviour? Why?
- What would you change in this session for next time?
- What was the biggest difficulty you had in the session? How did you deal with it?
- Did the children always understand your instructions? If not, why not?
- Was their evidence of child creativity, of them finding new ways of doing things?
Click here for the MoF Coach Evaluation form. All coaches are evaluated once a term using this form as the basis of the evaluation.
4. Courses and Coach Education
The only worthwhile FA courses relevant to the development of young children are:
The FA Age-Appropriate Youth Modules: Introductory Module, Modules 1, 2 and 3.
These one-day to four-day modules contain both theory and practical sessions and discuss issues such as:
- What motivates children to play football?
- How can we build their self esteem?
- How can we manage differences in age, experience, ability and attitude?
- Can we create the right environment for young people to learn?
- How can we teach them strategies for managing mistakes?
- How can we tailor practice sessions according to age, ability, experience and maturity?
Get in touch with County FA’s to find a course near you.
The FA Psychology in Football Level 1 is an on-line course that is worthwhile. This deals with some important aspects of coaching children and running programmes for children. Levels 2 to 5, although interesting, aren’t relevant to coaching young children at MoF.
Premier Skills Practice Play courses are very relevant to the type of teaching and learning that we endorse at Ministry of Football. MoF Coaches are encouraged to participate on the Premier Skills courses when possible. Click here for more information.
Remember: The quality of any learning programme is only as good as the quality of the teacher delivering it. It is a good idea to find out who is delivering the coach education course you are interested in taking. The same course delivered by different teachers can be very different in terms of quality.
5. Links and Further Reading
For a set of activities that follow the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) method:
A page of interesting links on player and child development:
http://www.thefa.com/GetIntoFootball/FALearning/FALearningPages/FAYouthModule
The FA’s ‘The Future Game’ is highly recommended and can be purchased from the FA website.