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MAXIMISING LEARNING
"A great pianist doesn't run around the piano or do push-ups with the tips of his fingers. To be great he plays the piano."
- Jose Mourinho
So many children nowadays only do an hour or two of football a week. This is nowhere near enough to develop the skill needed to play at the top level. Coaches need to make sure that all children get as many (appropriate) learning opportunities as possible during the session.
Imagine a MoF session that started three minutes late; did a warm-up with at least a minute of teacher-talking time; took two minutes to split the group into two groups; had a high amount of teacher-talking-time during the first part of the session (another minute); had two long drink breaks lasting four minutes each; used an activity where players sat down for 10 minutes, only being involved for a minute each; took five minutes to get the players into teams for games; during the game - the ball was often in the GK hands, or being collected from other side of hall (two minutes); and ended two minutes early.
ACTUAL LEARNING TIME = 30 mins from an hour’s session = Not good enough!
We only have an hour. MoF sessions should contain more ball touches, more decisions, more play, more involvement, more mistakes, more successes, and more energy than any other football sessions. MoF coaches need to work hard to make sure every minute is a minute well-spent.
Tips for Coaches:
- Don't use activities that involve queues. E.g. Why have only one 1v1 at a time while the other children sit and watch? They can all go at once. Chaos is ok (real football is chaotic). As long as it’s safe.
- Choose activities that are easy for children to understand. That way you won't spend too long explaining all the rules. A good coach will get the children playing and moving with a ball in just a few seconds - and make things progressively more complicated later on if necessary.
- Think about: How often do you really need to get the players in to talk to them? Some coaches get the players in for a 'chat' over 10 times in an hour's session - is this really necessary? Only stop activities if there is a purposeful learning outcome that can only be achieved by stopping the session. (Can you find a way of progressing a session / activity without stopping it?)
- Be prepared. Get one activity ready before the current activity has finished. E.g. If moving to small-sided games have the pitches, bibs etc ready to go before you call the players in.
- Getting players into teams for small-sided games should take a maximum of 20 seconds. Don't spend ages deciding who will be on which team - just get them going. Remember: Children learn best by playing not be sitting and listening!
- Re-cycle football during games. If the ball is static for more than 5 seconds, throw another ball in and continue playing with the new ball instead. If the ball is in the GK’s hands for a long time, then add a rule that says he only has two seconds to release it.
What type of practice is needed to create the elite footballer? Research says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to create an elite adult sportsperson. But other research has shown that the average 40-minute school PE lesson contains just 8 minutes of activity. Surely there is a massive difference between a footballer who experiences 10,000 hours of school PE lessons and a footballer who experiences 10,000 hours in an intense and positive, high-quality, learning environment. As coaches we have a responsibility to maximise the amount of learning that happens in every session for every child.