Ministry of Football - Session Management

SESSION MANAGEMENT

1. Coaching different groups

MoF runs every week through the school term. The children usually get 12 to 14 weekly sessions in a term. Children may change groups during the term, some may join in half-way through the term. Coaches are often swapped from week to week, so children are usually coached by different coaches from one week to the next. This is desirable to add variety to the type of sessions, activities and coaching that children receive. It is also desirable in terms of coach development because working with different age-groups each week provides them with a more holistic view of the complete player development pathway.

2. Setting-up a session

Coaches will be at the venue 15 mins prior to the start of the session. This is so they can get everything ready for their session. It also gives time to say hello to parents, and to do some passing or some wall-work or juggling with players who have also arrived early.

Although MoF encourages coach creativity, coaches are expected to have prepared their sessions in advance rather than make it up as they go along. It’s fine to be spontaneous at times, but never start a session without a considered plan of action for the whole session. Write your session down.

Players will arrive early for sessions. They are encouraged to do so, and also to find a ball and do some ball work while they are waiting for their session to begin. In this way, a player arriving 15 mins early every week for a term will add 3 hours of individual ball work to their learning. However, they should only need a bit of space and shouldn’t be doing any shooting, games or other activities that may interfere wih the sessions going on at that time.

3. Starting and Ending Sessions

Things may be a bit chaotic at the beginning of the session. Players will be arriving, some early, some late. There may be new children and parents who need welcoming and settling in. Children and parents will be leaving from the previous session. Coaches will want to set up their activities. However, the most important thing at this time is getting the children in and getting them doing something with a ball. Set them a challenge e.g. passing against the wall, practising some turns etc. Get them going, and then you can sort out setting out the equipment you need for your session.

At the beginning of a new term, or at other times when there are lots of new children, coaches may need to bring the group in at the beginning of the session to introduce themselves or explain rules. At other times, make the session begin quickly. Start sessions straight away with something straightforward that doesn’t need much explanation. Aim to get the kids playing and learning within 5-10 seconds of the start of the session.

At the end of sessions, players are not allowed to continue games or kicking the ball around the hall. If no-one is there to collect them, then they should sit at the side of the hall and watch the next session while waiting to be collected.

5. Time, space and numbers

Sessions last for 60 minutes each. Sessions are often back-to-back, so one session finishes at the same time as the next session begins. This means coaches need to start and finish on time.

The sessions are indoors, usually in large school sports halls. Each coach can expect to have an area of approx 15m X 15m and a maximum of 12 players. Some weeks there will be less than 12, and occasionally there may be more.

6. Groups

In each hour’s session, there are usually two groups – a higher ability group and a lower ability group. Often these groups will be bibbed so that the higher group is in yellow and the lower group in red. This means coaches can run a general warm-up for all players together and then split them easily when the coaches are ready to do so (“Yellow group come with me!”).

Players are grouped based on the 4 A’s: Ability, Age, Athleticism and Attitude. (Very similar to the FA’s ‘Four Corner’ model). It is vital for coaches to realize that all players will be at different stages in terms of their development in each of the 4 A’s. The aim of grouping players is to allow maximum learning to take place for all children. Groups are not set in stone. Coaches can move players between groups from one session to the next if they need to.

The first 5 mins of a MoF session is usually a warm-up for all players of both groups together. This allows for late-comers to arrive. It also allows coaches to check numbers and see how big the groups are. If there are 12 yellow players and only 4 red players, then coaches should re-assign some yellow players to the red group so that the two groups are roughly equal in size.

7. Equipment

Coaches can expect to have:

Enough footballs for one per child. These will be size 3 footballs, slightly deflated in order to prevent them from bouncing high.

Plenty of bibs and cones.

Pop-up goals – 2 per group. Use sand-bags to weight these down.

Ladders *2, wobble board, tall ‘witches hat’ cones – some of this may need to be shared between two groups running at the same time.

Using cones indoors: Try not to use too many cones. They slide around the floor and can be confusing. Bear in mind also that 'real' football (i.e. the adult football games that we are preparing the children for) doesn't have cones - so ask yourself if you really need to use them. They may be useful for some activities, but dribbling round cones does not prepare children very well for dribbling round opponents. If you do need to outline an area for an activity consider using the lines on the hall floor instead where possible.

Use lots of footballs: In order to maximize learning opportunities, we want to have lots of footballs around. Then the children can easily find a new one if the one they were playing with gets kicked away. In all activities, keep footballs close and encourage children to use whichever one is nearest.

Using two goals instead of one: Using two goals at each end of a pitch challenges the players to choose which goal to attack (decision-making), and also how to defend across a wider area. It encourages decisions, switches of play and changes of direction. MoF encourages coaches to use two goals at times, even for 1v1s. (There is a counter-argument that says that playing with two goals, especially defending two goals, is not realistic to the actual one-goal game we are preparing the children to play - but MoF believes that as long as the two-goal games are interspersed with one-goal games they provide useful variety and can offer different challenges and stimulate different learning to take place).

8. Packing away at end of session

Coaches who are coaching the last session of the day are expected to help pack the equipment away. This is best done by utilizing the players in the session. Finish on time, not early. And then assign players tasks to get certain bits of equipment in. “Who will be first back here with three footballs, three cones and three bibs?”

Even if it isn't the last session of the day, try to leave your area and equipment neat and tidy for whoever is coaching next.

9. Assistant coaches

Sometimes there may be an assistant coach to help the lead coach. These will usually be voluntary coaches looking for experience. It is the lead coach’s duty to use the assistant to help them. Tell them what you need and involve them in what you’re doing. The assistant coach can:

Help set-up: Goals, bibs etc. Make sure the place looks smart and is safe.

Learn the players names. Meet and greet. High 5!

Have a few passes with players when they arrive before session.

Use labelled praise (e.g. "Well done James, that pass went straight to your team-mate!" - say who the praise is for, and what was done well).

Make sure players are listening when coach is instructing/demo.

Help get bibs/goals for coaches / control music for coaches.

Join in activities where needed, especially if odd-numbers.

Run small-sided games.

Help coach to run more complicated activities.

Operate music system.

10. Maintaining discipline

Don’t accept bad behaviour from the children. If a child is misbehaving then send them to the naughty corner. We are all here to teach and learn, so don’t allow one child to disrupt a group or wreck an activity.

What is misbehavior? MoF recognizes that children all listen and learn in different ways. Just because a child is not looking at you when you are talking to them it is does make them a naughty child. It may be that they do not learn best by listening, and they will learn when they are active and doing things. Or they may need to fidget or look around in order to continue paying attention. Take this into consideration when deciding whether to tell a child off.

If you do send a player out of the session, don’t leave them there for more than a couple of minutes at most. When you ask them to rejoin the group, make sure they understand what they did wrong.

Split up players who are distracting each other. This programme is about learning through immersion in football. It is hard for players to be immersed in football if they are distracting each other, fighting, chatting etc. (NB: Loud music usually works to stop chatter!)

Important: The children’s behavior is very much influenced by the coach. Often poor child behavior is actually the fault of the coach. If your players have not behaved as expected, ask yourself why – was it because they found things too easy or too difficult, or maybe they didn’t understand what you wanted them to do? Be honest when evaluating your sessions, it’ll make you a better coach.

11. Safeguarding children

Safety is of paramount importance at all MoF venues and sessions. All MoF Lead Coaches have attended the Football Association’s Safeguarding Children workshop, usually as part of their Level 1 qualification. A First Aid kit is available at all sessions. Make sure you know where it is before you start your session. All MoF lead coaches have attended certified Emergency Aid training.

Toilet breaks – children should use toilets during drink breaks and should go in pairs rather than on their own. Coaches and adults should use the disabled toilets where possible.

Before the session, coaches should –

Identify and deal with any dangerous equipment or conditions (slippery floor, goalposts)

Ensure playing area is kept free of unused cones, bibs etc

Know where the first aid kit is, and where the fire exits are

Coaches need to ensure that all children are allowed to play in a safe environment. Children should not be allowed to play in an overly-aggressive manner. No slide tackles are allowed. Coaches need to stop activities if the group is becoming overly-excited and there is a risk of injury. It is the coach’s responsibility to ensure that all children understand how to play and compete fairly with each other.

Coaches need to be careful when choosing and setting-up activities. Some activities, by their nature, will arouse excitement in children more than others. For example, a game of ‘bulldog’ where children are rushing around at high speeds across long distances will get children pumped up, and the coach needs to measure to what extent this is acceptable and whether it is actually conducive to learning. It may be better to use activities that require constant changes of direction and small movements – these are much more relevant to football, require more intelligence, and will not lead to the same type of over-excitement.

Children who are fighting, hitting or tripping each other etc, need to be instantly told that this is unacceptable - and if this behavior continues they should be asked to sit out.

Download the MoF Risk Assessment for using sports halls. Coaches should read this assessment and comply with safety instructions.

12. Working as a Team

Teaching and coaching are often viewed as individual roles, and in some programmes coaches are very isolated. On MoF, it is very common to have two or more coaches at the same venue, sharing the same space and equipment. For these reasons, it is important that we work as a team.

Working as a team means:

Supporting each other. E.g. If a player in one group is hurt and a coach needs to take care of that, then the other lead coach may need to look after both sessions/groups.

Sharing equipment – if you want a specific piece of equipment at a particular time, then you’ll need to discuss this with other lead coaches before the start of the session.

Sharing music – there will be times when one coach wants music and the other doesn’t. Move the music system around to suit you. If you need silence and the other coach is using the music, then ask the other coach to turn it down for a minute.

Learning from each other – see section on Coach Development.