1.Auckland Football Federation Coaches Network Event Feb 23rd, Central Utd Football Club, Kiwitea Street, 9am-12noonThe Modern Coachfor the Modern Game Hosted By: Jos Manuel Figueira

2. The Modern Coachfor the Modern Game PART I The Modern Coach: Patience, Paint, Practice & Produce PART IIBuilding Your Bridge: The Foundation of your training environment PART III The Modern Game: What does it look like? What are the Ingredients?PART IV Practical Component: Example sessions for the Modern Coach 3. The Modern Coachfor the Modern GamePART I The Modern Coach: Patience, Paint, Practice & Produce 4. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProducePATIENCEIf I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to Patient attention, then to any other talent Sir Isaac NewtonPatience as a coach is crucial. With all the planning, research and countless hours we spend off the field preparing training sessions and development plans for our players, we believe instant success and improvement should be a given. Out on the grass our expectation is that all players understand what we want from them, how they should behave, to be attentive to the learning points we are trying to feed them and that by the end of the session everyone has made progresshowever is this unrealistic?What strategies do you use to reduce player/coach stress during training?What is you number one focus as a coach during training sessions?What objective do you feel your players should strive for each session?As coaches we need to remind ourselves that without Patience in our approach, and Patience in our players development the environment we create can without our intention be filled with stresses and strains. Do not be demanding of, and driven by results! 5. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProducePAINTArt is not what you see, but what you make others see Edgar DegasThe players are your subjectthe training field is your canvassyour coaching is an art form! There are many different types of artist who have their own techniques and styles, but what they all have in common is their ability to produce spectacular pieces that inspire. As coaches this is what we must strive for when we step on the field with our players, Like painters, every coach is different with their own style, philosophy and outlook. But ultimately the one thing that connects us all is the reason we coach to improve, inspire and grow our players both on and off the field. How we do this can vary, but just like an artist it is how we put all our ideas and visions together and present it on the canvas that separates the best!IS THIS GAME REALISTIC?DOES THIS HAPPEN IN THE GAME?Base all your session planning and activities around these two questions. This method will not only help your players connect their learning from the training field to playing field, but over time you will notice the identification and evaluation of technical and tactical decisions made by your players will become clearer, quicker and with greater quality! Your players must be able to deal with the three key, constantly evolving stresses of the game: SPACE, TIME, PRESSURE. So paint these scenarios for your players in your training sessions and watch them bring your artwork to life! 6. HOW MANY PICTURES DO YOU THINK HAVE BEEN PAINTED FOR XAVI IN TRAINING?? I pass and I move, I help you, I look for you, I stop. I raise my head, I look, and above all I open up the pitch Xavi Hernandez 7. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProducePRACTICE Have you ever noticed a player who when under pressure or in a tight space nearly always passes the ball backwards? never tries to turn? Or break lines with a pass or dribble? For me this is a clear sign of a player that has not been exposed to the key game stresses and pictures during training they are having to think on their feet and more often then not regress into a natural instinct of not wanting to make mistakes and be responsible for one! How can your activities allow players to maximize practice?How can your activities encourage random repetition?How do we know when a skill is engrained?I see many coaches are too worried about seeing/finding improvement so they can share their coaching points and progress activities to move on in their session plan that they can, without knowing it neglect the learning process of players. As coaches we need to provide practices that not only allow players maximum contact time within the activities we provide thembut make these activities organic to allow players to experience random repetition. Put your players in positions and situations they will have to perform and experience in games! 8. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProducePRACTICEfailing?Kobe Bryant LA Lakers 9. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProducePRODUCE If we can be PATIENT and not demanding, during practice PAINT the necessary pictures and allow our players the maximum PRACTICE time in organically evolving activities, they should be well equipped to deal with the decisions, puzzles and stresses the game presents them. The hope is that we see a clear sign of transferred learning from training to playing field from our players. That they are able to execute skills and techniques that have a positive outcome on the team and affect the opposition.Can you turn pressure into praise?Experience, feel, and watch your players the gameHow do you measure your players improvement?Remember every game played throws up a whole new plethora of techniques, skills and tactical game learning opportunities for players. It is this experience that help us develop our training focus and plans, but more importantly provide us with a new inspiration for us to paint on our blank canvass that is the training field! 10. PART I Patience, Paint, Practice & ProduceIN CONCLUSIONPlayers have different needs and your sessions must recognize this. Put your players in positions they will have to experience and perform in the game All practices must replicate game stimuli. If players fail to recognize the correct stimuli when it is demanded in a game, technique and skill execution will fail. It is the responsibility of the coach to make sure this does not happen If you are not positively affecting the behavior of your players, you are not a coach. And if you dont change the way they think and feel, you wont change the way they behave and perform.As coaches be patient in your approach to your players development. The environment you create shouldnt be filled with stresses and strains. Do not be demanding of, and driven by results!Dont get left behindget your Ps in order and become a modern day coach! 11. The Modern Coachfor the Modern GamePART II Building Your Bridge: The Foundation of your training environment 12. PART II Building Your Bridge: The Foundation of your training environmentAimed at Soccer coaches of all levels and with players of all ages and abilities The Modern Soccer Coach 2014 identifies the areas that must be targeted by coaches who want to maximize a team's potential - the Technical, Tactical, Physical, and Mental sides to the game. Written by UEFA 'A' and NSCAA Premier licensed coach Gary Curneen - The Modern Soccer Coach 2014 offers contemporary focused and distilled insight into what soccer coaches need to do, and how! 13. PART II Building your Bridge - The Foundation of your Training Environment All practice must replicate game stimuli. If players fail to recognize the correct stimuli when it is demanded in a game, technique and skill execution will fail. It is the responsibility of the coach to make sure this does not happen Gary Curneen |Author | The Modern Soccer Coach WHATS YOUR TRAINING ENVIRONMENT LIKE? Many coaches have a one dimensional training modelbut fail to notice! By simply asking yourself these questions, you can tell whether or not youre your training program is one dimensional: Do you separate your sessions for technical, tactical & physical conditioning?Do your players continually struggle with the tactical aspects of the game?Do your players continually struggle to create attacking chances in games?Does your team continually start the game sluggish?Does your team have a problem conceding goals in the last ten minutes of games?Is enthusiasm from your players continually missing during your sessions?Do players continually feel like they can sit out of a session and not miss much?Is attendance a continual problem for your training session?If you answered YES for any of the questions above it does not make you a bad coach! Every coach (including the top ones) have problems to fix on a daily basis, it is the nature of the game. However too many times we believe that these problems are because of the deficiencies of our players and not down to the habits we help create every day. 14. PART II Building your Bridge - The Foundation of your Training Environment THE WHAT The easy part of coachingit has to be what ideas and philosophies we want our teams to incorporate. These will vary from coach to coach but tend to cover general ideas such as; high work rate, possession focused, attack minded etc What is your coaching philosophy and ideas of how the game is played?How do you want your team and players to play each game? Why?There is no right or wrong answer! This is very much the theory side of coaching. It can be a set of ideals that you will stand by no matter what! However, simply identifying your philosophies and being prepared to stand by them is not enough in the game today. Whilst traditional coaching very much consisted of ordering and telling todays coaching is about nurturing and enhancing, so we need to take a step further. 15. PART II Building your Bridge - The Foundation of your Training Environment THE HOW This is where coaching becomes more complex and tricky. How can we get our philosophy and ideas through to the players in order to deliver performances and results? A coach and his/her players can sometimes seem miles apart. The screaming from the sidelines met with a blank expression from your player is a prime example of this in action.Your about to hear a snippet from a Junior U10 game. With the person next to you listen, make notes & think about the following: 2.1. Is the information from the coach relevant to the game? Are the players able to play with freedom & make their own decisions? 3. Can you make out what the coaches philosophies/ideas are?Whilst my initial thoughts of the clip are good, if you dig a little deeper its clear that It is a long way from the What to the How. If we want to bring these two aspects of our coaching/training environment closer together we are going to need a bridge to do it!BRIDGE THE GAP NOW!! 16. PART II Building your Bridge - Four Dimensional CoachingThe foundation of the bridge will determine your success; your training program makes u the four beams on the bridge; Technical, Tactical, Physical and MentalPOTENTIALCOMMUNICATION T E C H N I C A LT A C T I C A LP H Y S I C A LPERFORMANCE M E N T A LThese are the elements that have to be included in every aspect of your work and your goal is to have your team operating as efficiently as possible. If you implement your training program with high standards, consistency, and quality control, you and your team will start moving forward very quickly. MAKE SURE THAT BRIDGE IS STRONG & READY TO GO!! 17. PART II Building your Bridge - Four Dimensional Coaching TECHNICAL Technical proficiency is the ability to perform underlying techniques accurately, consistently and at game speed. The best teams and players execute the basics correctly and do it often. Your role as coach is to provide your players with a technical framework in your sessions so that they can meet the technical demands of the game. Dont focus on one single skill each sessionIncorporate multi-skill exercises & activitiesChallenge your players to do even more!Your exercises should incorporate multi-skills (passing, shooting, control, heading) whilst challenging players to do even more. However more is not necessarily an increase in the amount of technical work, but rather the creation of challenging conditions around them pressure of opposition & speed of play! Why always start with technical work? Traditional practices almost always begin with technical work, at which time players are usually fresh mentally and physically. But in reality, fatigue is a factor in performance so we must prepare our players to pass the ball just as well in the last ten minutes of a game as they do in the first. CHALLENGE PLAYERS ACROSS MULTIPLE ASPECTS NOT SOLELY ON SKILL! 18. PART II Building your Bridge - Four Dimensional Coaching TACTICAL Tactical proficiency is the ability to weigh up game situations, decide what option to take, and when to take it. Working on tactical shape and formations typically slow down a session, but putting emphasis on your principles is different and a lot more effective. Create activities that dovetail your principlesDont break the flow. Let the activity do the teaching for youIs it realistic? Would this happen in a game?Working alongside physical and mental components, tactical thinking is important because players will have to make tactical decisions in a very short window of time speed of thought will be just as vital as physical speed. KEEP YOUR COACHING BALANCE! The balance of training is crucial because if the coach stops and starts the session too much, flow disappears and you have eliminated key challenges that players will be exposed to in a game. Too often the tactical side of training is geared for outcome and not process. Coaches change formation/game plans so regularly that players never have a chance to develop performance routines. ENABLE YOUR PLAYERS TO READ, RESPOND, REACT & RECOVER TO ALL SITUATIONS THAT WILL OCCUR IN A GAME! 19. PART II Building your Bridge - Four Dimensional Coaching PHYSICAL You need to have physical competence in order to have skill, tactical, or mental competence. They are inextricably linked as the physical can have a direct impact on technical or tactical execution. If players are fatigued performing a skill, they will not perform it optimally. Dont just make your players fit. Make them FOOTBALL FIT! Lots of coaches devote their time to wondering how they can ensure that their players are able to do a lot of running during a match. Ajax trains its players to run as little as possible on the field. That is why positional games are always central to Ajax training sessions Louis van Gaal If you want your players at their best physically, you have to incorporate the ball and football specific demands to your session. Speed, power, agility, reaction time and aerobic endurance that can be sustained for 90 minutes are required. Identifying those demands is one thing, but the key is to integrate these components with game specific indicators during practice sessions. PERFORMANCE IS A FUNCTION OF FITNESS & FATUGUE. PLAYERS MUST HAVE THE ENERGY SYSTEMS REQUIRED TO MEET THESE DEMANDS! 20. PART II Building your Bridge - Four Dimensional Coaching MENTAL Psychological proficiency in football involves choosing and maintaining a positive attitude, dealing effectively with teammates, using positive self-talk, understanding mental imagery, managing anxiety effectively, developing confidence, controlling emotions effectively and maintaining concentration! Do your sessions challenge the players in a number of these areas?Are your players having to think? Are they trying to solve problems?Perhaps the most important mental aspect will be decision making. Can your exercises challenge players to think and solve problems? This is where the mental component meets the tactical one. Former Legendary Chicago Bulls Head Coach Phil Jackson had a no timeout policy when his Chicago Bulls team were struggling. It gave his players the responsibility to solve the problems they were facing. His star player, Michael Jordan believed that the team subsequently developed think power which would allow them to deal with problems as they occurred throughout the season. PLAYERS MUST BE TAUGHT HOW TO THINK, NOT NECESSARILY WHAT TO THINK! 21. PART II Building your Bridge - The Foundation of your Training Environment IN CONCLUSION POTENTIALCOMMUNICATION T E C H N I C A LT A C T I C A LP H Y S I C A LPERFORMANCE M E N T A LDont focus on one single skill each sessionIncorporate multi-skill exercises & activitiesChallenge your players to do even more!Create activities that dovetail your principlesDont break the flow. Let the activity do the teaching for youIs it realistic? Would this happen in a game?Dont just make your players fit. Make them FOOTBALL FIT!Do your sessions challenge the players in a number of these areas?Are your players having to think? Are they trying to solve problems? 22. The Modern Coachfor the Modern GamePART III The Modern Game: What does it look like? What are the Ingredients? 23. PART III The Modern Game What does it look like? Systems are dying its about the movement of ten players now. Tactically now, in the modern game, your players will have multiple roles within the attacking and defensive framework Slaven Bilic Head Coach Besiktas & Former Croatia National Team Head Coach 24. PART III The Modern Game What does it look like? FOUNDATIONSNOT FORMATIONS! Whether youre a 4-3-3, 4-4-2 or 3-4-3 kind of coach, I truly believe the more modern day football I watch (at the top level) formations are becoming less important. What wins games are players who can adapt, evolve and execute decisions (technical/tactical) at any specific moment of the game.Philosophy Or Evolution?Defenders or Midfielders? As coaches we need to look beyond putting players in boxes on the field and ask them to perform certain actions which that position requires. Educating players to recognize the correct cues in/out of possession breaks the mold of players needing position specific qualities. The way the modern game is evolving means that players need to be adaptable & evolve with the match, with every passing minute.WITHOUT THE CORRECT FOUNDATION, FORMATIONS MEAN NOTHING! 25. WHATEVER THE SYSTEMTHERE MUST BE A FOUNDATION! Liverpool FC 26. PART III The Modern Game What does it look like?Philosophy Fluidity Finish! 27. WHATEVER THE SYSTEMTHERE MUST BE A FOUNDATION! FC Bayern Munich 28. PART III The Modern Game What does it look like?Multi Functional Multi Skilled Multiple Outcomes! 29. PART III The Modern Game Key Ingredients The Role of GoalkeepersThe evolution of goalkeeping has transformed the game in recent years. Modern goalkeepers are just as good with their feet as some of their fellow midfielders. This has led to attacks starting further down the field and as the technical demands for keepers has increased, so too has the tempo of the game. Forwards chase backpasses now to simply affect the service from the goalkeeper, knowing that a keeper with time on the ball can usually place a ball wherever they want to.Deep PlaymakerMany associate a playmaker as being a central midfielder or withdrawn forward who can influence the game high up the field with a range of assists or goal. However this type of player has evolved significantly as stifling defenses and rigid defensive systems have drawn them further down the field. The dangerous playmaker has been replaced by a deep lying string puller, able to impact the game by changing the point of attack: retaining possession, and controlling the tempo.Playmaking Center BacksAs more teams drop deep to defend with ten players and play counter-attacking football, this has allowed defenders more time on the ball and the freedom to make decisions on how to construct an attack. As well as other aspects of the game, defenders must now be excellent technically. The playmaking center back or libero is becoming more prominent as we see center backs driving through into the opposition half dozens of times in a game. If your center back can do this, it can open a range of attacking options for your team.Decline of Fixed Systems of PlayThe days of rigid tactics and formations are well and truly gone in the modern era. A team today, competing at a high level could play against a different system every week. Each game will bring different questions, both attacking and defensively, so if your reliant on one system your players abilities to solve problems will be limited. As players have developed into better athletes and improve technically, it has brought formations closer together and very similar. So similar, in fact that a 4-5-1 can become a 4-4-2, a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 within seconds. 30. PART III The Modern Game What does it look like?IN CONCLUSION Teach your players & your team the foundations so they can perform in any system, shape or moment Dont get caught up in formations & systems of play. Focus on the your key playing principles Encourage your players to be multi skilled. Every position on the field demands every type of action Allow your players to improvise. Creativity & self solving is the key to unlock real potential The environment you create at training and on game day will determine the direction & way your players grow. Players need to be left to play the game, feel the game & learn every aspect of the game in order to be effectiveso why make training different? 31. You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, but therell always be somebody who hates peaches Brendan Rogers Head Coach, Liverpool FC 32. The Modern Coachfor the Modern GamePART IV Practical Component: Example session for the Modern Coach