"A great coach is one who listens to his players"
Les Kershaw (Regional Head Scout)
Mike Glenny (Head Scout) and the
great staff about their experiences
on developing & recruiting young
talent. Manchester United Under
21's played a game 3 weeks ago
and 9 players in that team were
local lads who MUFC had in the
development centres at AGE 7,8,&
9.
As the New Head Of Academy
Coaching at Oldham Athletic I have
to work with a minimum budget
and local players and make sure our
retention levels are higher in
producing talent for this club. I am
not about to reinvent the wheel in
football development to try to
make a statement so I want to learn
from a club that has already gained
this wisdom.
I probably ask more questions than
Eddie and Mike can take at times
but their wisdom to me is like
GOLD for this academy and my
development as a coach. It
prevents me from making mistakes
that they did and helps me gain
speed in knowledge and wisdom.
Let me share with you some great
tips that they shared with me in the
development of players and the
things I saw which I think are
fantastic. You may already know
these things but let me tell you that
the biggest danger they said to
player development was
"OVERCOACHING" and taking good
habits out of players in doing so.
1.
3v3, 4v4 and just let them play. Give
them different tasks in using new
skills in the game. "Inside cut,
scissors, change of direction"
2.
and let them find the solutions
themselves by problem solving in
the game. If they fail to beat a man
once do not tell the boy to pass it!!
tell him to go and beat him again
and try and different method. This
may take 30 times but once he
does it he will find constant
success. (There is no greater prize
or way of learning as the boy is
creating Neuro Pathways in the
brain)
3.
development of your players as
they will have really tough times
where their bodies change
dramatically and you must have
faith. They may fall to the bottom of
the group but you must support
them and invest patience in them
and take away the fear of failure.
One thing I want to add is you must
in my opinion LISTEN to your
players at all times. Trust their
decisions and encourage them to
make mistakes so they learn from
them. FAILURE=SUCCESS as long as
the player finds a succesful
outcome his way. WE have failed in
all aspects of Education and
coaching as we as teachers of the
game still think there are
apparently only 4 learning styles. In
my opinion the greatest most
powerful learning style is FAILURE
as it's the only time we truly look,
listen and act. (Think of a baby
learning to walk)
FAILURE brings PAIN which brings
HUMILITY which then makes us
self-teachable. Self teaching to me
is the best way to learn. How the
hell do you think I wrote this?