Here is the check list I use in our training sessions when I want to focus on my match orientated sessions:

• Score goals and try to avoid conceding goals
• Patient build up play with the key objective of creating scoring chances
• Cohesion between team mates, win or lose are they continuing to support one another
• Playing direct, getting the ball into the scoring area as quickly as possible
• Quick gear shift change when possession is gained or lost

Now whether you’re coaching junior or youth soccer players these principles hold true.

I like match orientated games because they are more player focused rather than coach focused. Sure, you can still get your key coaching points across but for players they tend to get far more out of these sessions.

Other types of training sessions are also important as well; such as repetition sessions.

With repetition based sessions it’s important that you follow some other guiding principles including:

• All players should have a ball at their feet
• Techniques should be repeated frequently
• No long waiting times between exercises
• You need to have good planning and organisation with seamless transitions for the players
• Don’t have players waiting for their turn

It may seem that quite a few of the above points are common sense, but they’re not common practice!

For players to develop they need plenty of opportunity to “try stuff”, don’t coach creativity out of your players.

Here are a couple of final points to wrap this week’s tip up with…

Excellent coaching means that you should:

• Explain clearly what the team is trying to achieve
• Have the sessions player centric, let them learn for themselves
• Provide demonstrations
• Give selective and key feedback
• Ask the players what their opinions are and pose problems for them to solve

When you introduce these coaching tactics into your sessions you’ll see immediate results in how the team plays.

This week we have four new articles ready for publishing to help you get the most of your sessions with your players. We’ve broken articles down into four key age groups:

• 6 to 10 year olds
• 10 to 12 year olds
• 12 to 16 year olds
• 16 to 18 year olds

Many of our Inside Tactic subscribers tell me they are struggling to develop an easy and effective soccer practice system.

Maybe you’re having trouble trying to keep sessions lively and exciting or keeping the motivation levels of your players high?

Do you suffer from a lack of drills and exercises to quickly change training sessions not knowing what focus on to develop your players in the most structured way?

About eight years ago I felt exactly the same and I invested in all the courses, video’s, DVDs, and best coaching books. I attended coaching clinics and listened to what top coaches had to say about junior and youth soccer development.

Sometimes when I look back I think I was a bit obsessive about my own coaching education but it paid off for me and it can pay dividends for you too.

Just hear me out for a second, until now you’ve probably either learned strategies about the adult game that has little or nothing to do with the age group you’re coaching, you’ve tried to read the strategy books full of drills that just don’t seem to make sense with all the Xs & Os, arrows going everywhere and been totally confused…

….or you’ve watched DVDs that don’t give you a simple step by step plan that you can easily implement with your players.

The Junior Soccer Coach system of developing players has enabled my team to play in two finals and win the league.

I know the drills, exercises and small sided games on Junior Soccer Coach work because the main team that I manage are living proof.

And our members are also living proof too…

In the North Pole, Alaska, Alan Fearns turned around his High School Girls team quite spectacularly

Having struggled for many seasons just to win one game, Alan achieved amazing results within a few weeks of joining us.

Here is an extract out of note that he dropped to me…

The girls had never been so happy. They are 15-18 year olds. I can’t thank you enough. Your entire treatment and information has meant so much to me. I really was, and am, a newby coach, despite 5 years of youth soccer experience. Ladies this age have many needs, from 1st time players to goals of competitive league soccer and more.

We keep it cool, and push the ideals you state in your communications treat refs tops, captains run the pitch, keep the “happy” feeling, and rearrange negative communications into positive comms whenever possible.”

****

Now while the weather isn’t exactly sunny in Alaska… it is in Greece where another one of our members lives. Coach Bratsinho’s team won their league and he was named Coach of the Year too.

Coach Bratsinho asked for some assistance on our soccer discussion forum and got some great feedback from other members as well as a couple of thoughts from me… here’s what Coach Bratsinho said after his team won the final game of the season to win their league…

“Dear Neil i used your words: (Finally, I’d tell them that they are already winners whatever the result since they have more points on the board than anyone else and in many leagues around the world they would be crowned champions) and i saw their eyes shining. That gave me confidence.

I was honored as the coach of the year in my region’s junior league and i have to admit that your site helped me to much for this success. The most important is that from watching your site i had the opportunity to extend my ideas and my knowledge.”

*****

The information that we send out in our Inside Tactics updates are just the tip of the iceberg to all the soccer coaching information that we have in the members only area.

We really want you and your team to have the same winning feelings that our other members are experiencing.

More points on the board, a better win rate, increased player confidence, highly charged enthusiastic training sessions are only one click away for you.

The Junior Soccer Coach members area requires a subscription and we recognise that this investment in your own education may defer your decision to join since you don’t know what the quality and quantity of information is like in the members only area.

In recognition of this we have a special offer, where you can take us for a trial or try out!

This special introductory offer means that you can get full unrestricted access for 14 days to try out our system for player development, watch the videos, print the drills, ask questions in the soccer discussion forum and generally test out our knowledge of the game.

There are over 1,000 pages of soccer coaching information that have been written specifically for junior and youth soccer coaches.

We understand the needs of the players and coaches because we are fully active in the game at grass roots level.

Our dedicated team of coaches have over 25 years experience of playing at the highest professional level as well as running teams with children as young as six, right through to U18 level.

Our introductory subscription will costs ONLY UK£1.00/ US$1.65

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We charge this small amount to ensure that only serious, dedicated coaches (who have the interests of their team at heart and are committed to using the information we provide) join our enthusiastic and vibrant community.

When you join Junior Soccer Coach and you find you’re happy with what we provide you don’t need to take any further action, we’ll just let your membership continue.

Alternatively if during the trial you don’t think we’re right for you then you can cancel your membership by dropping us an email or going into the member resources area and cancelling yourself. *You* control your membership.

Here is the special link to take us for a trial:

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We look forward to welcoming you as the latest member of Junior Soccer Coach and helping you develop your team to fulfill all their potential, individually and collectively… just like Coach Alan, Coach Bratsinho and many others!

It is often called the “Golden Age” between 6 and 12 years of age and developing ball mastery and control should be the priority in your training sessions.

As technical movements are mastered, the rest of the game should become easier to both teach and learn.

Therefore, practice sessions should be organised around facilitating the development of the skills necessary to receive, control and move the ball.

Once players achieve a decent level of competence in their individual ball mastery, then their creative flair and skill development can take place… with player roles and responsibilities, movement, creating space and team organisation becoming the basis of sessions.

Junior and youth coaches who have a clear understanding of the value of organising technical practice sessions will often reap the benefits when competitive soccer takes place.

While points and league tables are not at stake, individual player development should form the core training purpose of coaches.

If you want to get the most out of developing your entire soccer squad you should adopt the following ideas:

1) At a young age, children just want to play. So, set up situations where the players can learn by playing the game.

The game is the best teacher for young players. Use 3 v 3 & 4 v 4 teams without goal keepers regularly in your sessions.

2) Keep your interventions to a minimum. However, when you do have feedback to give, remember to keep it short and simple. A picture paints a thousand words, so demonstrate, test player understanding then let the exercise or game carry on.

Utilise breaks to get themes and coaching points across.

Ask the players at the end of the session what the key learning points were, you’ll be amazed at what they retain.

3) The soccer coaching process is continual… so reflect this in your philosophy. Some of the foundations that you lay now, may not pay dividends for a number of seasons. So set your coaching goals on three levels, seasonal, monthly and by coaching session.

Ensure that each of your sessions contributes to your overall objectives.

4) Set age appropriate goals.

The golden age of U6 to U12 is ideal for motor skills to develop and gain mastery of the ball. As the players enter adolescence their mental capacity to process information increases and the complexity of the 11 a side game can be worked on like team organisation, tactics, strategies and patterns of play.

In the private, members only area of Junior Soccer Coach we explore all of these topics in far more detail. Age specific drills, exercises and key technical development points are ready for you to print out and give to your team.

Whether you are coaching mini, little league, junior or youth soccer – you’ll discover a vast database of practical information written by coaches who are passionate about grass roots soccer for coaches who share our passion.

Let us help you develop the talent within your soccer squad today.

To find out if you are one of us, why not watch this short video…

http://www.juniorsoccercoach.com/public/649.cfm

to see if you’re just like us and find out why we are different.

Watch the short video here: Junior Soccer Coach

Has your team ever played against a team were your players had difficulty maintaining possession when they have possession of the ball?

What I see in many of our local leagues is too many teams are intent in getting the ball forward as quickly as possible.

Individual players don’t seem comfortable on the ball.

If I didn’t know better, they look like they can’t wait to get rid of it for one of a number of possible reasons:

1) Pressure from the coach when on the ball

2) They don’t have the basic skills to cope with the game

3) Win at all costs mentality

When players are correctly coached in the basics of the game, they gain in confidence and start enjoying soccer in whole new manner.

In your training sessions, whatever age, your players continue to work on developing their first touch, control of the ball, shielding and movement.

Instill into the players that maintaining possession of the ball is far more important than getting it into your opponents box as quickly as possible.

When ALL your team are comfortable on the ball they can then dictate the game based on the score and timing of the game.

If required your team can slow it down, pick up the tempo and dare I say take their time over dead ball situations.

This is what I call soccer intelligence... but your players need to have the basics in their locker in order to control the game.

Soccer Intelligence

Soccer intelligence comes from your coaching… but do you have the game intelligence in your locker to pass it on to your players?

One of the best drills and small sided games that you can use with your squad is playing 4 v 4, two or three touch conditioned soccer in an area 10 yards by 10 yards. (Adjust the area according to how well your players cope)

This small sided game will help develop their first touch (rapidly), they’ll need to have their head up knowing where their closest opponent is, where supporting team mates are… and just as important, it’ll force them to communicate with each other too.

Where your players move within this area and highlighting their options through thoughtful coaching interventions is where your soccer intelligence will help the players.

If you need help with soccer intelligence, and also knowing what drills to use to help develop your players rapidly so that they are the yard stick that other teams measure themselves by (just like mine), then you should take a trial membership to Junior Soccer Coach right now.

https://www.JuniorSoccerCoach.com/trial

Log in today and ask me your most burning issue with your team in the Soccer Coaching Forum and I’ll give you some pointers to help out in your next training session or competitive game.

We’ve got members all over the world taking advantage of our systems…the sun never sets on our members.

From West Coast USA to East Coast China, North Pole Alaska to Dunedin in New Zealand, our Junior Soccer Coach members are watching our drills, printing off the key coaching points and improving their teams performances week in, week out.

Come and join in today!

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That’s it for this tip.

Keep watching your players when they are in possession of the ball… not just the player on the ball, but look at the movement of your supporting players too.

In this post there is a soccer coaching video that explains and demonstrates a functional soccer drill that you can quickly and easily set up on your training ground to achieve success.

Watch this attacking soccer tactic video now…

When your team has control of the ball they have control of the game and its important that your team are comfortable in possession, patient in their build up and know when to switch the ball from one side of the soccer pitch to the other in order to move and shift the defense.

This drill focuses on all of these key elements.

ORGANISATION

Set up 3 zones, two 15 yard square zones with a lane 15 yards by 10 yards in width in between. See the soccer video below for a full illustration.

Decide on three teams of four players, place each team in one of the zones. In zone 1 & 2 the aim of the drill is for the players to keep possession of the ball in their zone and after 5 consecutive passes transfer the ball into the opposite zone.

The players in the neutral zone are the defenders. Only two players from the neutral zone can leave it to go and close down the team in possession.

The objective is for the team in possession to show composure, good control, passing and team work to keep the ball and then transfer it.

The defenders should force errors in the play from the team in possession and once that is achieved they then swap roles.

For full instruction, coaching points and to see how the drill works watch the video.

EQUIPMENT

Plenty of soccer balls, cones, flags, half pitch, 12 players

COACHING POINTS

For The In Possession

• Quick feet and good close control
• Communication
• Accurate passing to feet
• Movement to create space and make passing angles
• Space and support

For The Defenders

• Teamwork in closing down and preventing passing channels
• Mental and physical strength to continue to close
• Good recovery lines to get back and deny space & time
• Hold up the attacker
• Jockey, shield, force the play by body positioning

PROGRESSION

In order to progress this drill you could…

• Decrease the space in the zones
• Increase the number of defenders
• Increase or shorten the distances to be covered.
• Use one and touch touch conditions

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In this soccer tip we’ll share with you a drill that we regularly do with our junior and youth players to increase their speed of thought and footwork.

It’s called Round The Clock Soccer Speed Drill.  Actually watch this soccer video for an extensive explanation…

This soccer drill needs a few minutes to organise but once you understand how it works it can be a great exercise to use with your players. Speed of thought, quickness of feet, getting their head up, as well as having to listen and react quickly are all part and parcel of this drill.

You can use this drill with or without a ball.

Watch the drill animation below for a fuller explanation.

ORGANISATION

Set up your cones so that you what represents a clock face, i.e. 12 cones laid out at 5 minute intervals.

At the 12, 3, 6 and 9 times, I would place a seperate coloured cone. This is where you will place your teams.

Split your squad up, ideally you should have at least 12 players per clock face, so put 3+ players on each 12, 3, 6 & 9 o clock coloured cones.

Now for the slightly tricky part… depending on how quickly your players pick this bit up you may some fun getting started. Each of the four groups stood on their coloured cone is standing on their clock face at 12 o’clock.

You aim is to pick a time, say 4 o’ clock and then the players must run, clockwise to their respective 4 o’ clock cone. If you are finding this narrative a little confusing don’t worry the video drill below will make sense.

If your players have understood your instruction and have all run in a clockwise fashion to their respective 4 o’ clock then they should all have run to a seperate place, although they may have crossed paths in the centre of the clockface.

As soon as they get back to their respective 12 o’clock shout out the next time for the second player in line to run to. The second player can’t go until their first team mate is back. So iff their team mate is lagging behind a bit they have to work harder for the next team mate otherwise they will start to fall behind and the rest periods in between will be very short. (Please note… don’t overwork the players!)

The distances that you want to have your players covering should be appropriate to their age and ability for mini soccer (7 – 9) no more than 8 yards in diameter, junior and youth 10 – 15 yards.

EQUIPMENT

12 cones per clockface, 12 players+

COACHING POINTS

Running Form

• Listenting skills
• Alertness to where they should be running
• Anticipation of the start, or for the hand over in a relay race
• Quick short strikes on the ground to build intial momentum
• Feet approximately shoulder width apart with body leaning forward over the first couple of yards
• Toes turned out slightly to get maximum push of soles of feet (watch how sprinters get that acceleration in the first few yards)
• Stride lengthening to cruise
• Deceleration and change of direction
• Determination!
• Head up looking at what they may bump into

PROGRESSION

In order to progress this drill you could…

• Give the players a ball to dribble with not just running

In this article, two scenarios are outlined with methods of managing this kind of response or personality. Tempers can flare even in younger players when hard challenges or late tackles are made and a referee or linesman making a bad decision can cause extreme irritation and tantrums.

Do your best as a football coach to put a stop to this type of reaction. Ensure your players are aware that they could cause a yellow or even red card from the referee. During pre-match talks, remind the team that rough challenges will occur and occasionally an official will make an error of judgement. Instruct your team never to get into an argument with the referee or try to get revenge for a harsh or unjust tackle.

It’s not just on the side lines that emotions are highly charged but all players need to stay calm and composed with their concentration firmly on the match. They should be aware of what’s happening on the pitch not engaging in fiery reactions as this could result in giving the opposition an advantage. Take for example a situation where the referee gives a dubious free kick to the other side. The opposition has played the ball and are now on the attack whilst your team are still arguing with the official.

Full concentration is important during a match. Get this point across to the team by recounting a scenario from a recent top-flight game and the response from the players, whether bad or good.

Hopefully, your pre-match talk with the team will lessen the likelihood of hot-tempered outbursts occurring. Sometimes though you will need to keep a check to ensure a situation isn’t escalating on the field. Keep an eye out for players tackling after the ball has been played, jostling or pushing, heated words or any other inappropriate behaviour. Use your judgement on how severe the situation is likely to develop.

It may be necessary to bring a player off and put a substitute on in his place. This gives the player the chance to calm down, enabling you to discuss the situation and how you would prefer him to deal with it. If you’re using rolling substitutes, it may be possible to put the player back on the pitch once he is composed.

Do you have a player in your squad who is frequently hot tempered, resulting in bookings or a sending off almost weekly from either responding to incidents or actively initiating them? If so, it might be an idea to drop him from the team. This puts the message across clearly that you regard his behaviour unacceptable and that he must think of the team and the effect on them.

It’s crucial to have the all the players on the field with no reductions because of uncontrolled reactions. Discuss these reasons with the offending player and hopefully he will soon show a good improvement.

If however, he shows no change, you may be left with no option than to introduce more severe measures, such as enforcing suspension for a specified number of matches. With any luck, this should have the desired effect and the player will finally realise he must keep calm if he wishes to play for the team.

During coaching sessions, it’s important to focus on exercises and small 5 a-side matches that create situations the players are likely to be confronted with in league games. However, don’t give directions on how they should play, for example pass to John, dribble, run at defenders, switch ball, etc. Your players have enough factors to take into consideration as it is, such as the speed of the ball, it’s flight, weather conditions, state of the pitch, what’s happening around them, their position on the field, their team mates position – they don’t need information overload from the coach on the sidelines as well.

Ponder for a moment how you handle things yourself when you’re trying to deal with several inputs at once. Take for instance, if you’re watching a match on television, talking with a mate on the phone and then your partner enters the room to ask a question – you can’t concentrate on all three at once! We can only cope with a certain amount of information at any one time and it’s no different when coaching soccer players.

Obeying instructions will improve a player’s performance. However, he will come to rely on this and will not reach his full potential. Instruction is important in coaching soccer but it should be only when appropriate. During training sessions, allow the players to take control of situations and try things out for themselves as this encourages confidence in their own abilities.

You can train your players to keep one move ahead of play by frequently reminding them to always think ahead and know precisely what they will do once they have the ball, rather than taking delivery of it and then deliberate over what to do. This is an important skill for young soccer players. A football game is swift with little enough time on the ball as it is, so wanting a few extra seconds to think what to do with the ball is an indulgence they don’t have.

When coaching soccer players in vision and judgement, require that they know and carry out what action to take with the ball immediately they receive it. Once they have performed the skill, assess the positives and negatives of their choice. Using this method allows players freedom to both think and act. A picture should be formed in their mind about the progress of play.

To increase the speed of vision and making decisions you may want to add some conditions on your players. For instance indecisive players frequently kill the ball when they make their initial contact or spend time weighing up options once they receive the ball. To prevent this happening, introduce a simple restriction that the ball cannot stand still unless it rolls. This makes the players think about where there is space so they can control the ball towards it, keep it rolling and then look around for movement before determining whether to pass or dribble.

As a final coaching point, remember to ask lots of questions to improve your players’ vision and decision-making. Rather than spoon feeding your team with instructions, encourage them to think and comprehend things for themselves. With this method of training, you are performing a role of organiser; rather than giving players the answers, direct them using questions to answer themselves.

Your questions should steer the players to correct answers. The more right answers they give, the more their confidence will develop, enabling them to deal better with more match situations.

One last thing – although it may prove difficult at times, attempt to limit the feedback players receive from fans or parents on the sidelines. It’s a difficult enough task for players striving to take in information on the match and listening to instructions from you without having to deal with contributions from the sidelines as well. The more you prevent this type of participation, the better it is for your players.

You can encourage development of this awareness in your team by following the ten easy steps listed below.

Create a profile for each position

Each position on the field requires its own skill and technical ability. To assist the players in fully understanding what is required of each role, draw up a list containing the necessary things each player must know in order to perform the requirements of each position.

Carry out regular assessments

Evaluate the abilities of your players to carry out the main attributes related to the position. Using a player assessment form, carry out an appraisal pinpointing areas needing improvement and agree the necessary actions.

Structure coaching sessions toward different skills

Spend some time planning your coaching sessions, putting players into situations where they are honing the necessary skills and techniques required for their position. For instance if the tactical awareness, communication skills and team cohesion of your defence need to be worked on, instigate a 4 v 8 match, where they are totally overworked and see just how many shots they are able to prevent.

Build up coaching sessions gradually

Coaching sessions should aim to develop progressively. Work on technique through toward skill, develop decision making using effective implementation of skill and gradually increase the pressure in sessions as players show improvement. This allows your players to aim for success instead of failure. Start with simple exercises, increasing the intensity and pace as you go along. This encourages motivation among players who see it as a challenge and shows them that training sessions really work.

Give your players constructive feedback

Players need to be regularly informed of their progress as part of their ongoing assessment. Ensure your feedback remains factual, on topic, easy to understand and focuses on how the player can improve. Give plenty of praise for positive attributes. Keep a balance and don’t offer negative feedback only.

Offer advice and guidance

During any coaching program there will always be errors made and occasional set backs. A good trainer will use such circumstances to assist the player in getting back on track.  Consider what went wrong and understand that occasionally mistakes are made but identify positives in how errors can be minimised or eliminated. Use these errors when planning your structured coaching sessions.

Players need to be encouraged to think and act

When a player is inundated with negative feedback and his coach does not discuss with him or involve him in the analysis part of his assessment, he will not feel any encouragement or motivation to improve. Get the player involved, ask plenty of questions, discuss situations and share views with each other – and differences of opinion. A good player – coach relationship will only develop when both people concerned discuss honestly and objectively both the positives and negatives.

Encourage role models

There are more soccer matches now on television than ever before, with junior and youth team players watching many of these games. Make use of this powerful visual media by asking players to try to be like the stars. If they see the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, Adu or John Terry performing well, they will be much more enthusiastic to emulate it. Ask your players to watch particular matches on television and analyse contributions, work rates, tackles won, closing down, free kicks conceded, etc.

Praise any progress

If you spot a player making a positive contribution, praise him for it. All too often, a coach will notice a player making a mistake and nag him about it, which isn’t very motivating for the player. Provide plenty of encouragement, support self-expression, stimulate creativity and see your players flourish.

Evaluate

When a player is aware he is improving, he will remain motivated and continue progressing. However, this is only possible if his improvement is measured. When setting goals with your players, decide the factors to be used as measures; this could include clean sheets kept, goals scored, tackles won, possession regained or shots on target.

By following these ten key steps, players will appreciate what their position entails and will be aware of how it corresponds with other roles in the team. Once this happens, you will see much better organisation, a higher standard of play, increased confidence and a much-improved game of soccer.

When I was a young goalkeeper, I heard this quote often, and now that I’m older and wiser, I can definitely say there is some truth to it.

A good goalkeeper is a breed apart and therefore requires some coaching separately from the rest of the team. This needs to occur both during training sessions and during games. Because goalkeepers stand alone in their position, their performance is more visible. For example, outfield players might be able to hide some of their mistakes, but goalkeepers do not have such a luxury since all eyes are on them and the ball when it’s coming their way.

For a goalkeeper to be truly successful, a good self image is required, along with an ability to withstand high pressure situations. Because of the amount of attention on this player’s position, goalkeepers must be able to psychologically overcome their own mistakes as well as any errors that their teammates might make.

You can help your goalkeepers develop a thick skin and the ability to deal with stress and pressure using a system that we call The Three Cs:

Courage, Concentration, and Confidence

Let’s take a look at how The Three Cs can help you help your players.

Courage

Mouth action against goalkeepers can be fast, physical, and intimidating; insults and criticism can overwhelm players that don’t have a great deal of self-esteem or courage, which they can use in situations in which they are being criticized harshly.

Goalkeepers have to be single minded in their pursuit of the ball. At any time during a match a goalkeeper may be required to dive at an opponent’s feet, catch a fast moving ball under pressure from attackers and their own defenders, and do whatever it takes to keep a clean sheet. If a goalkeeper feels insecure or half-hearted, the result could be a goal for the opposing team, or even an injury.

So, goalkeepers need to be instilled with courage: courage to face the ball, their opponents, and their own teammates.

Courage is developed through confidence and by knowing how to refrain from thinking about mistakes or the possibility for error during the game.

Concentration

Concentration is all about focus, and the value of focus cannot be emphasized enough.

A goalkeeper must be intent on the game from the first kick off until the final whistle. Although there are stretches of time when the goalkeeper is more a spectator than a player in the game, their position requires that they stay attuned to the action of the game at all times, even when the ball is at the other end of the field – even when the ball hasn’t entered their immediate area for some time.

As a coach, part of your job is to make sure that the goalkeeper learns how to focus on plays during the game. Goalkeepers must understand that poor focus can lead to silly mistakes as well as both physical and emotional or mental injury.

When goalkeepers get stuck on a mistake, mulling over it endlessly, and obsessing over what should have happened, their attention to the game will only cause yet another mistake. It’s your job to make sure the players know that once a mistake has been made, they need to forget about it for the time being and move on, concentrating on what’s happening in the now, not what happened moments ago. Assessments take place after a match, not before or during!

Here’s a useful saying that helps build concentration and focus on match days: “You play like you practice.”

Also, it’s imperative that during soccer practice and training, you incorporate potential scenarios that a goalkeeper is likely to face during a real matched game. This will help them become better prepared, both mentally and physically, for a wider range of situations.

Confidence

When players are confident, they can perform at optimum levels, and they can relax better in critical situations that require their utmost concentration. You can help your keeper develop confidence by teaching them that they can learn something from every game they play, whether their performance was excellent or poor. Remember that reviews and assessments should only take place after a match, not before or during.

Teach the goalkeepers to focus on strengths and encourage them to talk to you about the things they would do differently next time around whenever they’ve made a mistake.

Know that a confident keeper resonates with the rest of the team. By earning teammates’ trust, a goalkeeper is integral in elevating the entire team’s performance on match days. How does a keeper earn the trust of teammates? Performing well is one way, but this isn’t always feasible.

As the coach, you can help establish trust among the team players through praise, which should take place throughout a match, especially at the halftime talk. Once a match is over, it’s crucial that you communicate a job well done to the team. Every goal scored by an outfield player is a win, and every goal blocked by the keeper is another. Use specific examples of great maneuvers by the goalkeeper so the entire team is reminded of the keeper’s value. Areas that require improvement should be addressed after praise has been given, and should be communicated in a respectful, tactful manner.

I remember a game I played in which I performed terribly during the first half. I made a few mistakes and started feeling the pressure of intimidation by the opposition forwards. During halftime, my coach pulled me aside and reminded me how I’d won many games for my team on different occasions. He told me that the second half of this game marked a clean start, and said that if I performed as I normally do, we could come back and win the match.

He did not point out the mistakes I’d made, or mention the goals that had gone in. He focused on my strengths, and because of his astute coaching skills, our team did indeed come back in the second half of the match and in the end we managed a draw.

Always remember that what you say to your players and how you say it affects the keeper’s performance. Before and during a game, always focus on players’ strengths. Hold off on criticism until a match is over, and always use The Three Cs to help your goalkeeper succeed and flourish.

One of the keys to success for a midfield player is to develop good positional play. This is because midfielders must link up with the forward line during attack. They also have to support wide midfielders down the channels, and contribute to defense with players that are positioned behind them.

In order to maintain awareness of all that’s going on around them, central midfielders must develop sound peripheral vision. This will allow them to know where the ball is at all times, and stay on top of where the game is currently taking place on the pitch, as well as the length and breadth of the pitch.

Because central midfield players are critical to controlling the game, it is a position that must be filled by the right character. Here are some traits that strong midfield players should possess:

·    Mental strength
·    Solid discipline
·    Physical strength
·    Ability to cope with demands of moving from box to box
·    First rate technical ability when on the ball
·    Strong communication and organizational skills

While these traits represent the type of player that is suitable for the central midfield position, there are also seven key requirements that this position demands. Knowing these requirements will help you coach the central midfielders more successfully.

1.    A central midfielder’s main objective is to create dangerous situations in front of the opponents’ goal. If you’re like me, and prefer your teams to play an open and attacking style, it’s important for central midfielders to be at the heart of this style of play.

2.    Central midfield players must have the ability to plan ahead, and always remain a few steps of head of where the game is currently being played out.

3.    These players need to take up their positions in relation to which team is in possession of the ball. Through positional play, central midfielders can be instrumental in orchestrating attacks, and they can be equally devastating to opponents when they close down options.

4.    The central midfield pairings should always be able to communicate with one another. This is true whether they are playing laterally in a flat midfield or staggered in a diamond-based system. Balance is essential.

5.    Central midfielders must have the capacity to instantly recognize when it is safe for them to move forward, getting numbers in front of the ball. They also must be able to recognize when a defensive approach is needed to get numbers behind the ball.

6.    A central midfield player has to see the whole playing field, and must be able to seize opportunities for their own team while simultaneously looking for ways to exploit their opponents’ weaknesses.

7.    Central midfielders must have excellent ball control, be able to receive under pressure, and maintain possession. They also must be adept at accurate passing and quick interplay. One touches and the use of wall passes are common strategies that midfield generals should employ.

Academic studies show that the human brain can cope with just seven thoughts in the conscious mind at any given time. In order to keep things simple for our central midfielders, these seven key requirements are just enough, but not too much, to help ensure that they’ll stay on the game and win it!