Playing Through & Around Part 2: 8 v 4

In this article PDP Coaching Advisor, James Coutts discusses the value of ‘unit coaching’ or ‘position specific coaching’ and how you can incorporate this specific coaching model into your sessions. What is unit training? When discussing unit training we are considering a unit that’s position specific within the team, for example ‘defenders’ can be a unit, ‘wingers’ can be a unit and so on. Depending on what shape you play could have an impact, it could mean you’re working with a ‘back 3’ as your…

It’s often hard to tell how much we’re affecting our players. Judging our level of impact can be subjective, and the extent to which we positively influence our players may not be apparent until further along in their sporting journey. Player retention can be a helpful indicator; if the kids come back happy every week, we’re off to a good start. But there are additional ways we can consider our impact and strive to give our players the best possible experience while playing youth soccer….