In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Editor, Dave Wright sits down with Parkour coach, Ben Westbook and physiotherapist Jade Martin. Ben and Jade are experts in human movement and in this conversation we discuss injury prevention, functional movement, integrating variety into sports programs, specialisation and more. This is an insightful conversation with two innovators in youth development with some great tips for coaches and parents. Image Source: Liam Shaw on Unspalsh
Skill Acquisition
How our players acquire skills through formal practice and informal play.
In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan sits down with Professor Stephen Rollnick, an expert psychologist who has worked for the NHS & in sport. James & Stephen discuss team work and what opportunities sport provides to young people in expressing themselves, solving problems and learning. Stephen Rollnick is Honorary Distinguished Professor in the School of Medicine, Cardiff University. He was a practicing psychologist in the UK National Health Service for 16 years, and then became a teacher and researcher on the subject…
PDP Video Session Plans are adaptable sessions designed by academy coach, Dave Wright. All sessions show key focus points, set up, and progressions so you can use them in your next practice.
In the final part of our Melbourne Victory U20 sessions, UEFA A licensed coach, Dave Wright puts on a 10 vs. 10 phase of play. The theme of the session is defending deep in a 1-4-4-2 vs. a 1-3-5-2. Due to the number of players, the practice is executed in a 1-4-4-1 vs. a 3-5-2 with the goalkeeper playing as a keeper and centre back for the attacking team. The defensive team are tasked with staying compact and preventing split passes, trying to force play…
In this article, UEFA A licensed coach David Garcia shares his thoughts on the benefits of chaos and failure within coaching environments. “You’ve got to live at the edge of your capabilities. You’ve got to live where you’re almost certain you’re going to fail. That’s the reason for practice. Practice is controlled failure.” – Will Smith Indeed, practice is controlled failure. It should be a realistic preparation of the game. It’s preparation where your players will fail, but will learn how to grow from that…
PDP Video Session Plans are adaptable sessions designed by academy coach, Dave Wright. All sessions show key focus points, set up, and progressions so you can use them in your next practice.
The question this week comes from Jean-Pierre through the PDP Slack Community. He asks: “What is the best way to run a session with a lot of players?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and…
Manual Santos and Kevin Morgan The Big Idea In 1974 Studs Terkel, the American broadcaster, actor, and oral historian, published the best-selling non-fiction book, Working. In it he interviewed a cross-section of Americans about their working lives, “about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread.” In one interview, Terkel interviewed jazz tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman. Freeman got to talking about how hard the work of improvisation is, the working out of all the possibilities of a theme, and the on-going promise of…
Matthias Kempe & Daniel Memmert The Big Idea How about we introduce the big idea of this research study with a non-linear and entirely random historical observation? How about we throw in an outrageous claim that the idea of this paper was in the winds long, long ago back in ancient Rome; back to the Emperor of Rome from 121 to 180; back to Marcus Aurelius; back to his Meditations; back to Book 12; back to the opening paragraph; and finally, back to this quote:…
In this Q&A Video Dave Wright & Dan Wright discuss considerations for coaches when preparing and organising match day for young players. The question this week comes from Simon via Twitter: “What is your advice on how to organise match day for U-12s? Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2….
The question this week comes from Percy via Facebook Percy asks, “At what age do we coach defending?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and support each other on our exclusive Coaching Community. Start your…
In this Masterclass Discussion, Dr. Craig Harrison is hosted by PDP Editor, Dave Wright for a wide ranging conversation on youth development, skill acquisition and the importance of play in the learning process for children. Craig and Dave cover a range of topics including sports science and how it can be integrated in youth settings, specilasation, development versus performance and much more. This is an insightful and educational interview with a real innovator in New Zealand youth sport. Image Source: Unsplash
In this Masterclass, we share a replay of our live and interactive webinar with UEFA A licensed academy coaches Dave Wright and Dan Wright. Dan and Dave discuss practice design in the final third, considerations when planning your session and share a number of small sided games to help you work on attacking themes with your players. We cover the practice spectrum, talk about the ‘3R’s’ and Dan and Dave share some of their favourite small sided games for developing attackers. Image Source: depositphotos.com
In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Editor Dave Wright is joined by Head of Specialist Coaching & Lead In Possession Coach at The FA, Aaron Danks. PDP Technical Advisor, Dan Wright also joins the discussion for a fascinating conversation on youth development. Aaron is a holder of the UEFA Pro License, he spent over a decade at West Bromwich Albion Academy and was part of the England U20 coaching staff who led the team to World Cup success in 2017. We dive into Aaron’s personal coaching…
In this Masterclass Discussion, we’re joined by experienced Academy Coach & Co-founder of My Football Development, Gabriel Flores for a fascinating conversation on developing youth football players. PDP Editor, Dave Wright hosts Gabriel for an in depth conversation on skill acquisition, individual learning, how to adapt your session design to ensure you stretch your players and much more. This is a must watch conversation, particularly for coaches working with players in the foundation or skill acquisition phase of youth coaching. The conversation features some great…
The question this week comes from Chaz via Facebook. Chaz asks, “Is there value in tournaments for my U13 players if they only get limited minutes?” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and support each…
Sara Santos, Sergio Jiménez, Jaime Sampaio, Nuno Leite The Big Idea When you sit a spell and think over the major point of session planning in sports, you can’t avoid the big idea of transformation. Hence, such training programs are inherently designed around re-creation and hope. Faith in unknown possibilities is something like the observation of the American inventor, philosopher, and architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1993) that, “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” If players and coaches…
Awareness, decision-making, perception and execution are all part of skill acquisition. PDP contributor & Founder of TOVO Institute, Todd Beane shares an article on coaching methodology to enhance players cognitive fitness. Are your players cognitively fit? If you are like most coaches that may be a tough question to answer. But why? I might suggest that it is not a question you have had to answer before. I know that it was not a question that I addressed as a young coach myself. My task…