If your youth football team are winning every week, are you really “winning”? UEFA A licensed coach, Dan Wright, unpacks the constant search for an appropriate challenge. Almost weekly online I see results that just don’t make sense. Teams winning 22-0 and promoting it, wearing it like a badge of honour, instead of reflecting on who is really benefiting in these one-sided games. I see Tweets about grassroots Under-10s teams going 60 games unbeaten and labelled “invincible”. But as talent developers, we should be looking instead…
Skill Acquisition
How our players acquire skills through formal practice and informal play.
Constraints based learning and ecological dynamics are concepts that Player Development Project has promoted for a long time. Football coach and University tutor, Ben Galloway shares his excellent video on the topic around how the concepts can be applied in your coaching environment. The next couple of blog posts that I share via PDP will revolve around some videos that I have produced, stemming from Constraints Based Learning and Ecological Dynamics. Hopefully what these videos will provide is support to previously posted material and a…
In this webinar discussion, PDP Technical Advisor Dan Wright joins PDP Editor, Dave Wright to discuss what constraints are and provide practical examples of session plans you can implement with your players. These two UEFA A licensed coaches go in depth to discuss the environment, the task and the person and cover a range of practical football topics and solutions for coaches to use in training. Don’t miss an excellent and informative discussion on how to approach your coaching to encourage better decision makers on…
Developing talent is a complex journey for both player and coach. Founder of TOVO Institute & regular PDP contributor, Todd Beane discusses the dangers of looking into the past for answers to contemporary coaching challenges. As I write I am reading the introductory pages to Head Strong by Dave Asprey, which explores our capacity to maximize our brain’s potential. Who wouldn’t want to do that? Although my wife suggests from time to time that I do not have considerable substance between the ears, why not take full…
The question this week comes from Danny, via the PDP Facebook page: “What age should players start playing 11 v 11?” 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…
Game-based learning has enormous benefits in terms of decision-making and skill acquisition. PE Teacher, blogger and regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his fantastic article on the advantages of manipulating games and the environment and how coaches can adjust conditions in order to help young players improve their skills. At the heart of a games based approach to teaching is the challenge to the centrality of learning isolated and decontextualised techniques that will ‘allow’ the child to play. Instead of starting with the practice…
Do you understand the context of your coaching environment? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks discusses the issues around the ongoing unopposed vs. opposed training debate and explains why context is key in a learning environment. Going Beyond the Opposed vs. Unopposed Dualism Unopposed vs. opposed, technique vs. skill – these arguments are forever plaguing Twitter, Facebook and coaching platforms. Some arguments come from theory, others from years of coaching experience, but all seem to be missing a really obvious point: everything pertains to context….
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.
Game sense, how do we develop it? PE Teacher & regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his innovative approach to PE and helping his students develop skill and game understanding in cricket through realistic scenarios, interactions and guided discovery. As a department we have over timed moved away from ‘sport as sports technique’ method of teaching sports within our curriculum to ‘sport as tactical concepts’. This is in the belief that: The game sets the context of learning and gives that learning some meaning. Play is…
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 Liam, via the PDP Facebook Page: “I’m working with players around the age of 14. What are your thoughts on having a group of 2-3 players replace the coach and lead one training session per week?“ 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…
Luca Oppici; Derek Panchuk; Fabio R. Serpiello; and Damian Farrow The Big Idea If this study does nothing else, it should reinforce a couple of useful ideas hovering over our sporting life. First, there is inherent relevance for the power of field research to inform our sports practices. Second, we are learning that our sporting practices, where possible, need to be as game-specific as we can make them. This study is field-based in both its design and technical sophistication; it is not simulation, but fact-based…
The question this week comes from Mark via Twitter: “I coach an U12s team who are going into U13s next year. How would you combat slow starts in games?” 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,…
The question this week comes from Michael: “While we score a lot of goals, my U14 team are constantly conceding a lot of goals. Do you have some advice for how I can improve my team’s 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 question this week comes from Terry: “I’m coaching on my own with U9s and my group has expanded to as many as 18-20 players. What sessions would you recommend so I make sure they all continue to improve their ball skills?” 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…
Are you running ‘static’ sessions? Regular PDP contributor and founder of TOVO International, Todd Beane explains the dangers of static sessions and gives some practical advice for coaches to move towards ‘solution’ based sessions. There are voices from locker rooms of false wisdom suggesting that to train we must we must suffer through some rite of painful passage. It is a very macho and misguided notion of how we must make “suck it up” to stack up. It also tends to justify horribly boring training…
The question this week comes from Daniel: “How can I better teach my players to move off the ball in order to dominate possession?” 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…
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.