This practice is designed to work on high speed attack, defensive recovery runs and has a physical and psychological focus. Physically, the practice demands high speed runs in attack and defence. Mentally, players are tasked with demonstrating real desire and an attitude to compete. This is a valuable session for helping players physical conditioning through football. Quick Navigation About the Video Additional Information Practice Overview Interpreting the Diagrams Diagrams Objectives Organisation Observations & Interventions About the Video In the video below, Dave will talk you…
Movement
An expert guide to football conditioning. Professional coaches demonstrate the best football conditioning workouts, and how to add them to your sessions. What is conditioning in football, and why is it important? Advances in sports science have seen academies place a greater emphasis on football conditioning coaching in order to reduce injuries and support the development of their young players. But this vital area of coaching is relevant at all levels of the game, from professional clubs to grassroots environments. Below, we consider the value…
In this Player Development Project Live Session, UEFA A licensed coach, Dave Wright delivers a 3 team wave practice designed to work on attacking transition, focussing on forward runs and forward passes. Dave presents the session plan on the whiteboard and then we demonstrate how to get the practice started when the players have never done it before. Dave allows the players a few minutes to understand the rules, then articulates why he sacrifices some realism, in order to increase recognition of the theme. Dave…
In this PDP Live Session, UEFA A licensed Coach, Dave Wright shares a practice designed to help players work on individual possession, really focussing on receiving and retaining the ball. The video shows Dave using a variety of coaching interventions including Q&A, guided discovery, positive reinforcement and demonstrations. Dave presents the session and explains some of the progressions as well as reflections on what went well and what could have been a lot better. The context of this session is a group of grassroots U12…
Human movement is a fascinating topic and Player Development Project is fortunate enough to have discovered a group of researchers applying ideas of Taijiquan (Tai Chi) in a football context in South Africa. Researcher, Dr. Laurie Rauch discusses some of the science behind human movement in sport. An athlete’s movement on the sports field is largely an automatic process. Coordination of movement best left to subcortical brain structures. Thinking kept to a minimum. The only conscious part of movement should be the goal of the…
Zlatan Ibrahimovich is one of the great characters and creative players of modern football. PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan examines some of the reasons why. Watch this… Zlatan is the best example of affordances in action. Ibrahimovic sees and plays passes that very few players can because he sees the opportunity to move in ways that most people can’t. This allows Zlatan to make passes and score goals that no one else can. He is one of the most unpredictable, innovative and therefore creative players of…