Coaching For The Brave

Johan Cryuff insisted that despite joining Ajax at a relatively young age, he learned to play football on the streets. This made me ask this simple question: As a Grassroots coach why are you doing anything except putting on a game to aid development? The very best players the world has seen all seem to agree, playing the game from a young age is what taught them the most. Even as Grassroots coaches we tend to agree and lament the fact that kids just don't play the game enough anymore. This begs another very simple, logical question. If we believe that playing (normally in small sided games) is so important to a players development why aren't  we allowing them to do just that? I can ask that question differently: What evidence do you have as a coach that shows that your shooting drill, your Rondo, your whole part whole session accelerates the learning experience faster than playing a game does? Think...

Seven Deadly Sins of Coaching Coaching is a noble pursuit. Everyone who takes up the role is offering help. That offer should be welcomed, recognised and celebrated. Yet everyone who ends up with the role of Coach is doing it for different reasons. They may want to help their sons and daughters progress in a sport they love, they may want to give back to a sport that offered them so much or they simply be generous and want to volunteer for a great cause. Some, we have seen, do it for themselves. It's about rewarding themselves or being seen in a certain light or emulating people they believe are role models. So as we all come to the role of coach for different reasons, we can all fall for the obvious traps when circumstances allow. We can't avoid them altogether, we're only human. However, we can be more aware of them and try to swerve them when possible. Mainly as a prompt for myself but also for anyone else reading, here are the Seven Dead...

Never say Never You will have to bear with me here as the headline could be misleading. However, players and pundits never fail to describe John Terry in this way. Despite all his issues the fall back position is that he is a great leader. It's a description that Terry likes to play up to with typical English bulldog spirit seemingly counting for more than those other English traditions of manners, discretion and a stiff upper lip. In the dressing room he is known for his rousing team talks that pump the troops up before battle commences. While on the pitch his do or die attitude and preference to put his body on the line earns him great respect. Our English game loves these types of characters. The ones who fly into last ditch tackles, fearlessly place their body in the way of a well struck shot or occasionally get a cut and carry on with a blood stained bandage around their head. Other footballing cultures would not see it quite the same. Last ditch? Italian defe...

After a superb summer of sport with distractions galore, it's time to turn our mind to the "real deal" Yep the Premier League explodes back on the scene this weekend and as ever, we have a mouth watering season ahead of us. Here's why we'll all be glued to the action over the coming months. 1. Let's start with last season. Don't tell us you've forgotten what a fantastic day the final games gave us. Survival for some, despair for others. Glory for City after years of struggle and heartbreak for United. Anything that can produce that level of drama and excitement will do for us! 2. Eden Hazard should light up the Premier League. Not all imports come good in our league but he has genuine class and Zidane rates him highly. Pre-season hasn't been great for him but if he gets his head right he will be one to watch. 3. We have always thought that Brendan Rodgers is a bit of a genius and last season showed what he can do with a footba...

live4footy end of season Awards As the dust begins to settle we thought it was time to take a look back at the season and hand out our Annual Awards. As ever, we hope you will let us know if you agree or disagree. We look forward to your comments. Team of the season . It's easy to say this should just go to the League Winners but there are a few contenders: How about a joint award to all three promoted teams who managed to avoid relegation? It's only the second time this has happened. Norwich  and in particular  Swansea  have played some fantastic football while  QPR  can probably count themselves lucky. Newcastle United  had massive problems as a club and have probably had the most dramatic turnaround. Many of their own fans predicted a terrible season and few fancied Alan Pardew. Shrewd signings funded by the sale of talisman Carroll and a "never say die" attitude have seen the Magpies punch way above their weight. Manc...

Every season throws up some interesting statistics so here's this seasons. If you have any other's, feel free to contribute. Liverpool's Stewart Downing had 72 shots without scoring (more than any other player) and created 55 chances without supplying an assist (more than any other player) in the Premier League. He also hit the woodwork five times. Great buy! Liverpool were the only team to convert fewer than 10% of their shots into goals this season. If all shots were goals, Liverpool would have finished third, behind Chelsea and Manchester City. Sacked Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas had a higher win percentage in league games (48.2%) than Roberto di Matteo (45.5%). Tottenham's Jermain Defoe became the first player in Premier League history to reach 20 (career) goals as a substitute. We hope England take him. Aston Villa recorded their fewest wins in a top-flight season since 1890/91 (seven), when there were only 12 teams in the division. Villa were ...

Mancini with his reward This is why we love Football and this is why we love the English Premiership! Manchester City have been crowned champions of England after an unbelievable afternoon of high drama. Back in August 2011 many pundits backed the title race to be a contest between United and City but no one could have imagined how close that contest would have been.  For years the Premiership has been labelled as predictable and  boring and when fans look back at 2012 they'll just see the headline: League Champions Manchester City but the days events, the twists and turns and the knife edge outcome should not be forgotten.  Anyone who tuned into the TV or radio broadcasts will have sat riveted as Football gave us the very best it has to offer. At the start of the day most opinions were clear cut. QPR were woeful away from home and City awesome at the Etihad Stadium. A home win was assured. So with that result sorted we also knew were the league wa...