Many coaches get frustrated with their "teenage" players when their performance plateaus off and games they used to win easily are now losses.
Many young players from 14 onwards are often subject to far too many "drills" at training. Because of physical differences in the early years such as speed, strength, height, weight a coach can mis- interpret the wins for good performance and development. When in reality no development is taking place!
The afore mentioned qualities are producing the wins, not understanding and awareness. As the players go through their teens, the weight, height, speed, strength factor can even out and competition becomes harder. Your opponent has your attributes.
The way to ensure your players are continuing to improve is to allocate a larger proportion of the practice time to "conditioned games or game scenarios". Games, many of them overload with more attackers than defenders, create an environment that allows the player to explore the possibilities within the game. Self learning is a powerful tool. So it is important that when you create and use these games, you do not over coach. Control the game by the "conditions" you impose and the rules you introduce, not by your verbal input. Quite possibly you will see a player perform a skill you hadn't seen before and this may force you to consider his playing position? Don't be surprised if a future captain suddenly appears. He'll be the one that sees the opportunities.
In Coaching Support there is a section with a number of conditioned games.try them and see your players improve.
Final tip. If you and a mate coach the team, then one looks after the defence and one the attack.
| ← A very useful defence practice | Beating a defender by using a Fend/Hand off. → |
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