Coaching The 'Basic' Elements Every Player Needs

I was working on the session that I was going to play with my U12s this week and the coaching points I was working on really struck home to me. All these drills and ideas that I work on rely on a basic element that comes under the term “core skills”.

And they seem to me to be obvious that these things should be part of anything I do with my players but it isnt always that obvious.

In wanting players to master the basic elements like movement and rotation in receiving the ball I have to make sure I constantly talk to them about it even if they raise their eyes at the repetitiveness of what I am saying. But then when I ask them what is the decision process behind the onward pass they have to stop and think about that.

So we list the basic elements in that decision – scanning, movement, body shape, anticipation... lots of things.

So we as coaches should all remember that however simple they are, it’s very important to use all these elements in our training programme because they are the core skills, and they influence the match day game and in effect the way the team plays.

Tactics at training

I am always being asked what is it that I want to see my players doing at training that they can then replicate in a match?

So I break it down like this...

When my team is attacking I want to see good positional movement with a player wide on each side of the pitch and a ball player in the centre of midfield – they have a certain amount of flexibility but must keep within their positions.

I want each player to have three passing lines open to them – supporting, wide and deep giving options. Team mates must use good positional off the ball movement to create those options.

In defence I want my team to become compact cutting space between the lines – in this situation the team can press in areas with strength behind – the press must be together so communication is key.

I encourage my players to force play into the outside channes and press aggressively when the centrebacks play into the wingbacks defending the three central areas high up the pitch.

This means that if the press is broken players must quickly move to be compact nearer their own goal to create another barrier keeping opponents at bay.