Monday 29th October

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/6

Session 8

Over the past 7 weeks since I took control of this group we have been covering a lot of technical skill based work, which can become repetitive for young players at times. Hargreaves (1990) states that acquiring new skills can be repetitive, physically and mentally demanding and also exhausting. Skill work is the foundation for BSS players, and it is a continuous process that we will work on for many years in order to get our players progress through the stages of learning as stated by or as suggested by Fitts and Posner (1967) we want our players to become autonomous. However for now I felt it was about time to give the players a relaxed session in terms of rules and drills; therefore today’s session was based entirely around game play minus the warm up and 20 minutes core work. Carroll and Loumidis (2001) suggest that perceived competence and enjoyment affect motivation. I wanted our young players to enjoy scoring goals and experience success when playing sport, which will help give them perceived competence and in turn help increase motivation. I took this idea and decided I would make a high success rate in the little drills that we performed. In addition to this Roberts et al (1981) suggested that children with a higher perceived competence are more likely to be more persistent and have higher future expectations of success.

I began the game play with 1 v1’s; we finished last weeks session with a 1 v 1 drill and therefore I wanted to recap and cover last weeks coaching point which was timing of the move. National Soccer Coaches of America Staff (2004) suggest that by recapping coaching points the following session it helps to refresh the players mind. I decided to do this as a little reminder so they could take the point on board for the following game play drills. Holt et al (2006) state that effective instruction also promotes the transfer of learning from practice tasks to real game. I decided the attacker could have two goals to attack therefore it increased the likelihood of success. We then progressed from 1 v 1 to 4 v 4 in a 10m x 10m grid; the aim was to keep possession and 5 passes constituted a goal. As I had 16 players I had two games active at once; The American Sport Education Program (2006) suggest that you must keep your players active attentive and active in order to keep them safe and well behaved. The players are cultured enough and disciplined enough to be able to referee the game themselves and therefore I could concentrate on supervising the two groups. Beswick (2000) states self-discipline is very important both on and off the pitch in order to stay focussed. .I wanted to be able to highlight times in the two groups when players done things well. Praise is important in order to give players recognition for a good performance (Bloomfield et al 1995), however Mueller and Dwack (1991) suggest that praise can be detrimental to performance as it undermines children’s motivation and performance. I let the 4 v 4’s flow and never commented other than praise but kept it limited as I didn’t want to undermine motivation and performance. (Harrison 2005) suggests a 40 x 25 grid for 4 v 4’s and 4 v 4’s are good for developing individual and team defending. I wanted to deploy a man marking system and matched up each player to similar abilities, therefore each man has a responsibility to defend against there man and stop him getting the ball, this in turn helps the team defend. After the 4 v 4 we moved on to a marked out pitch and played 6 v 6. I always had 4 players resting and rotated players every five minutes in order to keep everyone involved. I could have played 8 v 8 but I wanted players to have more touches of the ball. As stated by Goncalves (1998) in Principles of Brazilian Soccer 6 v 6 football allows for full pressure from attackers and it allows the coach to intervene and work tactics into play without the need for a full 11 a side; and so I felt there was no need to have an 8 v 8 game where each player would have fewer touches on the ball.

On the whole today’s session went really well; it was different and relaxed, whilst being structured with a high tempo also. It was good to see the players create a high tempo by themselves without me constantly building it up. Bangsbo and Peitersen (2003) state that tempo is important especially when a team changes its pressure style. They go on to suggest that a tempo can be changed within a few players in a team however other team mates must acknowledge this and increase the tempo also. I felt this session was beneficial to the players as they got to spend a lot of time working in game play and gained many touches in game environment.

American Sport Education Program (2006). Coaching Youth Soccer. Human Kinetics

Bangsbo, J, Peitersen, B (2003). Offensive Soccer Tatics. Human Kinetics

Beswick, B (2000). Focused for Soccer. Human Kinetics

Bloomfield, J, Fricker, P.A, Fitch, K.D (1995). Blackwell Publishing

Carrol, B, Loumidis, J (2001). Childrenís Perceived Competence and Enjoyment in Physical Education and Physical Activity Outside School. European Physical Education Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 24-43. [online] [Accessed 06^th Jan 2008, 16:25hrs] http://epe.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/1/24

Fitts, P.M, Posner, M.I (1967). Human Performance. Brooks/Cole

Goncalves, T (1998). Principles of Brazilian Soccer. Reedswain inc.

Hargeaves, A (1990). Skills and Strategies for Coaching Soccer. Human Kinetics

Harrison, W (2005). Game Situation Training For Soccer: Themed Exercises And Small Sided Games. Reedswain inc

Holt, J, Ward, P, Wallhead, T (2006). The transfer of learning from play practices to game play in young adult soccer players. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Volume 11, Number 2, pp. 101-118(18) [online] [Accessed 06^th Jan 2008, 16:35hrs] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cpes/2006/00000011/00000002/art00001

Mueller, C.M, Dweck, C.S (1998). Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation And Performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 75, No. 1, 33-52 [online] [Accessed 06^th Jan 2008, 16:35hrs] > http://www.dana.edu/lmassa/PS/Dweck.pdf

National Soccer Coaches of America Staff (2004). The Soccer Coaching Bible.

Roberts, G.C, Kleiber, D.A, Duda, J.L (1981). An Analysis of Motivation in Children's Sport: The Role of Perceived Competence in Participation. JSEP, 3(3) [online] [Accessed 06^th Jan 2008, 16:35hrs] https://www.humankinetics.com/JSEP/viewarticle.cfm?aid=8777

Monday 22nd October

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/6

Session 7

Today’s session required a lot of equipment to be set up, I therefore arrived earlier than usual in order to set up the venue to become prepared and organised for the players arriving. Marco and Aschermann (2007) suggest it is good practice to arrive early as a coach to set up and be there to greet each player as they arrive. Potrac et al (2002) suggest that coaches gain respect by their personal manner, professional knowledge and also professional image thus being another reason for having the session set up for players on arrival. Our sessions try to capture the essence of Brazil so as the players arrived I had some South American bosanova music playing; I always like to start the session off with a game of possession in a square where the players can beat each other with tricks and show boat. Along with the music this creates a good spirit amongst the players. Karageorghis et al (1999) suggest that music helps to increase motivation due to its motivational qualities. In addition to this Priest et al (2004) suggest that the music chosen should be characterized by a strong rhythmical component. The beginning of the session when players have a small amount of time to themselves helps to play an important role as it allows all players to greet each other and have fun without interrupting the session when we are focussed. The possession at the beginning of the session is part of a routine that happens at the beginning of every session. In relation with Beswick (2000) he suggests that by having a routine it allows players to clear their mind and become focussed.

Today’s main session objective was to work on moves to beat players. I wanted to strip this down to a basic drill, focussing on one or two coaching points keeping things simple and straight to the point (Jones et al 2003). I began with a warm up and then core ball work as usual; (Pain 2007) suggests that maintaining routine can has a positive effect on performance. I set out an area with cones spread around a 20 x 20 grid the objective was for the players to dribble with the ball and perform one of three moves specified by me, beat a cone and then move onto the next one. Anderson (1981) suggests that practice brings improvement, and more practice brings further improvement. I highlighted to the players that the timing of the move is important when trying to beat an opponent; we used poles as an opponent. Knapp (1977) highlights the importance of accuracy and timing when trying to beat an opponent. We progressed from cones to poles and then eventually we can move onto real payers. I had the players running in towards the poles at a fast but comfortable pace performing one of the three moves previously specified continuing to focus on the timing of the move. This in enjoyable for the players and I feel that when they enjoy a drill they seem to perform it better with a greater intensity, this coincides with research found by Strean &Holt (2003), they suggested that skill acquisition and fun are interlinked when coaching young children. This drill helped set the intensity for the 1 v 1’s which followed. I wanted to continue with the timing of the move as the coaching point in the 1 v 1 drill. The drills we done prior to the 1 v 1’s were performed well with a good work ethic and intensity. The players took this intensity into the 1 v 1’s and performed them well with great enthusiasm, however I tried to stress the timing of the move continually but it was difficult for the players to grasp under full player pressure. I feel the only way we can develop this is by working on 1 v 1’s on a regular basis. It is a fun and enjoyable drill for the players and allows the players to bring out their creative flair.

On the whole I feel the session went well and we will continue to work hard in coming sessions in order to continually make progress as players. I feel that our players are far advancing the suggested Long Term Player Development model. It suggests that at stage 3 players should be developing practice (FA.com 2007). Stage 3 is ages 11-14; I would argue that players at our soccer schools are developing practice at around the age of 8. We have players aged 3 years old after advancing from the Socatots program, the world’s first soccer specific child play scheme, confident in using both feet to kick the ball and performing toe taps on a ball or domed cone. We have a player aged 9 who can perform over 4000 juggles with the ball and has been able to do over 1000 since the age of 7. I feel this is far advancing the guidelines the governing body is providing.

Anderson, J.R (1981). Cognitive Skills and Their Acquisition. Lawrence Earlbaum Associates

Beswick, B (2000). Focused for Soccer. Human Kinetics

FA.com (2007). Long Term Player Development. The FA. [online] [Accessed 04^th Jan 2008, 19:25hrs] http://www.thefa.com/GrassrootsNew/Player/Postings/2007/02/LTPD

Jones, R.L, Armour, K.M, Potrac, P (2003) Constructing Expert Knowledge: A Case Study of a Top-level Professional Soccer Coach. Sport, Education and Society, Volume 8, Issue 2, pages 213 – 229 [online] [Accessed 03^rd Jan 2008, 16:25hrs] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713696102~db=all

Karageorghis, C.I, Terry, P.C, Lane, A.M (1999). Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess the motivational qualities of music in exercise and sport: The Brunel Music Rating Inventory. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 17, Issue 9, pages 713 – 724 [online] [Accessed 03^rd Jan 2008, 16:25hrs] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713776199~db=all

Knapp, B (1977). Skill in Sport: The attainment of Proficiency. Routledge

Marco, J.S, Aschermann, K (2007). Coaching Kids to Play Soccer: Everything You Need to Know to Coach Kids From 6 to 16. Simon & Schuster

Pain, M.A, Harwood, C (2007). The performance environment of the England youth soccer teams. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 25, Issue 12, pages 1307 – 1324 [online] [Accessed 04th Jan 2008, 19:25hrs] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779321351~db=all

Potrac, P, Jones, R, Armour, K (2002). 'It's All About Getting Respect': The Coaching Behaviors of an Expert English Soccer Coach. Sport, Education and Society, Volume 7, Number 2, pp. 183-202(20) [online] [Accessed 03^rd Jan 2008, 16:25hrs] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cses/2002/00000007/00000002/art00006

Priest, D.L, Karageorghis, C.I, Sharp, N.C (2004). The characteristics and effects of motivational music in exercise settings: the possible influence of gender, age, frequency of attendance, and time of attendance. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 44(1):77-86. [online] [Accessed 03^rd Jan 2008, 17:35hrs] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=15181394&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google

Strean, W.B, Holt, N.L (2000). Coaches’, athletes’, and parents’ perceptions of fun in youth sports: assumptions about learning and implications for practice. Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. 6(3) [online] [Accessed 03^rd Jan 2008, 17:55hrs]

http://www.rgalberta.com/coachingResources/Fun%20in%20Sport.pdf

Monday 15^th October

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/6

Session 6

In continuation with last week’s theme of working on team work and reducing the prevalent individualism that has arisen we began the session with the same two drills as last week. I decided to do this as the players seemed to enjoy the drill last week and everyone was actively involved. I wanted to spend time working in pairs, as in previous weeks when doing this it hasn’t been performed well due to the uncooperative nature of some players. This is an area, that if we do well can benefit the group as players. The main issue when doing paired activities which I have found in previous sessions is the psychology of working in pairs, such as, getting along with each other and also sharing. (American Sport Education Program 2006). Gadson (2001) suggests that working in pairs allows opportunity for instant feedback which can benefit performers as it allows opportunity for improvement.

I decided to organise the pairs myself; I done this is order to separate problematic pairs and also to put similar ability bodies together. Clark (1999) suggests it is best to place similar ability bodies together in order to avoid frustration, in addition to this, Helson et al (2000) found that there is a positive linear relationship between individual plus team practise and skill. We do a lot of individual work and the paired, small group work we do represents the team practise. I began by placing players opposite each other about a metre and a half apart. We began with simple passing with the sole of the foot, this way there are many touches on the ball and it is simple to keep under control with a high success rate. I encouraged players to be on their toes one foot at a time; Wein (2004) suggests the importance for players to be on their toes one foot slightly in front of the other and one foot at a time to avoid being caught flat-footed, by having one foot always on the floor it allows the player to change direction more efficiently. In addition to this, Lennox et al (2006) suggest that active feet allow players to be ready for arising situations. It is good practice as a coach to try and instil this in young players and hopefully or players will become autonomous in doing this. An autonomous player can perform tasks with little or no conscious thought which therefore provides more space for other thought processes (Fitts and Posner 1967). After the passing exercise we moved onto the passive pressure exercise. I wanted our players performing a selection of our core drills under passive pressure; as this passive pressure drill is new all I want the pressuring player to be doing is to stand in front of the performing player up on their toes. This gives the player something different to think about from usual; with having a passive defender it allows similar pressure but the player maintains the ball and can gain experience of being under pressure. (Brown, Hopper, date unknown). As we progress and become more proficient in this area we can change the position of the pressurising player and also move onto the player becoming actively pressurised; by simply placing an arm upon their shoulder and slightly forcing them in different directions. It also allows players to gain experience as a defender in terms of marking and positioning when opponent has the ball, two important factors in defending as stated by Bansgo & Pietersen (2002). We then progressed onto paired juggling; I wanted to focus more on the reception of the ball. Davids et al (2004) suggest that players need to understand coordination and control of soccer skills to make improvements. I therefore made it clear to my players why we were doing this task and why it is important to be coordinated and also what coordination is. We set up about a metre and a half away again. One player served into the other, the other player received the ball with the inside of the foot and caught the ball; I ensured the players alternated feet and had five turns each on each foot and then changed. We also spent time on our laces and also outsides of the foot. At BSS we want to develop players that are both footed and therefore begin with weak foot drills from an early age. Caruso (1996) suggests that players should be encouraged to use the weaker from a young age so that it becomes more natural to use when players grow older.

I was pleased with the players approach to the session tonight they worked very hard and the paired work was much improved from previous sessions. I want to try and continue with paired work so our group becomes highly motivated to work in unity with one another. Zaccaro et al (2001) suggests there must be functional leadership in order to develop team or group dynamics, they also suggest that leadership and team processes influence each other. Relating this to the group as a coach it suggests that I must interact with the players in order to create team dynamics. If we have good team dynamics and cohesion then group motivation increases. Next week I want to spend time working on moves to beat cones and then progress from cones to poles and then into 1 v 1 situations.

American Sport Education Program (2006). Coaching Youth Soccer. Human Kinetics

Bangsbo, J, Pietersen, B (2002). Defensive Soccer Tactics. Human Kinetics

Brown, S, Dr Hopper, T (Unknown date). Can all Students in PE get an ‘A’? Game Performance Assessment by Peers as Critical Component of Student Learning. University of Victoria [online] [Accessed 02^nd Jan 2008, 15:10hrs]

http://www.educ.uvic.ca/Faculty/thopper/Web/articles/Cahperd/On-line%20GPAI.pdf

Caruso, A (1996). Soccer coaching, Deeloping and Tactics. Reedswain Inc.

Clark, B (1999). Coaching Youth Soccer: A Baffled Parent's Guide. Mcgraw-Hill Professional

Davids, K, Lees, A, Burwitz, L (2000). Understanding and measuring coordination and control in kicking skills in soccer: Implications for talent identification and skill acquisition. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 18, Issue 9 , pages 703 – 714 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713776363~db=all

Gadson, S (2001). Psychology and Sport. Harcourt Heinemann

Lennox, J.W, Steffen, B, Rayfield, J (2006). Soccer Skills & Drills. Human Kinetics

Wein (2004). Developing Game Intelligence in Soccer. Reedswain Inc.

Zacarro, S.J, Rittman, A.L, Marks, M.A (2001). Team Leadership. The Leadership Quarterly. Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages 451-483 [online] [Accessed 02^nd Jan 2008, 16:25hrs]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5N-4550867-6&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d75e3ce9c710180c27919234ec753978

Monday 8^th October

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/6

Session 5

Having reflected upon last weeks session and highlighting factors such as individualism within the group, I have decided to devise a warm up drill that is very co-operative and very much so a group task. The effectiveness of group tasks relate to intergroup dynamics. Alderfer (1983) suggests that three dynamic affecting this are cognition, leadership and behavior. I provide leadership but I must gain the behavior and cognition form the players; two areas I feel are important to work on and get right. Cognition is a very broad term and important in skill acquisition, it denotes both conscious and unconscious thought processes (Nutten et al 1981). Prior to the warm up I decided to indicate to the whole group that I will not succumb to individualism amongst the group; it can be defined, as stated by Moberg and Piedmont (2003), as any behavior which deviates away from social norms, however in contrast Gannon (2001) states individualism as an extent to which a person will take without considering or being influenced by group norms. This gives two lights to individualism, the first suggests that the individuals are purposely disruptive because they do not want to cooperate and the second suggests they are individuals as they are not influenced by group behavior. Individualists find it hard to perform group tasks, therefore we do not want this to happen within our collective (Earley 1993). I feel it is essential for young players to socialize as a team rather than becoming individualist and as a coach I am dedicated to do so with each and every one of the players in my group, this coincides with Sabock’s (1973) research into qualities of a coach. The warm up I have devised involves several cones surrounding a central cone; each player has a cone of their own and begins on the cone until my instruction. The players will perform a variety of dynamic movements and stretches during the warm up, as they continue to move around the drill in the same manner. Little and Williams (2006) found that static stretching does not appear detrimental to high speed performance, however dynamic stretching was found to be the most effective for soccer players as preparation. The direction in which the players will move around the circle is as follows in the diagram below.

The players really enjoyed this active warm up and I feel that it allows the players to concentrate on the task without the need for disruptive conversations amongst themselves. Active warm ups are also more beneficial in helping to improve muscular power (Racinais, Blonc, Hue 2005). I found this warm up allowed me to give the players clear instruction and communicate with each other to perform the task well. “Teams that are characterise with high levels of communication also have high levels of performance effectiveness.” (Hardy, Burke and Crace 2005). I had each player shouting “in” when they were moving in towards the middle and “out” when they were moving to the outside. They really enjoyed the vocal aspect of this and it helped them to focus on the task in a co-operative manner; as intended.

I began the core work statically with each player posted on their cone. I wanted to do this at the beginning of the core work to gain the intensity from the players that I wished. In this format it allowed me to gain a visual on each player and monitor their work rates. If I felt a player was dropping to a comfortable intensity then I just called their name to get an increase. Many studies show that young athletes participate for many reason’s, skill development and fun are just two of them (Frederick, Ryan 1993). Taking note of this it seems obvious that these are two areas I must cover in my sessions to keep players motivated. Vallerand (1983) stated that by providing positive verbal feedback, players gain a higher sense of competence and also intrinsic motivation; this is another way I feel I can increase motivation and that leads to work rate. According to Fitts and Posner (1967) the acquisition of psychomotor skills occurs in 3 stages, cognitive, associative and autonomous; if we can get players to work at a harder rate than maybe they can cope with then eventually they will adapt to this intensity and become more proficient from it.; I feel the more you practice or increase work rate then more likely it will become that the players will progress through the stages of learning. However there are many theories on skill one of which proposed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1980) they suggest that we go through five developmental stages instead of 3. Which ever theory is correct we do not know, but what we can begin to understand as coaches that there is a definite progression. I feel in order to gain the best from my players I need to use all the information on skill acquisition I can as it is all relevant; by doing this we are able understand how skill can be acquired and develop drills that coincide with research.

Today’s main session objective was to begin combating the individualism that has protruded in previous sessions, and in terms of this I feel the session went well. I created drills that required the players to work as a team in order for the drills to work effectively. I feel by continuing to devise drills like this it helps to actively promote team work and unity. Carron et al (2002) established a link between task cohesiveness and team success; they found that the more cohesive a group then the more likely they will be to succeed.

Alderfer,C. P (1983). An Intergroup Perspective on Group Dynamics. Yale Univ New Haven Ct School of Organization And Management. [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 15:10hrs]

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA135582

Carron, A.V, Bray, S.R, Eys, M.A (2002). Team Cohesion and Team Success in Sport. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 119 – 126. [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 15:55hrs] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713776579~db=all

Dreyfus, S.E, Dreyfus, H.L (1980). A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. California Univ Berkeley Operations Research Center. [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 15:25hrs]

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA084551

Earley, P.C (1993). East Meets West Meets Mideast: Further Explorations of Collectivistic and Individualistic Work Groups. The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 36, No. 2, (pp. 319-348) [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 16:05hrs]

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-4273(199304)36%3A2%3C319%3AEMWMMF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

Fitts, P.M, Posner, M.I (1967). Human Performance. Brooks/Cole

Frederick, C.M, Ryan, R,M (1993). Differences in Motivation for Sport and Exercise and Their Relations with Participation and Mental Health. Journal of Sport Behavior, Vol. 16 [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 16:40hrs] http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002195225

Gannon, M.J (2001) Working Across Cultures: Applications and Exercise. Sage

Hardy, Burke and Crace (2005) cited in: Murphy, S.M (2005). The Sport Psych Handbook. Human Kinetics

Little, T, Williams, A.G (2006). Effects of differential stretching protocols during warm-ups on high speed motor capacities in professional soccer players. Journal of strength and conditioning research, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 203-7 [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 15:35hrs]

http://e-space.openrepository.com/e-space/handle/2173/3519

Moberg, D.O, Piedmont, R.L (2001). Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. BRILL

Nuttin, J, Ydewalle, G, Lens, W, Atkinson, J.W (1981). Cognition in Human Motivation and Learning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Racinais, S, Blonc, S, Hue, O (2005). Effects of Active Warm-up and Diurnal Increase in Temperature on Muscular Power. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 37(12):2134-2139 [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 15:15hrs]

http://www.acsm-msse.org/pt/re/msse/abstract.00005768-200512000-00018.htm;jsessionid=H35dylLXTScd9H2V1qnrhL25sHhV7TGSGMhLGQf6B53JJg7CjJr5!901085598!181195628!8091!-1

Sabock, R.J (1973) The Coach. Saunders

Vallerand, R.J (1983). The Effect of Differential Amounts of Positive Verbal Feedback on the Intrinsic Motivation of Male Hockey Players. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Vol 5, Iss. 1 [online] [Accessed 30^th Dec 2007, 16:45hrs] https://www.humankinetics.com/JSEP/viewarticle.cfm?aid=8171

Monday 1st October

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/ Year 6

Session 4

In this weeks session there were two factors I really wanted to focus on, mainly the paired work but also the juggling work. We are progressing at a good rate with our juggling, however the players can still work hard at home and spend around an hour a day practising. Murphy (1995) refers to the coach as being “responsible for developing players’ sport specific skills”; and also states that a coach must sufficiently motive their players, it requires a maximal effort in order gain the most from training. If we get this work rate from our players I feel we will eventually be able to receive the ball from any angle, at any height and with any part of the foot and bring it under control. When performing the juggling task I ensured that the player had their knees slightly bent and on there toes in order to receive the ball with each touch under control (Davids 2002). The way we coach at BSS is very skill based, therefore as a coach I try my best to understand how skill is acquired in young people. After reading research by Sun et al (2001) I found that adopting a bottom-up approach toward skill work with younger children is best as there sessions generally involve a low skill level to begin with which involves more procedural knowledge. There are however more traditional views of skill acquisition suggesting that there are three stages of learning. This was suggested by Fitts (1964) when he defined the three stages as the cognitive, the associative and the autonomous. Cognitive being the novice through to the autonomous being the expert. I want to create a learning environment within our sessions that stimulates players to progress through the stages of learning by utilising our core drills and drill progressions. An autonomous performer performs skills with little or no conscious thought or attention (Fitts and Posner 1967). I want my players to reach this level of skilfulness, however not every person will reach this level of performance. But as a coach, I can only help direct my players, a lot comes down to the players themselves and I feel a little is down to genetics, such as speed or height, but I feel players that work hard on developing skill can do so. I feel we can achieve this if I can help to instil a strong locus of causality within the players in my group. By doing this they will become intrinsically motivated to work hard at our drills away from our sessions (Deci, Ryan 1985). McClelland (1951) proposed that “there are at least two kinds of achievement motivation, one which appears to be orientated around avoiding failure and the other around the more positive goal of attaining success” (p.206) I want to steer my players towards the direction of attaining success rather than avoiding failure. If we have this strive for success amongst our group it can only stimulate players.

After performing various juggling combinations, we then moved onto the paired work spending 20 minutes on varied activities. I broke this section down to three sub-sections spending 10 minutes on paired juggling and 10 minutes passing. I stressed to the players that in this section it needs co-operation with one another. Surridge and Murphy (1999) stated that in order to share materials in drills players must be co-operative in order to learn. I have had trouble in the past with players passing the ball either too hard or poorly to one another. Players then argue between each other. I want this to become eradicated so I will continue to do paired work and stress the fact we must be co-operative. In order to achieve goals we must cooperate with one another to further our learning. In order to get the best out of cooperative learning we must overcome individualism (Johnson 1994). Goodger (1986) suggests that sport groups can be weakened by individualism and although our training is very so much individual skill based, at times we are required to work in pairs or small groups to achieve a group goal. Therefore individualism cannot be accepted when we are doing group work. This is an issue within our group as there are certain characters that divert attention away from the group and upon themselves. I need to do my best to work on this and encourage a team based environment. This was particularly present in this week’s session therefore an underlying objective in next weeks session will be to encourage team work and team cohesion.

Bibliography

Davids, K. (2002). Interceptive Actions in Sport: Information and Sport. Routledge

Deci, E.L. Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self determination in human behaviour. Taylor and Francis

Fitts (1964) Cited in: Zimmerman, B.J (1997) Phases in Self-Regulation: Shifting from Process Goals to Outcome Goals. Anastasia Kitsantas; Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 89 [online] [Accessed 17th Dec 2007, 20:55] http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=HnjfbzKh4JHfpkNFpysyVspyhTRQMn8CnyLwvk5D7m0W2dz5Gb71!1145343898?docId=96447858

Fitts, P.M, Posner, M.I (1967). Human Performance. Brooks/Cole Pub.Co

Goodger, J (1986). Ritual Solidarity and Sport. Acta Sociologica, Vol. 29, No. 3, 219-224 [online] [Accessed 16^th Dec 2007, 20:53hrs] http://asj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/3/219

Johnson, D.W (1994). The New Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom and School. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1250 N. Pitt Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. [online] [Accessed 16^th Dec 2007, 20:15hrs] http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED369146&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED369146

McClelland, D.C (1951). Measuring Motivation in Phantasy: The achievement motive. In H Guetzkow (Ed.) Groups, Leadership and men, pp. 191-205. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press. Cited in: Elliot, A.J, Harackiewicz, J.M (1996). Approach and Avoidance Achievement Goals and Intrinsic Motivation: A Mediational Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 70, No. 3, 461-475 [online] [Accessed 16^th Dec 2007, 20:15hrs] http://www.psych.rochester.edu/research/apav/publications/documents/1996_ElliotHarackiewicz_ApproachandAvoidanceAchievementGoalsandIntrinsicMotivation.pdf

Murphy, S.M. (1995). Sport Psychology Interventions. Human Kinetics

Sun, R, Merrill, E, Peterson, T (2001). From implicit skills to explicit knowledge: a bottom-up model of skill learning. Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2, Pages 203-244 [online] [Accessed 16^th Dec 2007, 16:45hrs]

http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15516709cog2502_2

Surridge, G, Murphy, B. (1999). Sport Readiness. Good Year Books

Monday 24^th September

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/ Year 6

Session 3

I began this week’s session with a longer talk at the start than usual, there were particular little issues that I wanted to control in order to gain a higher intensity form the players. Lippitt (1999) suggests that leadership helps maintain control and focus. I felt it was essential to establish leadership from the start thus the reason for my talk highlighting issues, giving direction and also maintaining attention of the players to emphasise my authority from the beginning. After reading publications by Lyle, I have also predominantly tried to utilise a humanistic style of coaching which is defined by Lyle as

“…. a person centred philosophy or ideology which emphasis the empowerment of the individual towards achieving personal goals within a facilitative interpersonal relationship.” (Lyle, 2002)

Tham, Werner (2005) suggests it is important as an educator to build a rapport with students. I will adopt this ideology and utilise it as a coach and player relationship. I agree building a rapport is important as it allows the coach to speak on a personal level as well as a professional level to the players. A coach-player rapport also helps reduce resistance in terms of behavioural issues (Murphy, Valdez 2005). I will begin to implement these factors prior mentioned into my sessions as the week’s progress and hopefully gain a good response from the players.

I was pleased with the overall work ethic with players this week, specifically in the core work and the juggling. These are two areas that we must continue to progress with in order to improve our individual skills. VanLehn (1996) suggests that the initial stages of skill acquisition involve collecting and interacting pieces of knowledge, whilst the final stages with practise help increase speed and accuracy. In addition to this Wade (1997) states that skill involves judgement, and as a coach we must help players to make the correct selection from a number of action options. Therefore I must implement drills that will help bring the correct decision from inside of the players. I feel we are making great progress with our juggling however if players work harder at home we will be able to improve beyond limits. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1980) portray five stages of development in acquiring skill novice, competence, proficiency, expertise and mastery in order to progress through these stages Capana et al (2005) suggest that practising a skill over and over will allow the intensity of the skill to be increased as the duration of the skill being performed will become shorter, allowing players to repeat more moves in a shorter amount of time. In BSS we stress to our players that repetition is the key to becoming more skilful. We have a player in our soccer schools that is a testament to this methodology, he recently achieved 4785 juggles with the ball taking him over an hour to complete, being only 9 I think this is incredible.

After my 1 v 1 drill going wrong last week, I decided to make it as simple and basic as possible in order to reach the coaching objectives I intended to. I had two players, a defender and an attacker, the defender players the ball into the attacker and then close’s the attacker down. The attacker bursts into the ball with speed and takes the ball on the move and then it becomes a 1 v 1 situation. By setting this drill up it removed the need for me to coach the pass. Bonaccarso (2001) suggests 1 v 1’s are a “real game” situation as you often come up against a man that you may have to beat or defend against; Vickers (2007) studied perception, cognition and decision training and suggested that 1 v 1 situations in soccer are important especially in set pieces, this is a key area for us to work on. I feel the players are moving in the right direction in this area and I feel it will help our players to flourish with their individual skills and use them under pressure. When we become proficient in 1 v 1 then we can move onto 2 v 2, 3 v 3 and so on.

Bonaccarso, S. (2001) Coaching Soccer 10 to 15 Year Olds: Planning Technical and Tactical Training. Reedswain Inc

Capanna, R, Oneto, M, Ferrera, G. (2004). Total Soccer Coaching: Combining Physical, Technical and Tactical Training. Reedswain Inc

Dreyfus, S.E, Dreyfus, H.L (1980). A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. No Obvious Publisher [online] [Accessed 12^th Dec 2007, 19:15hrs]

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA084551

Lippitt, M. (1999). Lessons in leadership. Training & Development, 53 (3),18-42

Lyle, J (2002). Sports Coaching Concepts: A Framework for Coaches' Behaviour. UK: Routledge.

Murphy, M, Valdez C (2005). Ravaging Resistance: A Model for Building Rapport in a Collaborative Learning Classroom. Radical Pedegogy [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 16:45hrs]

http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue7_1/murphy-valdez.html

Tham, C.M, Werner, J.M (2005). Designing and Evaluating E-Learning in Higher Education: A Review and Recommendations. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies; vol. 11: pp. 15 - 25. [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 16:45hrs]

http://jlo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/15

VanLehn, K (1996). Cognitive Skill Acquisition. Annual Review of Psychology. Vol. 47: 513-539 [online] [Accessed 13^th Dec 2007, 14:15hrs]

http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.513

Vickers, J.N (2007). Perception, Cognition and Decision Training: The Quiet Eye Action. Human Kinetics.

Wade, A. (1997). Principles of Effective Coaching. Reedswain Inc

Monday 10^th September

Brazilian Soccer Schools

Year 5/ Year 6

Session 2

The object of this session was to concentrate on another “move to beat players” move using core moves to build up to the full move. I planned this move to be enjoyable to learn as research from Bengoechea et al (2004) found that the acquisition of skill is made easier for young people when they find it fun and enjoyable to learn. The move was the “roll over Emerson chop” a move that Christiano Ronaldo uses very frequently. The ball is rolled across the front of the body using the sole of the weak foot and then chopped across the body behind the standing leg with the inside of the stronger foot. The “Emerson chop” is used frequently in our sessions and the majority of players can perform it. However the combination I want them to work towards is slightly more complex but much more effective in beating your man.

I began the session with an introduction talking to the players about how I felt the previous session went and areas a feel we could improve upon from the last session. Reflection on prior coaching sessions at the beginning of a session is essential in order to progress. It allows the coach to highlight issues they were happy and also unhappy with, plus gain a good level of communication from the start (Hargreaves 1990). I felt the best way I can do this is through adopting a humanistic style of coaching throughout my sessions (Lyle 2002), Hemery (1988) also suggests this person centered method of coaching is a good way of building coach-athlete relationships. I also gave the players an insight to areas we would be covering and used the game play, which is generally their favourite, as a reward for hard work. The harder they work the longer they receive in game play. I feel by using this method during the session I can gain a slight increase in intensity just by saying “I feel we can work harder here, remember the harder we work the more time we get in game play.” Stratton (2004) states that by having an incentive to work hard it increases work rate and maintains good behaviour. In addition to this Mageau and Vallerand (2003) suggest that a coach’s behaviour can nurture athletes and develop players both intrinsic motivation and self determined extrinsic motivation. An aim of mine coaching this group is to develop intrinsic motivation amongst the players as it is an important mental factor in working hard away from our sessions which is fundamental to our work at BSS.

I wanted to create a 1 v 1 drill that focussed on the run of the forward player in which they would ark their run; Bloomfield et al (2007) observed that strikers endure a lot of swerving runs throughout a match which supports Komelink’s (2000) findings. He stated that it is the best practice for a forward player to arch his run when closing down defenders; I designed a drill that I felt was adequate, however when it came down to organising and performing the drill it became difficult. I think I under estimated the difficulty of the drill and instead of coaching the run of the forward I ended up coaching the pass at each section of the drill. This drill was enjoyed by the players however I didn’t reach the objectives I wanted to through it. I feel by doing some similar passing drills we will be able to re-visit the 1v1 drill and gain great benefits from it. I wanted to create a situation that allowed us to pass the ball to a new player each time and move out of space into a new space, as Daniel (2004) stated this is the most effective way of penetration of a defence; in addition to this Holt et al (2006) found that tactical development was directly transferred from small sided drills into full game play, this being another reason for the 1v1 drills.

Bibliography

Bengoechea, E.G, Strean, W.B, Williams, D.J (2004). Understanding and promoting fun in youth sport: coaches' perspectives. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, Volume 9, Issue 2, pages 197 – 214 [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 16:50hrs] http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713997385?words=part%7cwhole%7cskill&hash=1176422433

Bloomfield, J, Polman, R, O’Donoghue, P (2007). Physical demands of different positions in FA Premier League soccer. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 6, 63 - 70 [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 15:45hrs]

http://jssm.org/vol6/n1/8/v6n1-8pdf.pdf

Daniel, J (2004). The complete Guide to Coaching Soccer Systems and Tactics, Reedswain Inc

Hargreaves, A (1990). Skills and Strategies for Coaching Soccer. Human Kinetics

Hemery, D (1988) The Pursuit of Sporting Excellence: A Study of Sport's Highest Achievers. Human Kinetics

Holt, J, Ward, P, Wallhead, T (2006). The transfer of learning from play practices to game play in young adult soccer players. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Volume 11, Number 2, pp. 101-118(18) [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 16:45hrs] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cpes/2006/00000011/00000002/art00001

Kormelink H (2000). Dutch Soccer Drills: 180 Practice Drills for Developing Creative, Attacking Soccer. Reedswain Inc

Lyle, J (2002). Sports Coaching Concepts: A Framework Coaches’ Behaviour. Routledge

Mageau, G, Vallerand, R (2003). The coach-athlete relationship: a motivational model. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 21, Number 11, pp. 883-904(22) [online] [Accessed 11^th Dec 2007, 18:25hrs] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/rjsp/2003/00000021/00000011/art00002

Stratton, G (2004). Youth Soccer: From Science to Performance. Routledge