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.

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

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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

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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

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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