In light of our injury time goal which salvaged a tie in our home opener, I thought sharing a few thoughts on the topic of coaching game management might be timely. From experience in my role working with coaches who handled teams at different levels and ages, it is a component of coaching that is often overlooked. Most coaches who have gone through any kind of coach training and certification, have a good idea about coaching priorities by age group but often break it down to 3 components, physical, technical and tactical. The psychological component is often overlooked, how to prepare, how to manage stress, staying focused etc. Game management in my opinion falls under both tactical preparation and and psychological training. In every 90 minute, there are endless possibilities of situations that might occur and having a team that is just prepared to perform tactically under idea conditions, like when the game is 0-0, is not enough. As a coach , you must prepare your team to deal with as many situations as possible so that when they arise, the players don't panic and can adapt quickly. The most obvious situations are playing from behind, playing with a lead, how to manage the game as time is expiring, what happens if your team gets a red card, or if the other team does... and then any combination of the above.
One big mistake many coaches make is preparing their team tactically to face an opponent based on how they think the other team will set up. They team steps on the field and surprise , the opponent has adjusted their game plan and come up with something completely different. Suddenly the players have lost their points of reference and don't know what to do. It is important to always keep in mind that the higher the competitive level and with the increased availability of video footage for scouting purposes, teams have the ability to adjust and prepare in much better ways. We always tell our players that whatever we are trying to do to our opponents, they will be looking for ways to counteract us and surprise us. In a full game, things happens, surprises come up and players need to be able to deal with them. If we value players being able to respond in a variety of ways in different scenarios, it is important to consider how, as coaches, we establish the conditions that expose players to different challenges. In a soccer context, some of these situations occur on their own and challenge the players to respond as they happen. This gives the players the chance to think about how it went and how their approach may change if similar situations occur again. If we agree this is beneficial, that players can learn from facing certain situations and having to problem solve in the spur of the moment, what value is there in structuring some of these scenarios into a player’s training to ensure they occur more frequently, Some easy practice set ups during training to change the reality for players can be to adjust field dimensions, playing on a reduced surface will force players to making decisions early, execute under pressure and have to find spaces in a restrained area. The opposite is also true, play on a full field but reduce the number of players. Lots of time and space but this change will force players to understand how to limit spacing between themselves, how to efficiently manage their efforts without running all over the place. Other scenarios can include scrimmage with very specific conditions, one team trying to defend a lead and the other one trying to tie the game, or give conflicting instructions to the two teams in a scrimmage, one player with a low pressure line with another one looking to press high and constantly. These are just examples and the only limitation to ideas of how to prepare players in a coach's imagination. The pitch and task constraints contribute to the strategies adopted in the games.In can allow players and a team on the whole to understand how to 1) Conserve energy 2) Frustrate the opposition 3) Retain balance within their shape This kind of approach to constraining the games set up to generate specific learning opportunities can be met with mixed feelings. Some suggest that the game of football was designed in a particular way and presents its own challenges and coaches should stop interfering. Advocates imply that subtle and and more deliberate shifts within the way competition is structured supports players to practice certain elements that may contribute to the development of qualities that are valued. The more adaptable players are to changing realities over the course of the game, the easier it is to game plan for specific opponents and situations. In the case of our game last week, we went through various situations and for the most part adapted well. We possessed well early but couldn't create quality chances, we tweeked the formation a bit to start the second half which led to our goal and creating quite a few quality scoring opportunities ( we didn't convert but that will be a topic for another day. We went down 2-1 giving two goals in succession and with 10 minutes to play, we changed our formation from 4-1-4-1 to 3-5-2. The change was almost seamless. we simply gave the instructions and the players on the field knew how to adjust their roles as needed. Once we scored, they were quickly able to revert back and manage out the game. Great coaching, maybe not as I don't want to suggest I have all the answers but good preparation and mostly good execution of the game plan by the players.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
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