How important is technical training in relation to tactical? A lot is going to depend on the age of the players you are working with, so I’d like to focus on the competitive U18 and older players.
Technical training should always be a major foundation of any coaching philosophy; how can we play the game effectively without a solid technical base? At the university level however, how much can we influence the technical ability of players who are 18-21 years old? More important, what are the chances of making gains technically with players at this age. The compressed , condensed nature of the university season doesn't allow for a lot of time to be spent on technical work. However you should always find ways to incorporate it into training sessions. Most importantly, I have found it useful to have my assistant coaches give one on one feedback to players on their technical execution. In a perfect world, we should be working with players who already have a strong technical base and put those abilities into a tactical system that plays to their strengths? A tactical system really serves no purpose for players who don’t have a handle on the fundamentals. There is a lot of truth to this concept, the technical ability of players in Canada are not on par with players in other countries where the soccer is learned through hours and hours of free play. I also find that while it is getting much better, female players especially are not coached in the technical fundamentals. I have also found that sometimes the technical coaching is strong in terms of teaching a skill set that doesn't always relate to game situations. Being able to juggle the ball 100 times isn't something that happens in a game. Coaching university soccer I feel tactics play a big role in the success of a program. As coaches we have a short time, to put a tactical system in place and find what system will best fit in with the strengths of the players available to us. Players need to know their roles in a system and what the objectives are on the attack and defensively. It goes beyond deciding if we play 4-4-2 or 4-4-3 or any other shape but making sure players know what they are to do in the various phases of the game. The more we can prepare players to adjust on the go during the games, the better chance we have of not being surprised by opponents. My other contention is the simple fact that I’m not sure we can change the technical ability of our players at this age during a 3 month competitive season. So I feel my time is better spent teaching a system that the players can implement with their skill set and have some success doing it. The off-season is the time that I feel we should spend developing our technical side of the game.
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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
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