Coaching Junior Football Teams For Dummies E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 662

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Packed with drills and tips for training and game days The fun and easy way to master the art of football coaching Volunteering as a youth football coach can be a great experience, both for you and your squad. But what if you've never coached before, or want to improve? Don't worry! This friendly guide explains football rules, shows you how to approach coaching, and gives you practical pointers on improving team skills and encouraging good sportsmanship. * Understand football rules * Develop a coaching philosophy * Teach football fundamentals * Run great training sessions * Lead your team during a game * Communicate effectively with parents

Leseprobe

Coaching Junior Football Teams For Dummies®

by the National Alliance For Youth Sports with Greg Bach and James Heller

Coaching Junior Football Teams For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, LtdThe AtriumSouthern GateChichesterWest SussexPO19 8SQEngland

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ISBN: 978-0-470-03474-3

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow

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About the Authors

The National Alliance For Youth Sports has been America’s leading advocate for positive and safe sports for children for the past 25 years. It serves volunteer coaches, parents with children involved in organized sports, game officials, youth sports administrators, league directors, and the youngsters who participate in organised sport. The Alliance’s programmes are used in more than 3,000 communities across the USA by parks and recreation departments, Boys & Girls Clubs, Police Athletic Leagues, YMCAs/YWCAs, and various independent youth service groups, as well as on military installations worldwide. For more information on the Alliance’s programmes visit www.nays.org.

Greg Bach is the communications director for the National Alliance For Youth Sports, a position he has held since 1993. Before joining NAYS, he worked as the sports editor of the Huron Daily Tribune in Bad Axe, Michigan, where he captured numerous writing awards from the Associated Press, Michigan Press Association, and the Hearst Corporation. He has a journalism degree from Michigan State University, which he earned in 1989. He’s an avid sport fan and has coached a variety of youth sports.

James Heller has been involved in football on and off for over 35 years. As a player, he played from youth-team level through into senior football. He has also helped to coach and manage football teams at several different age levels. In his time associated with ‘the beautiful game’ he has seen junior football coaching in the UK improve from a situation where 20 children ran around a muddy park aimlessly chasing the ball, watched by two cold goalkeepers, to one where the focus is on mini-soccer, skills improvement, and ‘one child, one ball’ training sessions.

Dedication

National Alliance For Youth Sports: This book is dedicated to all the volunteer football coaches who give up countless hours of their free time to work with children and ensure that they have positive, safe, and rewarding experiences. We applaud their efforts and commend them for making a difference in the lives of youngsters everywhere.

Greg Bach: This book is dedicated to my mom and dad, the best parents anyone could ever wish for. I am truly lucky and forever grateful for their never-ending love and support.

Authors’ Acknowledgements

From the National Alliance For Youth Sports: A successful youth football programme doesn’t just happen. It takes a real commitment from not only dedicated volunteer coaches, but also parents who understand their roles and responsibilities and league directors and administrators who know what it takes to ensure that every child who steps on the football field in their community has a safe, fun, and rewarding experience. Football plays an important role in the lives of millions of children and provides them with the opportunity to learn the skills of the game and the chance to develop both emotionally and physically as individuals. The National Alliance For Youth Sports extends a heartfelt ‘Thank you’ to every person who makes a positive difference, through football, in the life of a child.

From James: My thanks to Jason Dunne and Simon Bell at the Dummies team, and John Moseley at Capstone, for their help and support. Also to the numerous coaches of children’s mini-soccer teams and footballing brains who offered valuable pointers along the way.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

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Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Simon Bell

Content Editor: Steve Edwards

Commissioning Editor: Jason Dunne

Copy Editor: Kim Vernon

Technical Editor: Graham Reed

Executive Editor: Jason Dunne

Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe

Cover Photo: JupiterImages

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Heather Ryan

Proofreaders: John Greenough

Indexer: Stephen Ingle

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

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Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

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Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Getting Started Coaching Football

Chapter 1: Coaching Children in Football

Striking a Balance between Parenting and Coaching

Doing Your Homework

On the Pitch

Chapter 2: Getting Organised

Developing a Coaching Philosophy

Understanding the League You’re Coaching In

Chapter 3: Knowing the Football Basics

Inside the Lines

Taking Up Position

Deciphering the Rules of the Game

Putting the Ball Back into Play

Adjusting the Game for the Younger Leagues

The Men (and Women) in Black: Referees

Part II : Building Your Coaching Skills

Chapter 4: Meet the Parents

Introducing Yourself

Putting Together the Paperwork

Assembling Your Parent Posse

Going Over Equipment

Meeting Players’ Special Needs

Answering Parents’ Questions

Chapter 5: Evaluating Your Team

The Art of Evaluation

Lining ’Em Up

Understanding and Interacting with All the Kids

Chapter 6: Running a Great Training Session

Coming to Training Prepared

First Training Session: Kicking Off the Season

Creating a Training Plan

Making Training Time Beneficial

Ending on a Positive Note

Chapter 7: Match Day

Understanding Your Pre-game Responsibilities

Holding a Pre-game Team Meeting

Conducting Your Warm-Up

Kick Off!

Making the Most of the Half-time Speech

Winning and Losing Gracefully

Making an Impact with a Post Match Talk

Chapter 8: Refining Your Coaching Strategies

Dealing with Shifting Team Dynamics

Undergoing a Mid-Season Review

Chatting with Parents

Part III : Beginning and Intermediate Football

Chapter 9: Mastering the Fundamentals

Introducing First-Timers to Football

Shooting

Ball Dribbling

Passing

Trapping

Receiving

Heading

Goalkeeping

Defending

Determining What to Do If a Kid Just Doesn’t Get It

Chapter 10: Fundamental Drills for a New Team

Warming Up Right

Drills for Attacking Play

Defensive Drills

Chapter 11: Coaching Basic Attacking

Planning Different Types of Attacks

Understanding Positional Play

Kicking the Attacking Skills Up a Notch

Chapter 12: Coaching Basic Defending

Exploring Different Types of Defence

Improving Defensive Skills

Part IV : Advanced Football Strategies

Chapter 13: Taking It Up a Notch: Drills

Attacking Drills

Defensive Drills

Putting It All Together: Sample Training Session

Chapter 14: Upgrading Attacking Tactics and Skills

Upgrading the Attack

Introducing New Attacking Skills

Chapter 15: Advanced Defending and Formations

Experimenting with Defensive Formations

Clearing Strategies

Introducing New Defensive Skills

Chapter 16: Coaching Set Pieces

Attacking from Set Pieces

Defending Set Pieces

Chapter 17: Implementing Advanced Exercises

Conditioning Your Players

Developing Challenging Exercises

Part V : The Finer Details

Chapter 18: Keeping Kids Injury Free and Healthy

Warming Up to Injury Prevention

Handling Injuries

Watching the Weather

Following a Healthy Diet

Chapter 19: Challenges Every Coach Faces

Dealing with Problem Parents

Coping with Problem Coaches

Handling Discipline Problems

Chapter 20: Getting More Competitive

Enjoying Top-Level Competition: Competitive Football

I Want You and You: The Selection Process

Keeping the Energy Up All Season

Hitting the Road

Part VI : The Part of Tens

Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Make the Season Memorable

Challenge the Coach Day

Bring Your Parent to Training Day

New Exercises

Contest Day

Midseason Report Cards

Bringing in New Faces

Team Votes

Team Captain for the Day

Carnival Day

Holiday or Birthday Themes

Chapter 22: Ten Fun Ways to End on a High Note

Jazzing Up Team Awards

Record Your Team

Create Individual Recordings of Each Child

Distribute Team Stickers

Hold One-on-One Meetings

Create a Team Newsletter

Create a Team Photo Album

Schedule a Crazy Training Session

Take a Football Photo

Have a Team Memento

Chapter 23: Ten Recommended Resources and Organisations

The FA

Getting a Handle on Small-Sided Games

Helping Football Parents Be Model Parents

Being Up to Speed on First Aid

Exploring the Treatment Room

Being Part of the Beautiful Game

Explaining Rules and Regulations

Developing Skills and Drills

Going Official: A Licence to Drill

Finding Answers on a Coaching Forum

: Further Reading

Introduction

Welcome to Coaching Junior Football Teams For Dummies, a book dedicated to volunteer coaches everywhere who work with kids in the wonderful sport of football. We hope you find it informative, entertaining, and – most important of all – useful in helping ensure that every child in your team has a fun, safe, and rewarding experience. After all, that’s what it’s really all about.

About This Book

We wrote this book for first-time volunteer football coaches looking for some guidance before they step onto the field, as well as for coaches who’ve been on the sidelines for a season or two and are interested in gaining more insight into specific areas of the game to benefit their young squads. If you’re new to the sport, you may be somewhat nervous or a bit apprehensive about what you’re getting yourself into. You can take comfort in knowing that this book will kick those concerns into touch and fully prepare you to enjoy a rewarding season with your team. Each chapter is filled with useful and straightforward information. The more chapters you knock off, the more knowledgeable you’re going to be about this great game and how to teach it.

We also have plenty of information for the veterans who’ve spent countless evenings at the local football pitches. We wrote plenty of chapters specifically for you, covering everything from drills you can employ to upgrade individual skills to examining in detail the various systems of play that are available and how to choose the one that best fits your team’s talent level.

One of the neat things about this book is that you can jump in anywhere. If you’re a rookie coach, you probably have several questions swirling around in your head on everything from how to plan an effective training session to what to say to the team after a loss. Just check out the table of contents or the index for the topic you want to read about and then flip right there to get the scoop. Each chapter is divided into sections, and each section contains information on a specific topic concerning coaching youth football teams.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate this book, we use the following conventions:

Italic text is used for emphasis and to highlight new words and terms that we define in the text.

Boldfaced text is used to indicate keywords in bulleted lists or the action parts of numbered steps.

Monofont is used for Web addresses. If you find that a specific address in this book has been changed, try scaling it back by going to the main site – the part of the address that ends in .com, .org, or .edu.

Sidebars are shaded grey boxes that contain text that’s interesting to know but not necessarily critical to your understanding of the chapter or topic.

In football-speak, many people still use yards to measure distances, so we have used yards as our unit of measurement in this book.

We’ve also packed this book full of diagrams of training drills and plays that you can work on with your team. The following chart is the key to understanding all the squiggles and lines:

What You’re Not to Read

Personally, we would read every word of this book if we were you. That’s how good we think it is. But we may be biased, and you may be short on time. So, for your convenience, we’re telling you that you don’t have to read everything. In fact, when you see text marked with the TechnicalStuff icon, feel free to skip it. It isn’t integral to your understanding of coaching or football. We also include grey-shaded boxes called sidebars that we fill with interesting (but totally skippable) information. Read at your own pace, and if you have time, let us know what you think of the book.

Foolish Assumptions

Here are some things that we assume about you:

You know that football is played primarily with the feet and involves lots of running.

You have a son or daughter who’s interested in playing football this year, but you’re unsure how to go about teaching him or her the game.

You’re a novice youth football coach, and you need to get your coaching skills up to speed.

You don’t have any aspirations of climbing the coaching ladder and overseeing a high school or college football team in the near future.

You want the basics on things like what to do during the first practice of the season, how to determine who plays where, and whether teaching youngsters how to head a ball is safe.

If any of these descriptions hits the mark, you’ve come to the right place.

How This Book Is Organised

This book is divided into parts, each one pertaining to a specific aspect of coaching a youth football team. Here’s a quick rundown.

Part I: Getting Started Coaching Football

Coaching youth football can be a real challenge, but what you do before you and your team ever step on the field can make the difference between a smooth-running season and one that dissolves into total chaos and confusion. In this part, you get the inside track on how to develop a coaching philosophy that you’re comfortable with and one that your players and their parents will embrace rather than reject. You also discover what all those markings on the pitch really mean and get an overview of the rules of the game.

Part II: Building Your Coaching Skills

Fresh air. Green grass. Colourful kits. This is where the real fun – and actual coaching – begins. Before you step on the field, though, this part provides valuable information on how to conduct a preseason parents’ meeting, an often-overlooked aspect of coaching youth sport that’s crucial for opening the communication lines, reducing the chances of misunderstandings and hurt feelings, and keeping your sanity. It also answers questions such as:

How do I create training plans that aren’t the same boring thing week after week?

How do I work with the uncoordinated kids or the shy youngsters who won’t stop staring at the ground?

What about the kid who doesn’t even want to be here?

Plus, we show you the game-day ropes – from pre-game routines to your post-game speech – and help you assess your team and your performance at midseason.

Part III: Beginning and Intermediate Football

Teaching kids the basics of the game – from passing and defending to dribbling and shooting – is crucial for their long-term enjoyment of the sport. This part shares how you can go about teaching by providing a variety of fun-filled training drills that are highly effective in communicating skills. Also, when your team has a pretty good handle on some of the basics, check out the chapter devoted to taking those skills up a notch.

Part IV: Advanced Football Strategies

When your players have a pretty good grasp of the basics of the game, they’re eager to learn more advanced skills and continue their development. Part IV serves you well in this aspect. You discover more in-depth attacking and defensive techniques – such as overlaps and counterattacking – while being presented with an assortment of drills that you can use to help your players maximize their development. From indirect free kicks to defending a 2-on-1, this part examines it all.

Part V: The Finer Details

Part V is a smorgasbord of information on several topics that we hope you won’t be dealing with much this season, such as recognising injuries, confronting problem parents, and dealing with discipline problems on your team. You also find valuable information on pre- and post-game nutrition that you can share with your team to help maximise performance. And for those coaches looking to coach a team in a league, you find all the information you need to help make your transition to a more competitive level of football a smooth one.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

It just wouldn’t be a For Dummies book without the Part of Tens. Here, you find all sorts of precious information that you can put to use to boost the fun and enjoyment your team has playing for you this season. We include information on ways to make the season memorable and fun ways to end on a high note and keep ’em coming back next year.

Icons Used in This Book

This icon signals valuable tips that can really enhance your coaching skills. If you’re scanning a chapter, take a moment to read these tips when you come across them and then put them to work.

When you’re coaching youth football, you have a lot to comprehend. This icon alerts you to key information that’s worth revisiting.

Watch out! This icon alerts you to situations that can be dangerous or derail your instruction.

Football can be a pretty complex game, particularly at the more competitive levels, so at times throughout this book, we present some rather technical information. You may want to skip some of this information if your young squad isn’t ready to get too in-depth in the game.

Where to Go from Here

If this season is your first on the touchline as a volunteer youth football coach, you may be most comfortable digging in with Chapter 1 and moving forward from there. Please note, though, that the book is structured so that you can easily move around from chapter to chapter at your convenience. So if you need answers to some of your most pressing early-season questions, you can scan the table of contents or index for those topics and jump right to those chapters.

Part I

Getting Started Coaching Football

In this part . . .

Before you take the field with your young troops for the first time, do yourself, and your team, a big favour by diving into some behind the scenes homework to lay the foundations of a smooth-running season. The homework includes outlining your coaching philosophy, understanding how your league operates, and learning the basic rules of the sport. You find all the information to get your season headed in the right direction in this part.

Chapter 1

Coaching Children in Football

In This Chapter

Coaching your own child

Getting up to speed on the rules of football

Planning training sessions

Congratulations on your decision to coach a youth football team this season. You are embarking on a wonderful journey that will be filled with many special moments that both you and your players – regardless of their age or skill level – will remember for the rest of their lives.

Before you step on the pitch, please be aware that you have taken on a very important role. How you manage the youngsters on your team and the way you interact with them during training sessions and games impacts on how they feel about the sport and even themselves for years to come. How you handle the lengthy list of responsibilities that come attached with the job helps them develop an unquenchable passion for the game or drain their interest in ever participating again.

All you need – besides a whistle and clipboard – is some good information to guide you through the season. In this chapter, you find useful, straightforward insight and tips to help you and your team members have a safe, fun, and rewarding season, and one that they – and you – will look back on fondly for years to come.