You can get your coaching licence sibsidised by your club and your region federation. I got told that my club would pay 50% of my course while North Coast Football would pay the other 50%, problem is can take years for the right courses to come round to your areas if you live rural so you have to take the oppurtunity as it comes.

Also If you only have 9 players then you should ask the opposition coach if you could borrow a player or two and just take a forfeit, the players wont mind the official loss if the result on the day is a bit closer and hopefuly they will get a bit more fun out of it.

Hey Andy Im coaching U/12s next year wich will be their first year introducing full field/11 players/offsides etc.
Last season I followed the FFA Curiculum's 1-3-4-1 which this year will turn into the 1-4-3-3. Im doing my best to coach them into a short passing game which worked well but Id really appreciate some direction into the types of drills I should be doing to to show them Shape with and without the ball and switching transitions from attack and defend.

Also Ive been looking for a FFA endorsed coaching book for Under12s to Under 15s if you know any would be greatly apopreciated.

Basically if they forfeited the club gets fined. If they forfeit X amount of times they get punted. This happened a long time ago and I had no coaches licence although I was due to take a course. I had no idea what to do and wasn't going to let my limitations as a coach be part of their issue. I'd never been put in a situation like that before ever and had no clue how to deal with it. The best thing I could do was to resign the coaching role after 3 games and hand it over to a highly accredited coach who use to play for Man U. I knew what these little fellas were in for and were up against some metro rep teams which had come to association level to chase the C of C tournament, one team was from our own club and they pilfered most of my players from the year before. They ended up 100 against and 1 for under his care but at least they had the best coach available to guide them through their troubled year. They would have faired much worse If I stayed on.

The reason I asked Andy what he would do is because in a nutshell it was just grinding at me all these years and I figured in case others might face the same situation at least they can take heed of Andy's very helpful advice. It does still happen today so hopefully if someone finds themselves in this type of pickle the answer is on this topic.

So while your advice would have been great if it was allowed its not practicle. At least not in our association.

Edited by Aussiesrus: 28/10/2010 02:51:02 AM

Well thats where your association has it wrong these are just kids ffs we should be aiming at them having fun over anything especially winning. If I were you i would have taken it up the association and asked for a special exemption to ensure these kids dont leave the game from their poor decision to put them in that division.

Fully agree with you. So I did. My name has been mud ever since and the person who graded them in that position is still there and been there for over 20 years. Thats why we saw 2 teams in our age group/division with 100 ish against 1 or 2 for and another with 250 against and a couple for. So I dare not take up an appointed coaching role in that association. I only assist nowdays by giving skills sessions once fortnightly under the supervision of the appointed coach.

The idea for kids coaching is to make it fun, challenging, interesting, rewarding and no pressure at all. But when a coach and kids are put in that position there becomes a lot of new issues to deal with like the kids self esteem, ability to put into practice what they have learned. IE: Shooting practice doesnt even enter gameplay in a match. They would have copped a continual shellacking at school. These things shouldn't ever be part of a kids memories for playing football.

Hey tjwhalan, Andy gave some good variations of the 4-3-3 system which is very interesting. Basically for a 4-3-3 formation its when your team has the ball assume the 4-3-3 (Attack) formation. When your team does not have posession the two outer forwards drop back to the midfield outer wing positions forming a 4-5-1 (Defend). The 4-5-1 will also condense the midfield and re-inforce it. When you combine a sliding defence with the 4-5-1 (Defend) formation it makes very hard to break down. Then once posession is regained they can break into a 4-3-3 again.

There is also another variation of the 4-4-2 formation i've used which is very successful. This involves 4-4-2 when defending and 3-5-2 when attacking. In a nutshell you start 4-4-2 then once your team has posession and pushing into the opposition half the central defender pushes into the midfield to form a 3-5-2 (Attack). This re-enforces the midfield in attack and when used with sliding attack becomes effective by numbers. The second your team loses posession the central defender resumes his position forming 4 at the back thus re-forming a 4-4-2 (Defend).

As for drills search the internet for triangular drills. For formation changes walk throughs at training is probably your best best. Getting kids to hold and change formations isn't easy but persistance will pay off in the long run.

Hope this helps.







Edited by Aussiesrus: 28/10/2010 12:41:02 PM

Here's the FFA's presentation on the 433 system highlighting some of its variations

this should prove helpful

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/site/_content/document/00001559-source.pdf

Have just put up a new blog walking you through a sample session I ran this year with my 12 year olds

it's here http://au.fourfourtwo.com/blogs.aspx?CIaBEID=2120

I fully understand the system I was just wondering what would be best to convey it to the kids, Im thinking about taking a whiteboard to training to show them at the end of training sessions, but really Im looking for drills that can be applied straight into the game like the triangle ones you suggested, but more just to simplify playing the system For example learning when to go backwards, learning when to commit to a tackle or drop off and learning which way to make runs etc. Which is where I think getting somesort of FFA 4-3-3 youth coaching booklet would help. I am confident I could make up plenty of decent drills for them and give them the direction needed but Im just keen to learn diffrent ways to coach.

And Yeah Andy my coach downloaded that 4-3-3 pdf file, its probably the best explanation of any formation you will find and I would reccomend it to anyone looking to coach/play or just understand it, but im looking for reccomended drills, SSGs etc with input form experienced coaches/players etc, just so I can ensure im teaching these kids to the best of my abilities.

Good Session what Ive been taught is to put the game in between the two shooting drills, this way you can base the session around the game like situation and then add a similar yet revised game at the end of the session.

Look forward to seeing more sessions, Thanks Andy

The only problem with this is that a coach can take his/her updated knowledge elsewhere after being subsidised by a club.

I don't take too much notice of FFA since I did a KNVB course. FFA are supposedly adopting many of the KNVB practices.

Essentially KNVB practice sessions comprise a four stage approach.

1. Identify the outstanding weakness from a comprehensive match analysis of the previous week's game. Organise a session to reinforce the skills needed in this particular flaw in the previous week's game.

It seems, according to Andy, that comprehensive match analyses are not approached until the B Licence in Australia. I've only completed an FFA Youth Licence so I don't really know what happens further down the track. Senior FFA Licence holders say what I did is more advanced than what they did. It seems like the KNVB Youth course tactical content extrapolates to tactical aspects of the FFA B Licence. There is only a an A Licence and a recent Professional Licence which are higher than the B Licence.

2. Organise 4 v 4 practice exercisies to improve this particular weakness.

3. Increase this to a 7 v 7 session for the same weakness.

4. Finish with the 11 v 11 scenario to work on the weakness.

From other sources KNVB claim one must touch the ball for 600-1000 times per session. In this session there are ways of teaching the aspects of 1.
Australian coaches don't seem to have been instructed in the incremental steps of how to teach techniques. Muscat, Tobin, Vidmar, Corica, Veart and Durakovic were unaware of this in the elite intake KNVB course the week before mine.

All the SSGs mentioned comprise what the Dutch are keen on - width and depth.

It certainly works. The first year I coached a rep side, they won the state title. That was with limited cattle too.


Edited by Decentric: 4/11/2010 11:17:05 PM

Interesting post for me this one.

When I coached suburban junior teams the general attitude of parents was supportive. They were pleased anyone was coaching their kids. It let them off the hook!

My rep team was different. I had a shocking group of parents. They had been factionalised for years. Some also expected the whole team to revolve around their child too.

Last season, my only coaching was with a senior reserves team for the premier league, the highest level in this state. I thoroughly enjoyed it. None of the difficult parents hassling. Also, senior players helped in a mentoring role with the communication of my concepts to younger players.

However, most coaches I know say they prefer to coach youth. They also find premiers and reserves think they know it all too.

Next year I'm in the embryonic stages of opening a big football school for a premier league club. It could be the biggest in the state. The notion was conceived by me, but the catalyst was a regional junior association president who sees problems in the lack of role models for junior players. it should also be a scenario where I don't have to deal with overly ambitious parents too.

It will be targeted for 10 -12 year olds.

A few senior players from the same club will be rostered on to participate in training sessions. A few of the club 13, 14, 15 year olds will too.

By doing the training ground technical exercises the seniors will see flaws in their own techniques, certainly in terms of two footedness. There will also be 4 v4 games with controls on the senior payers who will play in the same games.

The concept will be to conduct the sessions for players and send them back to clubs, schools, rep teams as better players.

The idea is also for any coaches who want to learn something ( often the parents who know nothing about football, but have been roped in to coach) to attend sessions.

Well if you have been coaching for that club for a number of years than I would say they owe it to you to show some faith in order to help improve their junior players.

How do you get invloved in rep teams by the way I would like to put my name in the for a north coast one in the next couple of years.

I was approached.

I certainly wasn't ready to rep coach from suburban club coaching, but a friend was a regional junior association president. He asked me to do it for a team in the region. They weren't happy with the previous rep coach of the team for attitudinal reasons.

He also knew I'd done the KNVB course a few months before. It resulted in fast tracking my knowledge after a week with some top line European coaches.

Having a FFA Senior Licence or C Licence would probably help for rep coaching. One would possibly ned to approach associations. If they don't know you, it makes it difficult.

I'm not sure I'd want to rep coach again. I like the knowledge I've gained being disseminated more widely than a 15-20 player group. A few are always likely to give the game away in their teens.

It is interesting that KNVB like the four stage module depicted in one of my aforementioned posts. I saw the Socceroos implement the 11 v 11 with a certain tactical point coached by Verbeek.

KNVB is not dogmatic at all. Far from it.

I like the 1 v 1 and even the 2 v 2s for the high number of touches players get. I've observed a state coach using a lot of it. Of course there is no width and depth. It is also a possibility in the first stage of the KNVB training module. In reality given it is often difficult to have enough players for an 11 v 11 session, it is possible to slip in the 1v1 stuff earlier on in the session.

I'm told that in the American college system they use a lot of 1 v 1 training. Players from Australia who play in the US college system, find it confronting when they are faced with it in the USA, particularly women.



Edited by Decentric: 5/11/2010 12:03:09 PM

I quite like the look of this session.

What is a roulette and a stud turn?

The only problem that I can see is that too many techniques may be imparted at once. This is particularly in light of the fact that the players have only played for a year.

Thanks Andy.

I was going to go into the permutations of the 4-3-3. Saved me the trouble.

I hadn't thought of the 4-2-3-1 advantages of 4 lines. This is based on some empirical coaching by you and others.

The other phemenon about 4-3-3 is that we have no system that has been well taught to the bulk of coaches in this country.

4-3-3 is used at a youth and senior system in Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. Germany borrowed heavily on Dutch methodology some 8 years ago.

The Spanish and French use it at youth level. Some Brazilian clubs use it. The premise is that it is easier to play other systems like flat 4-4-2, if one has learnt a more complex system which is predicated on triangles/diamonds.

The Dutch teach the 4-3-3 very well, incrementally and systematically. We have had an ad hoc approach. Nobody has learnt a uniform system well in Australia. I have found it difficult teaching the backwards and forwards midfield triangles well to 11 and 12 year olds. Then again, I have seen one of the top women's teams in this state struggle with the triangle too. One of them is a former Matilda too!!

The earlier teams succeed at it the better for international level. Graham Arnold had great difficulty imparting 4-3-3 with its inherent triangles and diamonds to the Australian A league squad he used against Kuwait.

In the World Cup, the top three teams, Spain , Holland and Germany, all played 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. The naysayers say 4-2-3-1 will eventually be usurped by another possible system. True. They don't proffer a superior or alternative methodology though.

Edited by Decentric: 6/11/2010 07:50:43 AM

The 4-2-3-1 may be an answer to teaching players the 4-3-3 with the midfield triangle featuring two defensive screeners and one attacking midfielder.

Laying out the four lines may be easier. I will try this next time.

Basically I did the roulette because one of my players could do it and I wanted him to show the players and teach it to them + It was a bit of fun. It is the move Zidane was famous for. Stop/roll the ball twist body turn with studs of opp foot.

Stud turn is just putting your studs on the ball and rolling it the opp way. I think Matt Thompson did it this week in the lead up to his goal.

I never did all the techniques in one session I concentrated on a few each session until the last third of the season where I did most of them because they were familiar with them and would easily get bored if I didn't give them more techniques and make them do it quicker.

My first post on this section thanks Andy and may it continue.



Deccentric doesn't the Dutch Method also include "circuit" training where two three or four drills are set up with players rotating through the drills. ( eg four groups of four each group doing one of four drills rotating through.)

What I'm finding many junior coaches are having problems dealing with is content. What compounds that is the minimal time available for training. In Australia the kids traditionally train twice a week, while the Dutch would have three or four sessions over a longer season too.
What the Dutch realise and we are becomming accutely aware of is that in that short time the kids practise we as coaches need to maximise the players "effective" practise. This goes back to;



Of course thats why running and queing are diffinite no no's.
Thus the players have variety and I suppose "intensity" a word I hear more and more in relation to junior development.

As I was a hack in my playing days and getting a bit older too, I have limited ball skills so I downloaded 12 core player moves from youtube such as the Zidanes signature move.
Distributed them to the team and our warmup was practising the 12 moves and a couple extra that the kids could come up with. As the season wore on they would challenge themselves with combinig two or three moves.

The DVD became a great tool for visualisation and demostration.

If it is it wasn't taught in my course. Whether it is old practice, I'm not sure. I have Dutch Soccer Skills Books, 1 2 and 3. These types of drills are shown in these books. I was disappointed that there was no explicit KNVB handbook handed out.

There was no explicit technique instruction in my course. It seems that Andy did this in the C Licence.

The KNVB course I did was fundamentally tactical. I was told though I leant too far back when I passed the ball though. I corrected it under close tutelage. However, they were very explicit about how much technique should be taught at specific ages compared to game sense (insight).

The ball techniques I impart are derived from:
1. Matildas dribbling exercises.
2. Verseijen's exercises.
3. Dutch Soccer Skills three books.
4. Internet.
5. A little Coerver
6. Brazilian Soccer Schools dribbling and turning techniques ( I can do most of them). They are pretty difficult, but I can't for the life of me do the elastic properly. It is very frustrating, because it is the technique I see used most often and very sucessfully in games apart from the Brazilian step overs. I've tried to do the elastic for years. I'm still unable to do it, yet alone teach it.
7. A variety of coaching instruction books.



Edited by Decentric: 6/11/2010 07:56:40 AM

I have also taught karate.

I sometimes apply the teaching of karate technique methodology to football. Here are some sequential steps.

1. Try the technique very slowly. This usually works.

2. Speed it up.

3. Do it at higher speed with the head up.

3. Try the technique against an opponent, but the opponent should be pretty passive (not trying to win the ball, but be a slow moving obstacle).

4. Try the technique repetitively against a more active defender.

5. Try the technique changing speeds in the one run against a defender and try to keep the head up.

Edited by Decentric: 6/11/2010 08:07:21 AM

Don't know how I missed this one but a good read.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1030331/Adelaide-leads-the-way

Adelaide Case Study PDF

i asked myself the same question but apparently this is the first time it's been made public. It's a great read. I wish the club had released it last season through our dark year.. it's really positive and assuring to see this sort of stuff happening in the backend.

I would agree with that however I would do all of the above basically in one session due to:
a) Kids would get bored
b) Most teams only train twice a week.

So basically:
Warm up: 1,2,3
Phase 2: 4,5,6

And the last and probably most important point would be trying the technique in a GAME which would be in my final phase.

Interesting replies Decentric. Best of luck with your new "BIG" football school. Sounds very exciting.

On the topic of the 4-3-3 system which is most interesting I see there are many formation options. I'm an old school lad and not a big fan of the 4-3-3 system however I can see the benefits.

My personal choice of formations is to use a 4-4-2 with a roving forward central defender. IE: When we are on the attack in their half the central defender pushes forward forming a 3-5-2 thus also forming the triangles. When we are defending in own half this causes the central defender to make sure he has dropped backed into the 4-4-2 position. This has advantages over the 4-3-3 in that if we look at the flaws associated with the 4-4-2 in a standard attack pattern the reverse is applicable and the 4-3-3 becomes flawed in the 4-4-2 defensive mode.

I've found the above to be very successful especially when teams have struggled with standard 4-3-3 and standard 4-4-2.

I see so you attack in a 3-5-2 however defend in a 4-4-2.

My only personal issue with that is that your fullbacks aren't allowed to get forward which is something I personally like fullbacks doing.

The other issue I can see is against a 4-3-3 you are either going to have 3 defenders marking 1 striker or 3 defenders marking 3 forwards. Either way I would suggest that it is a lose lose situation.

However against a standard 4-4-2 which is probably what you would come up against mainly in Australia I could see this formation dominating.
Reasons:
- You would have 3 defenders against 2 strikers to protect counter attacks.
- You would have an extra man in midfield when attacking allowing your 4 across the middle to be able to push up a lot more (basically all four could attack and you could leave the 3 defenders and 1 holding in front of them).

Maybe something you could look at if you like this system is the way Mexico play a similar system. Because they mainly come up against teams with one striker they play:

3-4-3 (5-4-1) when defending and when attacking 2-5-3 (4-3-3) depends how you want to look at it. (Their captian Marquez plays that central defender pushing on).

This system allows 2 central defenders to be marking 1 striker which I think is more desirable situation.