The goalkeeper is often the bedrock to a successful football team. With a capable and confident goalkeeper behind them, a team can play with free-flowing confidence and belief, knowing that their 'back is covered'. Yet, sometimes, goalkeeper training is basic and limited. Andy Elleray is the author of a number…
Category: Football and Soccer Coaching
Gareth Southgate – A New England Culture for the Three Lions
Taken from Principle 4 - A Leader's Landscape | The Future Coach by Tom Bates It’s a wet, grey spring day and the rain has just begun to fall. But as I walk into the National Football Centre, I can’t help but feel inspired by the surroundings. The rain glistens…
Give and Go Soccer Drills
From the football exercises coaching book: * Session #6: The Give and Go The “give and go” or the “wall pass” is one of the simplest but most effective offensive combination plays in soccer. I prefer to call it the “give and go” because it more accurately describes the action…
The Future Coach (Continued) Specific Actions for Managing Players
From the top soccer Book: * Telecommunications progressed from telegraph to telephone, from copper wires to fiber-optics, from analog to digital, from wireless to satellite. I believe the industry will change more in the next five to 10 years than it has in the last 50. Mary Barra, Chairman and…
The Future Coach (Continued) Leadership and Management in Soccer
From the top soccer Book: * The fourth and final teaching style that was identified, unequivocally, as the most effective was labelled authoritative. Layard and Dunn found that the central components of an effective learning environment was one where the teacher had complete control with a clear demonstration of warmth.…
The Future Coach Principle 1: The Relationship Coach
Read Chapter 1 - The Relationship Coach - from The Future Coach, by Tom Bates here... * I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou * Seeing the world through the…
Goalkeeper Training Drills
In this excerpt from 65 Goalkeeper Training Exercises, Andy Elleray offers two highly effective goalkeeper training drills. * Back Ball/Knees Explanation The aim of the game is for the designated goalkeeper, with any kind of ball, to touch their opponents on the middle of the back with their ball. This…
Soccer Tough by Dan Abrahams | Chapter 10: Kevin’s 10,000 Hours
It wasn’t a gift from birth that helped him score 62 goals as a youth team player in a single season. It was Acton Park, or more precisely the thousands of hours he spent there with his two brothers practicing and playing football. The park in Acton is just a…
Soccer Brain by Dan Abrahams | Chapter 1: The Roots of Creativity
An excerpt from: ‘The Wizard’ glared at his players. This was first practice, he knew what to say: “I'm not going to like you all the same. You won't like me or each other all the same either. Nor will I treat you all the same.” At first glance this…
The Future Soccer Player by Gerard Jones
An excerpt from: Click on the cover to learn more * When working with a player today, prepare them for the game of tomorrow. Often in education, like in the coaching of sports, we only prepare the learner based on the world of today… not tomorrow. The danger is that…