Despite coaching basketball for over twenty years Socrates still manages to make the same stupid mistakes he tries to teach his young players to avoid. The old fool turns up for a game of pick-up with a bunch of fellow old coots and manages to make a complete goose of himself by doing precisely what he knows doesn't work! The moral of the story? Even if you are playing with a … [Read more...]
Forget technical genius. Great coaching is managing player expectations and emotions.
A while back I had the opportunity to teach a new activity to a soccer team at practice that I thought would be of great benefit to them. I had seen this particular “practice game” work miracles for other teams both in terms of the individual technical skills it helped to develop in participating players and in the effective teamwork it tended to facilitate. This activity had … [Read more...]
Technical tip from Joey Peters – Lectures, lines and laps are out!
Legendary Matilda and FFA Hall of Famer, Joey Peters, provides a terrific tech tip... Joey, the Matilda, in action. "Lectures, lines and laps are not only boring, they take a lot of planning and explaining, and they actually stifle learning! Great coaches understand that learning is by experience. Learning is usually hidden in a fun and exciting experience created by the … [Read more...]
Shakespeare discusses his Henry V motivational speech.
William Shakespeare and his theatrical agent analyse and discuss what many consider to be the greatest motivational speech ever written… the famous St Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s historical play, Henry V. In the play, King Harry inspires his tired and outnumbered troops into action before their victory against the French at Agincourt. Agent: Will? … [Read more...]
A numbskull’s analysis of Socceroos against South Korea.
Highly regarded “football” pundit, Francis Leach, has given his assessment of the Socceroos performance against South Korea on Saturday night and has come down with the opinion that Australia’s problem is that we don’t have a natural number 9 (central forward/striker) who can optimise opportunities that come from dominating possession by regularly popping the ball into the back … [Read more...]