The Modern Soccer Coach: Position-Specific Training

The Modern Soccer Coach: Position-Specific Training

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Gary Curneen

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[Smashwords Edition]

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Published in 2015 by Bennion Kearny Limited.

Copyright © Bennion Kearny Ltd 2015

ISBN: 978-1-909125-44-5

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that it which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Bennion Kearny has endeavoured to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Bennion Kearny cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Published by Bennion Kearny Limited, 6 Woodside, Churnet View Road, Oakamoor, Staffordshire, ST10 3AE

www.BennionKearny.com

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Academy Soccer Coach

Illustrations (download)

Chapter 1: Getting Real About Coaching

Essence of Coaching

Potential and Growth

Incidental Growth

Intentional Growth

What Can A Coach Do…?

Evolving Our Ways of Extra Practice

Environment Coaching Culture

Modern Game, Modern Ideas

Summary

Chapter 2: Improving Individuals In A Team Game

Gerrard The All-Rounder?

Effectiveness Over Perfection

Build On Strengths As Well As Weaknesses

The Path Less Travelled

Can US Sports Point Us In The Right Direction?

The Path To Improvement

Whitmore Learning Cycle

Don’t Count The Hours, Make The Hours Count

Why Won’t Our Players Embrace Practice?

Summary

Chapter 3: Why We Need Position-Specific Training

How Do Our Players Evaluate Their Performance?

Helping Players Learn

Habits Over Reason

Focusing On The Individual Within The Team

Brendan Rodgers’ Revolution at Liverpool

The Real Madrid Way of Working

The New Ajax Way

If The Germans Are Doing It…

Player-Focused Training

Implementing The Program

Summary

Chapter 4: Getting Down To Business

Evaluate Positional Demands

Creating Player Profiles

1. Awareness

2. Action Plan

3. Accountability

Specific Practices For Specific Positions

1. Observe your player before talking to them

2. Drills-simplicity with detail

3. Be time & target specific

Coaching The Session

Six Key Principles Of Quality Player Feedback (Peter Hastie, Peter Hannan)

Self-Correction Before Your Correction

Descriptive Versus Prescriptive Coaching

Summary

Chapter 5: Central Defenders

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Player Profile

Exercise One

Coaching Principles

Competitive Challenge

Exercise Two

Coaching Principles

Progressions

Exercise Three

Organization

Coaching Points

Progression

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Exercise Seven

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Eight

Coaching Points

Progressions

Conclusion

Chapter 6: Full Backs

Why Will Effective Full backs Help You Win?

Wingless Teams

More Complex Defensive Systems

Modern Changes

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Exercise One

Coaching Points

Exercise Two

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Three

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Progression

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Conclusion

Chapter 7: Holding Midfielder

Which Type of Holder Do You Want?

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Exercise One

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Two

Coaching Points

Coaching Points

Coaching Points

Exercise Three

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Seven

Coaching Points

Progressions

Conclusion

Chapter 8: Attacking Midfielder

How to Coach A Creative Position?

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Exercise One

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Two

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Three

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Seven

Coaching Points

Progressions

Conclusion

Chapter 9: Wide Attacker

Why Has The Wide Attacker Role Changed?

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Exercise One

Coaching Points

Progression

Exercise Two

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Three

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Seven

Coaching Points

Progressions

Conclusion

Chapter 10: Center Forward

What Has Changed?

Can You Coach Goalscoring?

How Do We Coach Scoring Goals?

Positional Demands

Technical

Physical

Tactical

Mental

Exercise One

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Two

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Three

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Four

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Five

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Six

Coaching Points

Progressions

Exercise Seven

Coaching Points

Progressions

Conclusion

Chapter 11: Managing and Maximizing Talent

Can We Improve Commitment?

Building Relationships

The Power Of Feedback

When To Give It?

How To Give It?

Backing It Up With Statistics

The Value Of Video

Patience

Conclusion

Other Books From Bennion Kearny

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the loving memory of Roy Curneen.

''Even the smallest of footprints have the power to leave an everlasting imprint on the Earth."

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I want to thank my wife, Erin, who has supported and encouraged me during the writing of this book. I love her very much and owe a special debt of gratitude for her support and patience.

A special thanks to my parents Sean and Marian, and sister Angie, for all your love.

I would also like to thank my Publisher at Bennion Kearny, James Lumsden-Cook, for his attention to detail, advice, and steadfast devotion to this project. I am grateful for his skillful editorial direction and intuitive insights. 

And last but surely not least, I am grateful to Neil Adair, David Robertson, Bobby Puppione, Aaron Danks, Jamie Edwards, Kieran Smith, Neil Cooper, and Ricky Clarke. Also, a huge thanks to everyone at Academy Soccer Coach, Gavin Tait, Kieran McKenna, Danny Worthington, and Tony Strudwick. Without their inspiration and ideas, I would not have had a platform for this book.

About the Author

Gary Curneen is the Head Women’s Soccer Coach at California State University Bakersfield. Gary holds a UEFA 'A' License from the Irish FA and a Premier Diploma from the NSCAA. Gary also gained a Master’s in Business Administration from Wingate University, where he coached the Lady Bulldogs to a 95-48-8 record along with their first ever SAC Championship and place in the NCAA Tournament.  In 2013 he worked as the Assistant Coach at University of Cincinnati.

Gary has played and coached at the collegiate level in the United States for more than ten years. His coaching education has seen him travel to study the best teams in the world and how they work first hand. A lifelong learner, Gary is a player-centered coach who focuses on professionalism, responsibility, and accountability within the framework of each team he works with. He believes that creating a culture of excellence is paramount to success and that each training session should include physical, tactical, technical, and mental components that challenge the players to perform at a high level.

Gary is the author of the acclaimed best-selling coaching book: The Modern Soccer Coach 2014: A Four Dimensional Approach

Academy Soccer Coach

Academy Soccer Coach is a company that provides digital solutions for coaches at every level of the game. Our coaching software enables coaches, clubs and professional organizations to plan and prepare their sessions remotely from anywhere in the world.

Academy Soccer Coach works with following the professional clubs and organizations:

Fulham FC, West Ham United FC, Stoke FC, Newcastle United FC, Crystal Palace FC, Portland Timbers Sporting Kansas City, National Soccer Coaches Association of America, US Soccer (Women’s), The Irish Football Association, The Professional Footballers Association, and many more.

For more information on Academy Soccer Coach and the services we provide please visit www.academysoccercoach.com

*Note*

Thanks to Academy Soccer Coach, we are delighted to offer a free two-week trial of the latest version of their ‘Session Template’ software.

Simply email customer_services@academysoccercoach with the print book’s ISBN (9781909125865) in the Subject Field.

Academy Soccer Coach will email you back with instructions on what to do next.

That’s all there is to it!

Illustrations (download)

If you are reading an electronic version of this book, you may find some of the illustrations difficult to explore fully on your Kindle or Nook or iPhone. Likewise, if you are reading the print version of the book and would like to get your hands on the illustrations anyway – we can help.

All the illustrations in this book are available as a freely downloadable color PDF.

Download the file from the publisher’s web page at: www.bennionkearny.com/gc201.pdf

Chapter 1: Getting Real About Coaching

Just like the game itself, coaching today is moving forward at a phenomenal pace. It is a challenge just to keep up! Every week, new studies show us how to get our players to perform at their best physically, new technology allows us to manage training loads, articles containing fresh ideas are published daily, new sessions are shared online, and new tactical approaches are analyzed by experts after every high profile game. With so much knowledge available, surely our players should be improving and developing at the same rate? Not quite.

More and more players today are underperforming. They are struggling under pressure, stagnating in their development, and failing to reach their potential. For every Luis Suarez or Carli Lloyd that excels at the highest level, there are thousands of players who are straining to climb the ladder of success. With so many resources at hand, surely we must ask more of coaches. There is an overload of information available, but not enough knowledge to use and harness it in an effective and efficient way.

Why does Ajax produce young players that can easily transition and excel in any tactical system in the world? Why is intelligence now as important as speed and skill for player development? How does Cristiano Ronaldo go from a ‘winger with a box-of-tricks’ to becoming a goal-scoring machine? What causes these players to reach new heights and take their game to the next level?

We must look beyond luck or the ‘right place at the right time’ school of thought and instead challenge ourselves, as coaches, to look for clues that can help us take our players from good to great.

Essence of Coaching

This is my job. Once you get your coaching badge, it’s like taking an oath, just like when you become a doctor. When you become a doctor, you take an oath that you will make people better. When you become a coach, you take an oath that you will make football players better. As a coach, it’s not about you. You will get better in the job over the years, you’ll get more knowledge, but it is not my goal to make myself a better coach. My most important goal is to make the players better.  Gordon Strachan (Scotland Head Coach)

Let’s not get distracted by the expensive suits and mind games in the media – the real essence of coaching is to start where you are, to use what you have, and to do what you can do to make your team better. In other words, can you impact your players in a positive way?

It is a tough job and is certainly not as easy as taking Jose Mourinho’s tactical exercises from a website and going out and executing them to perfection. The truth is that we are all in for a tough slog. We will not have a billionaire bankroll our team, nor can we handpick the most talented group of players with ease. Our players may not understand our tactical changes with the same comfort that Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher explain them on Monday Night Football. When our star player pulls up with an injury, we cannot send him to a specialist in Switzerland. Welcome to the world of reality as a coach! So how does this affect our development? Too often coaches fail to understand that they have an obligation to deal with the reality of the game as it is, not as they wish it to be. The desire for things to be perfect (or easy) costs coaches valuable time and energy that could be better spent working towards something positive with their teams. We have all grown up with the harsh realities of the game; just when we think things are going well, an obstacle is thrown up and we have to suddenly deal with it.

If we are waiting for the magic switch to happen and our teams to play like Barcelona, we will be waiting for a long time. We have to work alongside players so that they develop and improve in order to meet the demands of the game. The game has been (and always will be) about the players. When Brendan Rodgers was asked on his advice to upcoming coaches, he urged everyone to Take responsibility for your journey. Do not leave your future as a coach in the hands of someone else. We all have control of our commitment, the quality of our work, and our ability to network with other professionals who will help us in our journey.

So how can a coach excel in today’s game? What separates the top coaches from the rest? Three questions sum up the demands of a modern coach today:

1. Can you improve players who need help?

2. Can you maximize the ability of players who may not need as much help as others?

3. Can you create an environment where players want to work hard for you and for the good of the team?

Potential and Growth

I want players that can attack opponents before they are set – win the ball and attack in a fast break mode. We need players who have all these skills by the age of 19. Jurgen Klinsmann

Potential is one of the most commonly used terms in the coaching world. As player recruitment becomes more important at every level, we are continually looking to identify players and see their future in such an optimistic way. This optimism can often mean hope and the possibility of success. Potential can be physical like speed, strength, or an unstoppable engine. Or it can be technical like an ability to strike a ball with both feet, or a seemingly natural first touch. At the international level, it can be a variety of qualities. But when the initial excitement has died down, potential usually means that something serious is missing. Without the acquisition of that key missing component, potential will end up being worthless. The difference between a player reaching their potential and falling short is growth. So, although the player has the potential, the coach must assume a large part of the responsibility to grow that player. Players grow in one or two ways:

Incidental Growth

Incidental Growth is when a player’s development is simply a minor consequence of training. Improvement is almost an accident. Unfortunately, too many players get ‘stuck’ in this stage. With no goals or set program to follow, the player moves along a very slow development path. Practices and games take the same pattern of showing up, applying minimal effort, and then going home without any form of feedback or self-evaluation. If a player takes this path, we simply cannot expect growth to occur. Any development or improvement is as much by accident as it is by