Welcome coaches

Starting out on your coaching journey can be a daunting experience and although I would consider myself an experienced coach now, I can still remember with lots of trepidation those first encounters with groups of young children and the prying eyes of the parents as they watched the sessions. My bi

Hi coaches, In the first blog I asked you to think clearly about what coaching in the Foundation Phase means for both the players (who are in a magical period of development) and for you as the coach who is tasked with maximising the development during this important phase. I cannot stress enough t

Throughout this series of blogs the intention is to present a model of best practice for the development of our youngest players. An added bonus is that you will also have lots to consider as you plan, deliver, review and evolve your coaching practices and your coaching methodology. To help give you

Hi coaches, this is the first in what we hope will be a whole series of blogs to help you become the best and most effective Foundation Phase coach that you can be. We hope the blogs will create discussion and debate so that what emerges will be a clear and consistent direction for us to follow rega

The last blog gave an example of the value of small number practices and the possible returns from these when carefully crafted and delivered. These small practices will also help the coach develop their observation skills leading to a much greater accuracy and confidence when noticing the small tec

In my last blog I introduced the idea of play and how important this was to the overall development of our young children. As football coaches, adopting a games-based approach and a coaching style that embraces empowerment, experimentation and freedom of expression is a great way to maximise the dev