Engagement of players (Tom & Cullam)

Hi Tom & Callum,

Engagement at a young age is hard at its best. Having attended Pete’s CPD’s and his Playphase roadshow I’ve taken a few nuggets away and applied them in my own environment and it works a treat.

If your main focus is their engagement, nail that first and the ball mastery secondary. I have the same arrival activity each session giving the children some independence as they know what to expect when they arrive. This gives me time to meet and greet parents and get them involved alongside their own children, again this allows me to individually coach each child, the skills, through the parents. I would then move onto a practice like the stadium game, pirate ship that involves lots of ball manipulation and competition. I also like to tell them a story that relates to the practice, the more interesting and animated the story the higher the level of engagement. By this time most parents have returned to pitch side and you may still have a few assisting those who may be finding things tricky. “Great assistant coaches.”

End of your session with SSG’s 2v2’s, 3v3’s if you can and always have ***** close by to feed in to keep the games flowing. Last of all end the session with questions and ask what they enjoyed. I like to have a player of the day sticker, with the emphasis on good behaviour and super sportsmanship.

Hope this helps and if you are looking for more I’m sure there’s loads of experience out there who’d be able to help.

All the best, Andrew Edgar.