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Some first impressions from watching the videos:
1) Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals(Yes, I also expect Brian and Gary to dig deeper in the future in many areas
but you need a foundation and you need to know what that foundation is)
2) Details
(Figuring out the ones that matter and hammer those down)
3) Organization/planing
(d0 your homework)4) Delivery
(Brian is a natural)As expected the design and delivery of the sessions is top notch. One one hand one could say that there is nothing really “new” here but
1) If you were already doing most of this stuff it reinforces that this is the way to go
2) It shows that maybe you have not doing it enough or well enough
3) I know that I have been doing a lot of this (or similar) but I also already picked out a number of ideas/details. Sometimes small difference details that end up making the whole difference
Nuno – I agree that some of the material is “familiar”, but I really like the opportunity to see and hear the “delivery” that you reference above. That’s particularly helpful to me. Reminds me of the movie Stripes when the Bill Murray character explains to the troops, “do as I do, say as I say”.
Anyway, the “Attacking Patterns” and attention to detail around spacing and organization were the “Aha!” moments for me. That and the necessary repetition……repetition……repetition — essentially drilling these patterns into the young players minds — even after a several years. It makes a ton of sense, but I don’t see many in our area practicing and preparing in this way. I can only imagine how it helps the lads with their confidence and knowledge of what is expected of them. That’s the breakthrough for me upon my initial review of the material.
I was reading thru the other topic folders that have been started in the past weeks since the member site opened up. And I feel strongly that this topic thread needs to get pulled back up to the top and be where we spend most of our time, FUNDAMENTALS. Mastering the fundamentals is where we should be spending all our time. Do your kids receive across their bodies as automatically as they walk down the street or brush their teeth? If not then spend most of your time on that step first. Just like our kids need to master the fundamentals, we as coached need to master the fundamentals. Yes there have been some insightful questions. But many of them are delving deeper than any of are truly ready to go as a coach. We need to master the fundamentals. There is a reason Gary posted only so much material. More is just more. We don’t need more yet.
It’s unfair and inaccurate to lump all of us together on this one. Some of us coach university level, some of us coach 8 year olds. Some of us played at the collegiate level, some never really played at all. Some have been learning to coach possession for years, some just starting.
The below is a quote directly from Gary in response to a question asked in the “Receiving the Ball” topic thread.
In regards to your question, we give no additional info.
The golden rule of our methodology. Our guiding principle if you will, is this:
Do less, not more.There’s a million different skills a player can learn or be taught. But if we try to teach too many of them, nothing gets mastered, and any hope for a consistent well structured possession team goes out the window.
What we do is give them a rock solid foundation with this curriculum, upon which details like you suggest can be layered in later in time with us, or it is to be done independently outside the team environment.
Now, that’s not to say you can’t try and teach them your detail concurrently with this possession framework, but I suggest you be very careful how many things you work on. Because you run a high risk of curriculum overload.
I am going to follow Gary’s council and spend my time digesting and striving to master the foundation he has provided.
Nobody is saying that the focus shouldn’t be the fundamentals, but I have to agree with Andrew in that some have to continue to go further due to their coaching situation. For example, I’m assistant coaching at the University level. Most of my girls have fairly solid fundamentals (Of course we always work on such things through the course of our training sessions) but that means that we also need to move on to more indepth tactical sessions with these kids.
The fundamentals that the brothers work on is the art of receiving two and one touch, movement on and off the ball, showing for the ball with proper angles/separation and knowing where to go with the ball in the fastest and most efficient way possible.
Remember that until the brothers moved to Chivas they were with a club that didnt go past U12. These were not college kids. They were doing this from U9 on and with great effectiveness. Nobody would ever accuse these teams of lacking technical skills at the expense of passing and tactics. The drills they run develop these skills very well.
The response from my peers has always been that they worked for a “free to play club” and they got players that were already technically the strongest. While true, they were playing some of the best competition in S California and the level of play in this area is not matched anywhere in the US. No offense to all the other states represented on the forum but I firmly believe it. The teams they played had superior technical skill than most of the population at their given age level.
Finally, the TFA OC affiliate that employs this possession system has replicated the model in a “pay to play” environment with great success over the past 2 season.
I do think this is a club players model with some use for the recreational side, but very challenging to implement when you have players with huge skill discrepancy that is common in an AYSO/recc balanced team environment.
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