The 5-Minute Football Coach - Issue #6

Playing through the thirds, The power of story, Ajax

Here are this week’s selection of links:

Practice of the week

A bit of a classic one here for players to work out how to build up attacks from defence through midfield to attack. Some teams may struggle with 2v2 in defence, in which case it is worth playing with just 1 striker. Lots of possible progressions such as following the ball - and alternatively to split the pitch in vertical thirds, putting the emphasis on movement up and down the pitch.

Thought of the week

A very interesting presentation by Dr Jim Loehr on the power of storytelling.

The key point being that as coach we can use stories to affect the private, inner voice of players and help them develop as a person - and how that is more important than getting them to win trophies.

Video of the week

Ajax played some pretty amazing football to beat Juve in the Champions League a few days ago.

The passing game in triangles was particularly impressive. It could be worth trying some of this at our next training session, encouraging players to make series of 2 passes, to be more aware of each other’s movement and think ahead!

I hope this was interesting - any ideas, suggestions just let me know

Have a great week

Fabrice