/Observing my first session
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Last night (Wednesday 2nd September) I observed my first coaching session.
It was the first time I’d ever been to a training session and not taken part, something which felt wholely unnatural and certainly took a bit of getting used to.
For me though, it was a worthwhile excercise. I took the time to watch and listen to how the coaches interact with and motivate their players. Different footballers respond to different methods of coaching too, so it was interesting getting to know the players from the outside looking in, something that is less easily done when you are directly taking part.
Training lasted for around an hour and half and was comprised of three main parts. The first drill focused on quick passing in a small area, the second on keeping possession in both defensive and offensive areas, whilst the third was more of a traditional “attack vs defense” drill. Of these, only the third one really offered any real value to the goalkeeper and even then he was a bystander for much of it.
Of course this is totally understandable for the level and, having spoken to him, he his happy with taking part in the regular passing and possession based drills, but at the same time seemed keen to have some dedicated coaching moving forwards too. The team’s other goalkeeper, who was away last night and who I’ve already spoken too, was much the same, so I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck in and offering them something that it seems they haven’t had before.
Speaking to the manager after the session, it all seemed very positive. I enjoyed myself, he’s keen for me to get involved and he even mentioned that there may be a third keeper (from the club’s Sunday side) who potentially wants to get involved too, so I may soon find myself going from coaching nobody to coaching three keepers at once!
Being on holiday next week, my first training session will come the week after on the 16th September. Until then I’m going to spend my time wisely, researching, learning and planning to the nth degree. I’ve been told that I’m going to have around a 20 minute timeslot initially, so my plan is to work out a number of 20 minute sessions which can be rotated each week to offer some variety to the goalkeepers and help them work on different areas of their games. I already have a number of drills that I’ve been preparing, but the challenge for me now is to convert these into actual sessions that offer value to the goalkeepers.
Onwards and upwards, thanks for reading!