The Targetizer

Dear Coach

Wouldn’t you like to be a respected, liked - even loved - super coach like Jose Mourinho.

Whether you love or loath the man, there is no question that he touches the lives of almost every player he coaches in a very special way.

Maybe that’s why they call him the ’special one’?

So what is it that gives him the ability to shape seemingly average players into almost
superhuman, confident, world beaters? And all this almost overnight?

What methods does Jose Mourinho use to get the best out his players? And what exactly does
he do to get them playing like an uncrushable force that can overcome any footballing obstacle?

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Recently (2010) Wayne Rooney starred in a Powerade advert where he takes on his shirtless self in an accuracy challenge. The challenge is to see who can get more of his shots through the target net holes. Needless to say, Rooney beats himself!

Firstly, you’re going to see a lot of kids wanting to copy Rooney and want a set of those target goals, or equivalent, or better, to see how accurate they can become too.

Now before we talk about where you may be able get a set of those target goals, let’s see how, as coaches, we can take advantage of that ad and use it to help our players get on target more often too. Wouldn’t that be good?
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I really can’t believe I did this! Especially since all the things I talk and write about - not shouting negatives from the touch line, encouragement always, finding the best in people, looking for ways to help players and so on. AAARGGGHHH!

Last night I took my U8s team training session and instantly found myself getting frustrated and upset - but why?

For some reason my players had decided that tonight was one of those nights they weren’t going to listen. The more I shouted the less they listened the more I shouted. You get the picture.

Thankfully I had the sense to just stop. Have a quick word with myself and take a different angle.

I called them all in, sat them down, sat down myself and just asked a few questions. I asked them what they wanted to do - “play a match!!” was the reply. No surprises there then!

Then I did a deal with them because it was evident that they had had too much sugar before training (sweets to you and me) so if I didn’t at least see and give them what they wanted then it would have been a lost cause!

The deal was - “you guys pay attention for the next 15 minutes and we’ll play the other squad for the last 15 minutes” and a resounding “YEAHHH!”

It’s funny, they always want to play a game don’t they?

So why are we so reluctant to give them their game (sometimes)? I thinks it’s because we’ve conditioned ourselves (or have been conditioned) to think that the learning is in the training and not in the game.

It’s a really strange conundrum because when you ask any coach higher up the ranks they always say “the learning’s in the game”.

Now this can be confusing for new football coaches because they think the ‘real’ learning is in drills and technical development but kids find that BORING. And not only kids… Believe me, youth and senior players find drills boring too UNLESS you do this:

I accept that you HAVE to have technical development in your training sessions but please don’t make it last for an hour because your players will think you’re an alien.

And technical development DOESN’T mean boring passing drills or boring dribbling round the cone drills either.

At my soccer school, Striker Academy, I very rarely do any static passing drills and so forth. But I always have at least 15 minutes technical development playing games.

Sometimes there’s sharks invloved, sometimes pirates, sometimes ghost and ghouls. Even crocodiles have made appearances!

The kids love it, they’re engaged, they’re learning at lightning speed - much quicker than using drills and static training methods. And because they’re having so much fun, what they’re learning actually sinks in and stays with them.

But guess what? There’s an even more powerful way that surpasses games and drills put together and it almost doesn’t matter whether you use either of those two training styles.

I’d bet you’d like to know what it is, wouldn’t you?

I’m not going to keep you in any more suspense. If you’re a regular to this football coaching blog then you’ve probably already discovered it. It is of course…..drum roll….

ENCOURAGEMENT! Yep it’s that head slappingly obvious and simple. And if you do it at the right times, use the right words and do it in a certain way your players won’t care whether it’s drills, skills, games or whatever. Encouragement - when done properly, is the single most powerful tool you’ll ever have in your soccer coaching kitbag.

You can learn more about how to use encouragement here. You’ll discover a lot more at that link too. But don’t go telling everyone, ok?

Planning and preparation are a coaches worst nightmare because many coaches believe it’s a laborious, time-consuming job which should be done by admin staff!

Of course, those of us that have winged it in the past and learnt from the mistakes know that planning and preparing your football / soccer team is possibly the most useful thing you’ll do at any part of the season - start, middle or pre-season.

But how can you make this part of your job easy, quick and useful beyond just an admin sounding task? (more…)

Yes, even our beloved game is being bashed by the economy.

Many soccer schools are down on numbers, many football clinics are showing a rapid decline - it’s frightening to see people panic and get scared.

So what do you do?

Do you run and hide, stick a blanket over your head and hope it all goes away some time soon? Or is it time to stand up and be counted?

Here’s a story that may interest you:

In early Januray this year a subscriber and friend of The Targetizer decided to go out alone. He was constantly getting threratned from his boss that if things didn’t pick up he would be out on his ear.

Now, my friend isn’t some fly-by-night or time filler. He’s an honest hard working guy who always has his family’s best interest at heart.

But his boss’ business was suffering big time and he was getting in the neck constantly.

In December he came to me to ask about coaching in general as he also coaches for his local Junior Football Club where his son plays….

So I offered some advice and he went away. I sensed there was more to what he wanted to say but sometimes you’ve just got to let people work it out in their own heads and let them do the figuring out.

Right enough, he came back a couple of weeks later and asked some general questions about soccer schools and ‘was it easy to set up’ etc. etc.

You know when someone’s got something on their mind so before I answered his question I asked him if ‘running a socer school would be something he would be intersted in?’

He said he’d been thinking about it for some time but:

1. Didn’t know how to start
2. Wasn’t sure he was qualified enough
3. Didn’t know how to promote his idea
4. Wasn’t sure if people would come
5. Pretty scared of starting and failing
6. Needed to be sure because it was a matter of survival

It was obvious that he’d been thinking about this for some time. It was also obvious that he was scared to death of cutting loose from his old job and totally changing his life for something he didn’t know had a future or not. Who wouldn’t be?

Big questions needing some big answers. So I started by…..
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Goal scoring is the life blood of football / soccer.

Without goals the game can be dull (especially forthe fans).

It’s no surprise then, that goal scorers - strikers - that can score goals consistently - are paid huge sums of money ranging into the millions.

Not to mention the massive sponsorship deals with multi-million pound corporations. And of course the recognition that comes from being a world renowned goal scorer.

So how come only a few strikers actually make it?
What sets them apart? What is the difference between a striker that ‘makes it’ and a goal scorer that doesn’t?

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Turn Those Fun Football Games In The Garden Into Rich Learning Experiences That Will Last A Lifetime And Could Change Your Child’s Life For The Better…

How A Fun Target Goal Can Give Your Child The World’s Most Wanted Soccer Skill - The Ability To Score Goals Consistently

In todays hectic, time-limited lifestyles we know how impoprtant it is to make the time we do spend with our loved ones the best and most rewarding we can.

The ever-lasting memories of the days teaching your child the fun skills of soccer, bathing in the spring and summer sun.

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Don’t Allow Your To Child Get Rejected By Soccer Academy Coaches
Just Because You Didn’t Know These Simple Facts…

Children are being cherry picked for academies right now as we speak. Your child may be one of those chosen or a possible contender and have a really bright future ahead.

But statistics show that only one per cent will have any chance of actually making it through to schools of excellence and on to the professional game.

And what happens to those players that are dropped like a disused napkin into the rejection pile of countless hopefuls that were simply not “good enough”?

Some do bounce back and prove those coaches who dropped them wrong.
That’s special.

Unfortunately the vast majority never recover and their self esteem and confidence is left shattered, broken into tiny pieces that parents struggle, sometimes for many years, to try and rebuild.

It’s a very tough thing for anyone, let alone your child, to accept and be forced to believe that they’re simply not good enough to achieve their dream.

Ask yourself this…
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How To Add Fun and Enjoyment Into Your Coaching

Adding Fun and Enjoyment Into Coaching - well how do we do that??We keep hearing about the importance of having fun training sessions especially for our younger players but how do we incorporate relative and educational fun into our sessions and make sure we still educate our younger players?

Let’s just step back and ask why fun is such a serious element, if you know what I mean!

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