I have arraigned with Red House Farm Junior Football Club that I shall take over from their previous coaching staff and take full control of their under 17 football team. Red House Farm were established in 1990 this is very new in terms of grassroots football and are a voluntarily run club, the team secretary has informed me that the goal of the club is to take this team into adult football and achieve F.A Charter status by developing teams for females through all ages.

My job will entail, arraigning times with referees and opposition managers, bookings of pitches with managers from the different age groups of Red House Farm. Motivating and introducing my coaching style to the players, a financial factor comes into perspective as every week subs are received by each player in order to fund kit and equipment in order to insure that every player in the team are able to make the most of their ability in training and in game situations.

Session one

Objectives of the session

Introduce myself to the players
Relationship Building
Talent identification

On meeting the players I was very apprehensive as the age difference between myself and the players was only four years, gaining the respect of the players is the first aim of a coach, this must be earned through a variety of qualities. Sabock addresses that coaches should be knowledgeable about their sport and have strong ethical values with a goal that is set with a desire to win. (Sabock, 1973)

The team train every Tuesday night as this was agreed by every player so that they could arrange part time work and educational time around their football, this gave the impression to me that they were committed to the cause as they had a drive to train with so many other factors going on in their lives. Training

On introducing myself my aim was to stamp my objectives from the start and provide direction for the team. I installed my enthusiasm and ethics of football into the players in order for them to get idea of how I coach with knowledgeable terms without the use of profanity so that the players respect was gained instantly and instructions and actions were not confused. (Holbrook & Barr, 1997)

Today’s session entailed team building with game related situations added to identify the players stages of learning and identify what their strengths and weaknesses are. It was put towards me that some players had been released from academies and had represented counties for their respected age groups; this gave me an idea that these players may be at the Autonomous stage of learning where their motor skills have been established and can maintain a high level of automacity. This started with the warm-up, warm-ups perform an important role in a coaching session as they help the body prepare for exercise both mentally and physically and potentially decrease the likelihood of injury (Fradkin et al, 2006). However, authors such as Nosaka (Nosaka et al, 2004) question the efficacy of pre-exercise muscle warm-ups on injury prevention. Traditional static stretching routines can be detrimental to performance (Bazett-Jones et al, 2005; Nelson et al, 2005) so the emphasis here is on dynamic stretching (Papadopoulos, 2005). This was then progressed onto game related passing drill combined with patterns of movement that were set a game paced. This entailed passing and finding a new space as I was told about some of the players being released by academies, I allowed them to find their own space as they are able to perform the drill without verbalisation and act on their own thinking. Some players got the grasp on the warm up and some players didn’t as players have different strengths and weaknesses, some players fell into the associative stage as they were given more specific instructions. The players who grasped the concept were progressed onto more advanced drills as they were given a more competitive drill this consisted of 30x30 yard grid where defenders were added and was encouraging the players to pass the ball short and long. So for instance if the first player passes the ball short, the player who receives the short pass his next pass has to be long, Development and differentiation is an important role in a coaching session as well as the warm up. By having differentiated tasks I was able to improve achievement and motivation (Wigfield and Eccles, 2002) this resulted in the players who didn’t grasp the session to perform to a higher level so they could be with their peers. As adolescence posses a greater level of physical skills it is important to develop the players who grasp the session quickly. Authors such as Watkins (Watkins, 1989) researched into different age groups and stated that athletic excellence differed in opinion. This was set at game tempo and in this drill it was easier for me to get and indication of their talent by putting them under some pressure by opposition, in football there are all different range of passes short and long. I directed attention to the most important part of the drill which was the correct part of the foot to use and the correct factors such as support, communication, as this had to be stopped and addressed it was clear to me that the players weren’t autonomous as they had to be told the basics, however they were able to resurrect themselves after the specific instructions. which is a factor of associative learning to a short pass is more preferred as it is more accurate (Luxbacher, 2005), Luxbacher argues that the long pass if successful is more likely to create an goal scoring opportunity as the opponents don’t have enough time to readjust to the ball.

From today’s session I was able to build a social relationship as after the session I took time after the cool down to talk to the players on how they felt the session had went, they gave me positive feedback, it was clear to me that the players had enjoyed the session and found me approachable after one session as I added humour and my own personality into the drills this I believe got the respect of the players as well as stated sabock (Sabock, 1973), as some players are motivated when fun is entailed this built an healthy atmosphere and great team spirit with everyone knowing that when Sunday came they would be committed to the cause. My perception of the players after one session is that they are a fantastic group of lads who gave me their full attention, maybe this was down to being the first session and they were wanting to impress me or maybe that I had a put on a enjoyable and motivational training session for them to realise their potential.





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Papadopoulos, G.,Siataras, Th., Kellis, S., (2005) exercises on the maximal isokinetic strength of the knee extensors and flexors

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Watkins, B., Montgomery, A., (1989) Conceptions of Athletic Excellence among Children and Adolescents. Child Development, Vol. 60, No. 6, pp. 1362-1372 doi: 10.2307/1130927

Wigfield, A., Eccles, J.S., (2002) Development of Achievement Motivation (Education Pscyhology. U.S: Academic Press Inc.