Tosh Farrell is a youth coaching specialist who worked with Wayne Rooney whilst Head of International Development at Everton and who now supports tens of thousands of coaches in the North-Eastern United States.
Tosh’s sessions are world-renowned for his use of language, manner and ability to connect with the kids he coaches and in this podcast interview we discuss the importance of being a player-friendly coach and how we might develop better football players through a more child-centric development system.
Listen using the player on this page or download the MP3 podcast here.
For me, the key ‘take home’ messages were:
Become Player Friendly – get to know the kid and understand how they learn. Take an interest in them as a person (their family, their other interests) and not just whether they’re going to become a good player for you.
Match Expectations – let players do what they thought they were going to be doing. Give them a ball each and let them dribble, shoot and play with their friends. This is the only way to get them to buy in to the work you may need to do later in their development.
Coaches are the biggest thieves around – and it’s okay to ‘pinch’ practices, as long as you understand how to repackage them and make them work for the players you are coaching.
Build Rapport – ask questions, let the kids decide on some practices. Give out nicknames and use their names when praising. Let kids know you’re seeing them succeed and they’ll work 10% harder for you.
Focus On All Your Players – making a very poor player into a poor player is still good coaching. Don’t ignore the players who are already doing things well, and don’t neglect the players who maybe aren’t as good.
Coaching ‘Teams’ Sacrifices Individual’s Development – we don’t need to focus on team passing and formations until individual technique and skill has been instilled. When coaching U6-U10s rarely move beyond 2v2 and ensure lots of touches on the ball and lots of pass or dribble decisions.
Always Finish With Shooting – this is what kids want to be doing but coaches often start at furthest point from this (such as playing out from the back). You will keep player enthusiastic when they can always see the chance to score at the end of the move.
Don’t Coach Young Players, Coax Them – some players need to learn how to be coached so when working with young players offer incentives to improve in your practices but let the game be the teacher.
Keep Practices Fresh – with young players use 3,4 or 5 different practices in a session. You can retain focus with more variations on a theme than sticking to a single drill for too long.
Coaches Are Last People To Take Blame – when a team wins it’s great coaching but when they lose it’s crap players! Be honest and reflect on each session’s positives and how it would have been improved.
We Go Too Sexy On Formations – coaches make formations too complex because of the winning mentality. At U12-U16 game time is about understanding their roles and responsibilities on the pitch, not the specifics of a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Rotate Players To Aid Development – your team’s Centre-Forward can learn a lot by playing Centre-Back against your opponent’s CF. Midfielders can benefit from playing in Defence as they recognise space and danger-areas. Give players opportunities to learn in all different positions.
8v8/9v9 Should Aid Transition To 11v11 – have a long-term vision and set-up your team to play the way you’d like in the larger game. If you play 3 in midfield at 8v8 your players will stay narrow for 2-3 years. When you move to 4 in midfield you want width so instruct the opposite. Use the 8v8/9v9 game to teach players principles which will help them in 11v11.
League Football Should Be About Development – and there’s more room for rules changes and variation than the current system allows.
Develop A Process That Leads To Positive Outcomes – follow a programme and have the confidence to stick to it if is best for development. There’s no need to react to the outcome of games. Be a long-term (developmental) coach, not a short-term (results-based) coach.
What key point did you take away from the interview? Please share in the comments below:
