Can anyone coach this game?

As I sit here drinking a very nice cup of coffee from New Orleans, and play fetch with my cat, Charlie Watts, and review the world's soccer news and my coaching notes from my current squad of players and previous teams, I ask "Can anyone coach this game?". This is not a rhetorical question but a philosophical one as well.

It is well understood that that game has many technical components, first touch, placement of non kicking foot , how to head the ball without suffering serious injury, amongst others . Do these things need to be trained, or just refined.

For example if you leave a child with a ball and a net, what will happen? The child will start shooting at the net. If the net is a smaller net, say 2m x 1m, it is a relatively small target. Just pounding the ball will result in more misses than goals. As time goes on the child will stop using the toe, and experiment with other parts of the foot, instep, , outstep and laces and achieve greater success.

Now if you have two of these nets and six children you have a game and a measurement of success. Goals scored and shots missed. They will train themselves to shoot on target.

The role of the coach is to find the means for the player to teach themselves how to do it, and then reinforce and improve the correct technique that the player already knows.

I coach several players who have a tremendous instep strike, but believe that they will break their toes if they strike with their laces (toe down, lock your ankle, follow through). As a result they will not take free kicks, penalties, and often pass the ball when they should shoot. Yet in technical drills involving volleying, chipping, and long passes they strike the ball with their laces. Why is that ? Because instinctively that is how the ball is to be struck to accomplish the task in the drill. They barely realize that they are striking the ball with their laces.

The challenge for the coach is to find the means to have the player self train the technique, and reinforce it in a game type situation, that has limits that encourage the technique. The game situation compels the use of the technique, and the player, once in the game , will, hopefully use the desired technique without thinking .

For this particular issue a "volley ball" type game is helpful. Set up a grid of 50 x 20 m, with a zone in the middle of 10 x 20. In the outside grids (20 x 20) have four players. They can pass to each other on the ground, maximum three touches per player, and they must chip it over to the other side to attempt to score. The Coach (or three or four players) are in the center zone ensuring that ball travels over the coaches' head . Scoring as in volleyball. Commend lace strikes, and reinforce that it CAN be done.

No one can coach this game on their own. The game itself is the best teacher. The coach has to use that. It takes patience, good humour, and some thought to bring out what the player already knows.