The Defensive Midfielder in the 4-3-3 (point back)

Sourced from Nike Academy at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uczW42zDIk&feature=relmfu

If you are Coaching a Junior or Youth team you should be using the 1-4-3-3 system of play.

If you are coaching according to the FFA National Curriculum......

Younger teams play the midfiled triangle "Point Forward". Put simply, one player is at the point of the triangle is forward and behind the front three players, while the two other players are to the rear but in fromt of the back four players. Essentially, the emphasis is more on defence than attack.

However, at about 14/15 years the formation in the midfiled is changed to "Point Back". The midfield now plays a triangle that has the point in front of the back four, while the base of the triangle is now forward. With two players in the midfield triangle behind the front three, the empahsis is on attack.

Its really important that the young players get a chance to play this position and for them all to know the basic repsonsibilities of each position in the midield. Well all positions really. But give them a chance to play these midfield positions.

When you play point back, the single player at the base of the triangle has a lot of responsibility. He / she is now called a defencive midfielder.

The video below is very instructive on the subject of the Defencive midfielder.

Playing Out From the Back

Sourced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdtOq_XlZAU

If you coach junior or youth teams, you should be playing out from the back.

Not just letting your GK kick the ball as far as they can. Conducting an aerial bombardment on the other team is not football, not even close to it.. Long ball second ball is bollocks for young players. Teaches them nothing. They won't get better at the game, they get far less touches, it reduces the beautiful game to kick and chase. Not Football!

Play out from the back. Take the time to make it happen, explain how it works at training, let the young players sort it out, let the game be the teacher. Don't let them stop just because it gets a bit hard or parents whinge. Explain what you are doing to the parents. If they don;t like it, keep doing it and tell them you are the Coach and this is exactly what the FFA  requires you to do for young players. Try keeping the ball rather than hoofing it up the pitch. There will be mistakes, you will get stuck in your defensive third a bit, there will be the occassional disaster, at least until the young players work out how to play their way out of it. It will take time. Be patient but stay on track. So many more touches on the ball and so much more Football!

If you have your GK kicking long, lets face it, you are pursuing wins. You should not be caoching junior and youth football. You are undermining the FFA National Curriculum and Development plans. If you play out from the back, you are developing your young players, you are doing exactly the things the FFA requires of you and in time, these lucky young players will be the winners and so will Football in Australia.

Here is an excellent instructional video from the Nike Academy on how to play out from the  back. Well worth a look.

Majura FC Under 13 Girls - Borneo Bound!

In a stroke of Junior Football genius, Majura FC is sending an Under 13 Girls team to Borneo to play Football against the local teams.

Majura FC Under 13 Girls - the wild girls of Borneo!

A very small number of ACT junior football clubs have sent teams to campaign overseas. There is an enormous amount of work associated with getting things organised. Woden Valley SC has a fine record in both boys and girls overseas tours. Monaro FC has a wonderful relationship with the South Korean Singok Primary school. But it's Majura FC that is cutting new ground in Asia.

Why is this important? Really important!

Simple. Asia is our region, they play a lot of very good Football in our region and we qualify through this region to compete in all the Age and Open World Cups, men and Women. It makes a lot of sense to go to Asian countries to develop the young players. There is an established Boys Borneo Cup tournament and next year there is the inaugral Girls Borneo Cup. And the Majura FC girls are doing a first rate Football recon.

This is the way to develop our young female players. Europe is nice, South America too far away - but Asia (Bornoe) is spot on.

So its the young Majura FC Under 13 girls who will pave the way for the rest of Australia at Club level. All research to date indicates that this is the first girls junior team to tour Borneo. What a coup for Majura FC!

Now remember, this is a community based club girls age team, not an ACT representative team, but they are certain to represent our football community in good style.

The Coach, Heather Fitt has them playing good football, following the FFA's National Curriculum, 1-4-3-3, playing out from the back and playing possession based football. In so many ways they are a model for how it ought to be done with our young players at every competitive level at Clubs. Just as the FFA Technical Director would wish it to be.

As ever, its the selfless efforts of Club officials, Coaches and parents that make these Football adventures possible. Just fantastic. This one started two years ago. The girls will remember it all their lives. They are only this age once! And one other thing - it may be the experience that inspires one of them to go all the way in the beautiful game. You never know what lies ahead. But perhaps more importantly, it is likely to be the reason they simply continue to play for as long as life allows. That would be a priceless dividend for the Club and the game in Australia.

Good luck to them all I say and plenty more of it from every other junior Club.

The Majura FC press release, with all the details  is below.

Kanga Cup 2012 - A Festival of Football

The Kanga Cup 2012 will start on Sunday, 8th July 2012, with an opening ceremony at the AIS.

Go to the Kanga Cup website for all the right information and match results:
http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-8337-0-0-0

The Football starts on Monday, 9th July at venues around Canberra, culminating in the finals on Friday.

The will be no shortage of good football, girls and boys, international teams and teams form every State and Territory in Australia. The finals are sensational. Just doesn't get any better than that!

In this program we talk to the Kanga Cup supremo, Capital Football Events Co-ordinator, Adam Castle. This will give you a good understanding of the scale and scope of this tournament and of course, just how big it could become on the world football scene, with the assistance of a substantial sponsor. The event as a whole brings and estimated $3 million "new" dollars into the local ecomony, but sadly, Football in the ACT sees very little of this expenditure. This must change!

Download Podcast here:

Kanga Cup 2012 - Vandals strike and destroy playing venues!

How would you like your local Football field to look like this?

The following two images show some of the damage.

Yes its hard to beleive, but just as Capital Football organisers reach the critical point  before the start of the biggest Football tournament in the Southern hemisphere - The Kanga Cup 2012 - vandals drove one or more vehilces on to three well prepared and maintained fileds (Belnorth home ground fileds near Hawker Enclosed) and absolutely wrecked the playing surfaces.

The fields are no longer suitable for use by the Kanga Cup organisers, and no longer fit to be used for the remainder of the ACT Football season. Belnorth must be sick with worry. Its a body blow to a good local Club. It will not doubt be expensive to restore these grounds to a condition fit for "possession based Football".

Will the ACT Government come to the rescue? You can't expect Capital Football to carry the can for this outrageous anti social and criminal behaviour toward its constituency.

Whoever these miscreants are, they are absolute bastards!

I hope the Police find them, charge them, succesfully prosecute them and they are sentenced to lengthy periods of community service. In fact, I hope the work these mongrels are required to do is assigned to Capital Football, who will no doubt have a lot of work for them to do around the Clubs.

And fine these vandals the cost of repair of the playing surfaces.

If they turn out to be Football players, haul them before the CF Discipline committee and ban them for life from Football. Matter of fact, whoever they are, cite them anyway and ban them from football for life. That way we can be certain they never have anything to do with Football.

You know the worst of this vandalism? There is likely to be a good chance these anti social muppets are minors in a stolen vehicle. Depressing really.

However, the Kanga Cup is a slick operation and plans are already in motion to rework the venues to cope with the 20  plus games a day that would have been played on these fields.

Boomerangs FS - Trials for NSW Premier League Competition Teams

Top three skills for young players

Sourced from Footy4kids.co.uk

1. A good first touch

Having a good first touch is, perhaps, the most important skill any young football player can have. This is because the more confident a player is she can control a pass, the more likely she is to keep possession, and the more time they will have to get their head up and decide what to do with the ball.

How to recognise a player with a "good" first touch

The player gets her body into line with the approaching ball - not moving into line is a very common fault and will almost invariably result in too hard a first touch.

If a pass is under-hit, she moves quickly to meet the ball.

She chooses the correct part of her body with which to receive the ball - while 90% of all passes can be controlled with the inside of the foot, it's important that your players practise receiving with other parts of their feet as well as their thigh, chest and head.

The receiving surface is relaxed and withdrawn on contact to cushion the ball - I tell my players that the receiving surface should be like a sponge.

The first contact with the ball moves it out of her feet and away from pressure - this can only be achieved if the receiving player has scanned the pitch before the arrival of the ball. Help your players do this in your warm-up by giving them numbers and asking them to pass to each other in numerical order while moving around a small playing area.

All these elements can be practised with any game that involves passing the ball - the coach simply shifts the emphasis from the pass to how the players react to and control the ball.

2. Being able to shield the ball

While a good first touch will help a young player control the ball, she must also know how to keep the ball if she is prevented from passing, dribbling or shooting.

This is done by "shielding" the ball - keeping your body between the ball and your opponent.

It's easy to practise. Demonstrate the technique then put your players into pairs, standing opposite each other and about 10 yards apart.
One player passes a ball to their partner then follows the pass, putting pressure on the receiver who puts their body between the ball and the approaching player by simply stepping across the path of the ball.
Note: The receiver's front foot should rest on top of the ball so she can concentrate on keeping her body between the ball and her opponent without having to look at the ball.Make it competitive by playing a series of 1v1 competitions in which the player shielding the ball earns a point if she can hold off her team mate for five seconds.

3. Be able to dribble!

The biggest sin a youth football coach can commit is to discourage dribbling by insisting his players pass the ball.

All young players need to be given the freedom to express themselves and there is no better way to do that than be allowed to dribble and take on players to their hearts' content.

So let's not hear any more shouts of "pass the ball!" from the touchline. Please.

President Capital Football, Rachel Harrigan Talks to the NPL about the Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Evaluation Report

Communication, Communication, Communication - Broken or what?

This program is given solely to discussion of a report titled “Capital Football Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Report“ , undertaken by consultants (The Shannon Group), and commissioned by the President and Board of Capital Football.

Criticism of CF finally reached a crescendo in late 2011 and the CF Board simply could not ignore it any longer. So here we are, a consultants report that has captured the feelings and experiences of a substantial sample of our football constituency. And its not good news for the CEO and staff of Capital Football.

This is serious stuff for any organisation. Have a read, ask yourself, would you like to receive this report about your organisation. I think not!

You can find a copy of the report on the CF website. All clubs should get this report up on their websites.

Communication, between CF and various elements of the ACT football constituency, in its widest and most meaningful sense is broken and needs to be fixed. There are many reasons for this unsatisfactory situation, but one thing seems certain, it cannot continue in this way. Things must change!

For myself, the numerous unsatisfactory outcomes around the ACT U13 Girls team at the recent FFA Nationals, were a real low point in CF operations. Disgraceful really. As the President CF observed, "so much went wrong". Sure did! And we do this work every year. Sad, because we have enjoyed so many productive outcomes in this age group in recent years. The meeting between parents of players and the CF Board did little to reassure these parents that this would not happen again. Hope they are wrong. But???? And there are some pretty smart people among those parents and a few who are quite football savvy. Something, some of the CF staff, seldom seem to fail to factor into their business practices. Pity.

The Shannon Group report is a hard hitting report. The report absolutely skewers the CF organisation.
There is no missing the fact that this report,  in substantial part, points the finger directly at the CEO and Staff of Capital Football, the organisational culture and business practices.

The buck has to stop somewhere. Make no mistake, there is a lot of work to be done to regain the trust of some important parts of the football community and enable collaborative processes to ensure positive progress with all of the football community going forward. But the CF organisation has been found to be seriously deficient in these matters - in its present form.

How will this re-education / re-orientation and organisational change be done and who will be given the task of doing it? We do not cover this matter in this interview and in fairness it's probably a bit early for the President to have a firm view on that important matter. I would imagine that  this calamity would see the Board stepping forward with great caution, but at speed. And step forward they must! Unless they do and do so decisively, it will hang around their collective necks (and ours) like a dead albatross!

I would hope that a small sub committee of the Board is given over site of this change process and monitors and regularly reports on measures undertaken to make sure the changes necessary happen, that they are sustained and communicated in quick time to all of our football community. This is surely past the stage where the entire matter is handed over to the CEO and staff to fix. As one wag remarked to me yesterday -"given this report it would be like leaving the rabbits in charge of the lettuce".

I would imagine that the CEO and CF staff are feeling a bit uncomfortable with this report, and some probably in denial. If so, get over it quickly. Listen to the President of CF, clearly there is little sympathy for not accepting responsibility for this parlous state of affairs. Its always worth reminding ourselves that it is the ACT Football constituency which underwrites CF and whom the CF organisation serves. Who pays the piper, calls the tune! It is no one's personal fiefdom, nor does all football knowledge reside within the walls of Football House.

The role and importance of our Clubs comes through in this report and in this interview.

This report appears to draws a line in the sand -  a clear line between Board and the CF operating organisation.

The President and Board have published the report in full. There are no hidden corners, there it is, warts and all. And for that we can only applaud the CF Board and in particular, the President of the CF Board, Rachel Harrigan, who was quick to respond to the NPL’s call to discuss the report.

The message is clear - we are now going to do business very differently to that which has been done in the past and in so doing, a big shift in organisational  culture. It will take time. It is vital.

So, anyone not clear on what is now required going forward?

Please read the report, its on the CF website, and listen to the Rachel Harrigan, Pres of CF Board, as she responds to some rather difficult questions. Good leadership.

Go to Podcast Part One


Got to Podcast Part Two

So this is how FC Barcelona do it!

Sourced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6A_K8oWqfk

This is an excellent summary of the FC Barcelona approach to football.

Don't just watch the Barca player with the ball, watch the ones off the  ball and how they move. Charlie Cooke (Chelsea FC Legend and Coerver co founder) refers to these passing movements as "Sequences of play", involving 3-4 players, different players in different parts of the field, but all replicating these sequences of play, no matter where they are on the field of play. And that's the big difference between Barca and others, their ability to construct these unending sequences of play, which in turn most often see a significant possession count in their favor and of course, goals. And when they loose the ball, look at how quickly they usually regain the ball and it starts all over again. Wonderful.

Take the time and have a look.

Then start doing some of this at your Club.