Coaching resources

We encourage our coaches and volunteers to obtain qualifications and to access information to keep up to date with developments in football and child development.

The list of resources below will be regularly updated.

Club documents (currently being reviewed!)

Our 'How we coach' document details the principles we bear in mind when designing our practices.

All club practices plans are available in pdf and hard copy in a file held with register.

Twitter

Twitter is a really good place to engage with coaches, keep up to date with ideas about player development and exchange ideas. The list below contains some suggestions of people/organisations worth following:

@playerDP

@stu_arm

@socceriq

@_gameplaylearn_

@markstkhlm

@nicklevett

@drmartintoms

@peterprickett

@live4footy

@contactcounts

@markproskills

@ministryoffooty

@jimivaughan

@ahffc

@insidewrite1957

@jonnyhenderson

@coachlukesmith

@coachjohnnyo

@ctgprojecthq

@The_W_Address

@renegadestyle

@ImSporticus

@FootballJunto

@davewright07

@coachdanwright

@coachRichBartel

Blogs and podcasts

Some of those mentioned above have blogs and regularly publish articles or podcasts.

Mark O’Sullivan. Coach educator for the Swedish FA - Footblogball

Nick Levett. FA’s Talent ID manager - Rivers of thinking

Stu Armstrong. The Talent Equation

Peter Prickett. Always football

Player Development Project

Ministry of Football

John O’Sullivan. US coach. Changing the game project

Game Play Learn

Coaching Corner

Tovo Academy

Football Junto

Player Development Project Podcast

Youth Soccer Coaching Player Development Podcast

PlayerDevelopment Project, Monthly wrap

Session planning resources

These resources may be helpful for practice planning used with our ‘How we coach’ philosophy and session framework.

Game Play Learn

SSGs – Learning through play

SSGs guide

Ministry of football: SSGs

Ray Powers books – the club has a set

Dan Wright, 50 SSGs - the club has a copy

Dan Wright, Outplay - the club has a copy

Teaching games for understanding

Less talk more action

Soccer IQ

Street games

Fun games for young kids

FA Four Corners.

John Whitmore, Ask don’t tell.

Lara Mossman, 7 steps to self-motivated decision-makers

Australian Sports Commission, Change it

The FA's England DNA training resource can be found on Hive. This contains lots of useful session plans and ideas as well as information from around the Four Corners. More details on how to access Hive can be found here.

My personal football coach. Small-sided games.

Free play

Play England: “… children choosing what they want to do, how they want to do it and when to stop and try something else. Free play has no external goals set by adults and has no adult imposed curriculum. Although adults usually provide the space and resources for free play and might be involved, the child takes the lead and the adults respond to cues from the child.”

World Economic Forum. To play is to learn. Time to step back and let kids be kids.

Alfie Kohn. Education author/lecturer. Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play.

Peter Gray. Psychologist. The play deficit

Peter Gray. Psychologist. The special value of children’s mixed age play.

Pete Sturgess, National Lead Foundation Phase (5-11), The English FA, 'Let’s Make Sure ‘Play' Does Not Become the Next 4-Letter Word'.

Game Play Learn,The Performance Playground

The case for play

Play England. Free play in early childhood: a literature review.

Dr Jean Côté – Play vs Practice, Sampling vs Specialisation and Transformational Leadership

Coaching philosophy/approaches

Mark O'Sullivan, Designing a learning space: football interactions

Todd Beane, Is your football club a learning centre?

Dave Wright, The player

Dave Wright. Change the story

Todd Beane. Let them ride.

Reed Maltbie. How do I balance my why with the demands of the youth sports culture?

Kris van der Haegen. Bringing the street into the club

Rich Dalton. Pre World Cup thoughts linked to youth development.

Training ground guru. Cage football - clubs recreate spirit of the streets.

Training ground guru. Why understanding the teenage brain is key to coaching.

Training ground guru. Coaching revolution that took Belgium to top of world.

Todd Beane, Rondos are the tip of the iceberg

Sporting influencer. Let kids fail.

Coach Garlick. Interview with Jonny Henderson.

John O'Sullivan. Winning the race to the right finish line in youth sports.

Team grassroots. The ‘Unknown Damage?’ caused from the touchline.

Joy of the people

Richard Cleary, The architecture of sports

Brian Ashton, Giving more power to the players

Talent identification

Ted Kroeten, The revolution will not hold tryouts

Dan Wright. He doesn't look like a footballer.

Mark O'Sullivan. We may know what we are looking FOR but do we understand what we are looking AT?

Nick Levett. FA Talen ID manager. The search for talent continues.

Nick Levett. Talent identification in the grassroots game.

Stu Armstong. Vlog. The folly of early talent identification.

John O'Sullivan, Our Biggest Mistake: Talent Selection Instead of Talent Identification

Mark O'Sullivan, The Quiet Revolution Starts to Bring the Noise!

Matt Whitehouse. The Whitehouse Address. The Key Factors Involved in Creating Elite Footballers

Professor Dr. Arne Güllich. Junior success is a poor indicator of long-term senior success.

Early specialisation

Joel S. Brenner. Sports medicine specialist. Sports Specialization and Intensive Training in Young Athletes, American Academy of Pediatrics. Article summarising the report here.

John O’Sullivan. Changing the Game. Is it wise to specialise?

Steve Smith. Professor of clinical psychology. Early Specialization and the Science of Success in Sport

Mostafavifar et al. Early sport specialisation, does it lead to long-term problems?

Jonathan Michael Normand, Andrew Wolfe, Kayla Peak, A Review of Early Sport Specialization in Relation to the Development of a Young Athlete

American Academy of orthapaedic surgeons. Youth specialisation.

Non-linear pedagogy

A learner-centered approach to skill acquisition - teaching and coaching that uses task and environment design to develop skill acquisition.

Mark Upton, Seven principles of non-linear pedagogy.

Shaping the Game

Dave Wright, The Player.

Drowning in the shallw, A bluffer's guide to non-linear pedagogy.

Norwegian Football Federation, Learning in Football: The Role of Nonlinear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition

Mark O'Sullivan, Participation in sport is a human activity with all its baggage

Constraints Led Approach – Cognitive Dissonance

Coaching Corner, Affordances explained and part 2