You are not a special one

But here's how you can be!

Good morning! I want to talk about some of my favorite best practices, or dos and don’ts, for football.

Before we start, please check that The Weekly Rondo is marked as “important” in your inbox. Each week just under 40% of readers aren’t being shown the latest issue in their main inbox.

Neat Reads

Neat Reads is a segment where I share an article or podcast that interests me and relates to our weekly theme.

This article from Soccer Coach Weekly gives some great beginner tips for those who are new to coaching.

Here’s a YouTube channel I highly recommend called Soccer Coach TV. A lot of what is covered is simple but in my opinion keeping it simple is best.

You are not special

A lot of coaches believe that they’re God’s gift to earth when they start coaching. They believe that they have some secret information that only they can share.

I’ve said it before in previous newsletters but it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever see something that someone else hasn’t, especially if you’ve never coached before.

So, while you may not be special, here’s three things I use to trick my players into thinking that I’m special.

1. Make training fun - if players are not enjoying the training they won’t train for long. Try to ensure a good ball to player ratio and have everyone doing something!

2. Set standards - Be quick to identify and share what is a bad level of training. A lot of players (and coaches!) think that because the players are tired that they’re training well.

3. Respect the players - Players appreciate being respected. Asking about their day, understanding when they want to be left alone, or doing an exercise that’s at their skill level or slightly above it shows that you respect them.

Coach’s Corner

Coach’s Corner is a segment where I ramble about training this week and answer some questions I get from Substack or Twitter.

Ramblings

No ramblings this week as I’m back in Canada on holiday before I move to Bahrain to work with Juventus.

I’ve left Ascent Soccer and Malawi after a fantastic 16 months to pursue a new opportunity in the Middle East - I can’t wait.

Q&A 

Q: (In response to a Twitter post) Does that imply then that an agent of chaos (Hazard, Messi, etc) will always be more valued to a coach (like yourself) than say, a Busquets.

My question is more to you as a coach- between two kids - one more gifted with ball control and the other more disciplined and a great passer of the ball- which is the one you would groom more or spend more time with?

A: I’d like to work with the more gifted player because they are more suited to the chaotic elements of the game. I believe that soccer is naturally chaotic and that players need to be prepared for that.

Discipline is fantastic for prolonged moments in and out of possession, but I see the game as becoming more reliant on decisions in transition than settled possession.

Settled possession has given us a less likely chance of conceding/losing, but most football played doesn’t have players good enough to participate in settled possession.

Thanks Amar for such a great question. What started off as a reply on Twiter has turned into a very neat thought experiment.

Exercise of the Week

This is a training session I ran with a group of nine players who play as wingers or fullbacks. It was a lot of fun refining our overlap and underlapping runs. The decisions are simple but mastery of the simple things is key.

Conclusion

I’m always interested to hear your thoughts and ideas so please feel free to send me a message on Twitter or leave a comment above in the Q&A section.

Share this newsletter with a friend or every single person you have ever met.

See you next week! 

Where to find me:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CamH___

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-herbert-football-coach/