This is a great and much needed thread!

Andrew D Wilson@adw.bsky.social · 2y ago

Contentious piece critiquing ecological approaches to skill acquisition and coaching, from noted sceptic Dave Collins and others. I'm going to post some notes in this thread as I read it; it's annoyed a lot of people for cherry picking and outright falsehoods in how the literature is represented

England taking positive steps to make youth soccer (football) better. I wonder how long it will take the US to follow suit?!?! Just kidding we will continue the race to 11v11 and ignore all research that says the contrary 🤦🏻 www.englandfootball.com/articles/202...

FA update on the future of youth football in England

Read more

englandfootball.com

This is a good discussion about why mixing ecological psychology and cognitive psychology ideas is inappropriate to guide coaching behaviors and practice design 👇 Regarding theoretical underpinnings “It’s not a pick and mix approach” m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOSW...

Why you can't mix coaching philosophies

YouTube video by Danny Hatcher

m.youtube.com

With ⚽️ coaching starting back up next week, I have been 💭 about a few things: 👇

Kids don’t need to learn how to dribble, pass etc before game based training. Can we admit that they ARE learning how to dribble and pass in GB opposed activities, and it is more likely to transfer to the game. Embrace the messiness coaches!!!

I have recently watched videos of some greats of the 90’s such as Roberto Baggio. In the 2 minute clip, he didn’t do a step over once, just shoulder fakes, change of direction. Why do we persist on coaching skills that are hardly used?

Reflecting on performance, reflecting on one’s role in those performances, designing for that particular team - this is what coaching is people! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Mick P@fbcoaching.bsky.social · 2y ago

From the other site. This set of practices was in response to a run of poor form & challenges defending during the season. It became clear I wasn't conveying my ideas clearly enough & so this week was all about stripping it back to basics on out of possession - press/cover/balance

I said it 2v1s and 2v2s are superior to 1v1s. 2v1s & 2v2s presents more opportunities for action. 1v1s only present dribbling as an option, whereas in a game we generally have 3 options - dribble, pass, shoot. If you want to create better attuned decision makers 2v1/2v2 is the way to go!

“Scanning” is the new buzz word in ⚽️ and other sports. This has perpetuated a plethora of drills where players have to “check their shoulder” whilst passing in a prescribed sequence (back and forth, or a-b-c). Here is a short thread explaining why this doesn’t work IMO 👇

THOUGHTS ON COACHING - a thread 🧵 Having participated in several back and forths with coaches, so I thought I would post my thoughts on coaching, skill and learning, to get a conversation going, so here goes!