FA Editor Jamie Bradbury has taken his next steps along the coaching pathway and is now working towards the UEFA B coaching licence.
Day five on the course gave him the chance to coach a session...
The last day of the first block of the UEFA B course kicked off with tutor Colin Reid introducing another of the DVDs. We'd switched from yesterday's topic of defending onto attacking.
Again, the films showed a series of clips from England and FA Cup games that highlighted certain attacking topics, the first of which was on 'Developing play in wide areas'. We made notes about the things we saw happening before discussing as a group.
The London Soccerdome
I highlighted the supporting runs of team-mates on the attacking team, overlapping the man on the ball to either create another option or to pull a defender away to create space. There were a variety of crosses, too, while sometimes players cut inside for a shot.
The second film looked at 'producing crosses' and illustrated a number of different styles of cross; driven ones, pull-backs, high floating balls, outswingers or inswingers, or crosses whipped in behind the defence.
One thing that was also touched upon is that maybe the initial cross doesn't always produce a chance or a goal. If teams plan for that, they can be ready for the second balls on the edge of the box and also able to defend counter-attacks.
As well as the theory sessions, we knew we still had six remaining candidate coaching sessions to go, as well as three tutor-delivered practices, so there was a lot of work to be done on the pitch.
I also had to deliver my session, but would have to wait until the graveyard shift at the end of the afternoon.
The first candidate sessions of the day, which course director Jon Gittens had emphasised were to give the tutors an idea of where we were and learn more about us, were;
- Defending as a midfield three (Jade)
- Improving shooting inside and outside the box (Kyriacos)
Both sessions were very good, particularly Jade's where I played attacking centre midfield. But I went in goal to 'rest' during Kyriacos's practice and my form in the sticks severely dented the confidence of the forwards!
Tutors Richard Carter, Ted Dale and Jon then took over to deliver practices before lunch. They were;
Attacking in wide areas
Squad Practice
I played in centre midfield in Richard's practice, which featured a central pitch split into thirds (myself and two others were midfielders in the middle third) while each end had a goalkeeper, a three-man defence and a couple of attackers.
There were channels out wide for the wingers, two players on either flank, who would be delivering the ball into the box. It was the midfielders' role to link the play, supporting attacks in both penalty boxes, which made for end-to-end stuff, and a fun practice, but did nothing to help my energy levels.
Crossing and finishing
Skill Practice
Everyone loves a bit of shooting and trying to score goals, and Ted's practice got all the participants having fun. I didn't get involved in this one, but some of the key points were around the movement of the forwards, support play from midfield and the quality of deliveries from wide.
The question 'What is a good cross?' was posed, and Ted suggested that the ones that find the danger zone, the area in front of the goal, which requires defenders to make evasive action can be the most effective.
Winger to receive and cross
Functional Practice
While I was watching Ted's practice, Jon came around and recruited me as centre-back in his session aimed at wide players crossing. This was another functional practice, when the primary and secondary players are the focus and the pitch is set up for those players.
Jon's session, for example, worked on the right-back and right winger, with support from one centre-back, two midfielders and two forwards, so only the area where they would play was used.
Jon Gittens in FA Cup action for Exeter City
Jon's session was the last of the tutor practices of the week, so after a spot of lunch, we returned to the pitch for the final four candidate sessions, including mine. They were;
- Defending as a unit (Ricardo)
- Midfield unit remaining compact (Dan)
- Defending as a unit (Me)
- Pressing from the front (Terry)
It was great to finally be able to put on a session. The facilities are superb at the Soccerdome, we had all the equipment we could ever need, with goals, and two full-size 3G pitches between the four groups. So it gave us the foundations of setting up really good practices.
Being a coach, and coaching, is why we are here, so while it can be a nerve-wracking experience for some, I just love getting out on to a football pitch with players.
The only limitation we had was the number of players we could use. For the forthcoming sessions we do, we'll be using around 19 or 20 players, but as we have so many candidates on the course and are split into four groups of 12 for this assignment, we have a maximum of ten players to use, with one delivering and one setting up.
We then had another issue as Kyriacos had pulled up with what looked like a nasty Achilles injury, though he was still on his feet and offered to be the goalkeeper for my session.
The other nine players made up a 5v4 - a four-man defence with one midfielder against a three-man midfield and one forward. I've drawn up my full practice using The FA Coach's App, and you can download it here.
Defending as a unit, 5v4 (download session above)
It was an enjoyable 25 minutes to deliver and the players seemed to relish the opportunity to have some chances to score goals, though it was the defence I was working on.
Overall, while there were some things I'd do differently, certainly as I progress along the UEFA B journey, I was pleased with how it went.
While honest personal reflection and evaluation is important - that goes for anything you do in life - Jon gave me some very valuable feedback on by session. The main things I'll take forward are around the logical steps of building up a session.
For mine, the focus was on defending when a team begins an attack on the half-way line, and I began talking to the back-four, but Jon suggested that the first player, the midfielder, would have been the best player to organise. I could then move onto the defenders and work on them moving in relation to the ball and to the midfielder's movement.
I also need to do more demos, it's probably one thing I do too little of and have always been like that. I perhaps talk too much, and should instead show, so it's something I need to address as I continue on this pathway.
For now, with day five complete, the pathway leads homeward and back to normal life - that is until we re-adjourn in a few weeks.
Eight hours a day, for five consecutive days, makes for a very educational, enjoyable, intense and tiring week. I'm looking forward to going back already.
Check out TheFA.com over the coming weeks as Jamie returns to London Soccerdome for block two of the UEFA B course.
If you have any questions you can follow Jamie on Twitter @jamiebradbury.
To find out more about local coaching courses, visit your County FA website, or for national courses click here.
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