Jamie:
Hello and welcome to Coachcast by England Football Learning: the coaching podcast designed to give you expert insight, session ideas and a platform to discuss your coaching questions and challenges. I'm Jamie..
Louise:
And I'm Louise. In each episode of our second season, one of our experts will dissect a specific topic and then speak to a grassroots coach with the aim of helping them and you provide players with inspirational opportunities.
Okay, so thanks for tuning in to the first episode of season two. This time we're switching our attention to the theme of inspirational opportunities, which is all about what players get to experience, such as settings and environments that they play in and what they get to do in training. Ultimately, what your players experience will shape how they view and play football. So, we want to provide them with opportunities that will increase their enjoyment and development. Today we're focusing on futsal and the benefits it can have for your team if they have the opportunity to play the game.
Jamie:
Our futsal expert, Ian Parkes, joins us in the studio now to tell us all about it. Hi Ian, welcome to the show.
Ian:
Hi guys, how are you?
Louise:
Good, thanks.
Ian:
Thanks for having me.
Louise:
So thanks for your time today. Before we start, do you want to tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself and your role at the FA?
Ian:
Yeah, so I'm an FA youth coach developer down in the southwest, which means I basically support coaches in the professional game, in the boys' academies who are working through qualifications. So I support them and I also am responsible for supporting the pro clubs nationally around futsal. So if there are any clubs that want to know more about the game or get support from their coaches, then I'm the guy that gets the email or the phone call and I do my best to go and help them.
Louise:
Great. Okay, well, to get started, for those who are new to the game, what is futsal and how do you play it?
Ian:
Okay, so it's the FIFA-recognized form of small-sided, indoor, five-a-side football. The word actually comes from the Spanish of football and sala, obviously football and indoor, so that's where that comes from. And the five key things we talk about that make it futsal are the playing area, the surface, the goal, the ball, and the laws. So there are kind of five things that we look at. So if we're looking at the court for adults, that's 40 m by 20 m for a bit of reference, and a netball court is roughly 30 m by 15 m. So it's a little bit bigger than a netball court, but that is for adults. So if you've got a netball court or similar for kids, that's absolutely perfect as a playing area. It is played to lines, so if the ball goes out of play, it's a kick-in. In terms of the surface, for footsteps, it's got to be a hard surface. So typically it's an indoor sports hall, but concrete playground of any sort, absolutely fine. That would be a game of futsal if you're playing on that. And actually a lot of other countries, typically because of the weather, that's where they play. A lot of their futsal's outside on the concrete. In terms of the goal, it uses a 3 m by 2 m goal, which is a hockey-sized goal. The ball is smaller than a football and it has a reduced bounce. And in terms of the rules or the laws, it's quite similar to football in a lot of ways: there's no overhead height, there are no restrictions on the penalty areas or anything like that. But there are some key laws that make it unique. So you've got, as I said, it's five-a-side and it's rolling subs, there are no offsides, so players can get themselves behind the last defender. I mentioned earlier that it's restarted with a kick-in and players only have four seconds to take that kick-in, otherwise it goes the other team. There's a foul limit, which means after five team fouls in each half, then every subsequent foul is a 10 m penalty, so that has a bit of an impact. And probably the last one that's worth sharing at this point is that the goalkeeper can't receive the ball back once he or she has played out in that phase of play. So if there's a goal clearance and they roll the ball out, even if you pass to another mate and another mate it can't come back to me if I'm the goalkeeper unless the other team's touched it. Whereas if it's a kick in, it can come back to me because it hasn't come to me in that phase of play. But once it has, it can't come back to me, unless I'm in the other team's half, but that's for another day.
Louise:
And can you say what the benefits of futsal are? Like, why not just play five-a-side?
Ian:
Yeah, if you think the things I've just described that make the game futsal, there are a few differences to traditional five-a-side. So if we talk about the lines rather than played off walls, that's going to bring different benefits straight away. There are potentially benefits to playing off walls, you know, the ball is always going to stay in play, players might be encouraged to use the wall cleverly to keep the ball, for example. But playing to lines means players have to have real control of the ball. So when they're positioning themselves to receive it, they have to think about where they are in relation to that line. When they're taking a player on, they have to be aware of the space that they've got, how they can use that limited space, every pass has to be accurate because, you know, you've got that limited space and if it goes off, the other team get the ball. So I think all those things around playing to lines encourage skilful play. We mentioned the goals. So I only found out literally a couple of years ago that, you know, in England are what I call the letterbox goals, the low and long ones, I don't think they exist anywhere else in the world. So I might be proved wrong, that's not a fact, people may well tell me otherwise, but if you think about when you've been on holiday or been to other countries, you see in the playgrounds and the parks, they're always the 3 m by 2 m goals. And when you go in sports halls having played, they don't seem to exist anywhere else, but some reason we've got them in our country. Again, there will probably be returns from the different goals; the long ones, they're likely to encourage shooting from range into the corners, particularly when you add the bounce board behind that comes, you're probably going to get quite hopeful shots, maybe smashing it and hoping that if it doesn't go in, it doesn't matter, it bounces back. In contrast, the hockey goals are going to encourage you to get closer to the goal to score, which is going to lead to more individual skill, having to beat opponents, more combination play, maybe more clever passes to get close to the goal, or it means if you are shooting from range, arguably there's going to have to be a bit more thought, a bit more skill about how you take that shot. So it might have to be more powerful because the goal is smaller or it might have to be a different type of finish if you do get closer and the keeper comes to block it, you might have to chip it, you might have to go around them. So I think the goal is another reason that there's a benefit to. The final one I'll go to at this point is the ball. So instead of using that big fluffy tennis ball as you might call it or even a football that's bouncing around a lot, using that futsal ball which is slightly smaller, it's got reduced bounce, for kids up to 12, they'll use a size 3 futsal ball, it's easy to control, it travels smoothly along the floor and that helps with pass quality, touch, and ultimately on the floor more often, so there are more opportunities for more touches and more skilful play.
Jamie:
I've heard futsal is good for developing technical players. Can you tell me why that is?
Ian:
Yeah, I think if you look at what we just talked about again, a lot of those benefits are linked to more touches, more demands on technique, and more skilful play. The speed of the game being played on a hard surface with the futsal ball is quicker than on grass. So even if you add a 5v5 on grass or a 3G, players actually get more touches in the futsal game just because the ball travels quicker, so they get the ball more. There are a lot of 1v1s in futsal, so naturally, players have to developed skills to be able to dominate these situations both with the ball and without the ball. That's why with the ball I'd always encourage coaches to help players develop a skill move that allows them to go both ways, both the left and to the right. Because in futsal that's going to really help if you've got someone on you, they don't know which way you can go. I think that's really important. Even some of the specific rules or laws I didn't mention in the last question around the goalkeeper, so that's really going to stretch and challenge players because if you can't go back to them once they've played it out then you've got to find a way to play forward. You do see quite often that the ball comes out in kids' football under a bit of pressure, safe passage back to the goalkeeper. If you can't do that they've got to find a way to play forward, know what they're going to do before they get the ball, have a skill like I said, to be able to go around someone or work out how they can combine with another mate to be able to go forward, and if not, then they're just protecting the ball which is another good skill that's useful. So yeah, I think there are lots of reasons why there's technical development.
Louise:
Would you say that it's equally as good for social psychological and physical development?
Ian:
Yeah, absolutely. With what we've talked about, we talked about 1v1s, about, I mentioned about quicker game, more decisions, and that in itself is going to challenge players to develop their physical attributes, they're going to have to change direction more, change speed, and they have to do this over and over again. Repeated actions. So the kids get tired very quickly, trust me, but they have a little rest, straight back on and off they go again. So there are definitely physical returns. From a site point of view, confidence to deal with all these situations we just talked about becomes a really big thing and it's a great way I find to show the kids that they can deal with the ball in tight spaces and they don't need to panic and they don't need to kick it away. They're going to get the ball and there's no hiding place, so we've got to help them deal with that and then they develop their confidence to realize they can. And linked to this, I think there's one thing which appears really simple, but I've been doing a lot recently which has had really good returns: it's just putting a visible clock and keeping the score with short games that we play in training. So when we're doing that, if we're in a sports hall, we've got that big clock on the wall, go to reception and ask them, "How do we work it?", and make sure there is a time limit, maybe a three-minute game or a four-minute game, keep the score and we're just finding that kids, and if you haven't got a clock you might just count the score. So there's two minutes left, one minute left, you know, you might count down the last 30 seconds. And what happens is players visibly become more on edge and it matters more. And so you develop that psych and social development because it's are we winning? How do we hold onto our lead if we're losing? Do I get cross and fed up or give up? How does if a player makes a mistake, he's my teammate and it now matters, do I support him or do I get annoyed at him? So I think that is a real simple way I've seen recently that really helps promote those areas of development.
Jamie:
Is it more beneficial for like specific age groups or would you encourage all players to give it a try?
Ian:
Yeah, absolutely. I definitely encourage players of all ages to give it a go. I think sometimes it's branded as a good game for foundation phase-aged players, maybe up to 11 or 12 and it's certainly really good for them, but you have to only have to look at Max Kilman, you know, he started playing when he was 15 I think and the credit he gives the game as part of his development into becoming a Premier League player has clearly had a positive influence. I think in the teenage years where growth is taking place, it's a good game for helping players probably retune their brains with their bodies, you know, their limbs are getting longer, it helps them with their coordination and lots of opportunities again to develop technically and physically, it's also a tactical game, you know, we've talked a lot here about the impact on individual skill, but there are also great learnings to be had around the tactics of two, three and four players which you can probably get to with older players of kind of 12-15. So yeah, I definitely think it's a game that should be encouraged at all ages.
Louise:
You mentioned Max Kilman there, but are there any other case studies of footballers that have benefited from playing futsal at a younger age?
Ian:
Yeah, I think it's well documented probably that players of all over the world grow up playing this game. So in Brazil, for example, kids only play futsal until they're 10, and then a lot of them play futsal and football until they're 14 where they then make a choice about which one to specialize in. So, you could argue any Brazilian player has benefited from playing futsal. Now even the other day I heard Neymar was still playing it when he was 19. So you then got Spain and Portugal, it's slightly different but they play futsal in schools. It's funny, the other day I was speaking to a Portuguese kid, he was 16 and he's been over here for a year or two and I said to him, "Blimey, you're, you know, you're good, you've got good skills. Like, did you play futsal? Our heard you're from Portugal?" And he's like, "No, no I didn't play." I said, "Really? You didn't play?" He said, "No, I just played football." He actually played for one of the professional football club academies out there. I said, "Really? Don't you play in school?" And he said, "Well, yeah, obviously, but I didn't play for a team." And I just think that's amazing that's indicative of where futsal is in other countries compared to here. It's the norm there, kids grow up playing it, they watch it on the telly, they play in the streets and parks. So to answer your question, I think you could argue any top player from Brazil, Portugal or Spain, and that's just naming three countries have probably benefited from it because they just play it as part of their normal upbringing.
Jamie:
Following up from that, if this is a beneficial game for development, would it be worthwhile playing in schools? And if so, how would PE teachers be able to easily switch the futsal?
Ian:
Yeah, absolutely. As a former teacher myself and having previously worked in the PE unit here at the FA, I'd love to see it played in schools more. From a PE perspective, I think we have to be careful at times because particularly in primary schools we might not want to promote a sport-specific curriculum, it might be a bit more holistic, but for schools who do teach specific sports then I think it makes sense to do more futsal, For me, the easiest thing to do to start with would just be to swap the bag of footballs for a bag of futsal balls, particularly in primary schools where a lot of the PE takes place on playgrounds outside. It just makes the ball easier to control. And especially for the kids who find it tricky, it'll just make it easier and potentially more fun because again they'll get more confidence at that type of thing. you can play lots of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 games across the playground as a teacher, probably putting them in groups with similar confidence levels so they feel like they're playing with kids at the same level and get them enjoying having a futsal ball at their feet. Again, if it's PE they might start with the ball in their hands, it doesn't have to be at their feet. But certainly changing that football that's going to bounce everywhere to a futsal ball is a good start. You could then arrange school games to be futsal rather than football. I think that's an easy thing to do. A lot of schools don't even have grass pitches, and if they do, the grass is often really, really long or it's really muddy. So just get the kids playing on the playground, you can play obviously 5v5, you might have a few subs, you might have enough space for two games going on and you can just get them used to playing to the rules and playing the game and having fun. And that's an easy win for me in my opinion, but maybe I'm biased. Sorry, just on that, the other thing I'd say is people sometimes come back and say, "Yeah, but they'll fall over and hurt themselves. They'll graze their knees, they'll graze their hands." And yeah, they may do, and depending on the type of playground you've got some are really gravelly and quite gritty, others are a lot smoother, but I think it's like anything; once kids learn if they fall over it's going to hurt, their balance will probably improve, their decision making about when to try and tackle or when to try and dribble will probably change. So I think, yeah, that's something to be aware of and maybe you have to make parents aware that that might happen, but it's not, I wouldn't say that's a barrier to make it not happen at all, and you may even get a benefit from it.
Jamie:
Leading in then to parents, how can you help parents or even players see the value of playing futsal if they're unsure about it and would rather stick to football?
Ian:
There aren't many kids I know of who have been given the opportunity to play futsal and then haven't enjoyed it. So I think if you can get them to give it a go, I think they'll absolutely love it. They'll see the benefits themselves and they'll want to come back and keep doing it. And that's both the kids and the parents. And like anything, a parent, if the kid comes home happy and enjoyed it, you're going to want them to go back. They'll see their confidence grow, their ability to deal with 1v1 situations more, They'll start to be happier having kids closer to them, they'll invite their opponent close to then suddenly change direction and speed, they'll get better at combinations in small areas, their decision making will improve and get quicker, players will start to think ahead and take up clever positions. So I think they'll see all those sort of benefits and hopefully then some of the conversations we've had today can be shared with parents and to help educate them and see that there is a value, they'll give it a go, they'll see all those benefits and then they'll keep going. And you know what? Some kids, they might actually prefer futsal to football.
Louise:
So if we're looking at different times of the year, when would it be best to play futsal?
Ian:
I think naturally with the weather we've got, it's a no brainer to play inside in the winter when the pitches are flooded or they're frozen anyway, you're not going to play football, so let's go inside and play futsal. But honestly, I'd love to get to a point in this country where kids were playing both futsal and football every week of the season. You know, we've started to use this word twin tracking. If you look at the example I gave earlier about Brazil, I think it would be great to have that model and I know we're our own country, we've got our own culture. I can't see how that wouldn't work. Kids training once a week futsal, training outside football, playing on a Saturday or Sunday one of each or alternate just playing it all the time. Yeah, but like I said, as a starting point, maybe that's a bit high in the sky as a starting point. Let's get inside in the winter. If we're not playing outside, well, let's go inside.
Louise:
So do you have any simple tips for grassroots coaches who want to start introducing futsal to their players for the first time?
Ian:
I'd probably say just play the game, and if you aren't playing the full 5v5 game, then play mini games. I've mentioned one 1v1, 2v2, 3v3s, try and play those with goalkeepers where possible. So even if that's across the court, get cones for goalposts, just make sure if it's a 3v3 that one of them is in goal and there are two outfield, or 3v3 out and one in goal and play to the rules of futsal. So if the goalie does play it out, it can't go back, let them play. and I think just the constraints of the speed, like we've talked about, the speed of the game, the surface, the ball, all that we've discussed, that will help them develop their game naturally. I think then as a coach, as you start to get more confident, you can start to observe the areas and maybe go away and find out more about the game and how you can then start to intervene and give them information, question, demonstrate. But while you're getting used to the game, just let them play it. Just play it to the rules, do it properly, and I think they'll see the benefits in that in its own way.
Louise:
Great. Well, I feel like I've definitely learned a lot, so I'm sure all our coaches will think exactly the same. Thanks.
Jamie:
Now, this is the part of the show where we're joined by a grassroots coach. We'll hear about their experiences so far and find out what coaching challenge they're currently facing. Our expert will then hopefully provide them with the guidance they need. Today, we're delighted to be joined by Michael from Dorset. Hi, Michael. Welcome to the show.
Michael:
Hey guys, how are you?
Louise:
Good, thank you. Thanks for joining us. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your coaching journey so far?
Michael:
Sure. So, I'm your usual grassroots dad. I had very little interest in football until my son started kicking a round thing around, wanted to join a team and it was one of those instances where the coach said, "Right, I've got you guys going to under-7s, you got your first match next weekend. Who wants to take on the team?". And there were seven dads on the pitch side and I was the only one who didn't step backwards. So we've taken a team through to currently under-12s and I'm now currently the League Secretary for New Forest & District Youth Football League.
Louise:
Okay, so what's the coaching challenge that you're currently facing?
Michael:
So I'm currently running the under-12s for Ringwood Town Football Club. We started under-9s with seven players, we're now as of this weekend up to 29. Loads of different players there for loads of different reasons, which is great and to be expected. But we've got two real differences in terms of our players: you've got those who are there because they want to develop and they want to improve and they want to keep getting better, let's call them the competitive players if you will; you've then got the players who just want to be there to play, their psychological drivers are very much around recreational, I just want to play, I just want to enjoy myself. Our mentality has always been as many as possible for as long as possible and as good as possible. And we're now at the stage where we're starting to see that drift, I guess between these two psychological drivers and it's causing a little bit of conflict within the group. So the first question really is, how do we create that environment that continues to engage at both levels? You know, I don't want to lose any players from what we do, but it's how do we encourage that through what we do, which is in our league structure is slightly unique; we go two months grass, four months futsal, two months grass. So again, we've got differences there: the players who like getting muddy on a Sunday, the players who prefer futsal, and those who don't really care as long as they're kicking a ball around. So that's my first challenge. You know, how do you appeal to everybody, all things at all time?
Ian:
Not an easy one, but an admirable stance I've got to say, and credit to you if you've got that group from seven or nine or whatever it was up to 29. You're obviously doing something right. So well done you and keep that going. Difficult one, my first point would be trying to make the practices game-based, because I think every kid loves the game-based practice. I think practices where they can be put into smaller groups, so groups of threes, fours and you're playing 2v1s, 2v2s and then you might be able to group those kids that have similar drivers together within a big session so they're all doing the same practice, but they are playing with kids who have a similar driver, I think that's potentially a contentious one. Some people would argue it's best to mix them and others to separate them, but that's probably something to experiment with and potentially splitting them into smaller groups might be one way, I don't know if that's something you've tried already, I'm sure that is. Have you had any joy or successful challenges with doing that?
Michael:
We did. So when we moved to grass, we actively split the matchday teams, but also the training sessions. I find 29 kids on one football pitch just doesn't work, even if you've got two coaches and actually we've been joined this year again by a third assistant. What we found is that actually by splitting the groups out into what we as coaches perceived as the relative psychological drivers actually caused conflict within the groups. You know, one: we got a couple wrong and we put the wrong kids in the wrong group and that was our failing. But then we also had parents who were saying, "My kid's in the wrong group." And so as well as the kids' psychological drivers and our perception of that, you've also got the parents and their perception of the driver. What we've now done is as we've moved to futsal, we've separated the groups out actually based on now what is an almost established matchday squad. We've got a Wednesday training session which is exclusively for futsal, and what I've done is I've taken that group, split them across the other two hours and then moved the other two teams. We've got three futsal teams that play on a Sunday, which is a way that you can make sure that everyone gets enough game time. So it's incredibly convoluted, the logistics of player organization are an absolute nightmare, and actually the players don't really care who they train with per se, what matters is when they perceive each other as not focusing or not engaging or "Oh, he's just standing over there talking or he's standing over there and isn't engaging." which seriously was actually a bigger problem on the grass than it was in futsal and maybe that's just a reflection on futsallers, again, you don't have time to stop, you have always have to be moving and maybe that issue goes away with futsal, but yeah, we have split it out and it caused issues but maybe we're resolving those in our own little way.
Ian:
Okay. And I was thinking when I was talking about splitting them, it was into smaller groups, so I'm talking putting them in groups of three. So if they all trained together for example, so you might have 15 kids there that are a real mix of drivers, but then within that 15 we say, "Right, get your set." and often if you say to the kids, "Get with it, get in a group of three." they go with people from a similar mindset. So that's where my thinking was coming that it might be a mixed group in terms of the 15, but within that when you do your 2v2 games or maybe a wave practice where they're all doing the same wave but they're playing a 2v1 when they come around the conversations and the coaching you do with one group of three or four or five or six or whatever it is, may be different to the conversations you have with another group. But in terms of like you said, the kid that's they're not worried about another kid and what they're doing and they're thinking because they're just worried about their little team or their little group, their little match and they're worried about the information you're giving them or the support you're giving them. They don't really mind then about what that other group are doing. So that would be something that I would encourage to think about. And then just by asking questions, so that group that maybe the recreational group as you describe them that aren't so keen on developing, even just asking them questions about how they might, how might you use your teammate in that situation? It's quite a low-key soft way of getting them still to think about how they might develop. So yeah, that would be my thoughts on that. But. so it sounds like you're having a go at it and working through some good challenges and some good answers yourself. The other thing I was thinking actually was about, you mentioned and you've already done this yourself, you were the one that chose the groupings and I touched on it a second ago when I said let them choose their groups of three. It might just be, and we do this in schools a lot, confidence curve. How confident are you? We're going to play this game next, how confident are you playing that game? Stand here, stand there and then you group them based on where they choose to stand or put themselves.
Michael:
That's a useful idea. In your experience, do you often see this split of confident players versus recreational players at under-12? and this is the first time I've gone through the journey, sort of foundation phase through to YDP. Is this something that you naturally see?
Ian:
Yeah, I think it's fairly common. And from the school's perspective as well it's common in a school where you've got a class of 30 kids. Some want to be there, some don't want to be there, but at least in your example they've all chosen to come and do that and then it's just their driver to do that might be slightly different. But yeah, I think it's a perfectly natural and common situation you're facing. So, I say, I started with and I'll say again, it's a credit to you that you're in that situation that you've got 29 kids that want to come and play. So you're doing something right.
Michael:
We've got a couple of players who we know in a couple of years' time once they've got through the puberty curb and they physically developed will be on a par with everybody else. We want to keep them involved because we know that in time they'll get there but at the moment that you've also got this, some of them are competitive and some of them are just there for fun, they're just there for recreation because that's all they've ever experienced. You know, at school they've never been in the school team because it's been more selective. They've never progressed but we can see that actually we've got a really technical player here. So I guess the challenge for me is we are privileged to have these children for so long. I mean, we get them for what may be, if you include match time, we've probably got three or four hours contact time a week with each child. In my busiest, I don't get that much with my son. So it is a real privilege to be with these children for so long. So it's making sure that we, you know, we meet that challenge and we do the best for them and it's understanding that and how we can be better, always challenging ourselves to be better is a key driver for us. Okay, useful, thank you.
Ian:
I said the other two options are when you're grouping kids is to put the ones together, or you start to say, well, actually what happens if I take one of those competitive ones and say your job is to help those three there that aren't so competitive and go and teach them your favourite skill that helps you. Because what you've just described actually there is kids that do want to do it, but they've always been told they're not good enough or they're not able, you're now providing a platform. So it might not be that they don't want to be coached or they don't want to learn, it's their confidence of that's just how they've been conditioned. So whether it's you or one of the others and then you're developing more holistic social skills rather than just the technical. To develop social skills, if you're saying to the kids, "I know you're getting frustrated but go and give him a hand or her a hand." That's something else to consider, but that needs a lot of thought about who you put with who and why and what. Or, have you got relationships with older age groups where they can come down and support? And particularly when you're talking about kids of different sizes, what relationships did you have with the under-11 coach and the under-13 coach where you might be able to help players? Do you want to go and train with them this week or them that week is another consideration.
Michael:
Yeah, we can achieve it and as a league we allow teams to play one age group up or down for development. And so as it happens, the Ringwood under-13s play in the same league as us, the under-12s. so it's actually very easy for us to get that going. One other question that I have for you, Ian, obviously futsal-specific and let's pick your brain on this, it's a more technical question. Futsal coaching is a key thing for me as a coach, but also as a league. The one thing that we're trying to promote at the moment in out futsal training is rotations, trying to get players to automatically rotate, move, and ensure that they are in space to receive the ball and to help their friend out. We also pride ourselves in our team and our coaching as creating creative players who play sort of intuitively. We don't want them to have robotic rotations, We don't want them to be, "This is the butterfly rotation. therefore I must do this, I must do that." Do what's right, do what the game dynamic allows for. How would you coach players to create those creative rotations for themselves?
Ian:
Yeah, and I don't want to make it over simple, but I think a challenge around play forwards and run forwards is a really good starting place. Because a lot of people talk about rotations, but actually for a rotation to take place, the first thing that needs to happen is one player needs to pass that ball and typically run forwards. And then that then leaves a space for the next person. Now, in terms of you're getting them to make decisions for themselves, it might be playing run forwards and challenge them to run forward into a space. So if the player in front of them, the striker or in futsal, the pivot is on one side of the court, then when they run forwards, they may well run and run to the other side where there's a space. That's the first part of the rotation is encouraging kids to pass and run forward, because again, kids that typically come from football and have been told, "You're a defender, you pass it and stay there and protect the goal and defend." it takes a couple of weeks or months to get them to be comfortable running forward. So that's your starting point, I think. From there, it's making them, as I said, run forward into space. So recognizing who's in front of them and where that space is. The next thing is who's going to fill that gap. So that's where the rotation comes. Who fills that space? Is it the ball carrier? So let's say they start in the middle of the court and they pass it wide and they run forwards. The player who's just received the ball, does he or she dribble the ball to the middle and then that's the rotation? So they've taken their place by taking the ball to that place, or is it the player from the other side that comes into that space to fill it? And that's again that would be the decision for the players. If you're starting to ask them to say, "Right, once you've run forward, work out where you want to run." when he or she runs forward, who's going to recognize who fills that gap? That's one way of thinking about it. I think the other thing with rotations, we can't forget the building blocks before it that these don't work if the kids can't control the ball, receive the ball facing forwards, be in control of the 1v1 I've just been talking about how futsal helps us get better in a 1v1. If we can't control that ball and be in control of that situation, if someone passes me the ball, the rotation won't work because I won't be able to control it or I'll lose it or I won't be able to take it where I want to take it. So I also think there's that in mind that, "Oh, I'm trying to do a rotation, it's not working." It's not working because the kids haven't yet got the bit before that where they can get in a position to play forward or receive the ball and do what they want to do with it. They would be my two real starting points with that. Going back to your competitive and recreational players, there might be some players that would be willing to take time to practice that with limited or unopposed pressure, but then there'll be other kids that won't be interested in doing that because it's not game-based enough. So that's just something else to consider that if you're talking about playing and running forwards, you might do that unopposed or slightly opposed or you might do it fully opposed. But that's the message I'd be giving: play run forward, where are you running to? Where's the space? And then who's going to fill the space that's just been left?
Michael:
Your comments of always run forward. Is that an England futsal DNA point or is it a sort of a youth coaching point of always think about should you run forward because that's where the space is most likely to be? Or is that because how we play for England?
Ian:
Both, probably. And I think the other thing we've got to remember is why we're doing rotations. So a rotation really, the first player runs forward, because if I run forward and my player doesn't follow me or you're going pass me the ball and I'm in a space and I'm closer to the goal to go and score. So I think it's understanding, we rotate because I've run forward to try and get in a better position to score, but I've been followed or the player and the ball has been marked really well or defended so they can't get me the ball, so therefore they need to either move to a different position or someone else needs to fill so that we can keep the ball in order for the next person to play forward. So I think that's another important point. Some people go, "Oh, we need to do rotations because they look good or that's what futsal looks like." Actually, if I play and run forward, I then need to recognize the pressure on the ball. So typically, if I pass to my mate and there's no pressure on the ball and there's space in behind, I'm going to keep running and he or she will hopefully be able to pass me the ball. If I make a forward run, but I'm always looking at the ball, I'm always looking at my teammate to see how they need help. And I see that I've run forward but they're under real pressure and they're struggling, I might at that point need to come back and then come back to combine, we might play a 1-2 around the player or whatever. But that again is the starting point of the rotation. It's a play run forward, run forward in the intent to either get a forward pass or come back to help them to do a 1-2 or a block or a screen or whatever it is. But yeah, so often we see kids, their first thought isn't even to look forward, their first thought is a negative touch or a backwards touch. So I think there's something in just getting kids to look forward, play forward, run forward. It's hard sometimes to play forward because it's good pressure on the ball, but we've got to be good enough that we can prepare our space and know what we're going to do with it before we get it. But when we do get it, we can face forward, we can pass forward, we can run forward.
Michael:
Yeah, and we've always used the concept of, "What is your first thought?" We've always said, your first thought should be, "Should I dribble?" We hope the answer is yes. And obviously you always dribble towards goal. So we've been triggering on that in football and futsal.
Ian:
Because the play forward linked to that, the play forward might be a dribble forward or it might be a pass forward.
Michael:
Yeah, exactly. And then you get into the concept of, we've just started using the phrase "Move again". So you move, you pass, you move, you move again because the first movement may not be right, so now you move again.
Ian:
Which is the idea of based on looking at my mate and what my mate needs. So if he needs me to move again, that's probably because he's in trouble, he needs me to move on a different angle or whatever it is.
Michael:
Recognizing that, yeah, that's a really good point.
Ian:
Move forward. Sometimes kids will pass it and run forward but not look at the ball, they'll just run off, and when they run off they're almost out of the game then. Actually we're running forward, we need to be in the game, we need to be connected to our teammate that we've just passed two or whoever else is going to receive the ball next.
Jamie:
Well, thanks for your time today, Michael. We hope you're happy with the advice and you can put it into practice.
Michael:
That's brilliant. Thank you very much for your time.
Ian:
Keep up the good work, Michael.
Jamie:
We're coming up to the end of the episode now. But before we blow the full-time whistle, it's time for our swift session feature. This is where we challenge our guests to come up with a session idea that relates to the theme of the episode.
Louise:
So we're looking for a futsal session that's fun, engaging and can be quick for coaches to set up. It can involve any number of activities, but you'll only have 30 seconds to explain your ideas. Are you up for the challenge?
Ian:
I'll give it a go.
Louise:
Okay, let me just set the timer up and if you're ready, time starts... now.
Ian:
3v3, I play two lots of 3v3, so if I had 12 players that would be nice, perfect. 3v3 and one half I'd have the goal in the normal place, I'd bring the other goal from the other end up, so you'd have a half a match basically going on. 3v3, one in goal, two outfield, play there. The other end, I'll have 3v3 but they'll be going across the court the other way and it'll probably just be a game of line ball, we've got to stop it on the line, make sure it might be winner stays on the main pitch and play short games, four-minute games, three-minute games, like I said earlier, clock visible, score visible, give them all a go.
Louise:
Did you manage to fit everything in that you wanted to?
Ian:
I think so. People get the gist.
Louise:
So before we finish the show, do you have any last key messages for coaches to take away?
Ian:
Probably just remembering those things we talked about at the start: play the game, let's get the kids playing the game; playing area, the surface, the goal, the ball; and play to the laws of the game. The kids will have great fun and you'll have fun as coaches, too.
Jamie:
Well, that was great, Ian. Thanks for joining us on Coachcast and giving us a really good introduction to futsal.
Ian:
Thanks for having me.
Jamie:
Right, that's all we have time for today. But if you want to find out more about what we've discussed in this episode, head over to thebootroom.thefa.com and check out “10 reasons why young players should play football”. You can also visit our YouTube channel, England Football Learning, to watch “Futsal's Physical and Technical Returns”, and “Playing out of Pressure in Futsal: Age and Stage Priorities”.
Louise:
Keep in touch with all our content. Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube and follow us on Twitter, our handle is @EnglandLearning. And if you want to chat about today's episode or you just want to jump into a coaching conversation, you can do so on the FA community. We'll be back soon with another episode of Coachcast. So keep an eye on our social media channels and wherever you get your podcasts from, from all of us at England Football Learning, thanks for listening.