[Jamie] 00:00:09.220
Hello and welcome to Coachcast by England Football Learning, the coaching podcast that brings you insight from people across the game. Today we're chatting to Katie Sorenson and Dan Simpson, two of our Game Insights analysts, to preview the Women's World Cup and to find out how coaches can take inspiration from tournament football.
Well Katie, Dan, hi welcome to the show, how are you?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:00:30.920
Yeah really good thank you, Thanks for having us. Very excited actually just to talk about football for the next however long we talk about football. So yeah, really excited. Thank you.
[Jamie] 00:00:39.380
Love it. Love it.
[Louise] 00:00:40.180
Well, it's really nice to have you both joining us and to have you on Coachcast for the first time. So Can you tell us a little bit about your roles and tell us what it is that you do?
[Dan Simpson] 00:00:49.040
Yeah, so we are both game insights analysts here at the Football Association, and our role is to really look into the game and delve into it to see what we can learn from a coaching perspective. So what trends are happening in the game, what's really important and how does this translate into coaching insights, really just to help coaches get a little bit better.
[Jamie] 00:01:08.600
Well, fantastic. Thank you very much for that. And we look forward to kind of delving into your insights that you've got for us later on. But before we do that and get into the main part of the show, as this is a coaching podcast, coaches could be on the way to training while tuning into this. So we always like to give them some great advice early on in the episode.
[Louise] 00:01:25.840
Yep, and we call this the Arrival Activity. So we give you 30 seconds to give us as many top coaching tips as you can. These tips can be based on any of your coaching experiences or tournament football or given your roles - it can be advice on improving observation skills. Are you up for the challenge?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:01:43.580
Yeah, definitely.
[Dan Simpson] 00:01:44.440
Yeah, go on then.
[Louise] 00:01:45.480
How are we going to do this? Is it like taking it in turns?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:01:48.420
Yeah, I'll go first and then Dan will save the day with anything I miss.
[Louise] 00:01:53.800
Looking forward to it. Okay, we'll set the timer up and when the music begins that's when you can start.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:01:59.180
Okay, so for me the most important thing to think about is what do your players need compared to what do you think they need? Think about learning objectives when you're setting out your session. So with that, how are you setting up your practice? How do you use the step principles to your space, the task, the equipment, and the players to best provide learning opportunities for your players? Do you understand the core skills and core moves that we look at at the FA and how can we ensure that our players are using those to become more skillful and better players?
[Jamie] 00:02:27.740
Look at that, look at that before the whistle even came in there, brilliant.
Dan, do you fancy giving it a go?
[Dan Simpson] 00:02:35.580
We can give it a go.
[Jamie] 00:02:36.600
Okay. Go on Dan, this time is for you.
[Dan Simpson] 00:02:39.960
Have a clear plan, always have a clear plan for what you're trying to achieve, what do your players need, how are you going to observe, how are you going to actually recognize what they're doing and improve them, recognize what the success look like in everything you're doing, how can your practice give your players a realistic opportunity to practice what the game looks like. Most importantly, like I'm trying to do right now, be calm, be patient and have fun, have fun. We always need to make sure we're having fun in everything that we do.
[Jamie] 00:03:08.800
Perfect. I like that and ended on a very, very important one for us all to keep in our minds as well, making sure that we're having fun whatever we are doing.
Well, let's get into the main part of the show then and the Women's World Cup is here. This year's tournament is held in Australia and New Zealand and the host kicks things off tomorrow with New Zealand facing Norway and Australia playing the Republic of Ireland.
Well, as for England, our journey starts on Saturday against Haiti. The Lionesses are in Group D and also play Denmark on the 28th of July and China on the 1st of August. Exciting times, we can't wait here and make sure everyone's tuning in as well in the early hours of the morning to get and cheer us all on.
Well, I suppose, Dan, Katie, first of all, how buzzing are you that the World Cup is finally here?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:03:52.500
For me, just, yeah, so excited. It's been a long time coming, obviously. I've not been in a World Cup now for quite a few years with everything with COVID, so very much long-awaited and yeah, I'll be up very early watching every game that I can and probably avoiding doing some work just so I can watch games. Yeah, for me, tournament football for young girls watching, for females watching, it's such a fantastic thing to see and you know when we're having success in it, it's even better.
[Louise] 00:04:19.839
What fixtures have caught your eye the most so far?
[Dan Simpson] 00:04:22.540
I think there's lots of exciting teams. When you look through the fixtures, there's lots of exciting teams and different playing styles all the way across the tournament. So to narrow it down to one or two is very, very difficult. But I think one that's jumping out to me is Brazil vs France for all the obvious reasons, two very, very attacking sides. So it'll be interesting to watch. But during last year's Euros, we went out and watched Portugal against the Netherlands. That was a really great end-to-end game, had lots of great core skills and lots of talent on show, but also lots of great two-two, great tactical sides, good set pieces, so it's going to be really interesting to watch them go head-to-head and see what's changed between those three sides from when they last met in the Euros.
[Jamie] 00:05:01.780
So England are going into this as European champions, so they're going in with a lot of confidence and some people viewing them as probably one of the favorites for the World Cup. But who are the other teams to look out for in this tournament, in your opinion?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:05:16.160
I think it's the usual teams that always qualify. So, you know, as Dan's already alluded to, you know, France, Brazil, Germany, USA, Netherlands on top of that. But for me, my favorite team to watch outside of England is Sweden. They were fantastic last year. Euros, obviously they lost four-nil to England in the semifinals, but their playing style and identity is so clear with how they play. So for those that are tactical minded out there, they love to sit in a mid-block and then they look to counter at pace. So they're really incredible on transition. You know, they use the strengths of Blackstenius, Stina Blackstenius from Arsenal. She's a real standout player for them. They really play to her strengths. Playmakers like Asllani in the 10, then obviously they've got Eriksson of Chelsea at the back. So they're just really, really exciting to watch.
So, you know, I've got an England shirt, but I might be pulling out my Sweden shirt at some points as well during the tournament.
[Dan Simpson] 00:06:07.840
Yeah, we have to mention England here as well, though, don't we? Off the back of the success of the summer's Euros, I think they really grasped the nation and definitely inspired a lot of young girls and boys to get involved and play more football. So some more summer success would be fantastic. But I think when you look at it as well across the tournament and all the different teams in the tournament, there's lots of fantastic WSL players in there. So you've got Sam Kerr, Caitlin Ford, Hayley Raso of Australia. So lots of great talent all the way across the tournament. So I think Australia could do well, but they've faced some tough teams in there as well, with Canada and Republic of Ireland in their group. So yeah, there's going to be lots of talent on the show the whole way across, so I don't think there'll be many dull games.
[Louise] 00:06:48.520
Exciting times ahead.
[Jamie] 00:06:49.640
Yes, certainly so. I suppose putting more of a coaching lens on now for those that are listening, what inspiration can coaches take away from international tournaments then?
[Dan Simpson] 00:06:58.280
International tournaments are always exciting, aren't they? We look forward to them. It makes people want to get out and practice and try some of the skills that they're seeing on the TV. I think it's important as well that coaches kind of tap into this energy with their players and encourage their players to watch and really get out playing football, but just make practices really fun and really engaging and kind of tap into the excitement of the tournament.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:07:20.080
Yeah, Dan's spot on there with what he says and you know my motto is always if you see it then you can be it. So if our grassroots coaches are seeing the likes of Sarina Weigman on the touch line, you know she's got a real infectious personality, You can see the players really buy into her. The rest of the coaching staff buy into her. You know, she gets the most out of her players. So I'm really hopeful it will inspire some of our coaches to think this is the way that they need to behave with their young players. You know, this is at the top level of the game then we should be doing it in grassroots as well RTC, Boys Academy, Girls Academy you know wherever you coach, let's just keep our young players enjoying it and engaged because hopefully we'll see them all come through the pathway and hopefully five ten years down the line they'll be the ones that are pulling on the England shirt in the next World Cup.
[Jamie] 00:08:05.380
I suppose that's the important thing, isn't it really? It's like inspiring the nation and getting another generation of kids playing football and international tournaments are fantastic for doing that. What sort of things should maybe grassroots coaches look out for then when the tournament starts?
[Dan Simpson] 00:08:20.860
We talk a lot about observation skills and even just watching the tournament, it gives us a really great opportunity to notice what players are doing and just be curious about the game and the different intricacies of the game and the things that players like to do. One thing to think about could be what you're currently working on with your players and how that might look at the top level of the game. So taking your practice design and your objectives, what you're trying to teach your players and get your players to do, This is a great opportunity to have a look at that top level of the game and kind of see how those players are doing it. It gives us an opportunity to identify what success can look like and also what happens if players don't quite get it right. So yes, this is going to be the top end of the game and it's a great opportunity to role model, but actually they're going to get it wrong as well. And as coaches, it's really important to recognize that we can't get things right all the time and be nice and calm and patient for that.
I think the key for me here really and certainly when we do any observational work is have a plan. So I'd probably recommend just go and watch the games but have a little bit of a lens and a plan for what you want to observe and kind of shine a light on that rather than just take the game in as a whole because sometimes you know if you're trying to see everything you'll see nothing but it can be nice just to draw your attention to certain things and being able to do that can kind of eliminate some of the noise and help you focus on some specifics.
I think it can be easy as well just to get caught up in a game because there are so many things going on at the same time and having that plan allows you to narrow your focus and I think once you've done this, have a little think then about what your players can and can't do. Like I just said there and then just change your, you know, you can start to think more about the practices that you put on and what your players might need to develop and become more skillful.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:09:59.100
That's pretty hard to follow but a tool that I've actually started using within my own coaching outside of my FA role is the six capabilities. So hopefully listeners are already aware of those and, you know, how it's a great tool for coaches to try and help them develop more skillful players and they can use the six capabilities as a tool to understand what their players can do and what they can't do.
So the big six are timing, technique, deception, movement, scanning and positioning. So for instance, if you wanted to look at one of the core skills of receiving at the tournament and understand how the best players receive. You can try to notice the timing of their movement, how they scan before they receive the ball. And obviously with scanning that helps them determine what position they need to take up to receive, the angle of their body, and then the technique of that receiving action once they've actually got themselves into the right position and understood what's around them. Obviously that decision is then down to how much pressure they have on them. So if they're maybe unopposed and when they scan, they might be able to then receive with a more open body shape compared to if they're being pressed when they then might have to receive more closed and a tighter first touch. So this is where like deception comes in, because if you have more space to turn, you can look to take a tight touch, but then open up your body to receive on a no touch turn. So being able to throw all of those six capabilities into the mix and, you know, try and really hone in and look at two or three of them, with each pass, with each finish, with each challenge, with each interception. It's a great tool for any coach, grassroots, senior game, wherever you're working, to really understand what skillful players do and maybe where the gaps are with the players that you coach.
[Louise] 00:11:31.120
Do you have any top tips that might help coaches to improve their observation skills for when they're watching the tournament?
[Dan Simpson] 00:11:37.440
Yeah, like I said there, I think just having a plan is really critical as well. But feed it to your players too. What are your players interested in? What type of players have you got, can you get them watching others and kind of picking out things that they're working on in training, things they're trying to get better at just to see how some of the top performers are doing it. But I would always come back to just have a plan. Like I said before, sometimes if you're looking for everything, you end up seeing nothing. And the six capabilities model, I think, is probably the best top tip you can get. So just pick an area on there and kind of watch a game through that lens and really see what you're noticing.
[Jamie] 00:12:12.040
How can coaches adapt what they've observed then to suit their own context?
[Dan Simpson] 00:12:17.320
This is difficult. This can be difficult. The observation is one thing, but how you actually transfer those observations into real-life practices, to develop your players and to develop your own coaching knowledge as well can be difficult. But I think it's really important that you understand that you are watching the top level of the game, you're watching the World Cup, that is the very top level of the game. So whilst it does provide excellent role modelling opportunities, it's even more important to understand your own players, understand their capabilities, what they can and can't do. And I think that allows you to then provide the most appropriate challenges for them. So rather than just watching the game and saying, oh Sam Kerr does this, recognize your players might not be able to do that, some of them might be able to, but actually understanding your players and their capabilities gives you a really good opportunity to take what you're seeing from the top level of the game and transfer it into your practices because they're not going to be able to perform at that same level, but your own players will be excited in their own right and you kind of have to harness that and use that role modelling.
So certainly draw your players attentions to it, but just make sure that you're being calm and you're not getting frustrated in your practices when your players are trying and failing because ultimately the more players fail they're going to learn. Every time you fail you're going to learn and you're going to get better so there's lots of development to be had there.
[Louise] 00:13:30.300
I suppose that's from a coach's point of view, but can coaches engage their players during the tournament in any particular way?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:13:36.960
Yeah, certainly. There's great ways that you can use observational tasks with your players. So this is very much dependent on maybe the ageing stage of the players that you're working with because what you might get a foundation phase, so like a, you know, nine or ten year old to look at compared to senior over 16 football will be very, very different. If you're wanting to engage, you know, your younger players in your team with the tournament, you might just get into look at things like goals that are scored in a tournament. So where are the goals being scored from? How many touches are the players taking? What technique do they use? Do they strike through the ball? Do they use their laces? Do they use their left foot, their right foot? And they use their instep. Where do the assists come from? Things like that. I mean, the game is all about scoring and stopping goals. So that's the most exciting part of any game. So engage younger players with that. Then you're on to a winner in terms of getting them to enjoy the game. And, you know, as we've spoken about, really focus on one key core skill. So the core skill of finishing is everyone's favorite. So start them with that and then maybe with older ages you might be able to do something a bit different.
[Dan Simpson] 00:14:37.200
Yeah, a really interesting one there is that it all does link back to your players and what your players can and can't do. And we mentioned there about how Can we take some of the observations that we see from the World Cup and actually make it translate to the players that you're working with? We talk about finishing there, Katie, you just mentioned a lot about finishing. When we look at the top level, there's lots of goals scored with the first touch, so lots of first-time finishing. But actually, when we're looking at the foundation phase and working with younger players, we're seeing that that's not actually the case. So it could be very easy to watch one of these tournaments, get some insight and say, oh, there's lots of first time finishes taking place, so I'm going to go and work on that with my players. But actually with the younger players, we're seeing that they need more touches, they need to get used to the ball a little bit more. We certainly encourage staying on the ball as well. So there's nothing better than seeing a player dribbling, beating two or three players, and then finishing themselves. So it can be difficult sometimes to translate those insights, but I would always say have a look at what you're seeing at that level, watch what you're seeing at the World Cup, then watch what your players can and can't do and kind of try and work out how that translates for your players so you can be a bit more specific in the work that you're doing.
Katie, you mentioned a lot there about working with younger players. I'll come in here with just some of the older player stuff and how you can engage players throughout the World Cup, some older players. And I think it's a great opportunity to reinforce some of your coaching messages. So when you're working with older players and working towards more competing as well, rather than simply just development, It could be a good way to get across some of your key messages around the way you're trying to play. It could be a good opportunity to integrate some off-field coaching into your working practices. So for example, you mentioned earlier about Sweden and how direct they can be on transition. If this is something that you're currently working on with your players and you're trying to get your players making more forward runs in behind, for example, in behind the opposition, then you might just direct your players to watching some of Sweden's games. And it might not be a bad idea just to see one or two clips or just get players watching the game before training, because all of a sudden you've just through very little time, you've actually reinforced some of your key messages or you've introduced a topic to your players before they've even got to the training pitch.
[Louise] 00:16:41.260
Now Dan makes a really good point there about doing some more stuff that's more team focused, but Dan, how could you may be like do stuff that's specifically for individual players?
[Dan Simpson] 00:16:49.740
Yeah, so lots of team stuff there. I think individually, I've said a few times now, but a great opportunity to role model some great behaviors. So encourage your players to identify who might play in a similar way to them. So it might be positionally or in terms of their playing style. Recognize what they do well, but also recognize some of their potential blind spots. Like I say, best players in the world, they're not perfect players. They're going to have some blind spots as well and they might be similar to the players that you have at your club. Have a look at some of the different movements individual players make and how this might impact the ball, how it might impact the space and how it might impact the players around them as well would be just some suggestions really.
00:17:28.079
[Jamie] Brilliant, that was great, thank you very much. There's plenty of tips in there and some really interesting insight into what you can get from watching tournaments.
I suppose if you're thinking about how it might impact session design, before we maybe delve really deep into that, so the simple question that some coaches might immediately come to if you're thinking in terms of how will an international tournament influence yourself at training? I suppose, is it the perfect time to start playing tournaments in training for instance? That might be the first thing that coaches or maybe even the only thing that coaches might think until hopefully they hear this podcast and can hear how useful the tournaments actually can be for them. But yeah, it's now the perfect time to start playing tournaments in training.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:18:10.240
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I would always push coaches to do more game-based scenarios because we talk about the three R's. So, repetition, realism, relevance, and tournament football is really relevant. You know, there's a tournament every year, not just at senior football, there's youth tournaments, youth Euros, youth World Cup, both across the male and female game. And, you know, especially in the summer, it's a great time when children are coming back for pre-season and they do summer tournaments anyway. So, you know, no matter whether you're working with foundation phase players, youth development phase, professional development phase, or open age, I'd say I'd really push coaches to think about those game-based tournament scenarios where you'll get the most out of your players - at the end of the day, football is all about enjoyment, it's also about being successful. Tournament football is a great way for players to have success, so definitely I'd be encouraging that good competitive level to it as well. And you know, even at the younger age groups, we want our players to learn and develop. But I'd be lying if when I was nine, 10 years old, I wasn't competitive. I was really competitive. I wanted to win. You know, I always wanted practices that had goals involved or you hit me into practice and there wasn't goals. I didn't want to join in. I needed a practice that had two goals, had an element of winning or losing, which at the end of the day is what tournament football is all about. It's a knockout competition. So, you know, I think it prepares our players much better for when they then go into a game on the weekend.
[Dan Simpson] 00:19:26.780
Yeah. And as coaches, when you're playing tournaments, it gives you a great chance just to step back and observe and see what your players are doing and see how they're handling different scenarios rather than constantly feeling you need to be on the grass coaching. Gives you a chance just to step back and actually really think about what your players are doing.
[Jamie] 00:19:42.700
It's also a chance, I suppose, when you're talking about observing and getting your players to kind of set those tasks to observe and look at players at the tournament. Also the chance for them to maybe try and emulate them or pretend to be them. You know that fun, I can remember training sessions years ago, many years ago, when I was a kid and pretending that you was in England or Brazil or France and actually taking part in your own World Cup at training. It's like everyone's buzzing. It's really exciting. You just want to get stuck in and have fun. And that's kind of today is and now on is kind of like a perfect time to do that, isn't it?
[Dan Simpson] 00:20:15.360
Well, it's the only time I ever came close to emulating Alessandro Del Piero, who's always my player.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:20:22.540
Yeah, I think a great example of that is obviously Lessie Russo's backheel in the semi-final against Sweden. The amount of times now when I've been leading sessions and my players are trying to do backhills into the back of their net. It's something that, you know, people talk about the Paolo D'Acanio volley, you know, I'm a West Ham fan, so, you know, from years and years ago, I think it was in 2000, that, but, you know, people are still talking about that 22 - 23 years later, And I have no doubt that people will be talking about Alessio Russo's back heel for the next 20 years.
[Jamie] 00:20:50.020
So tournaments provide a setting where these incredible moments happen and then yeah, it kind of has that influence on people want to try it, people want to be like that. And it's absolutely fantastic to see. I suppose delving a little bit deeper into that, how can coaches kind of make game realistic practices for their players based on this tournament?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:21:10.600
Yeah, something I would definitely push coaches to go and have a look at is how many opportunities they provide their players to be in a position where you say to your players in training, right, we're going into a small side of game, it's 7v7, this 7 you're 1-0 up, right? The other team, you 7 are 1-0 down. So the team that's 1-0 up, what are you going to do to keep your lead? The team that's losing 1-0, what are you going to do to try and get back? And, you know, with tournament football, again, you could draw a game, but then it goes to extra time. So sometimes it's not enough just to draw, like in a league game where you get a point, you need to go and win. So what are you going to do to turn that 1-0 to a positive 2-1?
You know, you look back to the England-Germany final, I think we scored in like the 116th minute, I think it was something like that, of Chloe Kelly. And I think it was about two or three minutes of game management in the corner. I think we had three or four players just trying to keep the ball in the corner and, you know, trying to win throw-ins, trying to win free kicks, trying to win corners. And the thing is, it started to really frustrate Germany. And it actually really got me thinking, how many times must Sarina and her coaching staff have practiced that with the girls here at St. George's?
For me, they must have practiced that scenario and how to manage the game, that game management, multiple times, because for me, the fact that they were able to go and execute it in those last few minutes to ensure we won the game was just fascinating. So I'd encourage coaches to go and do that with their own players, because it's a lot of problem solving as well. So you're giving it to the players and saying, right, you're 1-0 up, what are you going to do? So it gets them thinking about what formation they're going to play. You know, if it's seven a side, you'll always have one in goal. Will you go three at the back, two midfield, one up top? Whereas if you're losing 1-0, what will you do with your six outfield players? Will you go three up top? What will you do to try and get back into the game? And you know, that can be done at any age with players, getting them to problem solve, getting them to think about how they will make sure that at the end of when that whistle goes, that their team's won the training session.
[Louise] 00:22:55.520
I guess it pushes a bit of creativity as well for them, like under that pressure, you kind of see what comes out in the end of it.
[Dan Simpson] 00:23:02.120
Yeah, you can get them practicing different scenarios. So we mentioned game state scenarios there, but just putting players up 1v1, you could even get players that are similar, play in a similar way to some of the players you're seeing and match them up and do some 1v1s. And that just makes it more realistic to the players and the positions in which they might play. We do a lot of research around the tournaments, all with the purpose of helping coaches to put on more game realistic practices and kind of understand problems that the game throws up and the potential ways of solving them as well.
So, for example, One of the areas that we've looked at previously, and we're going to do a big focus on this Women's World Cup as well, is the impact of core skills and moves within the game. So actually recognizing how overlaps happen, for example, how they happen at the top level. It could be a good opportunity just to replicate that within your practice and just get your players practicing some of the things that that you're seeing on the TV and some of the things that they're going to face on match days as well. Really important that we try and bring training as close to a match day as we possibly can in terms of some of the messages and realism that we're trying to get across.
[Jamie] 00:24:01.920
I suppose you'll be paying quite close attention to the tournament, of course, and you mentioned some of the stuff that you've previously kind of observed. Can you kind of give us like some specific examples of content that you released and also examples of how those observations that you've made during tournaments can help grassroots coaches?
[Dan Simpson] 00:24:19.820
Yeah, so Lee leads on really nicely from what I've just said there. The insights and resources that we've previously produced include lots of different stuff. We look at lots of different areas, so how goals are scored, how goals are stopped. We've looked at set plays and possession starts as well. So we're looking at how often do teams have corners, how often does transition occur and helping coaches recognize the frequency of these things and how players are getting on the ball. Because then that might just help them out with their practice design a little bit. So for example, we know that transition occurs around 68% of all possessions start from a transition. So as a result, can we factor this into our practices? So rather than, when we're working on build up play for example, rather than starting every session with a goal kick, which occurs 5% of the time. Can we incorporate transition more and more just to make it a little bit more realistic? We've also looked at a lot of things like system adjustments and substitutions, which became really important in the Euros with the success that England had and the importance of their substitutions and the massive impact that they had. But I think ultimately it's all about, for us, it's all about taking simple insight that provide powerful implications for coaches. So what I mean by that is trying to tailor some of our content to be as environmentally realistic as possible. So having the same resource and the same information but trying to put it across in a different way. So if you're working at grassroots level you know you can take something from it. If you're working at pro license and in the senior game you might take something different from it. So it's just trying to tailor the content that we create to make sure it effectively challenges coaches but also gives them some good insights as well. And this can be, yeah, we do this in a wide range of ways. So it might be from a webinar, it could be a blog, It could be a video that you see across our social networks, or it could be some work that's integrated within some of our coaching courses, which then provides even further opportunity to transfer into practice design, et cetera. But the great thing here is we have such a wide range of means for getting some of these messages and insights across. And what that allows is a great opportunity to create a more sort of individualized and personalized learning experience for people. Whereas beforehand, we may have just been providing one piece of information and kind of hoping that it sticks. Whereas now we're really trying to be as individualized as possible.
[Jamie] 00:26:34.200
What are you looking to observe at this tournament then? Do you have a particular observational focus or is that a little bit of a harsh question to ask?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:26:43.260
No, we can be a bit open I think. We're focusing on enhancing some of the work we've already done around core skills and core moves. So we focus quite heavily on that at the Men's World Cup in Qatar. So we're looking to develop and further that work, which is really, really brilliant, because those are some of our real key messages here at the FA for core skills are very individualized, like 1v1 stuff, and then your core moves is more your 2v2s, 3v3s, looking at how your players combine and how they connect and how they build relationships with each other. So we've really been putting more focus onto the importance of those two and three player combinations.
The key thing about them is, one, they help maintain possession, but two, they can help you penetrate against opposition. So again, if actually, if coaches listening or wanting to look for those kinds of things in a tournament, I'd put a lot of focus for you guys to certainly have a look at that. And we, Well, Dan might be able to tell you a little bit more now about our digital world as well and what else is available that we can also lean on.
[Dan Simpson] 00:27:36.980
Yeah, thanks Katie. I guess, especially through the COVID times, the digital world became really a great place for us to get some of our key messages across and people were spending a lot more time online and as a result we're seeing more and more resources and articles becoming available. So externally things that aren't produced by us but it could be for example FIFA. If you look at FIFA and you're familiar with some of the content that they put out, they produce some excellent technical reports throughout tournaments and a lot of time we're looking at them and seeing a lot of correlation with some of the things that we're doing and some of the things that they're doing. So for us it gives us an opportunity to kind of identify how some of these insights can kind of best support the messages that we want to share with our coaches. So Stats Perform, for example, they're a data provider that we use extensively within our research. So any research into the senior game in particular for us, a lot of it is done through Stats Perform data. And so a big focus for us will be just looking at the data that they provide and kind of looking at some of the trends and seeing what messages we can extrapolate from that, see how it fits with some of the work that we're currently doing, and then actually produce some of our own resources that the coaches can get to grips with. Because we're seeing a lot of resources online that give some fantastic insights but our responsibility now is can we really take hold of some of these things and apply some coaching messages and naturally help coaches out there and players as well take the insight, take the analysis and the articles they're reading and start to apply it a little bit more within their working practices.
[Louise] 00:29:05.380
Thinking about players, are there any that you're planning to keep an eye on?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:29:09.220
Yeah, definitely. For me, obviously, the focus has got to be on England. We've made great progression in the last few years, especially under Sarina and we've had fantastic younger players coming through the system now, but you've got to look at the longevity of some of the players we've also got. A big miss for us this tournament is going to be Beth Mead and Leah Williamson, probably losing our best two players from the last year's Euros. And they certainly continued their form from with England into Arsenal this season. So the big question for me is who's going to step up into that Beth Mead shaped hole. So straight away, my focus goes to Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly, and Lauren James. For me, they're my three favorite players in a WSL. I love looking at how they stay on the ball, how they move with the ball. They're three fantastic 1v1 dribblers, but they're all so very different in how they look to get past and beat a player. I have no doubt that one of those three will be a standout for us this tournament. Personally, I'd absolutely love it to be Lauren James. She's had a fantastic season for Chelsea, so I'm really excited to see her play and hopefully get loads of opportunities in this tournament.
[Louise] 00:30:08.220
And what sort of actions are you actually looking out for when you're observing those particular players?
[Dan Simpson] 00:30:13.520
Oh, what a question. That depends massively on the player and why you're observing, I guess, but it could be a whole number of things. It could be the position that they play, it could be the capabilities that they have. First of all, understand why you're watching certain players. But actually by observing these players, it can help you to really understand their role and the impact that they're having on the game and the players around them. So if you look at their off-ball movements, for example, this can give you some insight into the influence that they're having on the players around them. So again, linking in the six capabilities, you might just pick one or two to look at. So for example, it could be scanning and techniques. I would suggest really getting familiar with the six capabilities as an observational tool, because that really can help shine a light on certain areas. But also I think it gives you a chance to identify which areas you find quite difficult to observe as well. That that model's there doesn't mean to say that you're going to be able to focus on all six of them really easy. As coaches, are you able to identify some of your blind spots? Don't always go and observe things that you're really strong and you can see easily, you know, can you start to spot the little nuances and things that are difficult to observe and then just challenge yourself to watch a player through that lens. I think that would be interesting.
[Jamie] 00:31:26.280
We've kind of touched on it a little bit before, but just in case there's any extra kind of points to come out from it? I suppose the question that I've got in my mind is how can watching skillful players really help coaches to develop their own team then?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:31:39.140
Yeah, it definitely can, but you know, as Dan said, and I think he makes a really great point with it, is we as coaches shouldn't allow ourselves to get frustrated or compare our players to the likes of Sam Kerr, Kenza Dali, Mary Earps, you know, fantastic goalkeeper. We can't expect our players to be able to perform at the heights of what these players are. These women are professionals. It's the elite level of the game. It's the best players of the world, but you know, watching these skillful players in the tournament can be more of an eye opener of where the gaps are within your own players development, within their own skill sets and you know, thinking about what opportunities you can then give to your players to help them develop in these particular areas, giving them opportunities to improve. So that's when, again, the importance of your practice design, you have to be able to set up practices that will enable your players to improve on these areas as well as challenging them. Just highlights that need to develop your practices. We're all about obviously wanting to develop players. We want to help them become more skillful. And we can only do this if we're developing and putting on practices that actually allow for this to happen. I've already alluded to it, but your practices need to have good repetition for allow players to, I guess, really improve, and reinforce those key messages on a particular skill. They've got to be relevant to the game. So does your practice look like what the game is actually going to be like on a Sunday? And then the same with that in terms of the realism, all three of those things, when you're doing a practice, they have to be a tick box. If you're not ticking all three boxes, then you need to ask yourself, why am I putting this session on for my players?
[Dan Simpson] 00:33:04.760
Oh, brilliant, Katie. I got to mention the term skillful players is a term that we hear. We hear a lot. And even now, for me, the first thing that kind of comes into my head when I think about skillful players is all the exciting things, Scoring goals, dribbling past defenders like they aren't there. But actually, the art of being skillful is so much more than that. And it can actually be much more subtle than that as well. Much more difficult to identify. So having the ability to read the game, for example, and anticipate and sense danger is a massive skill in itself. And I mean, just something like that can allow a player to position themselves in an area where they can land on second balls or intercept a pass to stop an attack before it even happens. And as a result, because that attack hasn't happened, it might not be just as easy to spot. But some of these things, they don't get enough credit, but they're just as skillful as bending one into the top corner. Those tackles are just as important, but being able to read the game is a real skill and something that we need to be encouraging our players, that whole before phase, the whole before, during and after is, you know, can we take our players through those three things, those three phases, because what you do before you get on the ball will massively impact what you're able to do when you get on it. So for me, that's, you know, that's being skillful. Thanks back to goalkeepers as well. You mentioned Mary Earp's there, one of the most, for me, one of the most skillful goalkeepers around.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:34:23.719
Yeah, and Dan just alluded to it there. When he was talking about that, the first player that comes into my head is Keira Walsh. For years has been one of the most underrated players in the women's game. And I really believe, you know, the tournament over the summer just really highlighted her importance. So Dan spoke brilliant there about the before phase, the way she sets herself and gets herself into a position where she could affect the ball. Then it's her calmness on the ball to then, once she's won it, when she's made an interception, when she's, you know, won a challenge, her decision to stay on the ball or pass to a mate. And then afterwards, it's her movement to then get into another position. She doesn't, she doesn't make a pass and then, you know, what a lot of people do is they make a pass and go, Oh, that was a great pass and just kind of observe how good their pass was. But she's always so ready to them thinking, well, what's next? Where do I need to be next? What's my next movement if we stay in possession? But also what happens if it breaks down? Where do I need to be? For me, I'd love to have a Kiera Walsh in my team. And, you know, I've got a couple of very good central midfielders and yeah, I think this season they probably got bored of me trying to get them better at some of the out of possession stuff because for me that's where Keira Walsh is fantastic and as Dan said, it's not just your forwards that are skillful, it's your pivot, it's your left back, it's your goalkeeper. And we need to put more importance on these players being skillful. There's 11 players on the pitch. They're not 11 strikers. It's 11 of, you know, every position. So yeah, it's really important to, you know, remember that.
[Jamie] 00:35:43.580
Yeah, really good message there. Really good. I suppose a big question here is, is kind of where and when can coaches expect to then discover your work on the Women's World Cup?
[Dan Simpson] 00:35:52.710
I think you can expect to see our work across all of our digital learning platforms all being well. So some of the insights that might be delivered through social media as the tournament progresses. We'll try and get some stuff, some of our observations, we'll try and get out there as the tournament's going on. We've got a dedicated Insight and Analysis blog channel on our FA Community website that allows us to delve into some of the detail of what we've been observing. We've also got four live webinars across the 23-24 season where we're going to disseminate some of this insight and hopefully make it come alive and kind of really ensure that we're linking it to the various challenges that coaches are facing in the game and their environments.
[Louise] 00:36:33.660
And is there a way that people can find out where those webinars and stuff will be? Will it be, where will you post the information about those things?
[Dan Simpson] 00:36:40.640
So a lot of that will go on our social media. You'll see it through the AFL Learning Hub. I imagine if you're signed up to the newsletters as well, they'll go into places like that. Unfortunately, we're not on BBC just yet, but watch this space because you just never know.
[Louise] 00:36:54.880
So finally, can you summarize the key messages that you want coaches to take away from this episode?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:37:03.200
Yeah, I think for me, I've got three key messages. I always say, you know, as an analyst, if you're delivering information to your players or coaching staff, you can only ever do three key messages. Any more than that, players won't listen.
So for me, it's number one, think about how you can use the six capabilities as an observational tool throughout the tournament.
Number two, think about how you can encourage your players to watch the tournament and identify key trends within the game.
And the third one is just to keep an eye out for our insights and resources that we're going to be producing and sharing across our platforms because we develop these to help you coaches. You know, that's really what we're employed to do. So, if we're not doing that, then we're not doing our job right, I don't think.
[Dan Simpson] 00:37:43.860
Well, you've mentioned there about anything more than three key messages and people switch off. So hopefully we've still got some people listening to what I'm about to say. But I think just to recap some of the stuff that we spoke about from my perspective is, just remember that it's a tournament, although it is a great opportunity to observe and role model best practice at the very top level. As coaches, really important we consider the players that we're working with. We identify and recognize what their individual needs and capabilities are. And I've said it so many times and Katie, you've said it as well, but just be calm within practices to ensure that we're not getting frustrated when our players don't always get it right. We'll encourage them to try different things and you know, try lots of stuff, get it right, get it wrong, but have fun along the way and make sure that you're providing your players with that opportunity to practice.
[Jamie] 00:38:30.060
Brilliant, thank you very much. Well, looking at the clock, we are coming up to the end of the episode now, but that means it is time for our Swift Session feature.
[Louise] 00:38:39.440
Yep, so like the beginning, we've got 30 seconds, but this time we asked you to come up with a session idea and explain it to us. So today it would be great if we could have a World Cup inspired session idea. Are you up for the challenge?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:38:52.960
Definitely, yep, yep.
[Louise] 00:38:54.400
Okay, so again we'll set the timer up. 30 seconds on the clock. Time starts now.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:39:00.080
Okay, so this practice idea is called finishing tic-tac-toe, so like noughts and crosses. It's a small sided game, 5v5 with the addition of two keepers, so 6v6. Use of a whiteboard, nine well cut players names across each 3x3 square. Try and get a mix of attacking minded and defensive players on the board. It's just not wingers that are skillful as we've already said. You win the game when your team has got three in a line. So for example, a good finish like Sam Kerr, a reflex save like Mary Earps and a successful 1v1 dribble like Lauren James. Try to get three in a row. Boom.
[Jamie] 00:39:33.900
Oh, look at that. Look at that. You're an avid listener, Kate, so I imagine you've been prepping that and timing yourself, looking forward to that session idea. Is it something that you've used before?
[Katie Sorenson] 00:39:46.500
I've done a similar finishing tic-tac-toe one with the players that I coach, but I got one of the squares was an overhead kick, but they spent about 10 minutes trying to do it. They didn't get to get their cross off three in a row. So, but yes, it's good, it's competitive. And yeah, it's exactly what I said at the start, it's goals, it's fun, you know, get your plays, enjoy it, hopefully have a bit of a laugh as well which you know for us is really important within your sessions.
[Jamie] 00:40:12.440
Well brilliant, thank you to you both for being on today, we really appreciate your time, it's been brilliant chatting to you and so much insight into international tournaments and the things that coaches can look out for and observe and just again just we're privileged to kind of see the work that that you and the team do behind the scenes and there's some really fantastic stuff going on and we're really looking forward to seeing what you're going to be creating on the back of this tournament. So listeners, please do look out on our social media channels to see some of the work that the team do here. It really is fantastic. Yeah, so thank you very much for having on Katie and Dan, hope you've enjoyed it.
[Katie Sorenson] 00:40:45.300
I've had the best time, I've learned I've got a face for radio so it's great!
[Jamie] 00:40:51.140
Brilliant, thank you very much.
Well Louise, that was a really insightful chat with Katie and Dan into the Women's World Cup and International Tournament. What was the key point that stood out for you?
[Louise] 00:41:01.780
Yeah lots to take away from that chat. I think, well we talked about it quite a lot, which was the six capabilities and like using those as an observational tool, but also just remembering that don't just observe what's really easy to see or what you're used to looking for, push yourself a little bit and see if there's any like little subtle things you can find.
[Jamie] 00:41:19.440
Yeah that's a really good one and the six core capabilities are such a big thing to look into and to work on for sure.
For me I think it's just a general point that a lot of people might think well it's an international tournament and from their own coaching context it's quite far away that is very much the elite level of the game but there's always realistically I mean as we've learned today that there is something to actually learn and to take away from that for coaches at all levels it might be watching a player and seeing how their skillful actions and seeing how they can maybe bring that to life in their own training sessions. There's things like that so there's a lot to take away from tournaments and I think that is realistically the thing that I'm going to take away today.
Right, well that is All we have time for but don't forget to check out the episode description for the transcription of this episode and for all the links to our platforms. There you'll be able to click through to the England Football Community. This is where you can post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or just simply to connect with loads of wonderful coaches.
[Louise]
Yeah, we’d love to help you out with your coaching questions, so please do check it out. We’ll get back soon with another episode of Coachcast, so I you haven't already – hit subscribe to make sure you don’t miss an episode. From all of us at England Football Learning – thanks for listening.