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[Jamie]
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 the FA's Dom Edwards and grassroots coach, Myles Hadley, to find out all about the greater game and the role coaches can play in applying it. Well, hi Dom, hi Myles, welcome to the show. How are you both?
[Dom]
Really well, Yeah, really excited to be here. Thank you, Jamie.
[Myles]
Yeah, very good. Thanks.
[Louise]
It's really great to have you both with us. Dom, can you start us off by telling us about your background in coaching and your role in this project?
[Dom]
Yeah, so I've coached for over 15 years now in various settings. So grassroots football, including sort of setting up grassroots teams, boys' academies, girls' academy football, and university football. So kind of a range of different coaching roles in a range of different settings. I'm also a university lecturer, specialising in coaching, So I'm passionate about all things coaching and youth development. My role really within the project is really to focus on the development of the greater game and really thinking about how we can try to make sure that what we create is really engaging for young people but also very educational as well.
[Louise]
Thanks Don. And Myles, you coach a team don't you?
[Myles]
So, assistant coach to the under 13s Blues since they were the under seven Blacks. Interesting run of ages to take the team through.
[Louise]
Oh fantastic. I bet it's been great seeing them develop over time. And that's the team that you've introduced the Greater Game project to, so we'll hear a bit about that later.
[Jamie]
Yes, and as the Greater Game is today's focus, which as Louise says we'll dive into shortly, we thought it would be a good idea first to give you some Greater Game-based coaching tips for any coaches that could be on the way to training.
[Louise]
Yep, so Dom, as your arrival activity in 30 seconds, could you give us some coaching tips based on a few of the core elements of the project, which are moving well, thinking well, eating and sleeping well. When the music starts, you can begin.
[Dom]
So thinking about move well could be as simple as on a match day trying to ensure that your subs have a bit of a challenge. So maybe whilst you're playing your 7v7, 9v9, whatever you're playing, If you've got some substitutes, the other team have some subs, can we maybe go into a 2v2 on the side of the pitch if there's space, that'd be great. And then maybe thinking about the think well element as well could be a way to encourage young people to actually reflect. Maybe on a drinks break you just put a whiteboard and a pen near the drinks and As they go over to have their drink, they just jot something down in terms of reflection on what maybe they're doing really well or maybe a question they might have to help them improve.
[Jamie]
Great timing there Dom and also some really great tips for people to take away. I suppose now to give it all a little bit more context, we'll dive into the main part of the show. We'll start by asking you, Dom, first. Can you go into more detail about what The Greater Game is, please?
[Dom]
Dom Innes Yeah. The Greater Game is a really dynamic health and wellbeing initiative where we're challenging young people to embrace one healthy action per week. So whether that's, for example, thinking well or moving well, as I mentioned in my top tips, or focusing on sleep or what they're eating, so their nutrition as well. And the grassroots part is really about using the power of football to try to transform both on pitch performance and off-field lifestyle, particularly focused with the 12 to 16 age group.
[Louise]
Perfect. And why is it so important that we tell our listeners and our coaches all about it?
[Dom]
Yeah, I think it's quite difficult being a grassroots coach in terms of the amount of support that potentially we can provide young people in the contact time that we get. But really, you know, as coaches we do have a wider responsibility to support young people as we're a real key stakeholder in their lives. So I think if we look at young people and maybe their lifestyles that it can be quite hard for young people maybe to think of what they might need to do out of the pitch that maybe can help on the pitch as well. If we think about the idea around one healthier action per week, then in a football context it might be as simple as maybe just encouraging your players to think about their sleep habits pre-match. We know obviously that's going to affect their performance on the pitch, but also it's going to affect them off the pitch as well. So when we're working with, for example, your under 15 or under 16 age groups, they're balancing a lot of things like, for example, revision of their GCSEs. So things like actually supporting their sleep will not only help them on the pitch, but also could help them off the pitch in terms of helping them concentrate, helping them with their revision, et cetera, and also helping them balance all those different things that they've got going on in their lives.
[Louise]
Yeah, it sounds really important for that balance, as you say.
[Jamie]
And Jon, you mentioned again in your answer there a little bit about it, but can you kind of go into more detail about how coaches can really help, you know, with the outcomes that we're wanting to achieve with this?
[Dom]
So we often see training through the lens of the four corner model within coaching, which is, you know, a really good way to view it through the psych, physical, social, technical, tactical development. But the greater game really looks to support the holistic development of the player in terms of how they eat, sleep, move and think as well. So in terms of what we as coaches can do to help, Obviously we know that potentially within the grassroots, you might only have an hour a week and a match day, but it's thinking about what can we do as a really important person in a young person's life to give them kind of the tools. So whether it's provide them with some resources or provide them with some ideas as well, or even just signposting them to where they can find out more about some of these areas, which will hopefully create some really healthy habits for their future and going into adulthood.
[Louise]
So, the greater game is made up of four core elements. So, you've kind of mentioned some of those, but moving well, eating well, sleeping well and thinking well. So if we break those down a little and start with moving well, what does moving well look like for 12 to 16s?
[Dom]
Yeah, I think for some grassroots players, we know that if they're taking part in training and a match day, that might actually be the only physical activity they're actually doing outside of school in their PE classes during the week. So that could be maybe an hour of training, and if they play the game, they might get an hour. If they're maybe a substitute, they might get slightly less. So we know that's obviously quite a lot less than the recommended sort of daily amount of 60 minutes a day. So we know in terms of moving well, there's probably a little bit more that we can encourage people, young people to do, which would be great. And of course the physical fitness of players will improve by helping them work on their movements and their general, I guess, health and well-being as well, which is obviously really important. But as I mentioned before, it's going to hopefully help build those healthy habits going into adulthood. And if you think about sort of on-pitch performance, then there's some great things in terms of, you know, that ability to make those repeated sprints, the ability to make that recovery run late on in a game or win more one-v-one duels. So I think that's kind of what it looks like on the pitch, but also off the pitch as well.
[Jamie]
And Myles, kind of like from your perspective, what's kind of the reality of like what moving well looks like for 12 to 16s, you know, what do you see week in week out at your club?
[Myles]
Sure, so it goes back to what Don was saying really, there's an obvious difference between those that attend other sports related clubs, athletics or tennis, versus those that only come along to the club for training and match days. After about 30 minutes the gap in the energy starts to show. Fortunately for us the majority can keep up for the full 90 minutes of training and then the 60 or so of game time. But we're quite fortunate that we have access to other clubs. For example, my son trains with Cambridge United on Mondays, Norwich City on Tuesdays and us at Camberwell Town on the Thursdays. And there's a few others in the team that do similar. Some of them are in the more advanced leagues as well, so they play on the Sundays and train another day of the week with those teams as well. The general impact is that they're more conditioned to stay active because they've got that added incentive of retaining their places within those teams. And the upshot of that is that it generally tends to bring the others with them. So despite the fact that they might not be quite as fit and demonstrating that in the training sessions, there's still that drive and that desire to become more fit so that they can keep up with the rest of the team.
[Jamie]
And these questions to both of you, how can coaches then encourage players to move well outside of training and match day? And Myles obviously saying there that maybe not all of the kids have got access to all of those opportunities. So this will be quite important maybe for some coaches to listen to from your perspective with that as well. But if we start with Dom first. Dom Innes
[Dom]
Yeah, I think it's just really simple techniques in terms of encouraging them to take part in physical activity, whether it's even within their own home, but then as well thinking about how can we get a bit of social buy-in for that. So it could be things like setting your squad or your team certain goals. So you could say, right, we've got training on a Wednesday night. Before training next Wednesday, as a team, we're going to try to get a thousand star jumps in. And that way they can differentiate a little bit. So it could be someone who's a little bit more active, maybe he's really keen, wants to get involved. Maybe they've done 100 star jumps that week. Someone else maybe has done 50, but they add it together as a team, and they try to aim to hit that target of hitting 1,000 star jumps. So hopefully it's that way to kind of encourage people to buy in, but also the teammates are getting involved then of course they're probably going to want to get involved as well. So you know really simple techniques that I think that we can set at the end of a training session which can really make a big difference.
[Jamie]
And Myles how about yourself?
[Myles]
So I think encouraging the team to play as a team at school in the break time as well so that they're actively welcoming everybody in to participate. Having the boys arranged to meet on the Astro outside of school times as well in between the other training slots and the facilities that we've got in and around Camborne. We could perhaps publicise the other clubs, the Cambridge United, the Norwich City, but also the tennis and the football and the basketball and all the other things that are available to them, to the parents, so that they can see the other options that are available. And just activities such as those on the greater game cards one of the challenges that we set the lads was the crossbar challenge which involved them having to go out outside of training down to the wreck find a goal and see how many times they can hit the crossbar within a certain amount of time and that the competitive nature of it was pretty much the lure in itself and then the sense of personal pride there was at stake if you didn't win. So that worked out quite well as well.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, love a good crush bar challenge.
[Louise]
So you mentioned some cards there, Myles. Can you explain to us what those cards are?
[Myles]
Certainly, as part of the Greater Game program and as part of each of the broken down parts to that Eat Well, Sleep Well and Think, there's certain challenges that are laid out on almost like game show cards that you can turn them over face down and get the kids to pick from the deck of cards under each of those and as I say the one that actually worked out the best for us was the crossbar challenge under move And then you've got a similar set of challenges for the others.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, thanks for that. If we can move on to the next sort of element of the greater game, which is eating well. Dom, what does eating well look like for 12 to 16s at football?
[Dom]
Yeah, I think we're all aware of eating five a day and the importance of being hydrated in sport and that's excellent. It's something that obviously we're still really pushing towards within the greater game as well. But within the greater game, we're also trying to educate young people on what we call the food formation. So tactically, you might have like your 4-3-3 or your 3-5-2, but the England teams use formations to build their meals as well. So for example, they might have a 3-1-1. So that might be what we call the fuel. So high carbs. So if you say three, that's three carbs. The next one would then be one portion of protein and then one portion of fruit and vegetables. So you might have a 3-1-1 formation and that might be on days where we might have some sort of high intensity training or post-match for example. And then you'd have a 222, which is a repair formation or a 123, which is a protect formation as we would call it. So a 222 would be sort of balance between the carbs, the proteins and the fruits and veg. This could be maybe a day, you know, just as sort of a standard non-training day, for example. And then the 123 would be lower carbs, more vegetables in particular for general health and wellness. You can find out more about this actually on the FA website. So it's definitely something that's really, really interesting to look at because really you know young people and athletes as well, This is why the England teams do it, but on different days, we're going to need potentially different fuel or different foods. It's definitely something which if we start to think about as we're a little bit younger, it can be a really good habit to build. In terms of when we talk about one healthier action a week, this could be something in which we could encourage our young people to have a look into. We started to think about actually, you know, what are we eating and how will that potentially fuel our performance, but also how will it help us off the pitch as well? And maybe that links back to some of the stuff I mentioned before around, you know, when we get to times like revision and balancing grassroots football and all the other things we have to do, You do need to be able to be fuelled for that, which is definitely something that's so important.
[Louise]
Yeah, definitely. And I really like the way the formation side of it's done. It's a really kind of engaging way of thinking about it. How can coaches have a positive impact on their players in this space? How have you dealt with that, Myles?
[Myles]
So within our clubhouse, we provide access to fresh fruit, water, fruit juices and such force. But the biggest impact here is to be had at home. One thing that we found is that the parents actually welcomed the excuse or the motivation that the Greater Gain programme gives to bolster the message that they are constantly battling with their children to eat more healthily. But despite the press coverage to the contrary our kids typically eat a balanced diet. It may just be the demographic of Cambridgeshire, however it didn't appear to be a big change that was needing to be made. And I think having Cristiano Ronaldo push away a bottle of Coca-Cola and replace it with a bottle of water on national television probably helped as well in the kids swapping sugary drinks for those with more hydrating properties.
[Jamie]
Absolutely, I'm not surprised by that. But that's great to hear that that's what it's like in your area of the world, Myles. Next, sleeping well. What does sleeping well look like at this age?
[Dom]
With good sleep, you know, we'll all be really aware of how important that is and the impact it will have on us in our daily lives. But I think from a coaching angle, we often think about it from a physical standpoint. So, you know, you'll be tired, you'll be a little bit slower on the pitch, you'll be more sluggish, etc. But there's a variety of different impacts that will be placed upon the 12 to 16 year old if they don't get enough sleep. So basic things like the lack of concentration, so the ability maybe to understand what their role might be on the pitch. If they're a little bit tired, that's going to be more difficult. Even things like technical performance. Without going too academic research heavy, there was some really cool, interesting stuff around players who slept 10 hours or slightly over showed improvements in their sprint times, but also their passing and their shooting as well, which I thought was really interesting compared to maybe people or young people that slept for six to eight hours. So basically, the more you sleep, the bigger impact it's going to have on your game technically as well. And you know, maybe sticking to the physical side, but there's also a huge link or correlation to injury as well, particularly muscle injuries. So if we want to obviously help support our young people and make sure they're fit and ready to perform and play and actually able to play, then we want to ensure that obviously they do get enough sleep. And then finally as well, I think sleep well does move across all of them in terms of thinking a little bit about the eat well and sleep well and how they work together. But if you get less hours sleep, again research suggests that you're actually more likely then to eat more fast food. So sleep really is connected across all the elements. So it's something which I think is really important and sometimes almost a bit of a hidden element if you like, that maybe we just think it goes without saying, but it's something which I think that young people potentially definitely don't think too consciously about. It's something that we can definitely support them on.
[Louise]
Yeah, it's really interesting, lots of really interesting background stuff behind it. But I suppose this one might be the trickiest one out of all of them for coaches to have some impact in that. Is there anything that coaches can do to get this across and kind of build it into their sessions?
[Myles]
From the challenge cards perspective, this one didn't go down well at all. Telling children to go to bed earlier, not have their phones at their bedside, and reduce times on their Xbox is never going to be met with enthusiasm. Despite the parents vocal support I think that this will be a challenge to enforce which is a shame as Dom's alluded to here it heralds the most advantages in terms of growth and mental health and general well-being. Perhaps some celebrity endorsement might be required here as well and all we can do is point out the benefits on and off the pitch.
[Dom]
Yeah definitely I think that it is a really difficult one for coaches to make a big impact on and pointing out the benefits is definitely beneficial. I think it's similar to the point that I raised earlier around setting goals for your squad. It could be if there's that social connection around the idea of if we as a group, for example, say we're right at nine o'clock, ten o'clock on a pre-match, we're going to make sure that none of us are on social media and none of us are on our WhatsApp group or our group chat or whatever it is. That'll be a really good idea maybe for them then to hold each other accountable. So I definitely agree that it's very difficult sometimes for adults to say something simple, such as you need to be going to bed at a certain time. But actually, if they can almost hold each other accountable to it as well, then that's a really powerful way to make an impact in that area.
[Jamie]
Yeah, I mean, I like that idea to be fair. It's all about making little strides in each area, isn't it, as well? Yeah, it's always going to be a bit of a challenge telling teenagers when they should be going to bed, but it's like we can make working with parents as well is really crucial just to kind of make those little steps. I really like that Dom just like having a little bit of a almost like a team ethos. Yeah. Night before match day sort of thing. We're not going to be chatting about and being online past a certain time, for instance, maybe is just one way to go with it in that area. The final area then is thinking well, and Don will stick with you for this first question. What does that look like at this age for training and matches?
[Dom]
Yeah so if we look at like the youngest age groups, thinking sort of the five to eight year olds, they have issues potentially sometimes like physically sharing. So like sharing the ball for example. As we get older like the sort of 12 to 16 age group, they share the ball but they're very less likely to potentially share their thoughts, their feelings, their emotions with each other. So, you know, I work with an under 16 group at the moment and that's something that they still struggle with as well at the age of 16. I think that young people at that age group as well can be quite themselves and they can potentially find it quite difficult to maybe put themselves out there. So things that I've done in the past that as a coach I thought were great ideas, so for example I might have maybe a 1v1 going on and I've got people, the rest of the group, watching that 1v1 happening. And I'd say, right, as we're observing, I'd like you to then provide some feedback in 20 seconds on the 1v1 and how they got on. And actually, then when I'd stop it and say, right, can we give some feedback? It was then just deadly silent because they didn't want to say anything potentially that was critical because they didn't want to put themselves out there and say something which could maybe upset someone and then even when they did say something positive it was still quite reserved in terms of what they were doing and then also the impact maybe that had on the players as well that were actually playing whilst other people were watching. All these things I think we have to think about as coaches in terms of the way we structure our sessions and our practices. But then if we think about, you know, what can we do as coaches to maybe start to bring our players out of their shells a little bit and start to like normalize this. So it's actually fine to talk about our feelings and our emotions, you know, what are the key things we can do. You know, it could be really simple things. I think that actually if we as coaches potentially are a little bit more vulnerable ourselves sometimes. So if we say, oh yeah, in this moment in a game or in this moment when I was younger, I felt like this. That can actually then encourage other people to start to open up or players to open up. I think that's really, really powerful. It could be simple things like little techniques you could do where maybe you get a hat, a little beanie hat, whatever it might be. You might write everyone's name on it, put it in the hat, and you ask a player to pull the name out of the hat and they give themselves 30 seconds to basically think of something that they really like that player has done in the last few games. Could be as simple as that and actually then straight away they start to build that connection, build that idea about sharing, sharing their thoughts, sharing how they felt about someone else, and that can then maybe start to break down those barriers a little bit. And I think as well, you can do that with boys and girls. I think that it could be different within the genders, but it's definitely something I would encourage across there. And I think as well, it's around, even on pitch, it's quite difficult sometimes if players don't feel what we'd call like psychologically safe. So are they safe to maybe like make a mistake on the pitch? If they don't feel like they're safe to do that in the environment that we've created within the club, then they're probably not going to also then provide feedback to each other on the pitch, which again is a really important thing within football, within any sport actually. So yeah, I think there's a lot of things there for us as coaches to look at and hopefully a lot of things that the greater game can help support coaches on within the think well element.
[Jamie]
You mentioned psychological safety there and almost like that, you know, creating that right environment and a safe environment there, Dom. And especially important at this age, isn't it? You know, players will be going through puberty, which can bring obviously a lot of change and challenges for them. So it's really important for coaches to be able to show empathy and to be able to create the right environment where they feel safe at this age. So do you have any like top tips or about how important that is for coaches to do to support them to think well as well?
[Dom]
Yeah, it's a really good point. I think young people going through puberty at this age, you're going to have an increase in anxiety. They're going to become far more aware of how they're seen by others. And I think the last thing we as coaches should be doing is kind of then trying to put them on the spot and force them to talk about their feelings or force them to talk about their emotions in those moments. It's about trying to encourage them to do so in a positive way. So I think within this age group as well, you start to almost get those like social hierarchies in the group. So maybe people that are more loud and more extroverted and they're more open about sharing stuff and maybe others that maybe are far less so. So if we're going to maybe start to talk about our thoughts and feelings, and it could be as simple as maybe it's post-match and it's just saying, right, so during this game, we conceded a goal two minutes before the end. So how did we feel about that? Now, even if you ask something like that, you probably get a response from maybe one, maybe two individuals in the group. So what you could do is you could just do what we might call like a think-pair-share technique. So I'm going to pose a question and I might say, how did we feel about that in the context? Give them maybe 30 seconds to have a think, and then I might say, right now, with the person next to you, just share how you felt about it. So we're now sharing as a pair. We're not having to share our opinion in front of the group. And now when it comes, because they've now vocalized it, and they've had a bit of a chat about how they felt, now when it comes to the group discussion, it should be a lot easier now for people that have already got an answer in their head without feeling like they're put on the spot. So just simple things like that, I think is a far more empathetic way to work as a coach. And so giving people time to actually think rather than rushing people and expecting people to then potentially provide a response which they might be uncomfortable with doing.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. And Myles, have you tried any of, you know, maybe the Think Challenge cards here to help support your players to think well?
[Myles]
Yeah, I have, I have. And this one surprised me, actually. It seems that children today are more open to speak about their feelings and certainly my generation would have been. They took the cards, allowed the children to pick the cards and these ones were more questions posed as opposed to activities and actions to be undertaken. But after a bit of messing around and hugging one another, the message seemed to come across and there was some genuine interaction between the kids. One stat that did catch our attention was the one in six people that seemed to suffer adversely to mental health. And I don't think that was widely known that the issue was actually as prevalent as they first thought. But in any event it had the desired impact. It was actually them talking about it whether they agreed or disagreed that that wasn't the issue. The issue was that they were understanding that the issues are out there and that by talking about them and about by sharing your concerns actually you can make things better not just for yourself but for your friends and teammates.
[Louise]
Yeah it sounds like a really useful kind of conversation starter from those cards. So it's good to hear that it went well on that point for you. Myles, as a grassroots coach that's been close to the project and has actively looked to implement it with their team, what top tips have you got for our listeners to help them do the same?
[Myles]
Sure. It was met with a mixed bag of enthusiasm from the team members. You had those that were right up for it and those that were a little disinterested. One of the tricks is to get the enthusiastic kids to bring the others up. So it's not the coach suggesting it, it's actually the teammates wanting everybody to get involved. Make it competitive, because that generally helps. Usually you'll find that the people that are attracted to sports have got that competitive nature anyway. Also let the kids choose the cards was probably the better thing that we decided to do because again it was their program then. It wasn't my program that I was trying to force upon them. They were actually establishing it and running it and competing in it themselves. And get parent engagement is certainly the biggest piece of advice. If you look at the move and the think, actually they're quite easy things to do in training and certainly help that we can give directly and proactively. Because we spend such little time with the kids, the eat and sleep, whilst we can evangelise about the benefits of it, we will need the parents to ensure that it's in some way policed at home so that the children can see the benefits of it. It's not just us talking about it, they can genuinely feel better about themselves as a result.
[Louise]
And you mentioned parents there. How have the families taken to it, like parents and carers, and have they been engaged with it and wanting to learn more about these?
[Myles]
So again, a mix. We've had those that were very welcoming of the support to help reinforce positive messages that were perhaps falling on deaf ears beforehand. And then we've had those that actually saw it as a bit of a struggle and perhaps maybe bring about a bit of confrontation that they could have done without. But I think this is the the trick to pitching the programme in the right way, in the fact that actually it's in everybody's best interests to do the things that the programme suggests. Everything that it suggests that you do is best practice and therefore it shouldn't be met with any reticence. It should be something that's championed by everybody and I think once that message is received, processed, I think it's very difficult then for anybody to argue against doing it. And is
[Louise]
that the same with the players? Have they enjoyed it? What's the feedback been from them?
[Myles]
They have because of the competition element of it. Like I said, it's always fun for children to be competing against each other, but also about the other activities that it brought about. In school, it gave them again something collective to talk about and activities to do together and outside of school. Again just something for them to concentrate on, focus on. They've got a ball, what are they going to do? Actually here you go, why don't we do the crossbar challenge now? Or where's the cones? Let's do the racing through the cones, I bet I can do it faster than you. It starts to get along those sorts of lines and it's good. You can see the motivation that it brings because there is a reward at the end of it.
[Jamie]
Yeah, and it's really good to hear and yeah, I like the fact that the gamification side of it can really bring out that competition element in the players. I just want to ask a couple of questions on parents here, Myles, because you've already alluded to it a little bit. So I was just wondering, do you have any top tips to help coaches connect and work with parents and carers on this at all, because, yeah, we've got to obviously get their buy-in and it can be a bit of a potentially difficult thing to get across.
[Myles]
In terms of the parents, certainly a briefing to them is worth doing, setting up the WhatsApp groups and the other chat groups so that in the same way that the children are talking about it, actually the parents are talking about it as well. So those sorts of things help to get the level of buying.
[Jamie]
And my second question on parents is, it is worth saying that everyone has different backgrounds and circumstances, so there may be reasons why perhaps say sleeping and eating habits aren't maybe as good as they could be, for instance. So do you have any advice to help coaches not only broach the topic with parents and carers, but also do so while showing empathy for everybody's situations as well.
[Myles]
The conversation with the children needs to happen for them to understand the benefits of it so that there's less resistance and then have that conversation with the parents and carers to let them know that you've already had the conversation, that the child has already signalled some sort of buy-in, so there should be less fight back in terms of, no, come off your Xbox now, or no, put your phone in the drawer type of conversations that are to be had. But again I think it echoes back to just reiterating the genuine benefits, the genuine health benefits that come about just from these actions. That would generally go down quite well.
[Louise]
That's all really useful tips, thank you Myles. Dom, after hearing all about it, if coaches are interested to find out more and they want to implement the greater game in their coaching, where do they need to go to to access any relevant resources and what resources can they expect to find there?
[Dom]
Yeah, great. I mean, this is obviously just a real whistle stop tour of the greater game elements, but they can find out more on our website. There's also content for young people on YouTube as well, which hopefully will be really cool, really engaging. I think there's some really exciting content that maybe coaches can use in training, such as sort of session ideas, but also resources they can actually give out to players like meal plans and advice as well across each of the elements, which is great. And as well, like I said, with that YouTube channel, there's going to be some really exciting videos with England players talking about all the areas and sharing their own experiences as well of maybe things that they used to do when they were under 13s or things they used to eat when they were 15, 16 and how that's maybe helped them get to where they are today. So, some really powerful stuff that hopefully is really exciting, not only for coaches, but also for young people as well in the future.
[Jamie]
James Lee Burt Yeah, and hopefully, obviously, within hearing that, obviously, it's that endorsement that you was talking about as well, Myles, like hearing from potential role models in terms of what their life was obviously like growing up in terms of in the areas of obviously moving, thinking, sleeping and eating well as well. So hopefully that has a positive benefit as well to seeing those assets. Finally, taking everything in that we've talked about into account today, and we'll come to both of you on this. What are your key messages that you would like people to take away from this episode?
[Dom]
Yeah I think there's a lot for grassroots coaches to think about and the greater game isn't about overloading them with brand new information. It's about trying to support our young people to make one healthier action per week. It will help them both on and off the pitch and will also hopefully help them to make some really positive changes to their lives and create some positive habits that will stay with them as they get older. So I think really a key message from that is maybe just to think about the holistic development of the young people we work with and the players we work with. Think about what else can we do as coaches? So it can be as simple as potentially setting a challenge in between training sessions. It could be as simple as maybe downloading some resources and providing that to our players, or maybe as simple as having a conversation with one or two parents about certain things that maybe you feel could help your young person on the pitch and maybe even off the pitch as well. Because obviously we always identify these things in terms of we can see maybe if a young person's becoming quite stressed because of exams etc and maybe that's a conversation we could open up and start to have with young people.
[Louise]
Just before we hear from Myles there, we often ask for our guests to set a coaching challenge to our coaches that they can try. So I think you've listed quite a few things there that people could potentially go away and try off the back of this. So back to you, Myles.
[Myles]
So really it's three key messages. First of which is you need the parents to be bought into the whole premise of the program and actively support it. Secondly, you need to make it competitive and rewarding for the children to want to do it. And then third is you need to carve out time in training to focus on it. It can't be an afterthought. It needs to be something that everybody knows that there is time for the conversations, there are times for the children to select the cards and there's going to be times for conversations, not just at the end of the session to set it up for the next time but actually as a review of the previous session when you come along to the following training. So that they would be the three main things that I would suggest are probably key to ensuring that the program runs successfully.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, thank you both very much for that. Some really good key messages to take away and really enjoyed hearing about the greater game as well. And also Myles hearing your side in terms of what the application has been like as well. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of coaches that when they get into this will resonate with your stories as well and your experiences. So it's great to be able to hear those. Well, we are coming up to the end of the episode now. But there is just a little bit of time left and that is for our Swift session feature.
[Louise]
Yep. So this is a challenge where we ask one or both of you to explain a session idea to us in 30 seconds. Just a little bit of fun. Do either of you want to have a go? Dom looks like he's up for it. And Myles?
[Dom]
Yeah, I've got one.
[Louise]
Okay, so we'll give you 30 seconds each. Well, I'll set the timer up and when it starts, you can begin.
[Dom]
Cool. So mine, obviously focusing on move well is thinking about how can we maximize the physical elements within the session. So thinking about what sets and what reps we might plan for. So for example, it could be if we're doing some sort of one v one practice, you don't need any equipment. It could be used to send the circle. Everyone's playing one v one. One person has to keep the ball in their half. The other person has to get the ball and get it in their half. And maybe you'd play that game for like 30 seconds, really short, sharp, really short break. And then you're going to go again. You might do it five or six times.
[Louise]
Love that. Good timing on that one.
[Dom]
Was I *** on to the second Lou? That's what I was trying.
[Louise]
Was there anything else you wanted to add to that?
[Dom]
No, I just think it's about when we plan our sessions as well, we can really think about the, obviously the FA and within coach education, we've got some really good stuff on like 70% ball rolling time and what can we do to try to increase the ball rolling time we have and just planning out really carefully like if I'm going to do a 1v1 practice, how long am I going to do that for? And how long can they have a rest in between? And how many times am I going to repeat them doing that set, if you like. Would be really, really cool. And I think that would really help coaches plan their sessions and help, therefore, help young people become more physically active within those sessions as well. And the only other final thing on that, sorry to go well over the time, but if we ensure like the space is quite small, but there's quite a lot of interference, like other people doing 1v1 in the same space as well, you're going to get loads of great outcomes in terms of different movements and loads of accelerations, decelerations, lots of stopping and starting, which is always great.
[Louise]
Okay, over to you Myles, are you ready?
[Myles]
Well I think it's very optimistic to stick to 30 seconds.
[Louise]
We can only try, can't we?
[Myles]
OK, so my suggestion, and we've tried this in a number of different sessions, is moving triangles. So attacking and defending in groups of three. Just to get the kids used to thinking around positioning, screening and transitioning. So that we can overload on the ball and then everyone's in the right position for when the turnover happens is that they've got at least two other people to be able to pass to and if the ball gets lost again then all three of them are in the right position to go and win it back.
[Louise]
Perfect, it's a really good session.
[Jamie]
Well yeah Dom, Myles, that was great, thank you very much and cheers for your time. It's been great having you on Coachcast and we really appreciate you coming on to introduce the idea of the greater game with us, sharing your coaching advice with us and our listeners as well. Hopefully you've both enjoyed it and it's come across really well. So thank you very much.
[Dom]
And thank you so much guys. Great. Thanks guys.
[Jamie]
Right. That is all we do have time for today, 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]
Yep, we'd love to help you out with your coaching questions, so please do check it out. We'll be back soon with another episode of Coachcast, so if 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.