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[Jamie]

Hello and welcome to the fifth season of Coachcast by England Football Learning, the coaching podcast that brings you insight from people across the game. As always, I'm Jamie and I'm with Louise and we're kicking things off by chatting to Joanne Williams, an FA Regional Coach Development Officer for Women and Girls, to hear about her journey so far and to get some good advice to help coaches with session planning. Well, hi Jo, welcome to the show. How are you?

[Joanne]

Hi guys. Yeah, I'm good. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

[Louise]

It's really good to have you joining us today. Can we make a start by finding out a little bit more about what it is that you do?

[Joanne]

Yeah. So like you said, I'm a regional coach development officer. So I work in the grassroots team, specifically in the women's and girls team. So in a nutshell, our job is to help grassroots coaches, you know, get a bit better, help with some advice, run coaching courses, CPD workshops. But then the main part of my role is to focus on female coaches. So new female coaches into the game, but also ones that have been there for a little while. It's all just about helping people get better.

[Louise]

Brilliant.

[Jamie]

Thank you very much for that Jo. Just before we kind of discover more about you and your experiences and delve into that side of things, 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 at the top of the show.

[Louise]

Yep, and we call this your arrival activity to help you warm up. So what we're going to do is we're going to give you 30 seconds and we're going to ask you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in those 30 seconds. Are you up for that?

[Joanne]

Yeah, I think I can give it a go, yeah.

[Louise]

Okay, we'll set the timer up and when the music starts you can begin.

[Joanne]

Okay, so first one is definitely to have your balls pumped up. That will just avoid a lot of headaches with players when you get there. Likewise, clean bibs. That's the main thing. Have sessions that have a really easy flow, so you don't need too many cones, you don't need too much equipment. There's loads of stuff you can do with four cones and a ball. Take some time to watch as well during your coaching session. Don't be afraid to stand back, see what's going on, because that's sometimes how you can see some of the magic. Have goals in your sessions. People love scoring goals and opportunities to save them. Perfect. Brilliant.

[Louise]

Really good practical tips there. I like those.

[Jamie]

Yeah, fantastic. Thank you very much for that, Jo. And now we'll dive into the main part of the show really, and we always ask this first question to all of our guests, which is, what was your first experience of football like?

[Joanne]

So it's probably hard to remember exactly my first experience, but I do have some memories of playing when I was at primary school. So I'm going to guess and say maybe I was six, seven, something like that. But I was the only girl, you know, on the school football team. But I very vividly remember wearing my first team football kit. And there's a picture of me sat on a bench before my first game. You know, it was an awful like pale blue, nasty colour. But I just remember having a lot of fun, you know, my mum and dad were there, which was lovely. And I think probably at that time, I didn't notice that I was the only girl on the team. I think I just, you know, my mum always used to say, I used to like just kicking stuff around on the floor. So I think it was inevitable that's what I was gonna do.

[Louise]

Sounds like it was a real kind of nice memory that's set in your brain from kind of being young and just enjoying yourself.

[Joanne]

Oh yeah, some of my best memories are from football. And I think there are some ups and downs, but you will always remember the best bits.

[Louise]

Yeah, definitely. And then in terms of coaching, how did you get involved in that?

[Joanne]

So I've always played up until, you know, my mid thirties. And I remember when I was at my, kind of in my 16 or something, the coach that I had always used to say, Cole, you're always telling people what to do on the pitch and you're always, but you're not like telling them off, you're helping them with what to do. And I never really thought much of it at the time, but I think when I got to university, there were lots of options available. So you could do, you know, your level one in every sport because things are subsidised. So that's really where I started. So I spent three years at university and across that time I'd done my level one, level two, which it was at the time, and started my UA for B. And we used to do, you know, soccer tots Saturday morning, little six-year-olds running around, which is great. It was just really fun. It was a great little job to have whilst you're at university. And I think that's probably where it started that I had this interest in coaching.

[Louise]

So it was something that kind of you were obviously instinctively went toward, but you just the enjoyment of it kind of kept you going in I guess.

[Joanne]

Yeah and I think it was working out that I could work with young kids because I think that's important as well that as you go through coaching you find the sorts of players you want to work with you know and I was younger at the time So I think having a bit of energy, it was just really good fun and we did it as a group of us. There was three or four that would coach together on a Saturday morning. It was just really fun.

[Jamie]

And that first experience, like what did you feel like going into that first experience and How did you prepare for it?

[Joanne]

Again, what was nice is that because we, there was three or four of us that coached together, you felt like you weren't on your own. And we say that as well to new female coaches into the game, that you don't have to just, we're not asking you to go and take a group of young players by yourself because that can be quite overwhelming. So having somebody there as a bit of backup I think was really comforting. It's always nervous when you work with a new group of players, I still get that, because you want to do a good job and you want them to enjoy it. So getting nervous is normal, I would definitely say that that's okay and if you stop feeling nervous I'd maybe think how can I challenge myself a bit more then because this is getting a bit too comfortable now? It's a good point.

[Louise]

What would you say that you enjoy most about coaching?

[Joanne]

It probably changes you know throughout the years of the different players that I work with. But I think ultimately, I really like it when there's that moment when a player, and it will happen, sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes a bit longer, but when they just, they get whatever it is you're trying to help them with and they get, you know, really sense of enjoyment. You can see it on your face and it's the same in young kids and in adults, that kind of sense of achievement. I think I probably get a bit of a kick from that thinking, do you know what, I've helped them to get that next step in their journey.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's a nice feeling that, isn't it? Oh yeah. Knowing that you've supported someone, that they're enjoying it as well. Really nice feeling. Can you give us a little bit of an insight then into, you've touched on it earlier, but a little bit more insight into what your journey was like from your first starting out to the role you've got today?

[Joanne]

Yeah, so I started university on the coaching pathway. I actually took a bit of a break because I was still playing, had a job, couldn't kind of manage everything at the same time. So I waited a bit to finish my UA for B and took a bit of a break. I actually tried refereeing at the time, but that was short-lived. I decided to do a PGC. So I wanted to be a PE teacher. And I think it's from then that I then started picking up the coaching again, because there's so many transferable skills from one to the other. So at that point, I was playing in a women's team, local to where I live now, actually. And I was kind of doing like a player coach role. And that was nice because that was my first time working with adult players, which was a totally different challenge. I'd always worked with kind of under 18 and below up until that point. So yeah, doing that player coach role, which was good fun, which went really nicely to help him finish my UEFA B, which was brilliant. Then I took a complete shift. I was still coaching but I went and worked for a consultancy company, totally different industry, nothing to do with sport at all but I got to travel which was great. And then I've always loved sport, always loved football and I saw that a position came up at the FA as a PE coordinator, which is very similar to the job I do now, but rather than working with just female coaches, it's supporting teachers. So helping them to improve the quality of football and PE in school. So the jobs are very interchangeable. So I did that for a few years and then I switched over to the coach development team and then through that I was able to go through the advanced youth award which is brilliant, learnt loads, really inspiring course and then finally managed to complete my A licence last year which I was really chuffed with because something I've always wanted to do took me a long time to do it so I was really pleased with that and here I am.

[Jamie]

Amazing, congratulations on the A licence.

[Joanne]

Thank you, thank you very much.

[Louise]

So taking everything into account that you've learned from your career so far, what advice would you give to your younger self to prepare them for stepping into the world of coaching for the first time?

[Joanne]

It's okay to get it wrong. I definitely learnt that when I was teaching, that there was never going to be a perfect lesson, there was always things that you were going to get wrong and it's okay as long as you learn from it. You know, the women's game and female coaches football has progressed a lot since when I first started and it was quite daunting. You know, that imposter syndrome was very real at the time because you felt that you were, you know, on your own in this male-dominated world. So I'd probably say to be brave and that just because you're female doesn't mean you don't know exactly the same or even more than somebody else. And then the other thing I would say is it's not always about how much you know about football. You know, everybody's got different skills that you can really make super strengths. You know, maybe it's about building relationships with players, maybe it's about, I learned a lot through teaching around questioning and the questions you ask the players to help them understand. So yeah, I think those are the few things I would say.

[Louise]

I think it's one of those things, isn't it? It would always be lovely to have a conversation with yourself in the past and just kind of encourage yourself with things, but they're a really good tip.

[Joanne]

Yeah, I think the other thing as well, sorry, I was going to say is not to rush. Like, you know, earlier on I was at a qualification gym, I was like, yes, let's do level two, you're ready for B, let's go. But actually, it took me a long time to reach the end of, you know, the qualifications where I wanted to get to. And I'm really glad that it did. Because I think the extra practice and the time to just become better at what I'm doing rather than chasing the next step was really important. So when I come across people even now who are asking when can I do this, when can I do that, it's Just don't rush and do it at the right time rather than getting there too soon?

[Jamie]

Yeah. It's really important advice because it's like you need to put everything into practice ultimately. And that's where you learn most when you're out on the pitch and coaching with, with your team rather than rushing through everything. So really good.

[Joanne]

Exactly. I know some fantastic coaches who have only decided that level one was enough for them but they're fantastic coaches. They could easily have done more but they just chose not to.

[Jamie]

And kind of flipping that then, what's the best piece of advice that you've ever received in your career?

[Joanne]

One of them is definitely you can only be who you are. If you are the sort of coach who is really energetic and bouncy and that's your style, then that's your style. But if you're not like that, it's okay. Don't try and pretend to be something you're not. You have to be authentic in what you're doing, otherwise the players you're working with won't buy into it. You know, I remember when I was a teacher, I'm not a shouty teacher, you know, if kids were misbehaving I would never shout and tell them, because it's just not me, I sound silly when I do it. So I had to use a different approach, which wasn't either better or worse, it was just that just wasn't me. So that's probably the best bit of advice I've had.

[Louise]

That's really good advice actually because you can always feel yourself if you're trying to do something that isn't you, it just feels awkward doesn't it?

[Joanne]

Yeah, like we always say when you're watching other coaches, what I always say is my opinion really, to take the best bits from them but fit it into how you do things, not try to be them. I think it should be the other way around. What are you great at? What are you brilliant at? And actually, what can you steal from other people to help you get better?

[Jamie]

And we've kind of heard a lot of advice already, but if you had one piece of advice to give coaches to kind of help make them make a positive impact on their player's journey, What would it be?

[Joanne]

To take the time to get to know them. You know, if you take on a new team in, you know, September, you've got them for the whole season, you've probably got about 30-ish, even more, weeks worth of football. It's so important to understand who you're working with, to have the best impact you can on them, and it takes time. If you don't know them well enough in the first month, that's okay, take a bit longer. That social part of the game is so important because that's how you can truly help somebody, is by understanding how they learn, what they like to do, how you can talk to them, how you can praise them. That's the most important bit. Because if you rush that, I think, in my opinion, the ways that you help them just become by accident in a way. Do you see what I mean?

[Jamie]

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Now, Jo, you've joined us today to talk about how coaches can plan their sessions for training. So I suppose to start, why is it so important to plan your sessions first of all?

[Joanne]

There's lots of reasons why planning is important. Mainly it's so that you can achieve what you want by the end of the session. That's really for me the ultimate aim. If you don't have a plan, it's then you come kind of, you wing it a little bit. That's okay to do, but you're not going to maximise the time you've got. You know, there are some great games and practices that you can do, which the kids will love and they'll get some fun out of it, but if it's not achieving what you want, we need to go back to the planning to say, okay, what could we have done a bit better? That's the other side of planning as well, is that it then helps you to review, because I think, well that's what I intended to do, Did I get there? If I did, brilliant, why? What was so good about it? If I didn't, why not? What could I change next time? And then the other most important thing for me is I always say to people, plan for the what ifs. So, you know, you've got 10 players in your team. What if nine turn up? What if it starts raining halfway through? What if I've only got half the space I normally have, for whatever reason? What if there's an injury halfway through? What, you know, and you just kind of plan for all these scenarios so that when it happens you think, oh I know what to do now, I've got these ideas already.

[Louise]

Yeah, I can see that being really helpful actually because I think that's the, if you've got those as worries in your head, what happens if, then it can put those things to bed a little bit if you've already thought about it ahead of time.

[Joanne]

Exactly, just get them out of your head. So we've talked about

[Louise]

the what-ifs and what-have-you, but what sort of things could coaches consider as part of the plan? How would you structure it?

[Joanne]

So one of the things I like to do is actually plan backwards, and I learned this through teaching and transferred it over to coaching to go, okay, I've got these players for an hour. What do I want them to have achieved by the end? And it might be their finishing accuracy. Just picking a topic out of my head. Okay. So if that's what I want them to work on, what are the practices that I know that can help with that? And then you might have three or four in your mind, or maybe just one that you go online and have a little look for. And they say, OK, this is the practice. I know it's going to help them with their finishing accuracy. How many players have I got? What challenges can I set them? Are there any ways that I need to adapt the practice to help the players that I've got? And then you end up back at the beginning to go actually today what we're going to do is help run a session to help our players with their finishing accuracy. So you sometimes start, you end up starting in the same place but you have the end in mind because it's only an hour so what do you want them to achieve? So that is something that I've really tried to encourage people to do. So planning backwards is important. What are you hoping to achieve at the end of the hour? Whether that's something technical, whether you've got a social outcome because you've got some relationships, you know, in the team that you need to, you know, maybe it's about, these help learning how to win and lose. That might be your focus for the hour. Other practical things to consider would be number of players, the weather conditions, the equipment that you have available to you, those things are really important. Definitely think about also how you can make your session flow. So if it's only an hour that you've got, which the majority of people have, and maybe the first five minutes you've got to get on to the pitch because there's a team on before you. How can you make it easy so that the arrival activity links to another practice that maybe links to another practice that links to the end, but it makes it easier for you. So it's very quick changeovers. So it's not just the amount of equipment we have, but it's where we're placing it and how we're using it. And then another thing that can be really useful to do is if you have somebody helping you, so maybe it's an assistant coach, maybe it's a parent volunteer, give them a role. Like put them in the plan because a it makes our lives easier as the coach, as the main coach, but also helps them feel valued. And you can give them a really important job that maybe sometimes you forget. Could be something like, you know, for this session I'd really like you to work with these three players and give them lots of praise. So out of those 12, 10, 12 plays you've got, right, that's three, I know that I've got somebody looking after them, I can focus on the other ones. So I see a lot where people have an assistant coach, but they're just kind of there, or they're picking up cones or retrieving balls, which don't get me wrong, is really useful, but we can use them to help us out a lot more.

[Louise]

Very good.

[Jamie]

Yeah, brilliant. There's so many things that you can think of and put in a plan, but how long maybe does it take to make that plan and how long maybe should coaches spend planning?

[Joanne]

It's a really hard one, because I think if we're saying how long you should plan for, well, if your session's an hour, we want it to be equal time going into the planning as it is to the session. That would kind of be, you know, best case scenario. But like you mentioned before, Jamie, you know, sometimes, and it happens to me as well, it's five minutes on the way to training. Because I've been working all day, I just haven't had the time to really think it through and sometimes it's five minutes. So in that five minutes we have to do the best amount of planning possible. And whether that's about, you know, what are we hoping to achieve? How are we going to get there? And then planning the what-ifs, that's what I do in my head in those five minutes. What's the activity? What's the outcome? What are the what-ifs? And go that way. And also, I think it comes down to how much experience you have. If you've been coaching for a long time and you come across scenarios which are very similar, you know about those what-ifs already, you don't have to plan for them because if it happens you know what to do because you did it last time. I'm not necessarily suggesting that five minutes is okay but the more experience you have that five minutes becomes easier. But if you've got the time, use it. That's what I say. And if you can get somebody to help you just to bounce ideas off, I do that with colleagues all the time. We'll say I'm running this session tonight, what do you think? And I'll talk them through it. Getting that advice can be really useful as well.

[Louise]

If we do think about the scenario where you really don't have much time, are there any tips that you would give to someone that would help kind of pull that together a bit quicker? So the things that you've mentioned, the things that you might talk about or think about, but is there something that you might do if you've got less time or you'd suggest to someone?

[Joanne]

This probably kind of contradicts what I said before about planning backwards but sometimes it's just the way that it is. So I will have go-to practices and sessions in my head that I know I've used many times before, I know the sorts of outcomes I'm going to get, So I'll actually go, you know what, this is a really good practice. It might be a bit of a one-off session, but I know it's going to be really fun. The players are going to enjoy it. They're going to learn something, or at least practice something, because it doesn't have to be something new. So that's something I do. Or I'll go back to what we did the previous week. There's nothing wrong with repeating what you did last week. Because again, if it was only an hour, we have to think how much are they going to gain in an hour. It's okay to go back to that and think, do you know what, I'm going to repeat last week, but I'm going to add an extra challenge this week or adapt the game to a slightly different, so it's a bit more engaging. There's nothing wrong with that at all.

[Louise]

Yeah, that's good to know.

[Jamie]

Yeah, and that's a good way to link and enhance learning, isn't it, in terms of building on the progress from last week? Definitely. So yeah, while time might be limited for a lot of grassroots coaches, if time does allow for somebody to plan a little bit ahead, do you think it's necessary to plan maybe like a six week program perhaps rather than just a week or is it not something that's too necessary to do?

[Joanne]

I think there's nothing wrong with it. You know, again, if we look at schools, they'll have curriculums that are set and they know exactly what they're doing. I think just remember that it's a plan. So if you're planning six weeks out, again, I would say plan backwards. What do you want them to achieve by the end of the six weeks? Don't change the topic every week or at least revisit it. So you could do topic A, topic B, topic C and then do A, B, C again. That could be your six weeks. Or you might go A, A, B, B, C, C. A that's easier for us because you're only actually planning three sessions and you just repeat them. But again it helps with learning, we don't just want to keep changing it. So nothing wrong with planning ahead, I think it's really good, particularly if you work in an environment or coach in an environment where you have maybe themes for six weeks, you might have in your head, okay, these are the sorts of things I'll do. But if you have a six week plan, remember you're building off of what they have learnt so far. So if week two is nothing like what you have in a six week plan, that's okay, then we just have to rejig it. If you've got the time there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I think it can be really good practice but it is just a plan.

[Jamie]

And I think while it might sound a little bit daunting thinking oh I'm a coach I've not got much time to do one week never mind six weeks but it could potentially save time moving forward over that six weeks potentially if you've managed to find a little bit of time to go yeah you know what I'll make three sessions and repeat them sort of thing and that's for the six weeks it could potentially save time moving forward.

[Joanne]

Definitely and if you have sessions which have lots of transitions so you know attack to defence, defence to attack let's say it's a 2v2 game of some kind. You might play the 2v2 game one week and say, okay, we're going to focus on our attacking play, maybe our combination play between two players. And then next week you do the same game, but your coaching focus is defending. So I'm still getting to practice attacking core moves as a pair that I did last week but as a coach we're just helping with the defending part. So again that can be another little tip where if you don't have time to plan six That's why repeating sessions isn't always a bad thing, because I'm still getting the practice. I've just flipped where the coaching focus is going to be.

[Louise]

It's a really good tip. Do you have any other top tips that could help coaches quickly plan a session program?

[Joanne]

Yeah, ask other people. If you're stuck, ring up somebody you know, say, right, I need a good session for this topic. Can you help me? Have a look online. There's so much stuff. England Learning website, YouTube, Twitter. There's all kinds of different things. But the other thing to bear in mind is what it looks like on YouTube on the internet is not perhaps how it will look with your group. You know, there's a, I'll give you a funny example. There's a brilliant game I love to play, which is cat and mouse. So it's essentially just a chasing game around a square. One's the cat, one's the mouse, you've got to try and catch them. With or without the ball, that sort of thing. And when you see the video of it online, it looks brilliant. All the kids are playing the game and it's working really well and the coaches loving it. I did it with a group of under eights in the summertime. So it's hot, bear that in mind. I've got one player laying down in the middle of the square because she's too hot, she doesn't want to run around anymore. I've got another pair who are somewhere halfway down the field because they haven't really understand the concept of the square. And then two who are arguing because one was going inside and one was out and it just looked nothing like the video. But it was okay because that was the group that I'd got. So go for those resources but if it doesn't quite look like it does in the video it's okay.

[Louise]

Yeah I think that's life isn't it?

[Joanne]

I mean it was so funny. It was the ones that were laying down in the square I just thought it was hilarious. I just didn't want to move.

[Louise]

I'm sure there's something to learn from that version as well.

[Joanne]

That was not in my what if list. I hadn't gone, what if they're laying down on the floor.

[Jamie]

It'll have to be in next time.

[Joanne]

It will, it will, yeah.

[Jamie]

What are the different session structures coaches can choose from when they are planning the sessions?

[Joanne]

I think the thing with that is there's no set structure. There's nothing that says you have to end with the game. You can start with one. So there are some traditional methods where you might start with an arrival activity or perhaps a warm-up if you've got older players that need that more structured warm-up. Then you might go into a skill-based practice. You know, if it's a dribbling topic you might have everybody on a ball dribbling in and around each other which then might lead you into something that's a bit opposed, whether it's even or uneven numbers and then you might end up in a game. So that's probably the traditional way of building a practice and nothing wrong with it. You could also do it the other way around. Everybody has it, it will come to training, what the player say, are we starting, are we having a match, when are we having a match, when are we having a match. Give it to them first if you want, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Which you know links to another structure which might be a whole part whole. Start with the whole game, whatever that looks like, whether it's 5v5, 3v3, 2v2. Then you'll do a practice in the middle which might focus on a particular aspect. Maybe it's about, you know, that combination play between two players. So you might have a little 2v2 practice. And then you play the game again. So you play the whole game, you do a part of it and you practice and then you put it back into the whole game again with the idea being that it's improved the second time around. From a planning point of view it's brilliant because all you need is just to really plan the bit in the middle in terms of equipment and how you're going to run it. And then you could have a carousel, it's another way. It takes a little bit more logistical planning and you might need to have somebody else support you. But the idea here is that you've got three, as many as you like really, but let's say three activities where you split your players up into three groups and they rotate around the activities that might be another way. Pros and cons to both, sorry to all different sessions it's just different ways of doing it can give you a bit of variety as a coach. Yeah, all kinds of different things.

[Louise]

Would you say that there are any benefits to any of them or some are better than others depending on the different scenario? I know you kind of mentioned a couple of bits there but is there any that you'd recommend to particular people?

[Joanne]

Yeah, so if you've got large groups of players, having practices where, so like the carousel for example, that could be, some ways can be easier to manage because you just, you know, everyone's active, but then you're just coaching a small group at a time. So I'll coach this group over here whilst they're still playing whatever activity it is. So that can be a real benefit. It's hard sometimes to talk to 12 players all at once because you know, some aren't listening, it's maybe wet outside, you don't want to keep them stood still. If you've got players perhaps who struggle with change and need a bit more of a logical flow, so maybe have players who are autistic, it can really help to have a structure. So this is what we do first, this is what we do next, this is what happens after that And actually keeping that the same each week can be a real benefit because that change can be a struggle sometimes. When you don't have a lot of time to plan, if you have a particular structure that you like, it's then easier for you as well because then you know what you're doing. But I think in terms of the structure, it's really just about achieving whatever it is you want at the end. That should dictate how you design your session. Just because you have a match at the end doesn't mean you have to. You can put it at whatever point you want.

[Louise]

Yeah, very good.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I would have loved that as a kid. It was always the match at the end if you've behaved, sort of thing, but I would have loved just to have started with a game.

[Joanne]

Yeah, and do you know what though, but that's okay. If it works with your group to use the match as a bit of a carrot, go for it. That's absolutely fine. It's all about the group that you've got.

[Jamie]

You've kind of spoke already Joey in terms of like that at the heart of the plan is kind of your intended outcomes what you want to achieve but how do coaches actually work out what outcomes they should be aiming for?

[Joanne]

I think this depends on the environment you coach in. So if you're coaching in first team, senior team, and your focus is about earning three points at the end of the week, whatever your game is, then your training should focus on this is what we need to do in the game to win. And if that's, you know, the way, the area you coach in, that's how you want to link it to. For the majority of us though, we probably work in the development stage of football and that doesn't necessarily mean young players. I'm talking non-professional players you know where they're not earning money to play and you know they enjoy playing and okay we win three points but that's not the focus. So from there it's about deciding okay Do I need to have a focus for our game on Sunday? Or is it really about their development? So you might have an age group who are just transitioning into 9v9 from 7v7. That is gonna take some time for them to adjust because they've got two more players, the pitch is bigger and the goal is bigger. And now we play offsides by the way. And that's a huge amount, so it might just be that the focus is really, each week is about helping them to develop. So it could be around tactical parts of the game, So learning offside, that might be your focus for a few weeks. It could be around the technical side of the game, where it's about a certain type of pass, or it might be individual technical challenges, because everybody's a bit different. It could be about the psychological part of the game, Because ultimately players play the game on the pitch and we want to help them to be better at making decisions, being confident, taking risks, being brave to take risks as well, understanding about what it's like to win and lose. So that could be a focus for training or it can be about the relationships. You know, we're going to be working on communication or nonverbal communication or we're going to be working on, I don't know, encouraging our teammates. So it can be anything but it's always about how can I help these players get better? How can I help them understand how to play the game? And that's really where I would kind of take some of my outcomes.

[Louise]

Yeah. We often talk about giving players ownership. Is that something that can be done when planning sessions? And if so, how could coaches do that?

[Joanne]

I think it's something that can be done. If you do it for the first time with a group of players who have never been asked to take ownership before it might fail because they just you know they spend their whole time in school being told what to do and then they come to you and now you're saying, actually, let's have your input here. What would you like to do? And they think, oh, I don't really know. So don't be afraid if it doesn't work. It takes some time for them to get used to it. I'm a big fan of it. I think it's good because, again, from a behavior management point of view, If you say, right, okay, here's the cat and mouse game that I mentioned before. I always set it up, say, right, here's the square. The main rule is the cat has to catch the mouse and you have to move around the outside of the square. You're not allowed in the middle. And then what I'll do is I'll allow them to add rules to the game. If you want to change the shape, make it bigger, make it into a triangle, add some equipment, add a football, however you want to adapt the game, you can, as long as it's a cat-v-mouse type game. That's what I want the game to be. And then that way, when they say, oh, this game's boring, I'm not enjoying it, I say, well, you change the rules. If you want to play it a certain way, what would you like to do? How would you like to adapt the game? And again, it can be a bit difficult for some players to settle for it, because they think, oh, I don't really know. Or they're kind of saying, well, can I do this? And can I do that? You say, yeah, go for it. You know, they're kind of exploring their creativity within the game. Another way you can do it is around picking teams for you know match-up play or something like that. So okay for this week this player and that player are going to pick the teams. Be careful who you choose, you know understand why you're picking those people. Is it because you've got somebody who's maybe gets left out a little bit and allow them to pick the team? It might help them be a bit confident. With that as well, small little tip, let's say there's 10 players, they're going to play 5v5, I allow them to pick two players each and then I choose the rest. So I'm giving a bit of ownership, but we want to avoid that person left stood still on their own. I think that's really important. So that's just a kind of a health and safety tip with that one. If you've got slightly more advanced players, ways that you can give them ownership, but also challenge them is around, let them design set pieces. You know, it can be super creative and they can assign roles and sometimes they come up with weird and wacky things, but they're exploring the creativity of the game. I think it's great. You can assign different roles within training. Who's in charge of the equipment? Who is in charge of making sure everybody arrives on time? Who's in charge of making sure that when we have a drinks break everybody comes back quickly. And these are really small things and yes it helps us as a coach but it helps give them responsibility. That if you know if we want to have a game at the end we've got to make sure we're all playing our part and we're all involved and it's all a team effort. Yeah, so just a few different ideas about how you can do it.

[Louise]

Yeah, really good ones and I think you'll probably only see benefits come out of those kind of things as well.

[Joanne]

Oh yeah, if you pick the right people for different things, definitely you can see some real benefit.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's all about knowing your players though isn't it, knowing how much ownership is it like you say if they've never been given ownership before don't expect it to be to be brilliant so don't give them too much too early sort of thing.

[Joanne]

Yeah we might have to help them in that first bit. So a great way you can say is, okay, you get to pick the rule we change and here's three you can pick from. So I have a bit of control as a coach still, so they can't go off in some weird direction. I say, right, here's some choice, but I'm not giving you all the choice because that might be a bit overwhelming. So I'm guiding you whilst still giving you a bit of ownership at the same time.

[Jamie]

Thinking of the overall session plan, do you think it's important to explain the rationale to your players behind the plan and the intended outcomes with your team?

[Joanne]

I always do. I think it's good practice. I think because it holds us to account as coaches, it makes us stay on task and realise what we're doing. For certain players, you might find that they need to understand why. From the experiences, you know, my previous coaching role was with under 21 female players and they needed to know why they were being asked to do something. Not everybody, but the majority. You know, how is it going to help me? Why are we doing it and why are we not doing it like that? How does it fit in? And it's not to challenge me, it's just so they can understand what it is we're aiming for. Whereas other players will quite happily just turn up and just do what they're told and just want to play and be involved and I think that's okay as well. The other thing is around, you know, I love it when you go to support coaches sessions and at the end of the session they go, right, what is it we learned today? And the kids give like 20 answers because they didn't really know what it was you wanted them to achieve and they might have learned all those 20 things which is fine but you stand with the coach and you go that's not really what I thought they would say and it's funny because we've all been there you know it happens to me and I think and then I reflect and go actually maybe I wasn't completely clear on what I wanted them to achieve but it's always a funny moment when I see that but that's why I think it's important to share those outcomes so that they understand what it is you're looking for.

[Louise]

I think that's a really good way of just figuring out whether you are clear and whether the things that you're setting out to do are being translated that way.

[Joanne]

Yeah I mean it's funny I mean it's happened to me so many times. You stand there and you go, I don't really know what we've just been doing for the last hour, because that really wasn't what I wanted to achieve, but okay, maybe I need to tweak it a bit next time.

[Louise]

That's the thing, it just gives you something to develop for next time.

[Joanne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Louise]

So not everyone will have other coaches to help them but if they do, should everyone's roles and responsibilities be assigned in a session plan? And if so, what types of things can coaches delegate to others to help the session run more smoothly?

[Joanne]

Yes is the answer to that one. I would strongly put them in the plan. Like I said before, you know, it makes it easier for you as a coach because you know you've got somebody there and it helps that person feel like they've got a value in what you're doing. You're not just asking them to be there to do maybe the boring jobs. You know, we actually, they've got something to contribute. We want them to contribute that to the session. So things that you can delegate can be logistical, don't get me wrong. You know, sometimes, can you help me move this goal here? Could you quickly help me, you know, set this practice out? Those things are really useful to have an extra pair of hands. And sometimes that can just be a parent. It doesn't have to be, you know, if there's a parent, you could just ask a different one each way. Oh, would you mind just helping me move this, you know, because it would just really help me out. But like I mentioned before, is whoever you've got helping you, find out what they would like to do. Ask them sometimes, how would you like to be involved here, or and sometimes, oh I'd like to just do the arrival activity. Brilliant, you can do that, I can then set up what's happening next. If they're, you know, a really compassionate person and the kids are really drawn to them, that might be their role. You know, if there's a problem they're the go-to person. Something I come across a lot is lots of parents will coach a team that their own child plays for and that can be a real challenge. So actually when you kind of say well I've got we've got 12 players in our group I'm gonna when I give coaching advice it's going to be to these six players and actually in those six my child's not in there. My assistant coach or whoever supports me, they're actually going to be the one who gives coaching tips to my child because then that can take some of that pressure off and help that dynamic. It's not always a challenge for people but I do come across that quite often, so that can be good. So I'll give you an example, again the last team I was at, we had quite a big squad, we had 21, 22 players, something like that. I can't possibly support 22 by myself. And actually there were some personalities who suited working with my assistant coach more than me because they just related a bit better together. It doesn't mean that we didn't have, you know, a good relationship, but it was just when it came down to those one-to-one conversations, that's how we managed it and we really tried to support the focus group that we had, for want of a better word. So that could be something really useful to do. But I think that would be the main bit of advice, ask them what they want to do, find out what their super strength is and use it to help you.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it kind of links back to what you mentioned at the top of the show, isn't it really? That super strength and just knowing everybody's sort of super strengths and how it can work for for the benefit of the team ultimately doesn't it?

[Joanne]

Oh yeah definitely we've all got that's why I said be who you are they're who they are as well you know it can be that if you need somebody who's a bit more authoritative because you've got a particularly challenging group, then they can be that person as long as they're happy to do it. I think that's key. But it's understanding ourselves as coaches as well as our players and then how we can best help them because ultimately it's all about the players. We can't forget that because if we didn't have them we wouldn't coach quite simply. So it's all about how can we best help them have a good time, enjoy what they're doing, build good relationships, learn some football and achieve and you know grow together as a group.

[Jamie]

Now a lot of the advice we've been chatting about can help absolutely everybody no matter what the age and stage of the players but thinking about planning, does what you plan differ depending on maybe the age of the stage of players that you that you're coaching at all?

[Joanne]

100% definitely because your outcome will be different. That being said, you could have three or four groups of under 12s and you could do the same session with all of them and it would look very different. So in one group, we might have to advance the practice or the game that we're playing to challenge them more because they're a little bit, you know, they're better players compared to one at the other end. So I've used lots of games and activities for different ages and stages, but it won't always look the same. It might be cat and mouse with my under sevens, where they're just chasing each other around the square, but actually with an under 16 group, there might be three or four games going on, and the cats can jump games, so I can chase that mouse, and I can change here. So the premise is the same, but it's never the same thing, because you have to change it to adapt the players you're working with. So that might be the rules of the game are different. The space that you're playing in is bigger to make it harder, smaller to make it harder, you know, depends on your focus. It might be that it's not a 1v1 now, but it's a 3v1 because I want to change the challenge. So I would definitely think it comes down to the age and stage of who you're working with. And if you do tend to use the same activity, it can't possibly be the same every time. There has to be tweaks to help change the group you're working with because all players are different.

[Louise]

Yeah, that's really good. A really good point to kind of put across that it's, it will just depend on your team, but you can kind of stick with similar things, but just adapt to the challenge and stuff.

[Joanne]

That's it. That's exactly it. The more adaptations you can do of the game, you're creating that bank of games in your head. And it's all derived from the same thing, it's just versions of it.

[Louise]

I think we have kind of mentioned match day a little bit but is it important to link your session planning to a match day and vice versa and if so can you talk about how coaches might approach that?

[Joanne]

I think it is important because I like to think of match day as the celebration of you know the week of training whether that's just been one session or it's been two or three or whatever environment you're in. So in that way, I think it is important. Also matches are an extension of training. So it's another way for us to practice what we were practicing a few days ago that we only had for an hour, we can do it again. So yes, where you can, I definitely think you should link it? Because if it doesn't link, I would say, well, why did we do that in training then? How did it link to? It doesn't have to be specific for this particular match, again if you're working in those younger ages, but we need to have that correlation between the two. How you might go about doing it is, it can be actually really useful as a coach to think okay sometimes we can fall into a trap of talking too much on a match day and we're saying all these different things we're trying to help them do 500 different things at once. Well just think about what you did training if what you were doing was two player core moves you know how we can you know combine with another player Just do that in the match. So when you're giving help and advice the only thing you do is talk about that. You can give praise and encouragement, that's all super important as well. But from a coaching point of view that's what I'm going to do. It's a great way to involve parents because you can ask them to really praise whatever it is you were working on in training. So every time they see a wall pass, you know, they can give some encouragement from the side. So it's a great way to involve them as well. For those working, perhaps working in the 11-a-side game, something a bit more tactical. It might be a tactical area that you were working on a train that you want to see in the game. And so the way that I would go about that is thinking about, okay, so what are some of the things that tend to happen in our games in certain areas of the pitch? Right, we're going to practice that during the week. Let's see if we can do it again on Sunday, Saturday, whenever your game is.

[Jamie]

One thing that we haven't touched too much on is kind of like if players have additional needs at all. So is that something that you should plan for, including your planning? Have you maybe got an example to share where you've done that or where coaches might do that?

[Joanne]

Yeah I think that's really important. One thing to bear in mind is that it's not always easy to tell if you've got players who require extra support. Not all disabilities are visible. So one thing you need to do, and we've talked about getting to know your players, that's really key. Involve the parents, talk to them. If the players are able to verbalise it themselves, you can ask them, you know, how can I help you? How can I best support you? That's the real key thing to do. An example, the team I was with, I had a player who has ADHD but also took medication for it and she had a better understanding of it because she was a bit older, so she was 16 and we just had a conversation and at the start of the season she said to me, you know, when you're doing your teen talks or we're having a discussion, she said, I don't want you to think I'm not listening, but I've been at school all day and the medication I take might make it look like I'm not paying attention. And that was a really important discussion to have because then I knew, okay, she's struggling to focus here. I'm not gonna kind of point her out in front of everybody and make an example of her because at this moment in time, she can't help it. So I adapted my approach to her. I then had what I called it like a viewing area. So when you design your sessions you might have this is where we put our equipment, this is where we put our drinks, this is where we have our whatever. I had a viewing area so if she struggled to understand what was going on, rather than putting her straight into the activity, she would kind of go and stand in the viewing area and go, right, okay, I need to watch for a minute. And then whenever she was ready, she would come in to the practice. And it meant that maybe I was one player short for 30 seconds or a minute, but that's for me to manage. It's not for that particular player. It's not her fault. I have to make the game accessible to her. So that viewing area worked really well for her. It made her give her time to kind of refocus on what was going on. Other ones, that viewing area might become a safe space, so if you have players that perhaps get overwhelmed, if it's you know if it's too exciting and there's too many you know stimulus in the air, that they can go there. Here's a bit of a safe space, I just need a timeout, I can just go there. One thing we really advocate for as well, and we do this through some of our workshops, is around having a player passport. And this can be great for every player by the way, it doesn't have to be just for those who require some extra support, but you ask them to fill out and say, okay, you might ask the questions like, when I'm happy, I dot, dot, dot. And you ask them what it's like when they're happy. When I'm upset or confused, I dot, dot, dot. And you can ask them loads and loads of different questions. You know, some of my favorite things are, And it's again a way of giving a bit of player ownership because they're telling you about themselves, but it helps you to understand them better, particularly for those players who might require some extra support and it's not obvious to us because you know they're not in a wheelchair or they don't walk with a frame. It's not as obvious to us so we have to find other ways of connecting with them.

[Louise]

Yeah, really good and I guess that might start you off on the path of getting to know your players, it's a really good way to kind of introduce...

[Joanne]

It's just a really good way of doing it anyway, yeah. Even if you have players who don't require any extra support, it's just a really good practice I think.

[Louise]

So if we look back at everything that we've discussed, could you summarise the key top tips on session planners that you would like coaches to take away from this episode?

[Joanne]

If you've got the time, use it. That's the first thing. Rather than saying, oh, it's okay, I can just do it on the way. But I've actually got 45 minutes now. Second thing, plan backwards. What is it you're hoping to achieve at the end of this hour, this hour and a half, these six weeks, what's the outcome? Don't be afraid to get it wrong. It's not going to be perfect. It's not going to look like what it looks like on YouTube or the England Well-Earned website. It's not edited. It's real life. These things happen. Plan your what-ifs. And that can be things that are within your control or without. And if it's not within your control, so you can't plan the weather, it is what it is. I find it takes a bit of stress away because actually if it does chuck it down halfway through I know what to do. And sometimes it might be, you know what, we have to stop the session now. That can be, you know, one of the answers. Hopefully that summarises most of it.

[Louise]

Yeah, it does summarise kind of what we've been talking about and where the useful things to remind everybody. What we like to do is ask our guests to kind of set a challenge for listeners based on what we've been talking about. Do you have a challenge that you'd like to set to coaches that have been listening?

[Joanne]

I would say planning backwards is a good one. Really stick with that. If you think about what you want it to look like at the end and then you can plan back to where you need to start. Because I think sometimes we can surprise ourselves to think, oh, this is gonna be brilliant. This is what's gonna happen at the end of the session. And you get nowhere near it. And it's not because the session was bad or the players didn't do very well, but you've only got an hour. We need to really think about how we can help them, what it's going to look like at the end. So I would say challenge would be to plan backwards and see if that makes a difference to your planning process and just your thought process. It might not and that's okay but I've found that a really useful tip.

[Louise]

Yeah, and it'd be really good to hear if, like, we'll put a post on the community and it'd be really good to hear from people, like, did that change the way you normally plan? Kind of, what, was it better? Were there challenges that came up from that?

[Joanne]

Yeah, it's much better practice because otherwise we tend to get into this habit of, oh I know these little games are all really good to do, but because we don't know where we want to go with it, they just end up being a great game. And there's nothing wrong with it, but then we end up in that situation with the coach at the end asking the players what they learned and they come up with 20 different things.

[Louise]

Yeah, okay, great, thank you.

[Jamie]

Brilliant, well we are coming up to the end of the show now but that does mean it is time for our swift session feature.

[Louise]

Yep, so this is our ending activity where we're going to give you 30 seconds to explain to us a session idea. You work for this challenge, it's a tricky one.

[Joanne]

Yep, I think I can give it a go.

[Louise]

So once again, we'll give you 30 seconds on the clock, and then when the music starts you can begin.

[Joanne]

Okay. Okay so I'm a big fan of sessions with a lot of chaos, lots of people running around, lots going on. So I call it a 1v1 squares. I make a square like a target zone of myself. I'm playing against you Louise, you make a square somewhere else and we play 1v1. You score by stopping the ball in your opponent's target area, so then I get to attack yours. But the trick is, we're playing a 1v1, Jamie's playing a 1v1 with someone else, and all the games are linking into each other and overlapping and you know it's chaos it's learning and it's a lot of fun.

[Louise]

Very good there was a quiet whistle there. I think you made it in 30 seconds pretty much and yeah it sounded like a good one.

[Jamie]

Is there anything else that you wanted to add that you didn't get in on the 30 seconds?

[Joanne]

All I would just say is even though if you don't have enough cones for everyone to have a square it can be a triangle or it could even just be a gate so you could only have two cones that's fine And I don't have to lay out all the cones myself. You guys set your game up wherever you want it to be. And if your game goes through mine and Louise's game, because we're crossing over, that's fine. Not a problem. It's completely crazy and there's people everywhere, but I think chaos is great for learning. Yeah. It's fun.

[Jamie]

Brilliant. Well I like that idea so thank you very much for that and then thank you very much for your time today. We've kept you for quite a while and you've given us so many top tips to take away so thank you very much. It's been great to listen to you and hopefully you've enjoyed being on Coachcast.

[Joanne]

Yeah, it's brilliant. I've had a great time. Thank you for having me. I hope the tips useful that people get a lot out of them and be interested to hear what people think.

[Louise]

Brilliant, thank you. Brilliant.

[Jamie]

Right, well that is all we 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 and this is where you can post all 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.