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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. As always, we're Jamie and Louise and today we're joined by Katie Sorensen, a Game Insights Analyst, to chat about the core skills your players need to develop. Well hi Katie, welcome back to the show, how are you?

[Katie]

Yeah, morning both, yeah really good, Looking forward to being back in the hot seat. Been about 18 months I think since I was last here. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I'm excited going solo this time.

[Louise]

Yeah, really nice to have you back again. And for anybody who didn't listen to the episode that you were on before or kind of just wanted to know again, what is it that you do and tell us a little bit about it.

[Katie]

Okay, so I'm a Game Insights Analyst, so I work within FA Learning, and I really guess my day-to-day job is looking at insights from the game, objective insight, using video and data, and trying to see how we can use that work in the best possible way to reach as many coaches as we can within the game. So a lot of the insights we do is probably top end. So we do loads of stuff around, you know, senior game, but we're really trying to reach out now and do more stuff within the para space and more stuff in the grassroots space as we're, you know, able to use more data and video from those spaces. So just making sure really that we're hitting every coach that we can and just trying to make it I guess really like personalised and connected to the space that they coach in and the players that they work with.

[Louise]

Fantastic, brilliant.

[Jamie]

Right well before we kind of jump into here a little bit more about you and your experiences Katie, as this is a coaching podcast you may be aware that people may be tuning into this as they're on the way to training right now, so we like to give them some top tips at the start of the show.

[Louise]

Yep, So you may remember this from the last time that you were on but we're gonna ask you to give us as many top coaching Tips as you can in 30 seconds. Are you up for that? Yeah, I guess so, yeah It'll be fun Once the music starts you can begin

[Katie]

Okay, so really start to think about your players as individuals. So get to know them on a personal basis. How do they best learn? What type of intervention strategies are they best at learning with? Once you start to really get to know that, you build that kind of trust and psychological safety with the players. And I think when you start to do that, you actually allow them a little bit more creativity and a little bit more freedom and that as that relationship blossoms probably them developing their who they are as a player their individual tactics their core skills their core moves their play their relationships of each other really start to develop as well so just get to know your players.

[Louise]

Perfect.

[Jamie]

Absolutely. You

[Louise]

did that really expertly there.

[Katie]

I just speed up a little bit there.

[Jamie]

You got it in, you got it in, that's the main thing. Right well Katie we'll dive into the main part of the show and as you said it's been a little while since you've been in the studio and you're going solo this time. So we kind of like, because of that, we kind of like take a little bit of a moment to get to know a bit more about you. And we always start this part of the podcast by asking what was your first experience of football like?

[Katie]

I remember it pretty well. I was probably about five or six playing in the playground at school, quite a small playground, concrete, playing with the boys, probably about 20 boys and me. I probably got holes in my tights from like trying to slide tackle on the concrete. And I remember kind of going home to my mum and dad and saying, I want to play football. And I think they thought, oh no, here we go. And I'd had an older brother and sister, so I was used to them probably picking on me a little bit in the garden. So I was a little bit tough and I think they knew probably football was a good way for me to probably let off some steam and let out some energy. And then yeah, go 23 odd years later and I'm still involved in the game and in a capacity that I really really enjoy.

[Louise]

Yeah and I think those early memories are things that kind of carry you through that career I guess.

[Katie]

Yeah I remember the first game I ever played was for a boys team, an under-8s team, local and Southend. And my mum and dad didn't think I'd be playing football for long so my first ever game was in light-up trainers because they refused to buy me a pair of football boots because they thought I'd be having to bring them back to the shop in a few weeks and yeah, they had to buy me boots in the end.

[Louise]

So when did you realise that you wanted to be involved in football and can you give us a brief insight into that journey?

[Katie]

Yeah, I always obviously I always played. I went to, so obviously I played in a boys team, I was the first ever girl to play football in that boys team. And then at age 10, 11, I went and played for West Ham. So I played at West Ham for a few years. West Ham then wasn't what it is now. It wasn't professional, it was just volunteer coaches. So, you know, real journey that I really understand probably like how the game has really evolved. Then I played at like Centre of Excellence, so I guess a little bit more specialised coaching, coaches were part-time or some were lucky enough to be full-time coaching within a community or something like that. And I remember I got an injury when I was about 13, 14 and I was out for probably about eight, nine months with my uncle and one of the coaches used to get me, he knew I was a bit of a geek, so he used to get me a whiteboard and I just used to stat stuff like how many shots we'd had, how many shots the opposition had had, set pieces, so like corners, how many we had, how many goal kicks, things like that. And he'd then actually get me at half times and almost relay that back to the players. And I'd do it again at full time, see if we'd improved on some things. And I kind of got my thirst for it then around like, wow, this could be a career. And then, yeah, I went to uni, obviously did sports science and then specialised with my Masters in Analysis and been on a journey since then. I've worked in first team football, worked in academy football and now I'm here for four years and still going. So yeah, really enjoy it.

[Louise]

It's really cool that that coach kind of realised there was something in you. It's obviously like you said about getting to know your players and that was something that you would enjoy and where it's kind of led you.

[Katie]

Yeah, I probably have him to thank actually.

[Jamie]

It's nice as well, like we talk a lot about like obviously keeping players engaged and especially like on match day like substitutes and stuff and that's kind of a bit of a similar message, isn't it really? Like, exactly like you've said, Louise, in terms of getting to know your players, but then keeping them involved as well, is, it's really nice to hear.

[Katie]

Yeah, I think for me, it's a really good reflection tool for players. So if we know if we're playing in the smaller formats and maybe there'll be more like roll on roll off, we want players to really be observing the game and what a better way to get them observing than maybe give them a little task to do to get them really thinking about right well when I go on this is what the player's currently doing at the moment who I'm gonna be marking well what are they like like how would I stop them maybe doing that or you know do you know what they've got a little bit of a weakness this is how I might exploit the weakness so just getting them observing it and maybe just reflecting before they go on on how they might be able to positively impact the game I think is a brilliant tool to get players in the game but keep them in the game, keep them engaged.

[Jamie]

When did you first get into coaching then after that and how was that experience?

[Katie]

Yeah, well I decided to hang up my boots probably a couple years ago now. Too many injuries. I think my last season playing I've probably ended up in A&E probably three or four times for various things like concussions and ankle injuries and stuff so I think my mum was probably the most pleased when I said that I was gonna stop playing. So yeah I started coaching now three seasons ago So I went in just as the assistant to the team that I had been playing for and then two, three months later I ended up as manager. So it was a very well-winned experience. So I was coaching in tier three of the women's game. So obviously you've got WSL Women's Championship, then you've got your Northern Prem and Southern Prem. So I was coaching in the Northern Prem. So very much like thrown into the deep end with it, but I learned a lot. I got so much experience from it. And now I coach a team in tier four of the women's game in the Midlands, and I just absolutely love it. I'm probably a better coach than what I am manager. Cause I think my day job really helps me with putting on practices and making the practices really probably realistic to what they'll face on a game day. I work with them around, you know, we have these insights around the team that we're going to be facing on the weekend. So I then just try and make sure that the sessions we're putting on mid-week are really going to kind of align to what we expect from them on match day. And I think as a player, and especially a female player, you want there to always be this continuous alignment because female players always ask why. So I always then have kind of had the answer. I like to have the answer. I think it just gets player buy-in really well. Yeah, I love coaching. I sometimes join in every now and again if they need a player and sometimes I think the girls think, we're glad she hung up her boots. But yeah, no, I love being involved in the game in whatever capacity and you know, if I can't play anymore, coaching definitely is the next best thing.

[Louise]

Yeah, brilliant. So if we jump back to today, what do you enjoy about your role and how important is it that coaches take insights from the game? You've kind of mentioned a bit there, but...

[Katie]

When you work in club, you become very used to maybe working with the same 14, 15 players, depending on the age group of the players and the same coaches. I know of in this role, for instance, like we had a webinar that had 900 coaches join us live. Now, if we're hitting 900 coaches, and each of those coaches just has 10 players, we're probably impacting 9, 000 coaches with how we're making our webinar offer really personalized, really connected and almost that really reality-based, so just straight to the heart of the learner. So when they're coming and they're, you know, engaging with our insights, they can see where it probably really fits for them within their environment. And that for me is what keeps me coming to my day job and keeps me really enjoying it. Just knowing that we could be positively impacting so many coaches around the world, which then will have a positive impact on player development, which is for me the fundamental of why I do my job.

[Louise]

Yeah, it must be really rewarding, kind of, seeing like the detail that you gather and then being able to kind of give it to people in a way that they can digest it.

[Katie]

Yeah, and I think for us as well, like, we go after many different topics, so we might, you know, do some stuff around finishing and techniques to finish or how many touches it takes to finish. And what we've tried to do is we've ensured that we've got what that looks like at the top level of the game, what that looks like across the male game, female game. And then we've, as I said, we've started to now do more stuff in the grassroots game because we understand that it's almost like a pyramid structure and we have the most majority, biggest majority of our coaches are within that grassroots space. So if we're able to hit them with insight that is real life to them, they can go, oh do you know what I see this in my environment or oh I haven't actually considered that yet but it's really interesting those insights I'm now actually gonna observe what it looks like for me and my players and as I say we're having that impact then yeah it's the best job in the world I think.

[Jamie]

Well you mentioned there Katie that we do cover quite a lot of topics here And the topic for today is kind of focusing on core skills and the core skills that players need. So to start, why are the core skills so important and can you list all of them for our listeners and anybody watching?

[Katie]

Yeah, if I list them first, so you have your five in possession ones, You've got passing, receiving, turning, moving with the ball and finishing. And you kind of got your five out of possession ones. So you've got your pressing, covering, recovering, marking, intercepting and challenging. And those really are like your fundamental techniques to be able to, The game's all about scoring and stopping goals. So you're in possession of one to help you score the goals and you're out of possession of one to help you stop the goals. And they happen so often continuously within the game. Fundamentally, if those things don't happen, no goals will be scored and no goals will be stopped. So yeah, They're really, really important. Would you be able

[Louise]

to unpick each one a little bit to help our coaches kind of understand the core skills a little bit more?

[Katie]

Yeah, of course. So obviously passing, you can really go into a range of it. So you might have some in-step passing. So probably you're kind of over shorter distances. We probably see more of that and that stuff that's more coached at the younger age group. Across like futsal or hardcourt, you might see more like sole of the foot passing because it helps the ball moving on the surface. And then obviously as like players age and stage develops, you might see a bigger range of passing. So a bit of like a lofted pass, driven pass, obviously as they start to develop their techniques, like using the outside of the boot. So obviously that comes with experiences and opportunities for the players to actually develop those core skills. Receiving, obviously it's how you receive the ball, it's how you get the ball into your feet. So again, that will look very different whether you're working with a five or six year old where maybe you just want to get them used to maybe where to stand to receive the ball and then what that then looks like at senior football when we're starting to think about, you know, receiving on the half turn or receiving facing, you know, the opposition or receiving with your back to the opposition or receiving to the side of your opposition. And then obviously based on where you're receiving and on the pitch and where pressure is, that will actually determine what type of receiving skill you use. Movement of the ball, we can kind of look at that in different ways. So movement of the ball might just be, for instance, like a centre back carrying it into space. So they might receive it and step in with the ball and that might be unopposed. And then contradictory to that, you might have movement of the ball where it's maybe a wide player going 1v1, out wide against a defender. So you've got movement of the ball there, but it looks very, very different based on probably like position and where on the pitch you are and where the opposition is. Also like finishing, so many different techniques and say we've done loads of work previously around the different techniques around finish, so you've got instep, you've probably got like a little curled finish, a strike which is where you really use your laces and again that will come with development with your players as they go through growth and maturation, how they're able to strike the ball and actually the technique they use will really, really develop. And it looks very different, obviously, for men and women. So when girls go through maturation, it will look very different for when boys go through maturation. And then like out of possession, so pressing, again, you might not use the word press me with your players. So if I'm working with younger players, I won't say go and press them. I say swarm like bees, because that's probably language that really fits them, or charge, like words like that. And that's just really about getting as close as you can to the opposition and maybe trying to force them into mistake or getting close to them and trying to pinch it from them. Challenging, that's really like your tackles, so whether that's a slide tackle, a standing challenge, it might be like an aerial draw, it might be something like that. Intercepting for me is like really, really key within the game. I think the smartest players are the ones that intercept. I always say to my players, smartest players are the ones that intercept. I always say to my players, smartest players are the ones that can intercept. The ones that aren't so smart are the ones that have to challenge. Because usually if you intercept and you win it, you don't have to run back to your own goal and have to maybe put in the challenge. So intercepting for me is really about being quite sneaky and almost looking a little bit disinterested, like you're not going to try and win the ball. And then as that ball is maybe going into, so if Jamie, if you're passing it into Louise, I might just quickly try and nip in there and almost pinch it before Louise gets it. And that for me is like an interception. So, and then yeah, like the covering and recovering is very much around, you know, getting yourself into the right position, maybe to have a positive impact out of possession and try and help your team win the ball. And it might not be me winning the ball, but it might be my teammate winning the ball. So I might press and my teammate might cover for me. And then maybe me pressing forces the opposition into a mistake and then my teammate can recover the ball for me. So yeah, whistle stop tour.

[Jamie]

Yeah, there's so much to unpack in each of those, isn't there? There's so much stuff. And we have actually got some episodes on some of the core skills from our first season I believe. So moving with the ball, turning, pressing, passing and finishing. So anyone watching or listening to this, go and check those out for sure, wherever you get your podcasts from. Given your role as well as your coaching background, Katie, we imagine you've probably observed loads of players working on and carrying out this core skills. So in your opinion, what does it look like when a player has a good level of mastery of these skills and does it depend on their age and stage?

[Katie]

I think age and stage does come into it. I believe like players who are able to really like home in on and perfect the core skills it's because they have perfected their individual tactics. So when we talk about individual tactics that's gaining an advantage against the opposition. So that might be in a big format, that might be in a small format. So if we zoomed in on like the 3v3 game, you've got three little 1v1 duels going on, and in the 11v11 game you've got 11 little 1v1 duels going on. So for me, the best players are those that are able to really develop their individual tactics, whether that's in possession or out of possession, and recognizing their strengths to almost outwit the opposition player or outwit them with the ball or maybe without the ball, stop their flow and stop the opposition player from trying to outwit you. So for me, those individual tactics are fundamental. They're so, so important. And obviously when we talk about core skills, it's very much technique based. So we're looking at the actual action of the core skill But when it becomes skill is the actual decision-making of when to use the particular core skill So for instance finishing if you've got loads of unopposed repetition of that that's you working on your technique But then if I start to bring in some like opposed practice or a goalkeeper or a defender to defend against me, I'm now working on the skill of what type of technique to use for my finish to make sure it goes in the back of the net and the best strikers, you're Erin Harlands in the male game, you're Bunny Shores, Vivian Miedemaars in the women's game, are really able to kind of pick and choose what technique to use at the right moment to make sure they're scoring goals and I think that's why they're the best in the world for their positions.

[Louise]

I guess it's really good to kind of watch some of those people that you've just mentioned to kind of observe and see if you can see any of those things happening.

[Katie]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I'd say that to anyone watching this or listening to this is, you know, especially if you're working with players and they play a particular position, maybe get them watching their role model. So I'm a big West Ham fan, so maybe don't go and watch West Ham players. But, you know, if you're working with players and they're, I don't know, a Liverpool fan and they want to become a really strong leader in the back line, get them to watch Virgil van Dijk, because it's not just his technical attributes, it's everything else he brings up psychologically, socially, physically, and just maybe get them to really watch them and observe them and pick out the things they really like about that particular player because I think it's a great way to get players maybe a little bit more creative and thinking maybe a little bit outside of the box around okay this is how I play, this is how my idol plays, what attributes could I maybe draw on from my favourite player and bring them into how I play.

[Louise]

And I guess it's that thinking about why they're doing what they're doing and all of those bits

[Katie]

as well. Exactly, exactly. I think that's key.

[Jamie]

While we're talking about players in the professional game, I believe we've got some clips to potentially go through and see some core skills in action.

[Katie]

I think obviously working here, we want to obviously push forward the brilliant English players we've got coming through the game. So for me, if we're looking female game around the best of the core skills, Hannah Hampton as a goalkeeper is fantastic. And I think what's really interesting about her is she actually started her career as a striker. So she played up front. I think her team was letting in too many goals. I believe it was a boys team letting in too many goals. So she decided she wanted to become the keeper. And I think it's given her the ability to really play out from the back. She's got brilliant technique of her passing over short distances and bigger distances. And I think it's probably the capability she developed playing outfield when she was younger. Then obviously like Maya Letizia for me, obviously she's Man United captain, she's making a real name for herself within the women's game. She's brilliant to watch in terms of like defending one v one duels. She's so brave about recognising when to make the challenge, but also very clever. Because again, I said earlier about like, almost looking disinterested and then acting on it. And in In Possession, Lauren Hemp, I think is just outstanding. I love watching her. She's probably one of my favourite players to watch. The way she kind of twists and turns her body and moves with the ball. And she recognises her strengths around taking players on and she's brilliant at doing it. So her teammates almost free her up to go 1v1. So they might give her a bit more space to go and do it rather than get like overload in that area because then obviously you'd actually lose her attributes on the course because I'm moving with the ball through trying to force her to pass it. And in male game Lewis Hall from Newcastle is fantastic, he's scoring, he's getting assists at the moment, Obviously he's knocking on the door for England as well. His ability in the final third to find a pass, his delivery on his crosses, his technique to cross the ball is fantastic. And then previously where I worked within the boys' academy, we had Morgan Rodgers and Liam De Lappe. And obviously again, they're making a real name for themselves in the Premier League this season and Morgan Rodgers' ability to almost get on the half turn and just carry and drive, he's got such power so it's really great seeing him flourish and same with Liam de Lappe, I think in a you know, in an Ipswich team that's probably struggling a little bit, he is the real standout and he's just able, I spoke earlier around techniques to finish in tight areas or congested areas he's really able to almost get out his feet and find the back of the net so those for me are probably the players to really keep your eye on.

[Jamie]

Absolutely, shall we load up the clips and see some stuff in action? So if you just want to kind of introduce that clip for anybody that's listening to this rather than watching it, obviously anyone that is listening if you can come onto YouTube and watch it and you'll see what we are talking about. We'll just kind of set the scene of what this clip is and then obviously we'll hit play and then talk through it if that's alright.

[Katie]

Yeah of course, so it's a clip from just before Christmas, Chelsea women against Manchester United women and Manchester United have what looks like sustained possession of the ball but then there's a little bit of a mistake at the back. Very quickly then Chelsea are on the attack and they're on the counter attack and they're overloading. So they almost overloaded Maya Letizia 3v1 and she's just really smart around recognising maybe not to go in press and she almost holds her position, almost delays the player on the ball and makes the angle harder for her to get a shot off and reduces the opportunities for her to find her teammates. And then it's all about acting at the right moment. So she almost goes to block Maia Letizia and then recognizes that maybe she shouldn't, almost holds her foot for a couple more steps and it makes the block at the right time. And it is genuinely just a brilliant clip to bring to life a player that's just really great at problem solving and decision making in those really heightened moments of the game. Like this is a very, very big game, like Chelsea v Man Utd, they're both obviously very near the top of the WSL this season, so I just think it's a really good clip to bring to life those kind of like out of possession core skills.

[Jamie]

Great, let's take a look.

[Katie]

Yeah, so you can see here when it goes into the keeper, I've just highlighted Leticia there And then this is when that little turnover has happened. So it just plays through nicely there. You can see with the moment of impact when she makes a tackle. So what I've done now, I've just slowed the clip down. So again, you can see her almost looking to be an option in possession, but then as soon as she recognizes the turnover, She's really quick to react and almost get her positioning as close to the centre of the goal as she can. So position there, that 3v1. If she goes like I've done there too far towards the player, she makes it much easier for the player to slip in one of the two teammates. So with her keeping her position where she is more central to the goal. It forces the player on the ball to keep to her outside and then this is when the timing comes. So as you can see there, she goes to make the block, recognises that the Chelsea player isn't yet ready to unleash, so she almost has to work her footwork and then make the block at the right time. And for me, if she doesn't do that, that's a goal. I just got a different angle here. It just, I think brings it to life really nicely. So again, I've just got here, if she was to go in there, it just makes it much easier and almost makes the decision. Cause then look at the space, the two teammates would have, the two Chelsea teammates. So her just almost reducing that space and slowing the player on the ball down just allows her to make the decision at the right time. So again, here, she scans, she checks her shoulder. So I'm just bringing in the six capabilities here. She recognizes right, I can't go too tight, she'll be able to find a teammate. I can't go too tight either because she'll just go around me. She just really slows her footwork and then it's just about pinching the ball at the right time. And I think she's been doing this all season and I just think she's a brilliant player. She's a real leader for Man United in that backline. In terms of like four corner model, I think she's brilliant around that, but this is obviously just brings to life a kind of technical skills. Yeah. Brilliant.

[Jamie]

Yeah. That's saying that it's good to highlight as well, the six capabilities, which really underpin obviously the success of the core skills, don't they?

[Katie]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think we can always be very conscious of a C-core skills and what it means in possession. It's all the fun stuff, the creative stuff. But for me, if my La Tissier doesn't make challenges like this, you know, Man United aren't where they are within the league. So I think, yeah, brilliant. I'm all for the finishing and moving with the ball and turning and being really tricky and everything like that. But being a defender myself, I'm always more conscious around, well, what are they doing out of possession? How hard are they working? How's their problem solving? When they're in situations like this where she's really underloaded, it'd be very easy for her to almost panic and almost commit herself too early. So when I watch this, I think, well, how many opportunities has she had to practice this? She's probably been faced with this kind of situation within training, within games, all through her career. She's probably just using that knowledge and experience to make the decision at the right time in that clip.

[Jamie]

Fantastic. And the second clip that you've got for this section?

[Katie]

So I'll just set the scene again. So this is our England under 21s team. It's a game they played earlier this season. I think it was against Luxembourg. Don't quote me, I think it was against Luxembourg. And I think it's just a brilliant clip to almost bring to life Morgan Rogers and his ability on the ball. I talk about like the before, during and after of a course skill. So the before is like before you actually get the ball. How do you prepare your space or how do you get yourself into position to get on the ball? And you've got the drawing, so that's the real technique action. And then the after, like, how do you then support play or how do you maybe continue your movement to take a defender with you, which might free up space for your teammate to move into space. So I think this clip really brings to life those kind of before, during and after, and it just really highlights his kind of twist in his turn in his movement with the ball capabilities. I think there's a really good clip. I see all the time of like Lionel Messi on his own, and he's got like six or seven defenders around him. And it's very much like this, that the opposition players almost try to swarm Morgan Rodgers to slow him down but just the way he shifts his body and makes the decisions at the right time of when to lend it to his teammate, when to carry it himself, I think is just fantastic. So you've got Lewis hall here just playing it in and then when Morgan Rodgers receives it you can just see the way he almost shifts his body left right lends it to Madiweke and it leads to Madiweke getting a little shot off. So again just slowing it down I think I spoke it just now about preparing his space you can see there the closest defender to him is not too far away but Rodgers just slightly scans sees the defenders coming off of him. So he's almost preparing his space to receive in a bit of a bigger space. And now that circle is even bigger just with those one, two steps. That movement has just helped him give himself enough space now to get on the ball to receive it. So you can see back foot receive, that allows him to drive into space. You can see now he's starting to lend the ball, recognising to lend it. So a little wall pass, we talk about twos and threes, so your core moves there. And then his shot does get blocked, but it actually leads to a really good shot by Madueke and a very interesting save by the keeper which I quite like. And again if we just slow it again now, so we've already seen a little bit around his movement, seen a little bit around his scanning, so again it's just how he prepares his space in his movement, he drives at the player. And what I've done here I've just taken out all the other players apart from the ones around the ball. So he's currently in a 7v3 underloaded situation. So he has to here really recognise how to outwit the opposition and almost take a really underloaded situation and make it more of an overloaded situation for England. So the way of passing to Madiweke, how he now receives it on the outside of his right foot to keep it close to him and not to the opposition players, where he shifts the ball to get himself into the box and then to get a shot off, I think, you know, not a bad idea. And you know what, I'd always be encouraging my players to be shooting from there. You don't get the repetition of shooting and you don't build the confidence to be able to shoot. So again, I think it's a brilliant clip just showing and hopefully bringing to life his attributes, which I think he's really growing in his role at Villa. And I think Villa really see this core skill for him, that kind of movement of the ball, that twist and that turn in. And he almost has a bit of a free roll with Villa. He's very creative. He might stay wide and then he might come into the pocket. He might come inside, he might go a bit higher. And I think he's the kind of player that you can give the flexibility, maybe of a position to, because he is so clever and he's intelligent and he recognises the where to pick the ball up and the moments to dribble, the moments to pass, the moments to get shots off. So again, I really love seeing him flourish because yeah, obviously working with him and seeing him in a building a few years ago when he was 17, 18 to what he is now is really nice to see.

[Jamie]

And that clip was a great example, like you say, showing so many of the core skills of the attacking sentence. How can coaches maybe put on practice or what can they do at training to maybe bring out some of those skills? Like it was obviously in quite tight areas, like you say, that you highlighted that there was a 7v3 sort of situation at one point. What can coaches do to maybe bring out some of the skills that Morgan showed in that clip?

[Katie]

I mean, for me, I see I work in the 11v11 game. That's where I coach, but I'm always putting on practices that are 3 v 3s, 4 v 4s, 5 v 5s. I think the smaller side of formats are great because you can be more intentional with your coaching. It is very hard in the 11 v 11 game to see everything. I'm going to take a quote from Dan Simpson, if you look for everything, you see nothing. And I think that is really, really key. So those smaller formats give players more repetition of the core skills in those tighter areas, but it actually helps you as a coach because you're not having to look for as much. You're only having to maybe observe in a 4v4, eight players, as opposed to an 11v11, observe 22 players. It is impossible, But you can do little constraints within the practice. So I do it where it's like 4 v 4. If you as a player on the team kick the ball off, you have to run and get it. So for those few seconds, your team's underloaded 4 v 3. So you're giving players little opportunities to be overloaded, to be matched up, to be underloaded. And I think giving the players the real different aspects of that and the experiences of having the overload and being able to find a spare player or being underloaded and thinking, oh, we have to really slow the opposition down until we get our player back in and become matched up again. I think it really helps them then when they are playing within the game because it's realistic. And this is where the practice spectrum is really, really important. So recognizing maybe opportunities to give players repetition of the skill. So that might be more unopposed practices or maybe some unopposed practices with a bit of interference. And then obviously as you start to dial down kind of like the repetition aspect, you might dial up the realism. So more game realistic practices. So I love, especially working where I work in the game and within the senior game, I love phase practices. So I'm very intentional of the girls that we will be working on high press now and it might be like an 8v8 practice, but I've set my intentions. They know exactly what we're going after. I've almost set the theme for them, so I'm more likely to get my intended outcomes out. So I think if we can be more intentional with actually telling our players what we're going after, they're not so confused maybe, I think it helps that confused element. So I'm one for, yeah, almost getting the girls in and saying, right, this is what we're going after. This is what I need from you. And I might give little roles and responsibilities, but I think you can only really do that and do that phase stuff when you've done the smaller stuff. And when you've done the unopposed stuff, giving them the repetition, done the like four V fours, five V fives. So they're getting the repetition, but now they're getting some realism. And then we go top end and it's like a phase and it's very much like a real-life game with some objectives and we might get less repetition but now we'll get in the real realism before we play a game on the Sunday.

[Jamie]

Yeah I take it that's the same as well for the Maya Letizia clip in terms of, but just reversing that in terms of the small sided games but maybe just being the attackers overloaded and then building it up like you say to the phased approach that brings it all together.

[Katie]

Exactly yeah and I'll be honest when I first started coaching I probably didn't realise how much we needed to do practices like that, that are maybe a little bit underloaded, a little bit overloaded. I used to just go 77 easy, 8v8 easy. But even last night, I put on a 75 practice. So the team that was overloaded should have had more success, or you'd think so. But how I set the constraints actually meant that the five underloaded players got loads of reward for winning the ball. So, okay, there were two players down, but they got loads of success and they wanted to keep winning the ball because they were getting a reward when they did win it. So I think, yeah, it's really good when you do do practice, maybe where you are underloaded, there's real success for the underloaded team because it makes them actually want to do it and it engages them with the practice even more.

[Louise]

What kind of things were you using to give them rewards or...

[Katie]

Goals, mini goals. I think I'm a massive advocate for, I know as a player, the practices I enjoyed the most were the ones that had mini goals or a goal or some kind of end zone or a target. When I'd get frustrated as a player was when I'd probably win the ball, a teammate would win the ball, and the manager would go, all right, stop there. We're going again. So you're like, well, where's my reward? I'm winning the ball, but I'm not getting anything for it. So all I had last night, it was a 75 practice. The seven had to keep the ball, if they kept it for eight passes, it was worth one point. But anytime the five won it, they could go to one of the four mini goals on the kind of edges of the square as quickly as they could. So it was very transitional. So then for the seven out of possession now, they had to go, right, we've just lost it. We've got to really quickly win it back to stop them going to the mini goal. And yeah, it was fun. I kept it quite small, the space. So again, loads of repetition of pressing, challenging, receiving in tight areas, maybe being able to move the ball and dribble out of tight areas, your turning skills. I think, yeah, all of the core skills really came to life last night, which is really good.

[Louise]

Would you say that the position players play in alter either the focus they have on the core skills or how they need to use them?

[Katie]

So we've done quite a bit of work within our Game Insights team around the core skills and almost like opportunities players get to perform the core skills in smaller formats and bigger formats. And what we have found is the smaller formats allows for more opportunities to repeat the core skills. But what we've also zoomed in on is around position specific. So opportunities maybe a centre back gets to perform the core skills compared to a forward, compared to a wide player, full back and so on. And we found little things obviously, a striker gets more opportunities to finish. Of course they do, they're closer to the goal, they get more opportunity of the ball at their feet in and around the goal to get shots off. But something that did surprise us was just how often a centre-back needed to move with the ball, because as I say those ball carries and stepping in with the ball those like four or five yards where they have to really like drive in. And something like that's good when if you're playing with a back four and you're playing against a 4-3-3, you've probably got one striker you're up against. So it might be, how can I, as a left centre back, get the ball in as quickly as I can to you, Louise? So we almost then bypass the striker and you can drive in and go in with the ball and carry it and almost take that striker out of the game. So what we're really seeing is different positions give players different opportunities or repetitions of the core skills. But something that really interests me is around maybe a wide player where they receive the ball. So a wide player mostly will receive the ball with their back to the sideline, whereas a centre-back might receive it facing play, whereas a striker might receive the ball with their back to goal and with a centre-back probably in their back. So we're saying there about how the frequency is dialled up and dialled down, but it's actually like the type of skill really changes. So I've got a really good clip that'll hopefully bring that to life now. So it's a really good clip, I think. So it's just from the female game and it's Janice Kamen who plays for Leicester. And something that really interests me about Janice is her ability to play multiple positions. So since she's been at Leicester she's played in the wide position, she's played more in like a 10, in an 8, but she also played at left back and I just think you know what kind of opportunities did she have maybe going through the pathway growing up that has now given her the experiences of being able to play in those multiple positions and receive the ball in multiple ways based on where she is on the pitch. So obviously for me, like I'd massively encourage coaches that are listening just around maybe being more intentional with opportunities you give your players of where to play. So I'd give the example if I'm a player who, you know, I'm really good at passing and that's my real attribute, but something I really do need to work on is how I maybe take players on for three, four, five weeks. I need the opportunity maybe to play in spaces that give me the opportunities to really work on my kind of one V one attacking duels. So I might play play on the sides, I might play a fullback, I might play a left mid or right mid or wherever that gives me more opportunities. Or I might be maybe a player that's, you know, just going through growth and maturation and I'm really, really struggling in the center of the pitch because everyone is half a foot bigger than me. So again, I might need a little bit of opportunities on the side, not technically, but physically, just maybe to not overload me as much. So I just think, yeah, if we give players more opportunities like that around maybe not pigeonholing players, hopefully we can develop some Janice Kamens within our game.

[Jamie]

Yeah, really important point to take away there. Absolutely.

[Katie]

Yeah. So this is just a game of Leicester City women playing against Chelsea women within the WSL. So for those of you that can't see it live, all I've done is I've kind of highlighted Janice and where she's picking up the ball. So she starts, so in this game, she's actually playing left back, but you would not believe it from where she picks up the ball. So here she almost picks it up with a back to goal, plays off one touch. Now she's moved herself so now she can receive face up. So now she can see the whole pitch. So she can probably make better decisions and take a little bit longer to assess what she does. Now obviously she kind of goes back into that real central position, almost like a double pivot, her and the other central defensive midfielder. So now when she receives the ball, she's got a little bit of pressure behind her. You can see she's got two players that are almost going to be on her back. So here now, how she uses her core skills to play the ball quickly, out of pressure. So again, Leicester have quite nicely controlled possession and they actually now look to almost bypass the opposition. And now how she receives it, is she's now receiving on the move. And she's almost now gone about 30-40 metres from where she first received it and now she's actually starting play further up the pitch for Leicester. You've seen a couple of clips there. Within like, I don't even know how long that clip is, it's a minute long. So within a minute, she's received the ball four times. Two of them are almost like a back to goal, one's face up and one's receiving on the move. So the opportunity she's getting within that minute clip, I'd like to think she's making the right decisions and solving the problems based on probably previous experiences that have allowed her now to be doing it at the top level of the game where the game's really fast paced, she's got to make decisions really quickly, especially against a team like Chelsea who are very, very good.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's fascinating really, like I say, it's only a minute clip, but just to see the amount of ground that she's covered and then the, obviously it's the same core skill in terms of like receiving and passing and receiving, but just the different techniques and the different way that she's received the ball, the different areas of the pitch that she's covered when, like you say, she's playing left back. Yeah, it's quite fascinating to see that.

[Katie]

Yeah, and that's again, I think it's really, really interesting because when we ask players to go and play maybe at left back, I mean, I'm a left back, you might go, oh, really? I wanna play further up, you know, further up or I wanna play more in the middle, but probably the opportunities is get given her to maybe receive in those different areas. It will make her a better well-rounded player. Maybe when she does play centrally. So we look male game. Now you've got plays like Declan Rice who play in the middle, maybe in like an eight or a four position. But if you actually are intentional and watch him, he takes up a lot of positions at left back to receive the ball within the build phase. And the reason he's able to do that, he was doing it at West Ham, he was doing it in the youth teams, he's just had loads of repetition and loads of opportunity. So now he's able to recognise the moments to stay in central areas and get on the ball maybe more central to the goal. But then also recognise the moments where he might have to pull a little bit wider to get on it and face teams up and maybe drive in with the ball. So Declan Rice is definitely one to look out for who does that really well.

[Louise]

I was just going to say, I think it's really, it's a good way of explaining to your players like the benefits of those, those positions as well. So if, if, if they aren't really feeling like they want to play that position, but it's actually been able to say to them all these decisions and stuff that you can make.

[Katie]

I'd like to think it's becoming hopefully more stylish now to play in defensive positions like Trent, like his ability on the ball, the decision making in the final third, the way he crosses the ball. I've not probably since David Beckham, like that real like technique, that ability. So I think now it's actually cooler to be a defensive player. Like I said about Virgil van Dijk, you look at like John Stones, when he's playing for Man City, he doesn't just play a center back. He does go higher, goes into more like a six, eight. Sometimes I've seen him in the 10 role and receiving, and you've got players like Rico Lewis now coming through at Man City, he's able to do that. He can play left back, right back. He can play holding mid, he can play a little bit further up. And I just think if we're almost giving players all of those experiences, their toolkit is far wider. So when they're facing different challenges or different problems within the game, they're able to link back to maybe when they faced that problem before and almost go, well, last time when this happened on the pitch, I did this and it worked really well. So we're giving them those experiences, that kind of wider toolkit for them to make the right decisions.

[Jamie]

What should coaches look out for to help them identify, like if players need more support with those core skills, more support in terms of building that toolkit that you've mentioned.

[Katie]

So when we talk about core skills it's very technical based, so when we talk about four corner models, so you've got your technical corner, which is really really fundamental for this to work, but core skills actually won't really work unless you've also got your three other corners. So the physical corner, the psych corner and the social corner. So I just think we need to really take it, you know, grasp their importance. So I spoke earlier around like a player that's going through growth and maturation. So in terms of that physical corner, they might be struggling a little bit with their agility and their speed and their power because if they've grown quite a bit within a couple of months, probably now their feet can't keep up with what their brain's telling them to do, so probably their technical ability's probably gone down a little bit. And that doesn't mean it's going to be done forever, it's just while they're growing and while they're maturing it will take time for them to probably relearn the technique. So then what might that do to the player psychologically? That might obviously affect their confidence and their, maybe their creativity, they might not want to get on the ball as much, they might not want to receive it, they might not want to take players on. And then socially, if they're not wanting to do those things, it might actually really affect them socially and their friendships they're building or that kind of teamwork element on the pitch. So I think when we're talking about core skills, I think we just really need to make sure we're not thinking everything's just for technical purposes. And hopefully I've just brought to life their own example of like a case study where you know players probably really good technically They're just struggling in the other areas which might be affecting or dialing down their technical attributes So I think as coaches we just need to be more conscious of you know Understanding the the player as a whole not just within that kind of technical box.

[Jamie]

As a coach, have you ever experienced like a player struggling with the core skills and then them actually getting quite frustrated with that? And then if so, like how can coaches maybe deal with that situation?

[Katie]

All the time. I know being myself as a player, I'd get really frustrated if I couldn't do something. I think that's okay. I think it just shows that your players care and I think it's not something to stress about as a coach if you feel like your players are getting really frustrated. I think it is because they care and they just want to do well and they want to impress you and they at the end of the day they're there because one, hopefully they enjoy it and two, they want to get better. So something I would say is just how you instill confidence in your players. If they're not getting something quite right, how do you talk? I spoke very early on about knowing your players, knowing how they best take on board information, how to best intervene with them. So if you've got a player who's maybe quite introverted, the way to go after them is not within the group setting. I think it's a little light arm around the shoulder. And look, you know what, you're doing really, really well. Like we'll keep, we'll get there. Keep working at it, we will get there. Whereas there might be players who actually prefer you to talk to them maybe within that kind of more group environment. And I think it's really good to maybe say that you weren't doing that so good, but look what we've done now. You've really worked on it and then given the praise. So I think taking, yeah, just taking a real understanding of how your players best take on board information, whether it's praise, whether it's a bit of like constructive feedback and I think just recognising that players get frustrated because they care and because they want to do well. I know that's fundamentally why I'd get frustrated and yeah I think it's across the game. As I say I coach senior women, I've got players who are 16 and players that you know are approaching retirement I'll say and they will get frustrated no matter their age or stage. And it's just because they want to do well.

[Louise]

Do you have any advice to help coaches create sessions which work on the core skills effectively?

[Katie]

Yeah, as I said earlier around ones that are small-sided games, I think, because your core skills really do come out. If you are working with a player maybe though that really wants to work on their movement with the ball, just think about like step and how you might maybe slightly adjust the space for them, because a player can't move with the ball unless there is space for them to move in with the ball. So maybe you might make the practice a little bit longer and a little bit thinner. If you want to work maybe with pressing, you might make it a little bit like almost tighter to give them more opportunity and repetition of pressing. So I love like your 2v2 drills, you get so much out of a 2v2 drill. So you'll get your little core skills because you get your little passing combinations going, you get your passing receiving. So ones like that you might make a little bit narrow, but a little bit longer to give them that. But then you might if you want to get some attributes around pressing and opportunities to work on pressing. You might make it shorter and wider to make it more relative to the game. And again, those 2v2s will just give you loads of repetition of pressing and maybe when to go, when not to go. That kind of, if I go, I need you as my teammate to cover behind me and then goals. So 2v2, but maybe a mini goal at each end. So you guys get your success if you pass and receive it into the mini goal and me and my team get success if we stop you and we press and we win it and we challenge you at the right time or we intercept at the right time to then go to the mini goal. So yeah, I'd really put forward those smaller sided practices if you can, because again, it's game realistic because you've got almost like a duel. You've got your 1v1 duel, your 2v2 duels.

[Jamie]

Is that sort of small sided games with goals that you mentioned there sort of that realism that you're bringing out, is that like the best way to sort of like link practice to match day? So we've seen a lot of the clips are match day but we spoke a lot about practice so I'm just trying to think like linking the two.

[Katie]

That's how I work and I'm not saying it's the right way, it's the way that works for me and I'd like from conversation with my players it's how it works for them as well which is really nice but that might not work if you're working with you know six seven year olds because at the end of the day it shouldn't be about performance it should be about development so you might do some more unopposed stuff to just get them really good at the technique and the repetition of the core skill So you might just have like simple things like a dribbling practice where the cones are quite spaced out and they've got loads of space to go through the cones. But as they get better, you might bring the cones closer together. So then they've got to be really clever with how they shift their body in and out of the cones and their touches to be tighter. They have to use the outside of their foot, the sole of the foot, the inside, and have to recognise the moments. And then you might lift that into maybe more like a 1v1 duel. So then they're actually going against someone, but they can take everything they've done from that kind of unopposed practice, and all of that kind of muscle memory they've learned of how to do and how it felt within that moment. And now they can use that actually against someone else who might pose them or should pose them more of a problem than some cones.

[Louise]

So if we look back at everything that we've discussed, can you summarise your key top tips for coaches to take away from this episode?

[Katie]

Yeah, I'd say, hopefully I've hit on it a few times around the impact around small sided games. You get your repetition, you get your realism, you get your relevance. I think the observation skills, so see I took through those when we went through the clips. So I think it's really key that you don't, you can't always work on every single core skill and you can't work on every single observational skill. Like you've got six observational skills and you've got 10 core skills. You can't look for 16 things probably within an hour of your with your players. So I think it's more than okay for us to maybe go, right, you know, today's focus will be around pressing and I'm going to look at how they press and their timing and their movement around their press. So I'm taking one core skill and two observation skills. And I just think those kind of like taking two of the six capabilities and one core skills a lot easier. That's how I work. I don't ever try and look for everything because it is impossible and you will drive yourself crazy. So I just think if we can just, yeah, maybe be okay with less is more, because as I said at the start, you can then be more intentional. So if you go in there with the clear focus of the core skill and the kind of like six capabilities you want to go after, you will see it more often and then you can almost like refer back to it afterwards and go right this is what I set out to look for, these are the practices I put on for my players, did my practices actually allow for that core skill and those capabilities to come out.

[Louise]

And if you were to, it might be the same as what you've just said, but if you were to kind of set coaches a bit of a challenge to kind of get them working on some of this stuff as a like first step in, what would you suggest that they do?

[Katie]

I'd say If you're, for instance, working in a 7v7 game and you've got seven players or seven players that start and then maybe you'll have like three subs, you've got ten, maybe like a squad of ten. I think it'd be really great for you to almost look at those ten players and almost look at those core skills and where they are at the moment, then have a conversation with your players around what they feel those core skills they need to work on. So you're working on your observation skills and where they are with those, but then you're working on like your players' reflection skills and their ability to go, oh, you know what, I'm really good at this, but I think I need some help with that. And you have basically built yourself there like an individual development plan. So an individual development plan doesn't have to be all bells and whistles, doesn't have to be like six weeks of video and data to bring to the player. It might just be, Oh look player, you said you really wanted to work on receiving in tight areas. So I've been putting on these practices with you and having conversations with you for the past four weeks to really help you get better at that. Do you think you have? Yes. Do you think you got better on game day? Yes. Well, there you go. So I just think, just strip it right back, recognise what your players are good at, get them to really reflect and think about what they're good at, marry it up together, you've then built that trust of that player and then you can really start to maybe support them around those core skills and putting on practices that will help those core skills and that development around the core skills to come out.

[Louise]

And I guess that helps you focus where like, instead of when you were saying picking which ones you're going to do, it gives you a bit of focus on that.

[Katie]

Absolutely, yeah. I hope so. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Right, well, we are coming up to the end of the show now, Katie, but it does mean it is time for our Swift Session feature.

[Louise]

Yeah, I can't remember if you did this one before. I think

[Katie]

I did. Yeah, I did.

[Louise]

Well, you're a pro at it then. We're going to ask you to explain to us a session idea in 30 seconds this time.

[Katie]

Okay.

[Louise]

Are you up for that?

[Katie]

Yeah, I'll try.

[Louise]

Okay. Once again, when the music starts, you can begin.

[Katie]

Okay. So it's called first to 50 passes. You'll have three boxes with four players in each box. The aim is to get to 50 passes within each box, but when each box is in possession of the ball, Each of the other boxes can send one player to go and press the ball It's almost a 3v1 and what your player is to do is to try and stop the teams Within the boxes get to their 50 passes the first team to 50 passes within the box wins So it works on passing receiving and you're pressing and challenging skills

[Louise]

Is there anything else you want to add to that?

[Katie]

I think that's based on if you have 12 players. So you've got a box of four, box of four, box of four. And as I say, one from each box goes and it becomes a 3v1. Now I do that first to 50 because I'm working top end of the game, but you might start first to 10 passes, first to 20 passes based on obviously the age and stage of the players you're working with. You might make the area bigger to start with as well to give them maybe a little bit more space to receive in. Obviously as they get better and hopefully more experiences you can bring in that space a little bit tighter. And again obviously I work for instance, we have a big squad because we're a senior team so we have about 18 players. So I might actually have three boxes of six, so then I might send two players. So then it's a 4v2 rather than a 3v1.

[Jamie]

Right, well that was a really good session to end on. Thank you very much for your time Katie today. It's been great to have you back in the studio. And it's been a really good discussion that we fit so much in in these so many top tips to take away I'm sure the listeners and anybody watching will agree and enjoyed that as much as we have and hopefully you have as well.

[Katie]

Thanks for having me guys, fun as always.

[Jamie]

Brilliant yeah thank you very much. Right well that is all we do have time for today but don't forget to check out the 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 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.