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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 Vinny Halsall who's returning to Coachcast to talk about outdoor winter weather training. Well hi Vinny, welcome back to the show, how are you?

[Vinny]

Yes good morning both, great to be here back at St. George's Park, it's been a while. I'll mention shortly about a recent change in role. So coming to St George's less frequent. So always a pleasure to be sat here on the sofa and to be talking about grassroots footy.

[Louise]

Lovely. Well, lovely to have you back. As you mentioned, you've got a slightly new role. Would you like to tell us a little bit about what it is that you're doing now?

[Vinny]

Yeah, thanks Louise. So we had a recent restructure within our grassroots coach development team. And that's meant that, as you know, I used to be part of the PE team. The PE team is now the education and school sports workforce team. So it's a change in remit, more of a strategic role. And for example, we've got a key stage to extracurricular girls program, which is one of our key focus points based out of Wembley, as you know, but managing a region and it's a bigger region now that covers the area north of the Midlands, so north of Birmingham, across to Reading and down to Cornwall. So about three or four months in and really enjoying the variation that the new role brings and working with different colleagues based at Wembley as well. It's really good.

[Jamie]

Yeah, fantastic. And nice to hear that you're enjoying the new role as well which is fantastic. Well just before we dive into the main part of the show, as you know, as this is a coaching podcast we always like to give our listeners some good top tips at the start of the show.

[Louise]

So as usual we'll 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. Just show you the timer. Once it starts, you can begin.

[Vinny]

Fabulous. So, you know, I love the power of three. So I'm going to go with three top tips. We're talking about sweat, solutions and smiles. So the sweat, yeah, let's get the children active, busy, lots of game time, lots of ball rolling time. The solutions, let's have whether we're doing practices or games, let's make them realistic, relevant and repetition without repetition, which I'll talk about later on. And the smiles, let's shine a light on the positive stuff. Catch them in, don't catch them out.

[Jamie]

Brilliant. Lovely. Absolutely love that.

[Louise]

It's always nice to have you on and remember all of your sayings and stuff. So it's great to take away from that.

[Vinny]

I can't remember where I picked that one up from, but we're all magpies and stuff, aren't we?

[Louise]

Yeah, that's great.

[Vinny]

Sweat, solutions and smiles.

[Jamie]

Love it. Love it. Well, Vinny, we last had you on the podcast. I think the episode went back out in May. So how have things been since you were last with us and what sort of things have you been working on recently?

[Vinny]

Yeah, so as referenced a couple of minutes ago, this change of role, which is very exciting in terms of it's more strategic and that's something having been a regional manager in the past, that I'm actually getting across the requirements for that role. Covering a big region, the Key Stage 2 Girls Extracurricular Programme is one of the many programmes that we are supporting. That one's a really strong piece of work because it's a collaborative piece, So as well as our education and school sport workforce team, as we're now called, working in connection with the Premier League Charitable Fund, the PLCF, working with the Youth Sport Trust, there's other partners and also our girls football schools partnerships. So looking to give more girls across the country that equal access and opportunity for extracurricular provision compared to what the boys have. It's already a strong program working out around about 82% of schools across the country and in the next 18 months we're looking to move that to around about 90%. So lots of work going on, lots of collaboration, and hopefully we can give more girls more opportunity. Absolutely.

[Louise]

Do you think you've over that time, do you think you've learned anything new or interesting recently that you didn't expect?

[Vinny]

The whole strategic piece, that's something I'm quite comfortable with. Putting my grassroots coaches hat on, which as you know, I will often reference some of the things I'm doing as a real grassroots coach. And it's been 10 years now. I've just had my 10 year anniversary working with the FA. And that was around about the time when I started working with our son's team when they were under sixes. They're now 16 going on 17. So whether it be with my grassroots hat on Louise or with the day job hat, it's the importance of reflection. And if I can use an example from my grassroots coaching, so our boys now playing under 18 football, they're actually 16 going on 17. So they're actually playing an age group up, if you like, which in itself is a challenge. We started using a new venue. The new venue actually has, it's a bit more adultified if you like, there's changing rooms with showers etc etc. And just recently we decided that we needed to do a little bit more, this is during the pre-game time, around set plays. And so I had an idea, I don't know if you've come across it, the magnetic flip chart that can stick to a wall without Blu-Tack, etc. Or a window. So anyway, we drew some basic, basic setups for defending a set plays. And we had the boys' initials in certain places. Anyway, the game happens and we conceded from a set play. So when we reflected at that piece of work that we thought beforehand, and it was very much my idea was going to be a really good thing for the boys. It came out that when the boys saw their initials on a certain position, maybe marking the six yard box or the posts, they thought they weren't supposed to move. That was the heavy on it. That actually, it was more of a, rather than marking man to man, it was more of a zonal aspect. So my reflection coming back to your question is always when something maybe doesn't go quite right when we sometimes point the finger and it might have been at the players or something else a referee's decision, remember when you point the finger there's three fingers pointing back at yourself. So maybe look three times as much as what you've done. And I certainly did that on this occasion in relation to that flip chart idea is a good idea, but it just needs to be refined, more clarity and more important, make sure we do some work during practice sessions, which we've done since then.

[Louise]

Brilliant.

[Jamie]

Fantastic. Now we're following on the theme of winter weather training today, but we're going to focus on it being outdoors in this episode. So to start, can you talk to us about the impact that winter weather has had on your training sessions in the past?

[Vinny]

Well I can be very current because Tuesday night it absolutely lashed it down for the whole of the duration of our under-18s practice session. So a number of things in there which meant that that session still went well. So number one, empower the players. So engage with the players. So, you know, get them going quickly after we've greeted them and give them some responsibility. So for example, our boys, again, we're talking under 17s now playing in an under 18 program, they're old enough to lead the arrival activity or the warmup, which they did. Length of learning. So rather than looking to cover something new all the time, length of learning, we're currently working on an in possession theme, which is actually talking about to the boys about painting pictures. And I can delve into that a little bit later on if it's the right thing to do. So that's for them as individuals, painting pictures, and also patterns of play. So pictures and patterns. So they were some of the main messages. Of course, once we got going with the balls, where we became involved in realistic practices, which I mentioned earlier on practices, which are relevant and games, which have repetition without repetition. And what do I mean by that? I'm talking about games and practices whereby they're not constant practices. They've always got opposition in there. And that meant that Tuesday night session for an hour on an all weather pitch, but absolutely tipping it down with rain, ticked along really nicely, loads of activity time for the boys. The sweat bit we couldn't discern whether they were sweating or not because they were so wet.

[Louise]

When you do start getting towards the winter months, does that affect the way that you plan your training sessions?

[Vinny]

Yeah, absolutely, Louise. I think it's really important to recognize that during previous months, you'll have done lots of good work and therefore I've already referenced the idea of linking the learning, making sure when you're planning that you're planning your practice session with a real flow. And what do you mean by that real flow? Having clarity around where do you want to get to within the practice? And you know, I will always encourage us to have game related practices. If not games that don't look like the game, I might not be a typical rectangular pitch, but when you're organizing your setup, we were talking beforehand, Jamie, about sometimes when the weather is not only cold and miserable, but it's really windy. Yeah. Whatever your setup is with your marker cones, et cetera, think about what the end activities might look like and therefore plan backwards from there. That's really, really important. So I will often find myself not having to move a single marker cone during a session because everything's set up. It might be for the boys, for example, can you go and pick up just the yellow cones because we've been working in yellow areas by picking up the yellow cones, they're leaving some white cones behind and that's the setup for the bigger area. So that organizational stuff, which is a key quality of being a good inspirational coach is really, really important. It saves time and it means that you can move from the different elements of your practice session really swiftly.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it is. I think it's just so important, just like the fact that, you know, it helps with ball rolling time and just getting straight into the next activity. I think it's a really good top tip that. What considerations do you have to take into account during the planning stage then when you're getting into planning training in the winter months?

[Vinny]

Yeah, I think it's incumbent on all of us to consider that risk assessment. Yeah, so that's really, really important. We should never ignore that stuff. We often dive straight into the footy stuff, but actually making sure that you do a risk assessment that might be once you've arrived, it might be an hour before, two hours before. I would recommend if coaches don't use an app, I use the AccuWeather app. Now the AccuWeather app is brilliant in that for your location, it gives you a visual map of what the weather is doing. And I've only been using that since we had a call off in September, going back a couple of seasons ago. Yeah. September, a call off due to a waterlogged pitch. Yeah. And with environmental changes, et cetera. So the risk assessments is really important to recognize that. First of all, can the practice session go ahead? Is the practice session going to have the value that it needs to have in terms of what I said earlier, in terms of that sweat, solutions and smiles? Yeah. So are the children, are the teenagers, are the adults going to be able to spend time practicing in a positive fashion or are the conditions going to simply mean that for tonight we need to call off. If we are going ahead, making sure that your group and as always, context is crucial. Your group know the expectations in terms of their own self-care. What do we mean by that? Making sure they've got the right number of layers on. Yeah, because you can always take layers off, but we've all seen it whereby youngsters, teenagers are probably the most typical group. They rock up in just a t-shirt for a winter practice session and they wonder why they're getting really cold, even though there might be high levels of activity time. So that element is really important as well, that's communicating with your parent group, if that's what you need to do, that the children are well-organized in terms of what they're wearing. So lots of layers is really important. And then ultimately you need to make a decision whether we're going ahead or not. And that for the benefits, again, for a parent group, if you're working with the age group of children who are being transported by parents, make that a nice early decision. Yeah. And obviously we don't want to miss out on practice sessions, but sometimes it is the right thing to say, sorry, we simply can't go ahead tonight.

[Jamie]

Do you get peppered a lot in any WhatsApp chats with, with the parents around whether training's actually going ahead or not?

[Vinny]

Yeah, sometimes and on the occasions when it might be because of the demands of work, again linked to my role within the FA, I might be on the road and simply not able to pick up messages. And there has been the odd occasion where I'm far flung down in Plymouth and I've simply forgotten, let's say a half three, to send a message to the parent group. And of course we've got our coaches that we work alongside as well to say we need to make an early decision. Yeah. So on those few occasions where I've been on the road and thought, oh no, I need to find the services to stop off at. I can hear messages pinging through on the phone or when I do pull up and there's 25 messages. So yeah, as always, it's about good planning and good preparation, isn't it? And you know, we know when we're talking about the frosty weather, the snowy weather, then more often than not, that's something in advance. But it's just that bit of planning that will help your parent group.

[Louise]

What would you say that the biggest coaching tip you can give to help coaches plan outdoor training sessions during the winter?

[Vinny]

I would say more from your players and less from you. Yeah, and if we link that to again a mantra that I often use, less is more. So what do I mean by that? That doesn't mean on that single practice session, not to coach. But as I say, greet your players. So that connection before correction, get them going and give them ownership. So that would be my first three top tips. Yeah, greet them, get them going, give them ownership. Once they are up and running, whatever your practices and whatever your games look like What I said earlier, let's make sure there's an element of realism. Let's make sure there's an element of relevance So is it linked to what you've been working on in previous weeks? Maybe two weeks ago when the weather was decent and all of a sudden it turned like it did for us on Tuesday night as without repeating myself too much but that repetition without repetition. If the games are realistic and relevant then your youngsters will really enjoy that. I'll delve in later on a little bit around observation skills but By adopting those top tips that I've just suggested, your players have got lots of activity time, lots of ball rolling time. And if we go to the simple example of individual interventions rather than stopping the whole group. If you are stopping the whole group, think about, so again, whatever your practice design looks like, it might be that you've actually got a singular game going on. As I did, we had 13 players of practice. We had six V six plus a goalkeeper. So within that singular game, rather than too much coming from you, more from them. Yeah. When you stop it, get them into their teams and they can have a little team talk with one simple question that you've planned. So again, you deliver the question, they're in their team talks, not too far away from you. And that way you can listen in here, listen in there. And it might just be that you're affirming, Louise, I love what you just said there about if we're painting a picture as an individual. Yeah. You mentioned the ABCs, awareness, body position control. I love that Louise. While I'm doing that with you, yeah, which took, what, five seconds? This group over here is still having a conversation. 30 seconds later. Right, everyone? Love what you said there about painting pictures back into the game. More from them, less from you.

[Jamie]

How do you find, like, how players actually react to winter weather? I know you mentioned it's likely like the teenagers might not actually have the right amount of layers on, but in terms of like attitudes training in outdoor winter weather.

[Vinny]

Yeah, it can always be a challenge, but again, I would just think about pointing the finger. I would always look at me and my coaching colleague who I work with in that practical context to think about what are we doing. So part of our job of being good coaches is to be well organized, to be enthusiastic and also to be empathetic. A really strong example I can give you, two weeks ago, we had our first practice session for the first time in three weeks, because there was a half-term break. We'd had a family holiday. I think I'd missed it maybe three weeks ago because of work commitments. So I was running the session and one of the boys was walking to the car park. I happened to say to him, what did you think about that tonight? How did you find it? And he sort of glanced and said, come on, you know, I always like open, honest feedback. And he actually said, Vin, you stopped it too much. And I went, okay. I said, thanks. I said, I think I did actually. I said, well, listen, there's a reason for that. We're working on this new theme about pitches and patterns when we're in possession. And that theme is going to be linked to Saturday's game next Tuesday, Saturday after next Tuesday. I said, so I'm going to stop it less next Tuesday, which Tuesday's just gone. And I'm going to definitely say less on Saturday during the match day. Anyway, cuts of the chase in terms of what might their behaviours be like. Tuesday, torrential rain, as I've already said. I went to the same young man at the end and said, how did I do tonight? And he went, yeah, much better Vin, gave me a thumbs up. So what's my point? Yeah, we need to listen to our players and that's the empathetic piece. What do they want for a single hour that we are together during practice sessions? Cause typically that's what grassroots coaches have. They want to play a game. They want lots of activity time and they want to feel as if they've got some ownership. Because at the end of the day, the match day on Saturday or Sunday, it's their game. And I think on that point, If we can always be mindful as grassroots coaches, particularly during the winter season, remember that the practice session for one hour per week, can we try and make it, if not the best, one of the best parts of their week and your week as the coach, because it can become very stressful as a coach in terms of, oh, what can I do tonight? Cause the weather's doing this, this and this. And I'd plan to do this activity. For example, this line drill. And you know, my view on line drills, no laps, no lines, no lectures. So it's incumbent on us to actually show that real enthusiasm and that empathy so we can engage the youngsters as much as possible.

[Louise]

So we've talked about kind of weather and stuff, but imagine it's a really cold or kind of really wet, like the session you had. Say if they aren't as enthusiastic as they normally are because of the weather, what's the first thing you should do as a coach?

[Vinny]

That's a really interesting question for the angle of, for me Louise, I'm not going to sit on the fence, it depends. So is it that they arrive and they just don't seem to be up for it? Yeah. Is it that you're partway through your session and they just don't seem to be at it? Is it that it's towards the end and they seem to have dropped off a little bit? I think that element of engagement and challenge is really, really important. If you asked every youngster, every teenager, every adult coming to a practice session at any time of the year, what do they want tonight? Yeah. If I had a pound for every time they said like a game, yeah, so therefore give them a game. Now buy a game. So let's paint a picture. You've got 16 players. I would discourage you from making those games. Let's say it's under 14 age group, a game of 8v8. Yeah. Get them into two games of 4v4. Get them into four games of 2v2. Yeah. And that way there is ultimately they're there because they love playing footy. So give them loads of footy. Yeah again, no laps for warming up. Right everyone set yourself up, grab four cones, set yourself up a little pitch. Yeah, pick your teams, play 2v2, off you go. Now we could argue that actually that's the coach not taking ownership for setting up. But again, the realities of setting up, most grassroots coaches these days, at this time of year, will be using a floodlit or weather pitch. Yeah. What's happening if we're on a seven o'clock, what's happening at five to seven? The flood lit or where the pitch is being used by other groups who absolutely want to maximise their time. So compared to when we're working during the spring or the late summer part of pre-season, where you might be on a grass pitch where there's masses of area and acreage. Yeah. You're not getting onto that area until *** on seven o'clock. So therefore you've not had a chance to set anything up. So give them the ownership to set something up. And that's something is a game or something that looks and feels like a game. I say it could be 2v2s, 4v4s, and you might be getting to an 8v8 with that number of players quite quickly. Give them a game and it's balancing their wants and their needs. What do they want? They want a game. What do they need? Well, in many ways, they need game related practices.

[Jamie]

Yeah, and it's just so important because it just avoids kids just waiting around in the cold like you say you might not get the time straight away to get onto the pitch to set up so giving them something to do and especially getting them into small sided games where there's going to be more repetition of the core skills and they're just going to get moving while it's cold. Absolutely. It's just so important.

[Vinny]

Yeah. And I think as always, your context is crucial. Your environment is crucial. What age group are you working with? So the younger the age group, the simpler, the little game that they set up. But if you actually adopt these really good habits during, let's say your August into September, into October, where the weather's nicer, yeah, and where you give your group, whatever age they are, eight, 18, 28, yeah, give your group the ownership to set up arrival activities, little games. By the time you get to the poor weather, you're not hitting them with something that, Oh, because the weather's really poor and because I've not been able to get onto the all weather pitch until now, yeah, I've got to set something up. Can you try to, they've been doing it for months with the boys that I'm working with, they've been doing it for years. Yeah. If I was to say to them, can you set this up? Yeah. They would be able to set it up because they're used to doing it. So giving them that ownership, which really does empower them as well in terms of ultimately it's their session, it's their game.

[Louise]

Especially it gives them outside of training sessions as well. If it's just a group of them, they can kind of set up something quite interesting as well for themselves.

[Vinny]

So Louise, what a great point. Yeah. What do youngsters do? Let's go primary school age. Yeah. So under 11 to below, what do they do on the playgrounds every day of the school year? They set up a game and they play without our involvement. So they can do sometimes as the adults were maybe a little bit, we can be a little bit insecure in terms of we can't give them this responsibility. Yes, you can. Yes, you absolutely can. And I'll come later on or quite shortly actually into when we're framing those questions as well, make sure that we're planning questions so that when there is this little team talk going on or when they are working with pairs, what we might call talk partners, again you're constantly giving them ownership because when they cross that white line on a Saturday or a Sunday or a midweek, it's their game.

[Jamie]

Circling back to something that you said earlier, you've obviously what are you saying, saying no laps, no lines, no lectures. Do you have any advice to kind of help coaches improve their communication skills to get their communication to be concise for the players?

[Vinny]

Yeah, absolutely. And it'll come to the, this whole idea of as coaches, sometimes you want to tell, but I'd encourage coaches to ask. Yeah. And if you can plan up to three questions for your session linked to the specific focus, I'll repeat. I'm currently working on an in possession theme with our boys about pictures and patterns. Yeah. I've already said pictures relates to the whole ABC, what I use in terms of the ABCs and that's awareness, body position and control. So one question might be within the confines of a practice or a game that we started on Tuesday night because of the weather, but it was planned. We started with our initial practice that broke out from the warm up with a ball in hand activity. And that ball in hand activity was designed to get the boys to consider when we're in possession can we play through the thirds? Can we play around by going out wide? Or can we play over? The plan question of mine was I was definitely going to say with this ball in hand activity, which was only for about three minutes, good for you goalkeepers by the way, yeah, okay, to get a little bit of ball in hand stuff. I knew as part of my plan that I would actually say, right, for the next minute, we can't throw the ball over the top over shoulder height. So my question to the boys was, what does that mean you need to do in terms of your ABCs? Yeah. And therefore I got them with a partner having a quick chat. What does that mean? And they came up with all sorts of different things. For example, if I actually decide to go into the middle area, my B for body position needs to be really good because we're now trying to play through. So plan your questions. And that way, rather than doing things on the hoof, those questions link specifically to your theme, to stuff that your players will already know will be much more powerful. I talk about wow questions. Make sure your questions always start with any of the words, what, when, where, why, who. Yeah. And then another question could begin with how, If you take all of those W's and stick the how on the end you've got wow. Yeah. So they're my wow questions.

[Jamie]

Love that. Do you have any top tips to kind of help then coach safety with something in the moment say you want to help a player with something so you've got your pre-planned questions but obviously it's hammering it down or it's really windy. What top tips can you give coaches to deliver in the moment communication?

[Vinny]

Yeah, be active and be interactive. Yeah, so there's this thing about having games and game-related practices. I often see in the lots of different roles that I have, coaches setting stuff up that looks good, coaches and teachers with my role within the education team, but then not interacting at all. In effect, not teaching or not coaching because listen, if coaching was easy, it wouldn't be a profession. And I always say that to people, coaching is the art and the skill of coaching is really, really hard. So be active and be interactive. So what do I mean by that? First of all, the active bit is make sure your observation is really active. And it might be active on an individual. It might be active on a unit. It might be active in terms of the whole group. But laser focus what you're actually looking at. If I use the example of individuals, yeah? So I'm actively looking at individuals, again, linking back to my theme. Hopefully this will make sense for the guys who are listening. My theme around painting pictures as an individual, have you got good ABCs, good awareness, good body position, good control. So I'm looking at individuals, particularly around the awareness. Are they checking their shoulder? Are they scanning? And if I see that happening, the interactive bit is, Louise, love the way you checked your shoulder there so that you could receive the ball and go forward. Well done. Be really specific then with the feedback on the hoof. Now that might not be a shout 30 meters away. I might deliberately then have a brisk walk or even I like to have a little trot, yeah. And get on Louise's shoulder because I know Louise well, she doesn't like there to be an explicit piece of information to her. So I'm now on your shoulder, Louise, I love what you just did there in terms of your body position. Dadi, dadi, da. So be active and be interactive. Yeah. See lots of coaches, particularly in the poor weather, and I can't understand why you do this, actually stood on one spot for three, four minutes. Yeah. Stay on the move. So you can actually see what's happening from different angles as well. So active and interactive. So do you think it's important for coaches to think carefully about their practice design to ensure it promotes movement and high ball rolling time? Yeah, absolutely. And something that I've mentioned before is this idea of good session design and good practice design. And if coaches haven't listened to any of our work before, what do I mean by good? Well, first of all, your activities need to have or should have goals. They should have opposition. There should be an element of orientation, which I'll drill into a little bit more in a moment, and there should be direction. So if we take those four concepts, they spell the word good. So think about that, everything you're designing, particularly in the winter months, if they've got those four elements, it'll certainly lend itself to your practice sessions and the individual components having a real aspect of realism and relevance as I said earlier. What do you mean by orientation? Well it might be that you've actually got a pitch that isn't rectangular shaped. It might be that you've got a pitch that is more triangular if you like, where you're actually doing a attacking into goal and you're starting from let's say a narrow end 40 yards from goal to a wider end because you actually want to encourage the players to get the ball wide. Or conversely, you might have a narrower section towards the goal because you want them to play in tight areas and you might start from a wider end. So if you think of a triangle shape, it might be that your pitch is organized that way. Therefore in terms of orientation the players really need to work out where they are on the pitch, where the sidelines are on the pitch, because it isn't, doesn't look and feel like a normal pitch. You could have something that looks and feels like a normal pitch, but rather than it being long and wide, it's wide and not quite as deep. So the pitch is wider than it is long. So that's the orientation piece. Depending on how you've designed your practice area, enabling your young players to actually have some time working out. So often I will, within a practice session without going into too much detail, simply say to my coaching colleague, let's just give them five minutes to work it out because they're playing on a slightly different shape with a slightly different area. Let's give them five minutes. Let's not say anything other than just praising the occasional thing that we see. So the orientation piece is really useful.

[Jamie]

And thinking this is something that might happen throughout what will happen throughout the season, which is unexpected numbers at training, but in particular at winter weather, there might be dropouts. How can coaches adapt to fluctuating numbers at training?

[Vinny]

One of my sayings, which I really like, which is why I use it often is, be flexible and that way you'll never be broken. Yeah. What do I mean by that? There's always going to be the occasional dropout in terms of numbers. There's always going to be, or maybe less often, somebody turning up whose parents hadn't replied on Spond or WhatsApp and, oh, you're here. No, sorry, you're here. You can't be because I haven't planned for you. Yeah great to see you so we greet them. But the flexibility around numbers it's got to be as simple as this yeah whatever your practices and games are looking like Remember you can play with matched up numbers. Let me go back to my earlier example. You've got 16 players and you've planned to play two games of 4v4. Remember you can play where you've got overloads and underloads. So if all of a sudden you've got 15 players, one doesn't turn up, then you'll have a 4v4 and a 4v3. It might be that you have to slightly reconfigure, yeah, what that 3 and 4 look like, whereby you're thinking actually, Louise, Jamie, can you two just swap bibs please? And some children say, why? I just think you work better in that team. You know the reason why it might be that you're slightly with the group of three. You just want to actually do that little swap because that'll make them a little bit equal strength. Yeah, compared to the four. So they're down on one number, but you've actually maybe given them a slightly more experienced, confident player. So be flexible with the numbers. We can play matched up, of course, but we can play with underloads and overloads and hey, underloads and overloads happen in the game. So that's the realism aspect to it. So be flexible and that way you'll never be broken.

[Louise]

And so linking to that slightly, when we're talking about parents and carers, do you think it's useful for them to kind of have a bit of forewarning about what you're going to do kind of in winter training so that they know what to expect?

[Vinny]

Yeah, absolutely. I think the involvement of your parents and carers obviously at specific age groups, because let's have it real, yeah, with our boys now, 16 going on 17 playing under 18 football, The parents and carers are there on a match day, but they're not there on a practice session. Yeah. And we're talking about practice sessions here. So within those age groups where parents and carers are ferrying the youngsters obviously to practice sessions and during the nice weather, they might be hanging around. Yeah. Quite a bit in there really. We've already talked about the importance of early communication and early decisions and early red flags if you like. If you know we're into winter and we know that we were having a space of really poor weather, let's say frosty weather that might impact even on the all weather pitch, then give that as a heads up. We've already had in our WhatsApp group, a parent flagging up the weather forecast actually for Friday to Saturday in Oxfordshire. And actually saying, is there a chance Saturday's game might be off. Back to practice sessions, that early warning, even 24 hours in advance to say, listen, it might be a bit tricky for tomorrow. In terms of the content, also that bit of messaging within your WhatsApp group or whatever, however you operate your comms, whereby you might share a little bit of imagery. For example, I'm going to talk about, let's say the use of a whiteboard. Yeah. So you might've used a whiteboard in the previous two or three weeks. You might have something that you used maybe even two months ago, where perhaps you had some wording on there that linked to your theme. For example, in possession, pictures and patterns, ABCs. Yeah, that image you might then share with your parents and say, this is what we're working on in our sessions at the moment. Yeah. Feel free in the drive to have a little chat with your son or your daughter. This is what we're working on because I'm going to be doing some focused work on this theme again with some very, very clear questions about this, but I won't be stopping the session that often in case they're still there watching thing. Hang on, Vinny isn't coaching tonight. Yeah. He's hardly doing anything. Well, actually no, he is. He's getting around and talking to individuals, et cetera, et cetera. Just on the point of whiteboards, if I may, which doesn't totally link to your question about the parent carer group. Remember, and I've made this mistake. Yeah. Whiteboards don't work very well in the rain. Now I know that might sound a bit facetious. They also don't work very well when the temperature goes, as soon as the sun goes down at this time of year and the temperature goes from 7 degrees to 2 degrees, your whiteboard pen won't work. How do we know this? I made this mistake even with 30 years of experience. Last season it was at some point. Yeah, I was planning on, I hadn't planned to use the whiteboard other than the magnets. The magnets still work, yeah. And this was during the winter period and the weather had just turned really cold. But I thought, you know, I just want to write something on the whiteboard. I'm like, I've stood there, the boys didn't realize they were playing. Of course the pen doesn't work. So just that bit of reminder, a way around it, if you do want to present anything that's visual in terms of words, All I did, I prepared a piece of flip chart that I then blue-tacked to my whiteboard. Yeah. And I made sure it was in one of my big whiteboard tactic bags where it stayed dry, if you like, if the weather was poor. So a bit of a top tip there in terms of the use of whiteboards. But back to parents and carers. Yeah. We need to totally engage them. I talk about, do you engage with your parent carers or do you leave them on the sideline? Yeah, engage with them, let them know what's happening and certainly giving them plenty of advanced information should there be a potential call off is really important.

[Jamie]

So in the event that training is actually called off, that it has to be cancelled, is there anything coaches can do to make up for that loss of time?

[Vinny]

Yeah again context is crucial. Sometimes simply saying we've got a night off, enjoy the gift of time is the best thing to do. So if I take our group last year, they were under 16s, year 11 at school, knee deep into their GCSEs, whether it be mocks, whether it be second set of mocks, whether it be final exams. So sometimes you just have the night off. Yeah. Nothing from me. Yeah. Enjoy the gifted time. Of course, there are those age groups where you want to keep them going. And particularly if there's a series of weeks, which sometimes happens where you've got cancellation after cancellation, it might be that there is a great game on television tonight. Yeah, It might be a champions league game. It might be a WSL game. Ask them to watch a little bit of that and let's stick with stuff I've mentioned already. Let's go with the awareness body position control and ask them to identify a player. It might be a favorite player and have a look at how well they actually do in terms of awareness. How often are they checking their shoulders, for example. It could be that you're directing them to something that you've produced before. So it might be, I use tactical pad. So it might be something, for example, where I've had a little video around some attacking corners, you might just send that across and say ask them to have a little look at this, think about their role and responsibilities and of course within the digital world you can always direct them to something that maybe they've found yeah and ask them to share something into the group or something from a while ago. And of course we shouldn't ignore the world of VO. Yeah, this isn't a flag for VO, but lots and lots of games and even at some of the younger age groups now are being VO recorded. So if you've got any footage, send a little bit of that across and they can have a little look at that stuff. But going back to sometimes the gift of time of saying, night off tonight, enjoy it. And the parents sometimes like, oh, thank goodness for that.

[Jamie]

Absolutely. And I suppose The other alternative is obviously potentially going indoors if you are lucky enough to be able to have a facility, maybe even try foot salve. Is that something that you'd recommend?

[Vinny]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think the, my top tip in relation to that is we know that the winter weather is going to happen. So plan ahead, which I did for a number of years when my group were under eights, under nines, under tens. We actually planned a foot-out program, which completely replaced actually the match days. We actually linked it in with the league, et cetera, et cetera. But back to practice sessions, there's always a button fight for indoor facilities during the winter months. So think about planning ahead whereby you can maybe get a facility booked up for maybe two, three sessions. And I used to simply call them futsal fun sessions and the youngsters were coming in experiencing a different format of the game. We talk about variety, volume and variation don't we? Well there's a real bit of variety by giving them an opportunity to play with the weight of the ball in tighter spaces. So yeah, the use of futsal, you know, if there's facilities available, if your club can also fund it, because of course these indoor spaces are quite expensive, but think about planning ahead for that. Really recommend that.

[Jamie]

Yeah. And of course it is also difficult living in England as well. Not knowing when that weather might actually hit because sometimes that could be in summer as well. But if anybody is interested in hearing more about what training indoors could look like or even learning a little bit about futsal, check out the previous episode with Mark Forrest to hear all about it.

[Louise]

We've got a few quickfire questions for you now if you're up for answering those. Yeah, great stuff, let's go. So question one, what's the biggest mistake coaches make when training outdoors in winter?

[Vinny]

I've referenced a number of times, haven't I? No laps, no lines, no lectures. Let's laser focus on the lectures bit. It's talking at players for too long. And hey, listen, we've all made that mistake. Yeah. You know how much I can talk. So it's being very, very focused to more from them, less from you. So much less talking from the coaches, much less instructing. As we said earlier, give them loads of ball rolling time, loads of activity time, loads of game time. And if you are actually dropping in any questions, yeah, there's a real skill for that questioning to be active. So less from the coach, more from the players.

[Jamie]

What's the most important thing to remember when planning a winter session?

[Vinny]

Remember why I would imagine the vast majority of the audience are going to be volunteer grassroots coaches. Yes, we might have more intentional coaches. Some coaches are getting paid, but either way, let's make that hour, if not the best, one of the best hours of the week for your six year olds, 16 year olds, or 26 year olds. And don't forget from a coach care perspective, make it the best hour of the week for you. We all have the stresses of work life, family life, even the challenges of getting to the venue. Once we're there, yeah, let's go with that whole idea of we love the game of footy. Let's make this a great hour where there's plenty of sweat, plenty of smiles, plenty of solutions, but not least you as a coach or your coaching team. Let's enjoy what we're doing because if we enjoy it, we will naturally pass that on to the group that we're working with.

[Louise]

And the final quickfire question is what's the best way to keep sessions fun when conditions are tough?

[Vinny]

The game is about scoring goals and stopping goals. So as I referenced earlier, this good acronym, make sure your games, your activities, your practices have goals, opposition, orientation and direction. And if they have that, there'll be loads of opportunities to score goals and stop goals. And who doesn't love that? When do we get the greatest cheer in the game on a match day? When there's a goal scored, or there's an incredible save by the goalkeeper or a last ditch tackle by the defender. The game is all about what happens in the two penalty areas. So scoring goals, stopping goals, got to be a winner.

[Jamie]

And almost that, there's some really great top tips that kind of reflect this episode. Are there any others that you want to kind of add to that that you want coaches to take away?

[Vinny]

I think I'll simply repeat one of the three concepts if you like. Greet them, get them going, give them ownership. It's their game.

[Louise]

And if you were to set a coaching challenge for any of the coaches that are listening, so something that if they're kind of quite new to winter training or just something new to think about after listening to this episode, what would you suggest that they try?

[Vinny]

This has got to be around the art of observation. As coaches, we feel, and listen, 30 years doing what I do as a teacher and a coach, and I was very much this person, this coach whereby I had to be seen and heard to be actively teaching and coaching. But the art of observation is all about refining that skill of watching what your players are doing. Even from the get-go, you might have a couple of games going on or a single game, stand back and observe. Observe what? Observe first of all, are they switched on? Are they actually playing the game with a genuine effort and application? Number two, do they understand the game and the practice and the activity? So a good example is I will often put in play when we're on an all weather pitch, we have a third of a pitch to use because we've got two of our other grassroots squads using the middle third and the other end, or sometimes we're in the middle. I will often always put in safety channels between our areas. Yeah. Sometimes I will see my players, even at 16, 17 years of age, using the wrong line for the sideline. So they'll actually go to the line that's meant to be part of the safety channel. Yeah. And even if I put the cones in a specific colour, yeah, sometimes they'll make that mistake because they're within the hurly burly. So going back to the whole art of observation, Louise, I'd encourage during the winter months in particular, think about this. When you're observing stuff and when you're thinking I need to coach, I need to get in there. When you see stuff, once is an incident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend. Intervene or coach when you see a trend or a pattern, because if you keep jumping in when you see something once from an individual player, and then something else once from another individual, and once from another individual already, you might have stopped the whole session more than the activity has been going on. So the challenge to our coaches out there, refine your observation skills and think about that once, twice, three times. When you see a trend or a pattern and it might be an individual player. Let's say they're not quite as young players playing like a meerkat. They're not quite playing with their head up or checking their shoulder or scanning. If you see that twice, three times you might then just do an individual intervention, get on their shoulder, bit of a high five to talk about something they've done well. So Louise, I love the way you actually pass the ball accurately and then went to support the team, your teammate. Yeah. Do you remember when you received the ball about two minutes ago in the middle of midfield. And Luisa's response might be, no, that's okay. What happened is you were stood with your back to the direction you wanted to go. And it might just be a quick question. What might you do to help yourself be able to play forward? And then we can go from there. But you don't want that to last more than 30, 45 seconds. But using the observation skills around once, twice, three times, and then build into that some individual interventions.

[Jamie]

I love that. Very important. Yeah. Thanks Vinay. Well, we're coming up to the end of the show now, but as you know, it does mean it is time for our swift session feature.

[Louise]

So that's another 30 second challenge. And we're going to ask you to explain a session idea to us in 30 seconds. You're used to this one, so we'll see how this one goes. Once you see the timer, you can begin.

[Vinny]

So the focus is around two player and three player combinations. You won't be surprised to hear that it's a game. And my context recently was a 6v6 game plus goalkeeper. Use cones at the side of the pitch to help with scoring. If a player scores a goal and it's worth one point, the blue player, they run off, they turn a blue cone over to denote it's 1-0. If they happen to score, let's say the yellow team, where it's a two-player combination, they run off the pitch and they turn over two cones. Same again if it's a three-player combination.

[Louise]

Lovely. Is that, I was like, chicken. Now that the time is up, is there anything else you want to add as context or kind of finish anything more to it?

[Vinny]

So yeah, just that concept around two or three player combinations. I have a theme that goes something like this, play what you see, one, two, three. Okay, now by a theme, that's going to be the same messaging over a series of weeks. So when we get into this cone scoring activity, the youngsters will be very, very familiar that we're trying to do things within three seconds, three touches, three options, but if you can then build in what I've explained there, a scoring system that has a one pointer, a two pointer, a three pointer. Why the marker cones? Well, the marker cones, unless as you said earlier, Jamie, they blow away. Yeah. You can have your marker cones set at the side as a stack of 10. And I've talked about blue and yellow, 10 blue cones, 10 yellow cones. And Basically the job is if a player wearing blue scores a two pointer, with the help of a teammate, two player combination, one of those two players has to run off and basically take two cones off the stack. And that's our scoring system. We can see that's happening. If it's a nice still evening, have them turn the cones upside down. That just makes it even visually more apparent what the scoreline is. And they're running back on, they're saying, it's 2-1 to us, etc. One of the key things to this is it'll give loads of opportunity for scoring and stopping goals. And you remember earlier I talked about, or you asked a question about numbers. When that player's run off to turn the cones over, of course now we've created an overload in the favour of the opposition who've just been scored against. So the key message is, yeah, when one player's off from the opposition, get the ball and play quickly, play forward, see if you can score a goal.

[Jamie]

Love it. Thank you very much Vinny and thank you very much for your time joining us in the studio again. We always learn something new when you're sat on the sofa with us, so we do appreciate you coming on and hopefully you've enjoyed it again.

[Vinny]

Yeah absolutely it's always a pleasure and hopefully there's plenty of stuff there for our grassroots coaches and coaches who are working in development programs and academies if they've listened around the challenges to do with the winter weather. It's a challenge for all of us and yeah just hope there's plenty of useful stuff in there.

[Jamie]

Absolutely it will be for sure. 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. As always you can head to the England Football Community to post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or you can drop them in the comments section for this episode.

[Louise]

Yes we'd love to help you out so please do send your questions in. We'll be back soon with another episode so if you haven't already hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss it. From all of us at England Football Learning, thanks for listening.