Homework / Practice
Practice at home is another pillar of the development centre program, and is vital for improvement. This homework consists of tap ups and individual skills, which help to reinforce the work done in the coaching sessions. If time is short, tap ups need to be done in preference to skills. The generation of children we are coaching does much less physical exercise than previous generations and play habits are very much different. The increase in video games, satellite TV and a more sedentary lifestyle dictate that practice away from sessions is becoming more and more important, from both a football and healthy lifestyle point of view.
TAP UPS
The reasons for taps ups are that they are quantifiable and recordable so improvements are obvious. This helps the players’ confidence to improve as they can see the rewards from their hard work. This type of technical skill is also not heavily influenced by the ability of the player and is more a product of concentration, practice and hard work. All of these qualities will serve our players well as they progress with their football career. From a technical point of view tap ups improve touch, balance and most importantly weak foot. These areas fit well into the long term development of the player as they tap into the ‘window of opportunity’ of physical developments, dictated by the growth and development characteristics of players at development centre ages.
Tap up practice requires players to as often as possible, preferably everyday, attempt right foot tap ups, left foot tap ups and alternate foot tap ups, 3 times each and record the best score each day on the tap up sheet provided at development centre. To help make sure players are practicing well, they are asked to bring the completed sheets each week, so that the coach can offer realistic advice and help.
SKILLS PRACTICE
Skills practice involves the player practicing individually with a ball, to improve ball mastery, comfort on the ball and also improve their creativity in 1 v 1 situations, which will have a huge benefit in their development. The individual skills the players are asked to work on are the ones covered in the session the previous week. This helps to maximise improvement, and helps the players to remember and reinforce what has been worked on. These are also recorded on the tap up sheet, so again the coaches can build up an accurate picture of what advice and help each player needs.
For details of each skill see Academy Homework section.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO PRINT OFF A TAP UP SHEET
