Thanks to Lewis Bridle of Soccer By Design in Adelaide for coming on The Coaching Lab podcast! Checkout how Lewis and the coaches are delivering great sporting experiences to young people using MatchPlay Cards...
We’re all about Small Sided Games at Soccer by Design, more touches, more repetition or different situations and more thinking quickly thorough games gameplay. We change the pitch shape and play smaller teams on different size pitches so you haven't got the space like you do on an 11 a side pitch. The players really love the environment and we’re starting to see huge changers in the players.
When we play different formats, you can’t hide as a player, you’re always thinking and in the game. It's just a lot more touches on the ball it's just a lot more repetition it's as basic as that.
I think it is pretty vital that they continue to get the repetition of touches on the ball in different ways, unfortunately kids these days are not probably the same as what we were, out there playing in the streets after school. A lot of them don't have that same set up, they come home and nestle into the couch or the telly.
What I love about playing Small Sided Games is that we can take the a very basic passing principle with the U8s and have them being to understand how to play the game and combine, why we do certain things or why we press to win the ball. It is so much easier for them to understand. By the time a player goes to 11v11 or into club teams
Many young players are not ready for an 11 a side, pitch most of them can't even put a corner in properly. You can’t understand space correctly, you can't cover the amount of ground that you really need to cover and as we say you could also hide on 11 a side pitch. Unfortunately, some players might only get six touches, seven touches in some games and some goalkeepers will get absolutely nothing if your team's a dominant team some goalkeepers won't even see the ball for 40 minutes and I just don't see that as development.
“The game is players education”
One of our point of difference is we play a lot 7v7, there’s a lot of transitions, there is also a lot of mistakes which is fine. By having a smaller pitch players can use this as education and help them as they get older and as we see with the 16s and 18s.
In training we obviously love using MatchPlay Cards and how we do that is have players playing lots of different game formats so they can begin to understand the space, this maybe 2v2s 3v3s 3v2, overloads and underloads all the time. It’s their education. If you look at the big game, they’re not really playing 11v11 or 8v8 it's literally you with your two supporting players and probably two pressing defenders and how you're working that situation out and the basic part of it is what, what support are you offering to your player or are you making that decision.
If we’re going to play lots of different games and get the players thinking, we need to reflect and take the learning. We are always using Reflection MatchPlay Cards to engage players right from U8s through to U16s.
I just finished the U16s game on the weekend and at the end of their tournament we all came together as a group and used the cards as conversation kickstarter to reflect on our games.
It is vital that we give players an environment that is free, no one cares what the score is at U10s, we know that it is about giving players giving experiences and scenarios and then reflecting on them together, that’s why we use and promote Reflection MatchPlay Cards.
“The kids are like wow this is new, this is different, this is exciting, we got the buy-in from players straight away but I think the best part about the cards are just how simple you can keep your training exercise and get so many different aspects of development”
Sometimes we would do 10 training sessions and players begin to get a better idea over time but it took a while, then we started using MatchPlay Cards and players just got it straight away and so much quicker, their learning has been accelerated.
I may pick out certain MatchPlay Cards that relate to the theme of the session, the score or the players in front of us the begin to add the challenge cards into the session. The player just naturally do it and they learn through the game themselves. We know that if players can self learn, it will stick with them much more.
When I look back to when I first got them, another coach shared them with me and this sounds a little silly but I was nervous. Nervous as to how to use them but I just didn’t release the simpler you can keep it, let the players pick the cards, create moments of conversations and let them work it out, it all made so much sense to me.
We love giving the players choice over what to do, we may pick a certain group of MatchPlay Cards and then invite players to pick which ones they want or challenge them to pick ones that relate to the principles we’re on as a group. It is their game!
“They’ve been a joy for me, they have made my life as a coach easier in regards to all the crazy planning and structured sessions that you spend hours thinking”
I believe we just need to let them play and then slowly add more MatchPlay Cards into the the game. We may add a few individual challenges, more restrictions or sort of advancements and just let them play a game within a game. We also have to release that kids are there to learn and they're there because they love what they do and so often adults ruin this for them.
Players love being able to own their game with MatchPlay Cards, as coach we would influence the pitch shape and team numbers and the give the ownership the players to pick their own MatchPlay Cards for the game, its learning happening in front of us really. They have to take on the information, share that with others, focus and find a way through the game.
“When you use MatchPlay Cards, it’s constant thinking of how can you overcome or defeat that game!”
We use a whiteboard a lot in our sessions as a visual for players and we would add MatchPlay Cards to the board, to show them which ones are coming up in the session or different team challenges for them to go a pick for their team. The other way is individual, we say “whoever scores has to go and pick a card for the game until the next goal is scored”
I am also blown away by the solutions players find themselves when use MatchPlay Cards, we could have been trying to get a player to do something for 4 or 5 weeks and they struggle, suddenly they pick out a MatchPlay Cards and they “oh, that’s what I have to do, I understand now”.
As coaches we make a point of asking the kids to give us feedback on training and whenever we use MatchPlay Cards in the sessions, they give us 11 out of 10 so we must be doing something right with them. The players love them!!
They’re a fanatic coaching tool for coaches and players, we all think we have the answers but we don’t really. MatchPlay Cards change everything for a players perspective on the game, you’re creating buy-in and that fun element and that's how they learn far quicker than shouting at kids from the sideline.
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