Alright folks, settle in. Remember last season? Oof, tough watching our Avon lads struggle week after week. Felt like banging my head against the wall sometimes. So after the final whistle blew on that disaster, I knew I had to actually do something this offseason besides just complain. Found some tips online – five supposedly easy ones for coaches. Skeptical? Yeah, me too. But hey, worth a shot.
Getting Started & Facing Reality
First thing I did was drag out my rusty old notebook. Sat down with a lukewarm coffee one rainy Tuesday night and forced myself to write down everything that sucked. Brutal honesty time. Passing was erratic, defending looked like they were scared of the ball, fitness faded after 20 minutes – the whole package of “oof”. Didn’t sugarcoat it.
Trying Those ‘Easy’ Tips
Figured I’d tackle them one by one, see if they stuck.
Tip 1: Drill Passing RELENTLESSLY
Started simple. Every single practice, rain or shine, we spent the first 15 minutes JUST passing. Short passes, wall passes, triangles. Boring? Heck yes. Kids moaned like crazy for the first week. “Coach, we know how to pass!” Do ya? Do ya really? Made them do it moving, made them do it under light pressure. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Grinding it in.
Tip 2: Make Fitness FUN (Yeah Right)
Told ’em it was “fun”. They saw right through that. Instead of just laps, tried small-sided games. Short bursts of high energy, like 4v4 on a tiny pitch. Losers do 10 push-ups. Suddenly, running wasn’t just running – it was competition. Sneaky, but worked. Still heard groans, but fewer.
Tip 3: DEFEND AS A UNIT
Our defence leaked goals like a sieve. Pulled them aside one practice. “You four, stick together. Move as one bloody block!” Drilled shape without the ball. Shouting at each other, pointing, shuffling left and right like crabs. Felt ridiculous. Looked awkward. But slowly… started to see less big gaps. One kid shouts “Shift left!”, progress!
Tip 4: SET PIECES MATTER!
Used to just let them lump it in. No more. Spent one whole practice just on corners and free kicks near the box. Who goes near post? Who goes far? Who marks who? Simple routines. Took flipping ages. They thought it was tedious. But you know what? In our first friendly, we scored off a corner. ONE goal. Felt like a massive win.
Tip 5: Talk CONSTANTLY
Drove them nuts. Constantly yelling from the sideline: “MOVE!”, “PRESS!”, “PASS!”, “MAN ON!”. Encouraging good stuff, pointing out bad stuff immediately. Even made them shout at each other during drills. Felt like noise pollution at first. Gradually started hearing them talking more during games. Someone actually screamed “TIME!” to a teammate. Music!
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Look, it wasn’t some magic overnight fix. We lost our first pre-season game. Passes still went astray, fitness wobbled sometimes. Felt like throwing my clipboard a couple times. But… saw flashes. More purpose. Less panic. Kids starting to get annoyed with each other over sloppy play – meaning they cared!
Did all five tips work perfectly? Nah. But sticking with them, grinding it out? That’s the key bit. Still got work to do, mountains of it. But compared to last season’s train wreck? Night and day. The lads look sharper, less lost. They’re not world-beaters yet, far from it. But they’re improving. And honestly? That feels pretty damn good after feeling useless last year. Beer tastes better after practice, that’s for sure.
