On Sunday 16th September, Pro Coaching Academy coaches Chris and Suzy attended a futsal CPD day at the University of York.  The day was hosted by Junior Roberti, FA Futsal Tutor and Head Coach of York City FC Futsal.

The day started with a briefing by Junior on what the players had been working on that week in training and how they were going to apply this to the game.  The focus of the game was out of possession and trying to win the ball back as high up the court as possible.  The coaches were asked to watch various players and how they performed against their designated task for the game.  This included watching the ‘player marking the player with the ball’, the ‘player marking the player without the ball’ and the ‘balance’ player.

The coaches then got to speak and ask questions to some of the players before the game on the tactics that Junior had adopted for that day.  Everyone then moved into the main sports hall and we watched the players warm up, before we took our seats behind the players bench to watch the match.  All the coaches had data collection sheets, see the image, with various tasks to complete.

At half time, the coaches were asked by Junior to feedback to the players the information they had recorded about the first half.  The players were very interested in what the coaches had recorded and asked them to explain what they had seen in detail, not an easy task!

After the game, Junior spend time talking to the coaches about the day, what he had learned from the match and what they had seen and thought.  The game finished 8-2 to York, with 15-year-old Ben Rodger scoring on his debut!

In conversation after, Coach Chris said, ‘What an amazing experience, being allowed to be part of the whole match day was incredible.  It’s not often you get to give feedback on an England international player, especially to their face!  Thank you Jamie Bettson for being so patient!  Overall it was brilliant to be part of the day, and my head is still spinning for all the information I collected.  Now how to use it!’

See the images below, taken by Coach Suzy, from the match: