There was a charity celebrity match on at the football stadium in York today, so attendance was down – we won’t go into what makes a celebrity, but the coaches and players had very different opinions!!

The theme this week was playing into a high player – looking to make the longest safest pass the players could. It was 2v2 in the middle with 2 end players and depending on the age groups side players also. To score the end players had to be used and the players were encouraged to look forward to play forward as often as possible.

As the sessions went on, we saw so many first time balls into the end players and plenty of support in the D to finish the action. We are not saying the girls enjoyed this one, but they never once asked if they could play a game at the end…we will take that as a result!

Click the image to download this weeks session plan

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Eady M – one of the smallest players on the court but must have the biggest heart, she never gives up and happy to tackle and win the ball off much bigger players!

2nd Session – Sofia C – without being told or coached her first thought straight from the off was to get the ball to the end players as quick as possible – fantastic for one of the youngest in the group.

3rd Hour – Aria P – today we saw the very best of Aria, working hard, scoring goals and covering every part of the court, on her day, one of the best!

4th Hour – Connie Y – what we liked about Connie today was she tried time and time again to get her first-time crosses into the D, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t but she never gave up!

Final thoughts of a coach – We won’t dwell on the conversation about YouTubers, Influence’s and other so-called celebrities, all I can say is the day after my birthday, I suddenly felt old!

I have finally got round to designing a simple session plan that I can upload each week for players and coaches, if they are interested, to download and use. I am not claiming that the session is amazing, unique or going to change the world, but they are there if anyone wants them! I learned so much from looking at other coaches’ plans, from beginners to top end coaches and seeing what they did. I also learned very quickly not to try and copy word for word what they did, but look at the content, think about my players and see if it could be adapted.

During sessions I often stop talking, watch and see exactly what is going on. A common mistake from new coaches is to constantly talk and give out information. You can see so many different things happening on the court when you take the time to do so. My own way is to stop, count to 20 or 30, and then speak. It helps me to think about what I am about to say – is it worth saying, is it relevant and above all else, does it help!

Coach Chris