It is starting to get cold and wet outside, but the temperature was red hot with the futsal on show today! Quick mention to new coaches Ellie and Emily-Sue, they are starting to find their feet and both doing excellent, thank you ladies, your help is very much appreciated! Welcome to Beth and Iris who came and tried futsal for the first time, we hope you both had fun and look forward to welcoming you back very soon!

We worked this week on building from the goalkeeper and playing through the court. Players were restricted in their thirds to start with, but as the session developed players could drop into different zones and help their attackers to create overloads to score. This isn’t an easy topic with lots for the players to think about, but we did get some fantastic results and the coaches were really pleased with the way the players kept trying.

Click the image to download this weeks session plan

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Emily C – this girl just doesn’t stop, happy to get stuck in and works her socks off. She has great feet and bets of all does it all with a huge smile on her face – top job Emily!

2nd Session – Sienna S – we are starting to see the best of this young lady. She has a great engine and never stops running, and she is now starting to use the ball better and apply futsal techniques in all she does – great session Sienna!

3rd Hour – Abbie D – this young lady has everything – power, pace, skills and this season is really starting to show what a fab young player she is – the future is very bright for this one!

4th Hour – Millie T – she looks so comfortable on the ball, beats players for fun and is now starting to learn the game of futsal – another one for the ladies’ team, we certainly hope so!

Final thoughts of a coach – As coaches we have a vision in our mind of how a session will go, how it will play out, how the progressions will go and the huge smile on our faces afterwards. Oh boy, how rarely does that happen…

Today was one of those days where the temptation to change things was there for pretty much the whole session. It just wasn’t working; the outcomes were not happening and I could see some the players getting frustrated. At several times we stopped the session, had a drinks break and reset what we were doing. Occasionally, the girls got it, and played some sublime futsal, amazing to watch.

The learning for a coach is to be patient, let the players try and see where they get to. Yes, we can change the area, the player numbers, the time, the touches…in fact we can change pretty much everything about the practice, but we can’t make the players get it every time. Learning is always at a varied pace, some weeks the players will fly and other it will be hard work. You can see the frustration etched on some players faces when it is hard, but as I say to them – anyone can try and fail, not many try and try again until they succeed.

Coach Chris