The Soccer Coach. Marco Bruno

from the others under the same physical and tactical condition. Doing something you know you cannot do is as serious as doing something right at the wrong time.

      Understanding requires:

      - Knowledge of game principles and rules;

      - Intuition of what's going to happen;

      - Decision of choice on what is best to do;

      - Perception of space and time;

      - Action, ready and immediate execution of what you chose.

      4) The psycho-social condition: Knowing how to stay within a group (team), accepting diversity (skills, behaviors, physical abilities, experiences ...) working together to achieve common purpose is an indispensable condition for completing the others.

      Before beginning the treatment of the basic elements for achieving a good physical condition it is necessary to briefly outline how the coach should teach and the principles on which an effective training action is based.

      The principles of learning

      The principles or rules of sports teaching are used to make optimal the methodical ability of action of coaches and athletes. These principles refer to all aspects and tasks of teaching, which determine contents, methods and organization.

      1) Knowing the subject: you need to know soccer from a technical and tactical point of view, the principles of physical preparation, not being influenced by external and environmental factors, generally emotional and prevent the players from being affected.

      2) Knowing how to learn: without knowing the principles of learning that we have listed before you cannot make a profitable workout.

      3) Knowing the key factors of teaching: the key factors of teaching are:

      a) purpose: it concerns objectives that are usually in the medium and long term, for example the improvement of the team's offense game or the improvement of force. Short-term goals emerge from the purpose.

      b) objectives: they concern:

      - the game with the ball (passages, controls, triangulations, etc.);

      - the game without the ball (combined movement, support actions, crossed actions, etc.).

      You cannot teach everything at once, but determine an order of priority and a logical sequence of training.

      c) order of priority and the logical sequence - you cannot effectively teach different aspects of the game at once;

      - between two factors, one will always have a logical precedence over the other. If you do not respect a logical sequence, it becomes all the more difficult. The same happens if you insist on teaching the right things, but at the wrong time. Close attention must be paid to the planning and organization.

      d) planning and organization.

      the planning involves the best use of the equipment and must be done in advance to give rise to the best possible organization.

      The organization of an effective training session includes:

       the choice of the area of the field to be used for training;

       the right number of players participating;

       a realistic training (players must be used in their real positions and during the exercises they should play in a realistic way, the goalies must always be regular because the two essential aspects of soccer are the shoots and the scoring);

       an adequate start of the exercise and quality of the steps (many workouts are dragged wearily because little attention is given to the way to start the exercise and the steps are sloppy);

       simplicity and clarity (all players must understand what you want to do and get with that kind of training).

      e) ability to observe: the observation of a training session must lead the technician to understand if:

      - the training takes place in accordance to the organization;

      - the attitude of the players is stimulated and interested;

      - the action of collective play reaches its goal;

      - the specific action of the individual is beneficial to the group work.

      If all this is not achieved, ask yourself some questions:

      - physically, is the player able to perform that task?

      if the answer is "no", there is no reason to continue the exercise.

      - does the exercise scare the player?

      if the answer is "yes", it is better to start with the simplest exercises and further encouraging the player.

      - is it a technical problem?

      - what technique is it?

      make sure the player understands where he is wrong and explain how to do it correctly and train him in this way.

      - is it a tactical problem?

      1 lack of understanding (isolate and explain the individual parts);

      2 lack of intuition (the player does not see the action that takes place for three reasons:

      - too crowded action;

      - too fast action;

      - plays with his head down.

      1 lack of application (the player understands what it’s required from him, but he misses the execution because he tries to make things too difficult).

       f) communication: all that has been said so far does not matter if the coach is not able to communicate. A coach can communicate in two ways:

      1 by demonstration, highlighting the following qualities:

      - correct game actions;

      - actions carried out in a simple way;

      - clear demonstration, highlighting the main factor;

      - set a minimum target;

      1 by the word: communication through speech is very important, but it depends on the conviction with which he speaks the coach. Before speaking, the coach must think for a moment about what he has to say to be sure of the meaning of the words; must avoid words or complicated speeches and watch the audience while talking. Finally, he must always speak positively because it is more effective to say “do this” instead of saying “you were wrong doing this”.

      Communication in figures

      We spend 70% of our lives communicating verbally. This time is as follows:

      hearing 45%

      talking 30%

      reading 15%

      writing 10%

      Of all this we can remember:

      of what we read 10%

      of what we hear 20%

      of what we observe 30%

      of what we hear and observe 50%

      of what we say 80%

      of what we explain 90%

      In a conversation we can:

      listen 50% of what is said;

      hear and listen 50% of what we listen (only 25%);

      understand 50% of what we hear (only 12.5%);

      believe 50% of what we understand (only 6.25%);

      remember 50% of what we believe (only 3.125%).

      How many times have we talked for a long time with our athletes?

      What is left of our words?

      3.125%!!!!!!!!!!

      Everything else is forgotten.