Cameron Herbert

We are so close man

U14 Session

Working on OUR strengths today.

Emphasis on "opposites" and getting there as FAST as possible: the long ball, playing central, playing around.

I'm excited for the "Diagonal 4 goal game" where teams can only score in the two goals diagonal opposite to each other.

U14 Session Plan

Final touches in our match prep to have our players THINKING about WHO they are "opposite" too DIAGONALLY.

Will need to revisit this idea again in the future - but I'm very unsure where the reluctance to simply put the ball IN BEHIND as FAST as possible comes from.

U14 Session Plan

More of a focus on Z3/Z4 defending/pressing. Emphasis on going THROUGH the player when that high up the pitch.

U14 Session Plan

Training our 352 vs opponent's 433 this weekend.

More learnings! Find their strengths (RB/RWB, #8) who likes to DRIBBLE inside!

Great at drawing pressure, but WHAT is the NEXT ACTION for the player?

Short and sweet - give them ideas, show them what they did well.

U14 Boys Training Session

What are best practices for using video and technology in youth football?

Short, punchy videos for individuals.

Admittedly, this being nearly 3 minutes long is still too long.

The Anti Game Model Manifesto A call for change and intentional football player development.

The Anti Game Model Manifesto

Unclear game models have affected how we coach and educate footballers. We must change how we approach long term player development for the greater good of the sport.

My manifesto outlines what needs to change.
open.substack.com/pub/northern...

The Anti Game Model Manifesto A call for change and intentional football player development.

The Anti Game Model Manifesto

Unclear game models have affected how we coach and educate footballers. We must change how we approach long term player development for the greater good of the sport.

My manifesto outlines what needs to change.
open.substack.com/pub/northern...

Once coaches abandon this secular way of thinking and behaving they can begin improving their knowledge base and how they help footballers.

Coaches should not be involved in footballer recruitment because of their bias to footballers who fit the “style of play” they know how to coach.

No coach is privileged enough to only coach what they are comfortable coaching because they serve footballers, not themselves.

Tomorrow I release my manifesto.

It is the greatest single thing I have ever written.

It will shatter and reshape the landscape of what football coaching is.

This is genuinely all I want when I work with a club, youth or senior players.

It makes my job as the coach so much easier.

In reality, they achieve nothing and look like they are “modern” teachers. This appearance is enough to stroke the ego and keep the coach employed longer because no decision makers who choose if they coach stays or goes can understand what is happening.

Footballers need a variety of choices before they are asked to choose what they believe to be best for the problem at hand.

When a coach says “let them play” or “let them solve it themselves” without giving the footballers solutions beforehand, they create an illusion of collaboration.

The game model suggests what to coach and who to recruit, creating a smaller pool of potential solutions and players to use, stagnating the development of the player.

Game models allow for the coach to have a framework of what to teach, but seldom does the coach go deeper than what the game model suggests, due to their own shortcomings as a coach.

The coach must take responsibility for their own learning as their learning is the footballers' learning.

This means that they perhaps follow a club curriculum or game model, without considering that it is the insight you give a player that makes them better, not the exercise, game model or “belief”.

The reality for the majority of grassroots coaches is that their approach is doing what they feel is best for the group.

We blame the homogenization of football on overly demanding “styles of play” and Pep Guardiola, but the reality is that players do not have enough solutions to use in games to choose from.

The choices, or lack thereof, must be trained in an environment as close to the match as possible so that the split second decisions we criticize players for are prepared and familiar.

The symptom of poor coaching, or unclear coaching, is players making split second reactionary decisions because the choices given to them in the preparation for the match were not clear or good enough.

Moreso in youth football, the match is a test for the footballer to show they can apply what has been taught. But if no solutions are taught, the footballer is doomed to fail.

Therefore, any solution used after reviewing match preparation that is from the game model is merely coincidence and not objective.

If the game model is a tool for player development, why are first team, high-performance environments doing any match preparation at all?

The use of match preparation is for the coach to apply specific ideas against specific problems learned in preparation.

A game model will never determine the ability or potential of a footballer, it is barely the training wheels for the worst performing coach in the institution to keep up with the coaches offering real solutions to players in the institution.

Footballers need to be taught:
1. How to win the football match
2. How to stop the other team from winning

If a coach deviates, they are deviating from winning a football match.

A game model may give an idea of how to coach a footballer, but the game model does not prepare for the match.

Coming soon:

The footballer is sold on an idea that even though there is no objective success they believe in the long term strategy of improvement.