Balls, bibs and cones.
The essentials for every coach.
With this equipment we can transform any space into a football play area.
We can create a perfectly viable, educational, environment with this equipment, but there is something important missing.
Goals.
The session will be fine, the coaching will be fine, the players will be fine, but goals can make the ordinary special.
Kids want to play. This is undeniable. They also want to score goals. A rare few want to stop them, but most just want to score. I will never forget reading Pepjin Ljinders when he was at Porto. He emphasised the use of goals, because goals “make the kids fly”.
With our balls, bibs and cones we can make goals, but everyone knows deep down that is just not the same. FA surveys have shown that grassroots coaches avoid running sessions that involve shooting, partially because they lack goals but largely because of the time eaten up by having to retrieve footballs, or worse, losing footballs.
Even then, the cone goals are not the same, we need posts, we need net. That feel for the net, that sensation of ball hitting net, this is what makes you fly.
Several years ago, I floated a theory that teams who have goals at their sessions are better finishers than teams who do not have goals. This was shot down by numerous people, yet this remains my experience. When I have worked with teams who have had goals available at sessions, the standard of finishing seems to improve. Purely based on anecdotes, I have no scientific research to back up my assertion here. Just experiences.
Why would this be?
There is something within those who enjoy football that when they see a goal, they want to use it. More accurately, they want to kick a ball at it. It is a hard instinct to fight. So why fight it? When the goals are there, we are far more likely to use them. In all sorts of practices. We find ways to involve goals in our possession practices, pressing practices, defending practices, in everything. This means that players constantly get to practice finishing and their feel for the net.
It doesn’t even matter what size the goals are. Whether they are 5v5 letter box goals, futsal sized goals or Bazooka style mini goals, having these targets helps players have a clearly game related objective.
Especially in transition.
Having an element of transition whenever possible (and most of the time it is possible) is vital to opposed and semi opposed practices. This helps remove the separation of defence and attack, creating more fluidity and realism. When players are working out of possession in a game they are not doing it so that when they are in possession they then just give it up again, they are looking to transition into attack. To go from out of possession, to transition, to in position, to scoring.
The availability of goals has a far bigger impact on the practice than might first be imagined. Coping with cones is just not the same. For the majority of teams their reality is a patch of grass in a park, not a shiny AstroTurf with goals on wheels. The balls bibs and cones are dragged along by volunteers, that volunteer being whoever has space in their car. Who has space in their car for a goal?
Everyone, actually. Without turning this into a plug for any products there are portable goals available that will easily fit into a car. These are of varying assembly styles and differing sizes, but they are game changers for practices.
Investment in goals will improve the practices, create more transition and, most importantly, help your players to fly.