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01 08 Sep 2026 · coaching tips The Match I Watched Seventeen Times I watched my team lose 3-1 and saw nothing useful. A professional analyst watched the same match and found twelve fixable patterns. That gap changed how I understand football.

02 28 Jul 2026 · coaching tips Six Things Worth Watching For In Ten Minutes Of Opponent Footage You don't need an hour of full-match footage or expensive analysis software to prepare for an unfamiliar opponent. Ten minutes and six specific things to look for gets you furth...

03 14 Jul 2026 · coaching tips 328 Sessions, Built So You're Not Starting From A Blank Page Every Week 328 Sessions To Master The Ball, The Opponent, The Game, The Position, and The Performance is the resource I built after years of my own Sunday-night planning grind. Here is wha...

04 07 Jul 2026 · coaching tips You Don't Need A New Exercise. You Need More Depth In The One You Have. If your coaching depends on constantly finding new exercises, you're a curator, not a coach. Here is the real fix from the book, one exercise with 20 genuine variations, plus th...

05 23 Jun 2026 · coaching tips The Four Traps: Which Kind Of Dogmatic Coach Have You Been? I've been all four of the coaching traps I now write about at different points in my career: Copy-Paste, Closed, Results-First, Social Media. None of them make you a bad person....

06 16 Jun 2026 · coaching tips The Problems Grassroots Coaches Actually Raise In Our Community Academy advice rarely accounts for solo coaching, unpredictable numbers, or pushy parents on a Tuesday night in the rain. Here are the real problems FCA members have raised, in ...

07 09 Jun 2026 · coaching tips 13 Questions That Test Whether Players Understand The Game Or Just Their Position A set of tactical questions I use to check whether players actually understand why they're doing something, not just where they're meant to stand. Ask a handful after training a...

08 02 Jun 2026 · coaching tips Good Sessions Aren't The Same As A Season That Develops Players It is entirely possible to run engaging, well-delivered sessions week after week and still not see real development, because the sessions were never connected. Here is the found...

09 26 May 2026 · coaching tips Turning Casual Match Watching Into Something You Can Actually Coach From Most coaches watch matches, they don't analyse them. I built my How To Analyse A Match course around that exact gap, turning casual observation into a systematic process that en...

10 19 May 2026 · coaching tips Foundations Before Tactics: The Order Player Development Actually Follows You cannot build tactical understanding on weak technical foundations, and you cannot build match performance on weak tactical understanding. Here is the phased model I actually...

11 12 May 2026 · coaching tips Why I Turned My Coaching Notes Into One-Page Cheatsheets I've built 18 one-page cheatsheets over the years, covering everything from 9v9 formations to pre-season planning to defensive principles for small-sided play. Here is why they ...

12 05 May 2026 · coaching tips Turning A Team Around After A Bad Result Starts At Halftime, Not Monday Every coach has a result that stings. Brian, a coach in our community, turned his team around at halftime after getting clobbered in the first half and lost anyway, but went dow...

13 28 Apr 2026 · coaching tips The Training Session I Planned In Eleven Minutes It was 9:40pm on a Tuesday. Tomorrow's session was not planned. The panic was familiar. What happened next changed how I approach every session since.

14 21 Apr 2026 · coaching tips The Match Where I Knew The Tactics But Could Not Use Them I could discuss formations fluently. Draw diagrams on tactics boards. Explain pressing triggers to anyone who asked. Then the match started and I froze. What I learned about the...

15 07 Apr 2026 · coaching tips The Training That Made Players Tired But Not Better My sessions were intense. Players finished exhausted. Then match day arrived and they looked like different people. What I learned about the gap between training hard and traini...

16 17 Mar 2026 · coaching tips Football Drills With No Equipment: 20 Sessions Anywhere 20 football training activities that require only a ball and players. Perfect for when you forget equipment, train in parks, or want minimal setup time.

17 14 Mar 2026 · coaching tips How to Stop Players Bunching Around the Ball: 5 Proven Solutions 5 proven solutions to stop youth players bunching around the ball. Practical activities that teach spacing naturally without constant coaching instruction.

18 17 Feb 2026 · coaching tips The Mid-Season When I Changed Everything And Made It Worse We were third in the league when I decided to fix our problems. By March we had dropped to eighth. What I learned about mid-season adjustments changed how I approach every secon...

19 10 Feb 2026 · coaching tips The Formation I Copied And Why It Failed I watched a successful team and copied their formation exactly. Two months of chaos later, I understood why formations do not transfer between teams. Here's what I learned about...

20 03 Feb 2026 · coaching tips The Modern Centre-Back: What The Position Actually Demands Now A centre-back who can only defend is half a player now. Here is the real session library for building the complete package, from U12 foundations through to the full 15-21 skillset.

21 27 Jan 2026 · coaching tips The Complete Goalkeeper: Shot-Stopping Is No Longer Enough The goalkeeper position has changed more than any other. Here is the real shot-stopping technique, positioning principles, and why coaches keep asking me for goalkeeper-specific...

22 05 Jan 2026 · coaching tips FootballGPT: Your AI Coaching Assistant for Coaches, Players & FM Managers Meet FootballGPT - the AI football assistant with 16 specialised advisors for coaches, players, and Football Manager enthusiasts. Get instant answers to your football questions.

23 31 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Decision That Changed Everything Every coach has a turning point. A decision that changed everything. I asked our community to share theirs. These are the real stories that came back.

24 31 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Measuring What Matters in Youth Football - 2026 Goals But if trophies are your primary measure, you are missing what actually matters in youth football.

25 30 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Nine Years With The Same Team Nine years. Same team. Eighteen players who still love football. This is what happens when you commit to the long game instead of chasing the next opportunity.

26 30 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The January I Finally Made Changes That Stuck Every January I set ambitious coaching goals. Every February they were forgotten. Then I learned why most coaching resolutions fail and what actually works instead.

27 29 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Planning Your Coaching Development for 2026 The Three Questions Before planning sessions, answer these three questions about your coaching: 1.

28 29 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Message That Arrived At 11pm I posted a question in the community at 11pm, expecting to wait until morning for answers. Within twenty minutes, three coaches had responded. That is when I understood what mak...

29 28 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Mistakes I've Actually Made, Not The Ones That Sound Good In Hindsight No matter how experienced or qualified you are, you still make the same mistakes over and over sometimes. Here are the real ones from my own coaching: giving in to parent pressu...

30 27 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Question I Was Too Scared To Ask For Three Weeks I joined a coaching community and lurked for three weeks. Too scared to post. Too worried my question was too basic. Then I asked anyway. The response changed how I thought abou...

31 26 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Masterclass I Watched Three Times Before I Understood It I thought elite coaching content would not apply to my U10s. Then I watched a professional coach explain something that transformed my sessions completely. It took three viewing...

32 26 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Course I Watched Three Times Before I Understood It I watched a coaching masterclass once and felt like I learned a lot. Then I could not remember any of it the next week. That is when I discovered how learning actually works.

33 25 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Community That Changed My Coaching I used to coach in isolation, convinced my problems were unique. When I finally connected with other coaches, I discovered they had already solved what I was struggling with. Th...

34 25 Dec 2025 · coaching tips What Kept Football Alive During Lockdown Was Parents, Not Me During the UK lockdowns I went live at 7:30am every morning with ball mastery sessions. What actually kept me going wasn't the numbers watching. It was parents sending photos of...

35 23 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Session That Finally Made Sense For years my sessions felt disconnected. Passing on Tuesday. Defending on Thursday. A match on Saturday where nothing connected. Then I discovered the framework that ties everyt...

36 21 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Saturday I Chose Not To Shout I was surrounded by coaches screaming at referees and parents yelling instructions. I made a decision that day that changed how I think about match day identity.

37 21 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Three Weeks That Changed How My Team Played A coach told me 'Been working with the game model these past 3 weeks and our improvement has been noticeable from week to week.' Three weeks. Noticeable change. I had to underst...

38 20 Dec 2025 · coaching tips How I Actually Got From Parent Volunteer To Where I Am Now Coaches ask me fairly often how to turn coaching into an income. My honest answer starts with my own path, no plan, no qualifications, just showing up when my son's team needed ...

39 20 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Game Changers - The Resources That Transform Coaching The Football Coaching Academy has been a game changer to my coaching development.

40 19 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Coach's Balance - Dedication Without Destruction I just paid for plane wifi to type this out. No wonder my wife loses it with me sometimes.

41 19 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Protecting the Love of the Game - Preventing Youth Football Burnout Introduction "It's about cultivating players who still love playing years down the road." Youth football faces a crisis: massive dropout rates.

42 18 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Value of 1-2-1 Coaching Conversations Why 1-2-1 Conversations Matter Personalised Guidance Content speaks to everyone.

43 18 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Video I Was Embarrassed To Watch But Grateful I Kept A coach messaged me: 'We have even gone from lowlights to a really good standard thanks to everything I have learned.' But he could prove it because he had documented the journe...

44 17 Dec 2025 · coaching tips When Learning Changes Everything - Moments That Transform How You Coach Introduction "Changed the way I think about football for sure." Some learning moments just hit differently.

45 17 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Value of Revisiting - Why Second Viewings Teach More Than First I have been looking through old posts this week and finding excellent stuff I had not noticed before.

46 15 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Three Minutes That Changed My Coaching I used to rush home after every session without thinking. Then I started spending three minutes in my car reflecting. That small habit changed everything.

47 14 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Halftime Talk That Changed Everything - How to Turn Matches Around Turning things around with a halftime talk after getting clobbered in the first half.

48 14 Dec 2025 · coaching tips 10 Books That Will Change How You Coach Football Coaches in our community regularly share book recommendations. Here are the ones that come up most often - the books that genuinely change how coaches think ...

49 13 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Are Coaching Qualifications Worth It? An Honest Assessment I generally think the coaching certificates are not worth the money. It is just a box you need to check.

50 12 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Grassroots to Professional Pipeline - What Actually Contributes to Player Success A coach in our community trained a player who won a European Championship. What role does grassroots coaching play in professional development?

51 12 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Specific vs General Feedback - The Detail That Accelerates Development I have been focusing on giving specific feedback to players and using video clips to help them understand.

52 11 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Coach Whose Players Still Call Him Gaffer I asked coaches in our community what their biggest achievement was. The answers had nothing to do with trophies. That changed how I think about success.

53 11 Dec 2025 · coaching tips How to Survey Your Players (And What to Do With the Answers) I am having fun, and I hope the players are - I surveyed them and they appear to be.

54 10 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Why Relationship Skills Determine Coaching Longevity There is no longevity if you are not good at the people part. Technical knowledge has a ceiling. People skills compound forever.

55 09 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Long Game - Why Staying With Your Team for Years Matters Taking a team from U9s all the way through to U18 and finishing with a squad of 19 players who all still enjoyed their football.

56 09 Dec 2025 · coaching tips The Kids Nobody Else Would Take We have included kids who did not get to play much at other clubs and kids who no other club would take. That is grassroots football at its best.

57 08 Dec 2025 · coaching tips Attitude vs Talent - Why Character Trumps Ability in Youth Football I will always take someone who has a great attitude and tries hard, regardless of talent.

58 07 Dec 2025 · coaching tips 5 Grassroots Coaching Challenges Every Coach Faces (And What Actually Works) Mixed abilities. Coaching alone. Sessions going stale. Ball-hogs. Parent pressure. Five problems nearly every grassroots coach hits, and the systems that actually solve them.

59 06 Dec 2025 · coaching tips What 37 Coaches Say Their Biggest Win Was (Hint: It Wasn't Trophies) We asked coaches in our community one simple question: 'What's your biggest win as a coach?'

60 15 Nov 2025 · coaching tips The Ten Mistakes I Made My First Season Every beginner coach makes the same errors. I made all of them in my first twelve months. Here is what I learned from each one.

61 10 Sep 2025 · coaching tips Your First Training Session With A New Team: What To Actually Do What to run in your first session with a new team, why front-loading tactics is the wrong move, and the small-sided games that let you observe players without testing them.

62 15 Aug 2025 · coaching tips The Pre-Season That Actually Worked For years, my pre-seasons were chaotic. Fitness weeks that exhausted players. Tactical sessions they forgot by match day. Then I found a structure that built everything we needed.

63 13 Jul 2025 · coaching tips The Sunday Night I Stopped Guessing Fifteen minutes of planning changed my entire coaching career. What I discovered about session structure transformed random training into intentional development.

64 24 Jun 2025 · coaching tips The Season I Nearly Quit Over A WhatsApp Message A single parent complaint at 11pm made me question everything. What I discovered about team management systems transformed my coaching experience.

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