Analyzing Team Play - it's probably not what you think.

I have been coaching so long I sometimes take things for granted.  This is precisely why I visit youth soccer matches every so often. And when I say youth soccer matches I mean U8 - U10 ages.  There is so much to be learned ... by me... at those levels of play. I reflect back on my own experiences when coaching those ages to find better understanding of how I negotiated the process back then. It can be both a rewarding and humbling experience for me. Sometimes it even frightens me.

In talking with a coaching colleague about how to analyze her teams play I had another of those reflective moments. New and inexperienced coaches tend to think analyzing a teams play is all about watching and evaluating the athletes.  It is not. It's all about determining the coach's performance in training the team.

Where does one begin analyzing a teams performance? 

What is the coach's season long plan?

This is where we begin the analysis process.  The coach should have identified 1-3 major areas to work on during the course of that season.  Some favorites are knowing when to tackle the ball, possession, heading the ball properly, crossing and finishing, as examples.  The focus for the entire season is then on these 1-3 areas. That's not to say other techniques and tactics are ignored. No, it means other techniques and tactics are worked on around and in conjunction with the identified  1-3 identified areas of concentration.

The analysis of team play then measures the success in the process a team is making in those areas of focus.  The success of the teams play is tied directly into the season long plan for improvement the coach has laid out.  If a coach doesn't have an identifiable season long plan she will at times find herself feeling as though she is driving a car without benefit of a steering wheel.

Back in those good old days of coaching youth soccer in the WCOSA we were given 4 preseason practice sessions before play began. Recreational soccer at its best, or would that be worst?  At U10 I quite literally focused on 1) Restarts  2) Receiving and dependent on the age either running with the ball or the push pass.  One restart - kickoff, goal kicks & corner kicks, throw-ins and free kicks per practice session.   Combined the actual taking of a restart with receiving the ball from a restart.  Penalty Kicks we addressed with a fun exercise call Butts Up!  I measured our success by the progress we made in taking and receiving restarts. I analyzed our play in that context. By the end of the season we were knowledgeable of when the game required a specific restart and how to execute that restart. We had also planted the seed in their minds that a restart is a possession, thus it was considered to be a shot or a pass to a teammate who was expected to receive it. A by-product of our concentration in these areas was a deeper understanding of the value of  possessing the ball and the associated techniques required to possess revolving around receiving and passing

Until the coach understands analyzing team play is less about the players and more about the coach (s)he will struggle with the process of analyzing play and making the necessary adjustments to correct the play (s)he feels needs to be addressed.  They tend to take a fingers in the holes of a leaking dam approach to analyzing their team.  One match it is poor technique for passing so training focuses on passing technique.  The next match the team is weak on keeping their shape so that becomes the focus of the next group of training session as emphasis on passing technique fades away until it resurfaces at a later point in time. It's a haphazard approach... and trust me, kids pick up on this. Their confidence in the coach is not what it might be.

Steady as she goes.  Select your 1-3 points of emphasis early on in the preseason. Stick with them. Build confidence in your players as they notice their improvement in the areas you are emphasizing.  Watch as associated areas of play also improve through confident players working on them in relation to the main focal points of training. 

The bottom line with analyzing team play is to analyze the job you are doing as a coach. Remember that in analyzing your teams play you are in effect analyzing your performance in training the team.