Our club is looking at introducing thesoccerplanner.com before doing so we need feedback.does any one on here use it with their club or as individuals.??the reason I use the title above is that they use that saying on their blurb I hoped someone would recognise it

Your club represents what age and what level please colin.

we go from 5 yr olds to 18 yr olds

Im assuming these are just regular kids with varying degrees of ability.

As a coach i have never heard of it so cant help

Just type in the name and you can look for yourself and judge. thesoccerplanner.com

yes strass just ordinary kids although some of our teams are strong with some trialling with academies,others are medium,others quite ordinary but we still like to give all teams good coaching.We link in with a couple of junior schools in the west midlands and do after school coaching and also make available 1 to 1 coaching.We put our coaches through courses and work shops inviting academy coaches in to give demo,s.That is why i,m quite dismissive about the FA Level 1.On the credit side the academy coach work shops have been really good.We have also worked with a company called Premier Skills who put on free courses for us about 18 months ago and they were really good but the funding dried up and we haven,t had them back .Our coaching culture is serious although made up of mainly volunteers

Well colin it would seem that you obviously have a good set up despite the failings of the coaching system. You have allready emphasised the points of coaching workshops etc that can often be more beneficial than badge courses. It would also seem that your set up is proof that it is more about the desire and enthusism of the people doing the coaching and a willingness and eagerness to improve things and provide the best possible service to your charges. You could have Alex Fergusson putting on a session for you, but if he didnt share your passion, goals, enthusiasm for your group. Then he with his wealth of experience and badges would not come close to emulating your apparent success.

Ive come across soccerplanner and gave it the once over. As a resource its quite good as it enables coaches to manage everything in 1 place and exchange ideas etc with other like minded people. The cost isnt ridiculous either. However there are similar products around and its nothing new. I decided that its not for me because ultimately it turns me into an admin guy as opposed to a coach. I have enough paper work as it is.

£50 a year isn't extortionate but how much would you/and your coaches actually use it?
Nothing wrong with a piece of paper - draw out your own grids/planners
You don't want to get bogged down in computer work to carry out a session do you…

too late we,re on it! I,ll let you know how I get on.One good thing is the club is paying for it!!Re the club

Strass the reason it runs pretty well is that if you,d have looked carefully at my posts we do exactly the opposite of most of the things the FA suggest.
Players standing in lines,meaningless practices,we always practice playing the game and every child is involved playing from start to finish.
You who recieve money for coaching should understand that!!
I,m now waiting for Ian to reply for you

I take it you were looking at it for more than the 24 hours this topic was discussed…
Good luck with it - I'll stick with my own methods though thanks

Colin

Just because ian and i may have similar views on some things doesnt mean we are 1 and the same. Secondly i do understand about kids standing in lines and meaningless practices, whether i get paid for it or not is nothing to do with it. The FA gives us a blue print structure it is by no means gospel and anyone who treats it as such is asking for trouble. Like i said before you could have Alex Fergusson taking sessions for you but if he couldnt adapt his sessions to the needs of your group then his experience and knowledge would count for absolutely nothing.

I train my coaches to base their sessions on having as many people working or invoved in drills and practices as possible. However, there are certain times and sessions where people are waiting the trick is to keep that time to a minimum and their concentration levels high which is akin to a realistic game where players are not directly involved but must maintain their levels of focus as situations can and do change in an instant.

My point about you seeming to have it sorted was to emphasise that we do not have to rely on the FA for our success as there are many alternatives for us to be able to educate and train our players not just with what we have done on an FA course.

Thats where you miss the point Strass
If a kid is standing in line waiting for their turn they are not reacting to the situations they are concentrating on.IF a kid did that in a GAME the coach would give them a ROLLOCKING .Your practice is teaching them to do that.
In a realistic game practice the player is also learning to recognise the signals of the game and reacting by moving,supporting ball carriers or moving to defend.That way they are building up awareness and anticipation on and off the ball.
Standing in lines represents modern FA teacher led coaching that puts organisation before real learning.

My God Colin. you are on a mission. Your hatred of FA courses is seriously affecting your open mindedness. There are certain practices were players simply have to wait there turn ie shooting drills. We can coach support play, overlapping runs, 3rd man running anything you like but everyone cannot be directly involved at the same time. Often to emphasise a coaching point it is necessary to be with a waiting group of players asking them to anylize the actions of the active group in order to test their understanding of what you are tryinmg to coach.

It would now seem that you have come across neigh shall we say pioneered a coaching system that revolutionises our thinking on our methods of coaching and results in all your teams conquering all before them and winning every competition they enter with some ease that you have to look further afield to find worthy opposition. Maybe your local academy will want to enlist your services since i assume that the teams you produce would have played their teams off the park.

By no means am i saying that academy or school of excellence teams are the best of the best or are coached by the best of the best. I have seen sessions that would be classed as poor at any level never mind at that level. However i am not anti establishment which is how you appear to be sir.

yes they can all be involved Strass its just you don,t know how to do it!!!
you are using an outdated methods you are wasting valuble coaching / learning time

i,m not anti establishment I,m anti poor coaching and poor coach education
I want to see England develop a style of play based on
high skill level with great individuals that kids want to copy
players because of their skill able to produce tactical cleverness
a playing style that has clever inter change and movement on and off the ball
a team that has defenders comfortable in 1 to 1 situations
that defend cleverly as a group
all players in all positions good on the ball
I WANT TO SEE OUR KIDS AS THE MOST SKILFULL IN THE PREMIERSHIP TEAMS
I WANT 75% PLAYERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE TO BE OUR KIDS

I might be right I might be wrong but have the FA ever laid down their playing philosophy NO they haven,t got one.So what are we producing for.Its like setting off on a journey but not knowing where you are going

I'm going to partially agree with this. When I was playing juniors, a new coach came in for Under 9s. He was about 70, and from Austria, or Germany, or somewhere. I don't know, but that's not important. We were royally shite. We had so much individual skill, but couldn't put it together. He pretty much threw the textbook out the window, and most of our training was practice matches, and whatever wasn't a practice match, was pairs work, or group work where everyone was involved at once. And 3 seasons later, after starting in Division 4, we'd won Division 2. Eventually, our training was a practice match (sometimes against an under 17s team, though they went a little easy on us) followed by a penalty shootout. In my opinion, it was a great way to pander to the competitive whims of the players, but at the same time have fun coaching that also involved the whole side at once, to the point where every player in the team could cover at least 3 positions.

Skittles if you read my posts accurately you would have observed these 2 points. Firstly at no point did i advocate kids standing in line waiting for their turn. However what i did say was that i train my coaches to have as many people working at any 1 time as is possible. That said there are times when certain practices involve gaps in the level of direct participation and the key is to keep that to a minimum. Just out of interest what do you do when you want to talk to your group as a whole. Do you have them ball juggling whilst they are listening to you?

Secondly i dont believe that everything the fa does is necessarilly the best way of doing things, however i do believe the blueprint they have is not as bad as what some people would have us believe.

A word of advice - Understand that coaching is about what works best for your group of players and that the same methods employed on a different group of players of similar age and ability may produce very different results. It is a poor coach who is not willing to adapt or learn from those he coaches.

Strass
you are dead right coaches who just take a position and are afraid to take on new ideas have no chance.
I,ve never known any body cover himself by agreeing with everything as much as you.Now your claiming you don,t have them standing in lines 2 or 3 posts previously you said you did!!

Well colin maybe you cant read or choose to overlook what is written. No matter. I have not written or implied that i have children waiting in lines or queus aimlessly for their turn. I defy you to highlight any text were i have done so. But just for your clarity what i said and inferred was that their are certain sessions whereby i feel it necessary for people be it adults or children to evaluate their own and others performances whilst a session is taking place and this can be done without taking a direct part in the proceedings. Also i said that i felt there were certain practices when it was impracticle to have everybody directly involved at the same time which in my view would result in a certain amount of waiting and that the trick was to keep that time down to a minimum. I used a shooting drill as an example and i talked about realism. Very rarely are all 11 players on a side involved directly in a situation. Being aware of whats going on and being involved are very different parts. So please dont insult my intelligence by stating if they arent involved then what are they doing on the pitch.

so you,re saying you still coach finishing (not shooting) by drills.Some working some watching.As a parent I wouldn,t pay for coaching to have my child watching other kids practice.
You can,t defend that type of coaching.It means you haven,t got the imagination to put on realistic finishing sessions.
not professional enough Strass
In you come Ian

I dont need you to put words in my mouth colin. I said shooting because thats what i meant or are you trying to tell me that shooting doesnt exist in football and the correct term is finishing in which case you would be very wrong and if need be i would gladly prove that it does.

However once agian i and everyone else on this thread have to put up with your ridiculous generalisations whilst being force fed drivel about your coaching methods that just happens to be better than everyone elses - no surprises there. Not to mention the little fact that no one here has yet to see any evidence of your glorious system. If you believe in it that much show it off and let others apply, try, discuss, dissect, maybe even praise and hail as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Like i said before its easy to put other people down. Any fool can do that. If thats what you want to do then feel free. Im used to it now as it originates from no other source than yourself. Lets see what that tells me. Oh yes, Colin has a system that he believes in so much that he wants to keep from everyone else for reasons only he knows - maybe the world isnt ready for it yet. So to that i say keep moaning colin keep moaning.

its finishing Strass
I,m trying hard but you still don,t get it.
In the game before these finishing opportunities arise the player quickly goes through in their mind the options,striking the ball,with power,passing the ball in to the net,curving the ball round the keeper,passing close to the keepers feet as he comes out,feinting and striking,wether to go round the keeper all of this plus an awareness of defenders and team mates.
This awareness and decision making is not simple it only comes to young players by being in those types of situations hundreds of times.
Shooting drills don,t do it.
I,m trying to share the insights Strass but You are the one whose closed minded
Now here,s the acid test for you - If I referred you to a coach education stream outside of the FA that I learnt from .Would you be prepared to do it? I don,t think so .You,ve said I keep it to myself well I,m now giving you the opportunity
As long as you don,t bring Ian!!

ps
I was joking about Ian!! I know he can,t come if you come!!