🎧 Heads and Volleys, Episode 99: https://pod.fo/e/711da2
If you've ever played FIFA against your players, you know the move.
Hold circle. The power bar starts to climb. The defender reads the shot and dives in with a slide tackle. You tap X. Fake shot. You cut straight past them.
You could probably go up and down the field all game doing it. Power bar up, tap X, cut back inside. Over and over again.
I don't know who taught me that. I can't remember learning it. But I remember using it and laughing. And I remember getting beaten by it and being incredibly frustrated.
So why wouldn't we want our players to know it?
How we usually teach it
Think about how most of us would coach that move on the grass.
Everyone gets a ball. Line up like you're going to shoot. Standing foot next to the ball. Pull the leg back, arm up, sell the power shot. Then hook it away quickly.
Do it again. And again.
Then maybe a 2v2 or 3v3, and a fake and cut is worth two goals.
It's not a terrible session. But this is where I think my profession, and yours, does too much.
Our players need to find these things out.
Be the oldest kid again
Last week I talked about being the oldest kid on the playground. This is the same idea.
Maybe you play FIFA with them and show them. Maybe you jump into training and play against them. That isn't the objective of the session. But when you're the biggest kid on the field, you can show them things in the flow of the game. Things they've never thought about.
And when they see it done with skill, live, against them, they pay attention. "I really want to be able to do that."
That's how I believe they learn. It's why I call myself a games-based coach. A tactics board can show simple ways of playing. A thousand repetitions in a game environment shows players how to use skills, create, and be a real opponent.
How did you grow up playing?
The number one question I ask a coach in an interview: how did you grow up playing the game?
Did you play on the street?
Jumpers for goalposts?
Did you break windows?
Adults against kids? Your grown-up cousin?
Boys and girls together? Olders and youngers?
Do you still play now?
Those answers tell me you understand how the game is actually learned. Coaching helps refine it.
But our kids don't have the street anymore. Not in the same way.
So my challenge is this: explore acquisition before instruction.
Acquisition comes from play, not explanation
In The Talent Thief, Ted Kroeten describes a window when kids are young and especially open to learning.
Good coaches use it. They ask parents to play soccer with their kids at home. Not drills. Not right foot, left foot, turns. Just play.
When kids play, they learn to use the ball in different ways. That's the root of the power-shot-to-X. It's the root of a player flicking the ball over an opponent's head.
We're not teaching that. We're allowing them to acquire it.
Acquisition doesn't come from instruction. It comes from repetition. Lots of touches. Lots of failure, with some success.
That's why playing at home, on the street, and before and after practice is arguably the most important part of a player's experience. Failing there costs nothing.
Compare that to the weekend game. A player tries something they saw on TV, gives the ball away, and the opponent scores. Dad has his head in his hands. Mum is wondering what on earth she's trying. That's not how we play.
Right or wrong, that's the reality. Game day is rarely a safe space to experiment.
So it has to come from free play. Time to enjoy the ball without fear of failure.
You're not coaching yourself out of a job
If you're constantly stopping play to explain a move ("Why didn't you just cut it back there?"), you're replacing acquisition with teaching. Instruction is a poor substitute for thousands of touches.
That doesn't mean you stop coaching. There's a real fear that we're coaching ourselves out of a job. We're not. We're building the environment where they explore, and we guide it. We keep creating those chances.
Some simple ways in:
Open with free play. Ten minutes at the start, the first "play" in play-practice-play.
Shrink the space. Smaller areas mean more touches per kid.
Use rondos. 4v1, 4v2, whatever your numbers. They self-organize, they work at any age, and the only "punishment" is going in the middle. "I'm in the middle again. I'll do better next time." That low-pressure loop is one of the best ways to learn.
They won't all be doing the power shot fake. They'll be learning to flick, disguise and fake in a hundred other ways. Things you can't teach.
Then the job changes
The how gets built at home and in those safe spaces. As players get older, training becomes about the why.
Ted points to around 12 or 13. Now the move is in their pocket. Your job shifts to helping them read when to use it.
Picture zone 14, just outside the box. A lefty cuts in off the right wing and shapes to shoot. Two or three defenders dive in because everyone knows the lefty wants to curl it.
Nothing better in that moment than to cut it back.
Helping players see that moment is coaching. It's not mechanics anymore. It's decision making. That's what 1,000 Decisions is about. They've acquired the skill. Now we help them understand when to use it, and that takes patience.
Built for acquisition, or built for instruction?
Ask yourself honestly. If you work with young players, is your environment built for acquisition or for instruction?
I've done it too. You set up a 4v4, and the activity is full of coaching. Your explanations. You managing what they learn. Context matters, and players should understand what they're doing. But are they acquiring?
For years on summer camps, every player had a ball in a box. We worked on the Cruyff turn, the pull back, the scissors. That's us breaking a skill down so a kid can do it. But it produces show ponies: players who can do things that don't translate to the game.
We can be better coaches. Encourage players to play at home. Build excitement around that home learning so they bring it back into your sessions.
Then move from acquisition to instruction.
Just don't skip acquisition. And stay the oldest kid on the playground. Play FC 27 against them.
🎧 Listen to the full episode: https://pod.fo/e/711da2
@LeeDunneSoccer