The art of effective communication

Communication is one of the most important skills for young players to develop. It can sometimes be difficult for players to see past their own role on the pitch, but effective communication can propel the entire team forward and lead to a better team spirit. Here are some of the key words and phrases for players to remember in their quest to better their communication. 

Teaching tactics and teamwork to young children in sports

In the coaching community, there's often a discourse around how the technical elements of the game must be prioritized in the early stages of development, typically between the ages of 4-10. But that does not mean that tactics become a mute point. Simply helping to elucidate positioning and roles, and how to perceive space can all be considered "tactical" elements of the game. These can be taught without players needing to have technical foundations in place. Game awareness and game intelligence from understanding basic information around their role, position, and how to react to the space around them, will help a player to perform well on the pitch. This can be taught in combination to the development of techniques and skills. It does not have to be an 'either/or', nor does it have to be a matter of one coming before the other.

Personal development to become the best coach you can be

You cannot create a positive culture for your athletes if you cannot create a positive mindset for yourself. They will see right through you. They won't buy into what you're putting down. They won't trust that your coaching will lead them to success.

The art of structuring an effective warm-up

We all know the importance of warming up the body in the proper ways, but many novice (or dinosaur) coaches fail to adequately know how to warm up the body in the proper ways specific to the sport. As a young gun in the soccer world, I can recall running laps around the field, static stretching, and even hill sprints prior to practice sessions and games. None of these are particularly helpful, even if they can work 1-3% of times in specific contexts (hill sprints aside of course). With that, I present the elements of an effective warm-up and how coaches can structure the warm-up to fit into the grander scheme of their session plans.

Social media management in football analysis

Where would I be without sharing my work on Twitter? Absolutely nowhere. I wouldn't be helping anyone, and I wouldn't have the strong following that I've developed across the site. Twitter is responsible for approximately 1,000 views on my site per day, and where I've had some of the best football conversations I've ever had. So today, I'm going to be sharing my best tips and tricks to managing a social media account in football analysis, and how to get the most out of your experience.

Getting started in football analysis

While this is an introductory course, it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or novice, the time to learn starts now. School is in session. I famously love to guarantee results within my work, and I guarantee that you’re going to learn something from this section, even if you’re already the world’s leading expert. In this section, I’m going to drop tips and tricks for getting started in analysis, in addition to coaching, writing, podcasting, and even, if you’re interested, website creation.

Introduction to Football Analysis

Welcome one. Welcome all. It is with great pleasure that we invite you into our brand-new course - Introduction to Football Analysis. While the word "introduction" finds itself placed in our course title, this opportunity is suitable for anyone with any degree of analytical background - from beginners to experts. The important part is that you are here to learn. You are here to take your footballing knowledge, your footballing craft, to the next level.

Introduction to Football Analysis – Online Course with Rhys Desmond

Calling all football fanatics, coaches, players, analysts and anyone who qualifies as "football obsessed", TheMastermindSite.com finally brings you our brand-new 'Introduction to Football Analysis' course! The course is self-paced and online via articles, videos, email correspondence, and a range of other online materials. Course attendees will get individualized attention from the instructor - Rhys Desmond - one of the industry leaders in website-based football tactics, coaching content, and analysis. The course is for anyone looking to work in football analysis, and/or improve their tactical and analytical understanding. This thorough introductory course will take a deep dive into all aspects of analysis, for the price of just $59.99 CAD - more bang for your buck than anywhere else. To take the course or gain more information, please see the below!