As a coach it was a very interesting couple of games on Sunday. From a positive perspective the boys demonstrated that with the right conditions they are able to “get” the system of play and the general principles. We were patient, wanted to retain possession and very often played away from congestion-often multiple times within one period of possession. As Darren mentioned, I altered the structure of the team (which I have only done once before this season). The altered structure took away the need for many of the boys to have to “think” through problems as much and provided a more ready made structure/options when in possession. Boys “on the ball” still needed to think ahead to what their next pass would be but teammates didn’t need to think through as much where they needed to be off the ball (in other words there was one less thing to think about). The exception to this was the 6s and 8s in the system I played who were still required to play multiple positions depending on multiple factors.
So we achieved some success in getting the boys to feel what maintaining possession feels like, and we were able get great game practice in simply thinking one pass ahead when on the ball. The trade-off was that for most of the boys we sacrificed some further game intelligence development. It was the coaching equivalent of changing the “level” on a computer game to an easier level. The rationale for doing this last week was an assessment that many of the boys I have been coaching are struggling somewhat with aspects of game intelligence. This is not a criticism but just a statement of the developmental stage of a player. We have to get them there, whilst managing the tension that there are boys at many different stages of game intelligence development within the team. So last Sunday I set up to make it easier but there are boys that will need a different challenge more often. So Darren and I will keep discussing best approach each given Sunday depending on the line-ups of the teams and how the boys are developing/progressing.
Hope that all makes sense!