I remember discussing on a previous thread the coerver coaching diploma. It seems like it really didn't exist until recently. Many coaches were interested in getting one. Apparently they have expanded their opportunities greatly. Here is a link - http://www.coerver.com/home.php/youth-diploma I have no connection to coerver. Just passing on something I think coaches might be interested in. I'll, probably, do the course in Baltimore.
Wow! For once they have something in my neck of the world. But $375 for the session ain't cheap. I'm really torn. My best players come out of the local Coerver academy—they're good individual players that are great on the ball. In reverse, when parents ask me which club they should go to I send them there. But I also know the coaches on staff there. I don't know if that would be awkward, but I've always wanted to know how they build so much skill into their players.
I've taken the course, and while costly I found it to be worth it. We can all buy the Coerver DVD's and find stuff online, but it was nice to see the Coerver coaches run through progressions and set things up. They used local Coerver kids as the demonstrators and also asked for some of the student coaches to come out and participate. And they are very clear about allowing their "graduates" to promote the fact that they have completed the Coerver diploma course but you cannot say that you are a "Coerver Coach". A fine line, but necessary. I thought the Coerver coaches were all great guys and are happy to share their philosophy and methods. Clearly it's a great way for Cookie and Alf to get more reach out of the Coerver name as well, but if it helps bring better technical training to more kids in more ways, then I think it's worth it. I wouldn't sweat the awkwardness of pursuing this when your aquaintances are actual Coerver coaches. They've got to know this program exists and that people they know will be doing it. Anything that makes you a better coach is worth pursuing.
My course is in two weeks. Looking forward to it. I think it's a plus that Charlie Cooke is teaching the course himself and not just local affiliates. Surprised to find out that they are also taking the course.
We played against what I will call some Coerver youth teams in the past. Never lost a game to any of them. Never saw any of them win a state cup when I coached youth teams.
****************123Goal_A*************** start tape: A) Rolling ball side to side – both feet B) Rolling ball, back and forward - both feet C) [3:30] Push the ball across the body, start with inside sole. Rolling, no cutting) D) Alternately roll the ball across the body (diagonally now) with sole, pull back with front part of sole. E) Alternately roll ball left or right across the body with instep, pull back with sole. F) Alternately pull the ball back with the sole, then push it forward with instep of same foot. G) Roll across the ball to the outside with the sole, then cut down with the inside of the same foot. H) [6:30] Alternately pull the ball (back) across the body with the sole, then push it in opposite direction with inside of same foot. Ball travels in ‘V’ path. I) Alternately roll the ball left (or right) with the outside of foot, then stop it with the inside of same foot. Cut downward. J) Coaches should alternate the footskill practices with small sided games every 10 minutes or so to maintain interest. Attack is emphasized rather than defense, winning is unimportant. It is crucial for coaches to make practice fun and to effectively encourage players at the early levels to practice on their own. Video footage from World Cup action showing moves in use. Exercise- 4 small kids tap from foot to foot, moving to a central cone in a square grid. L) Step-over fake and turn. M) Littbarski step-on move. [All Ball Control prior to this point] *********************** etc ******
As I've said before on this board, so I apologize, the best and most dynamic youth players I come across HERE come from the Coerver background. I've seen it from U8 all the way up to high school. I've lived in other places and I won't say that's true, but the Coerver coaches here (the only ones I can vouch for) are doing something right. They might be so-so players in their own right, but they defiitely give their players a great technical foundation AND good ideas about the game.It's safe to say that you could pluck these players and insert them on any team anywhere and they'd fit right in. Yes, there are "Coerver-monkeys" who just do the moves in place but I think that's a failing of the coaching and not the system itself. It's just one more piece of the coaching puzzle I want to add to my repertoire. I know it's limitations, so I feel I can work around that. Dutch SSG methods, Tactical Periodization, USSF "style", Brazilian method, Coerver . . . I think it helps with MY understanding of the game. Plus, we can all agree that different players have different ways of learning the game so being able to teach technical, which I think what Coerver is good for, a different way will be good for me.
I suppose this topic has been discussed many a times before. But, yes, the Coerver method isn't the silver bullet some people think exists out there. The Coerver training program helps in developing some very talented players. These players have great ball control. Something I'd like to see in all of my players. With that said, what the Coerver program lacks is taking that ball control and using it effectively in soccer game conditions. My personal belief is that the Coerver program is great for the young ones. Once team tactics start to become more important the program should be used less. My best player ever came from the program. But, man, did it take a lot of work to shake off those "bad habits" created through the Coerver program.
The AD sent me an email today asking me if there were any classes I'd like to take over the summer. So, looks like I don't have to pay for this one.
That's awesome. When Arsenal allow me to run my own Academy here one day, I hope they pay for my courses. ha ha.
It's not all Coerver trained players but the bad ones tend to stand out because it's obvious where they learned their habits/skills but did not learn how to apply it to the game. In Coerver training they do a lot of stepovers, touching the ball with the sole, shimmies, feints, etc to get the body and mind used to it and make it second nature. Part of the problem is that these things are used as part of getting past a defender, but "Coerver monkeys" think this is the end all be all. I've played against many a monkey who just dance in place, do 5 different moves in succession when a) one move might have beaten the defender or b) they just dance and do nothing with it. But again, that's not the fault of Coerver's system, it's bad Coerver coaches who don't keep the ultimate goal in mind. Another is that Coerver training tends to be out of context. It doesn't present you with a complete picture of the game so the mental development of the game can be incomplete. But again, that comes down to the coach. The way Coerver is viewed is that it is obsessed with the technical side of the game, whereas the great soccer players are so because of more than just their technical ability. They are also tactically astute, mentally tough, and physically superior (in some way).
The Coerver system is an approach to technical training. Saying the system lacks tactics is like blaming water for being wet.
But in all fairness that part isn't said anywhere. They market it as the end all be all in soccer training.
I must say that in my area (MD), the Coerver training that we have covers both technical and tactical training, concentrating on technical more when the kids are younger and moving to more tactical as they get older. I don't know if this is typical (I haven't seen Coerver sessions in other areas), but know they do a great job with tactical training.
So my understanding is that the coerver training method uses just drills but no context--from the videos I've seen and the discussions we've had in numerous threads here. I would guess that it would be a good weapon to have in the arsenal (no pun intended elessar ), but it has to be implemented into the bigger picture such as through 1v1s 2v2s and up through SSGs. I have a player that could benefit from the coerver method--he often finds himself in the right positions on the pitch, and is able to find a way to slot in a pass that I'm not sure how he saw (it looks like his head is down most of the time). But he lacks confidence on the ball, and will often pass when he probably should have taken on the first defender. I should have his parents look into a camp.
There are small group games demonstrated on the DVDs but there are no coaching points given. An experienced coach will know what coaching points to make, but otherwise the player has to intuit the lesson himself if it's not provided. Coerver skills ARE great to have in the arsenal. Just this past weekend, my smallest, youngest player (who is Coerver trained) was playing defense and she was dribbling circles, fearlessly, around the forward in our defensive third. Great demonstration of skill and confidence on the ball, but kinda dumb from a tactical standpoint. It was a) very risky and b) slowed us down from getting into the attack. Which is probably a great illustration of the problems with the method. And this happens with other of my Coerver kids too in the various thirds of the field—they tend to slow down our attack because they get so enamored with their ability to dribble and create off the dribble. I do pick my spots when I "correct" this because I don't want them to fight their natural instinct. Again, it's a lack of tactical sense when the player doesn't recognize the necessary tempo the game needs to be played.
Basically what elessar78 says. I've found players that have spent lots of time with coerver tend to make too many moves without actually accomplishing anything. Some of the moves taught by coerver are good and useful in certain situations. But, many times these players don't know when and where to use them. It seems like they have an arsenal of moves and want to show you all of them. Even many of the great players only have 2 or 3 moves. These players I mention I had to do a lot work with on using 1 move and then creating seperation.
Coerver Method is a tool just like using (guided method, direct method or passing/finishing/etc drills...) and should be used as such to improve touch and technique. However, if that is all you are doing then you're players are all going to turnout like Arjen Robben that chokes at the biggest stages. Much like a hammer is a tool, although if you only have a hammer everything looks like a...
Just did Day 1 of the Coerver youth Diploma. Wasn't deep on theory but if nothing else: It's a FUN and effective way to teach kids on how to play the game. They had kids demo (U10s) and these kids were fantastic. Not even the best this particular club has to offer and it's pretty run of the mill for them to produce players that are totally competent on the ball. One highlight being several U10s posterizing their ex-college player coaches in one of the drills. They (Coerver) do themselves a bit of disservice, because my main concerns were the lack of contextual learning that goes on in the system. Well it's actually part of it but no one outside of their staffers seems to know that.
If you had them for a year or 2, imagine what you could do with a group of U10's that had already mastered the ball?
Put my girls through the paces of some of the stuff I took away from the course yesterday and it was pretty eye-opening for me: on the basic ball mastery stuff, they're still pretty deficient. Yikes! And this group isn't bad. They can do enough with the ball to be functional, but ask them to do something simple like sole taps backwards and they were struggling. The past few seasons I've spent a ton of time on receiving and passing and principles of play. I think this summer and fall I'm taking a step back and working on their individual play and focusing on developing faster, dynamic individual players.
Good for you. A lot of people have seen the Coerver basic ball mastery moves performed stationary, but not many realize how its progressive from U-Little to professional, just like every other drill. Introducing progressively more difficult variations of the ball mastery moves is most definitely a step forwards--not backwards.
I got to referee a friendly match on Friday night between my club's U-14 girls and another local club that does Coerver. They brought mainly U-12's and a few 13's. I've refereed them before and generally enjoy their ball movement. For this night, their coach had them basically working one-touch passing. Forward/backward/sideways. Didn't matter. He really challenged them to go back and side to side in order to play the ball under pressure and deep in their defensive zone. Again, it was a friendly, they played 3 25-minute periods and just to sit near their bench and listen to him draw up the challenge for each 25 minute period was really cool. Not that anything that they were doing was earth-shattering, but the friendly, allowing it to be non-result oriented allowed the kids to relax and concentrate on a couple tasks. Players need more of this.