Improve Player Awareness to Think and Play Quicker

Improve Your Players Awareness, Anticipation & Decision Making.. How to Coach your Players to see more and Think Quicker.. Video SAMPLE Below + Interview with Coach Kevin McGreskin Dear Fellow Coach, What do Xavi, Fabrigas and Paul Scholes all have in common? They all possess amazing player awareness which enables them to think and act quicker. Kevin McGreskin is an expert in coaching "field vision" also known as "Player Awareness" and I interviewed him which I think you will find very interesting: How long have you been coaching and researching vision and awareness? 17 years now, and vision and awareness has something I have really been researching and working on since 1999. What coaching licence do you hold? I currently hold the UEFA A Licence through three different National Associations, which is a fairly unique achievement. And something I am very proud of. Where/who are you currently coaching? I am essentially a consultant coach, a specialist in the aspect of performance. I work with a number of professional clubs from first-team to youth academy and a number of National Associations by presenting on their coach education courses or working with their national elite youth players. Why is developing player awareness so important? For me, awareness really is the difference maker. At the highest level, everyone can head it and kick it. They are all pretty similar when it comes to technical ability. Sure, you have guys like Messi who is so much better but, on the whole, everyone else is largely at the same level. It is the decisions they make that separates them. But this can only be achieved through good levels of awareness. At what age can you start to coach player awareness.. Does this also depend of skill level of the players? I really believe you can start at any age, and the younger the better. However, with the very youngest age groups all you are aiming to do is plant a seed and getting them to experiment with the concepts. They will make a lot of "mistakes", and that is a natural part of the learning process, but the important thing is that they will have the opportunity to practice and learn the right habits from the start. After using your coaching methods, how long will it take to see improved results? Everyone is different. I have seen a difference in some players I have worked with after only a couple of sessions. However, other players may take a little longer but that's why we, as coaches, are there. It will also depend how long the coach continues with the exercises. Too many times I see coaches giving up as he or she thinks the exercise doesn't seem to be "working" because the players are making too many "mistakes". Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process, the skill of a coach is to guide them through that process as efficiently as possible. It also depends on your philosophy as a coach and whether you measure "results" by performance goals or outcome goals. Sure it would be great if everything fell into place and we always both played well and won our games but sometimes you can improve the performances without necessarily winning games. For me it's the development of the players that is important and, hopefully, if you do everything you can there then the score takes care of itself. How do players/team benefit after implementing your coaching methods? Players will become more aware on the pitch and because of this, they will feel more composed and make better decisions. They will also be able to change the tempo of the play to suit the game situation because they know what the "game picture" is, and what their options are. They will be much more effective. One coach I worked with told me he felt his team were keeping possession much better, and that they were moving the ball much more quickly around the field when required. He said it must be down to the work I was doing with the players as he wasn't doing anything different and that was after only four sessions with the team. The whole point is that we are training the players to see more, think quicker and play better. If we get them doing this then everything improves. What is the suggested time spent on coaching player awareness in a 1 hour session or 1.5 hour session? I believe it needs to be worked on in every session but that doesn't mean it has to be the main focus of the entire session. Most coaches use drills, dynamic exercises and opposed practices in their sessions, which is why I have included a variety of these on the DVD. I want to show them that they don't have to fundamentally change the structure of their training sessions, or how they coach, in order to develop awareness. A coach can spend as much or as little time as they want reinforcing this aspect. What I frequently say to coaches is that they should think of my exercises as an "awareness gym" where they are really developing and reinforcing the essential habits of awareness all whilst the players are also working on their technique. And, with this in mind, I think a minimum of 15-20 minutes should be allocated in every session for this kind of training. Play Video Sample Buy your copy of "Soccer eyeQ DVD" now.. About Kevin McGreskin - The Soccer eyeQ Coaching Expert Highly respected as one of the top field vision and game awareness specialists in the country, Kevin is the Technical Director at Soccer eyeQ. Kevin holds the prestigious UEFA A Licence qualification through three different national associations - English FA, Irish FA and Welsh FA. Kevin has an impressive record of delivering clinics and workshops across the UK to professional and semi-professional clubs, from Academy to First Team level, as well as successfully presenting on the prestigious UEFA Pro Licence and UEFA A Licence courses. Buy your copy of "Soccer eyeQ DVD" now.. Run time: 72 minutes Soccer eyeQ Developing Vision & Awareness DVD Vol. 1 This unique coaching DVD offers you an insight to training methods previously only available on the highest coaching awards in Europe, and at the elite levels of the game. In soccer, almost everything players do and almost every decision they make is because of what they see - and the earlier a player sees something, the quicker they can act. Improving a players "field vision", the awareness of everything around them, will help them become a much more dynamic and effective players. Our Price: £24.98 GBP / 28 EUR / $35 USD You Save: £5 | $15 US You'll earn 250 Points Buy your copy of "Soccer eyeQ DVD" now.. Best Wishes, Coach George Director of Coaching SoccerTutor.com Ltd. www.soccertutor.com coachgeorge@soccertutor.com UK: +44 208 1234 007 US: +1 305 767 4443 P.S. The sooner you integrate the methods in this DVD into your sessions plans, the quicker your players will develop their awareness to "See More, Think Quicker and Play Better". Buy your copy of "Soccer eyeQ DVD" now..