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In our last episode we spoke about the key ingredients that can make for a fun and effective coaching session. We came up with 10 elements that we felt should be considered and tried to explain why we believed they were important. If you haven’t already done so please do listen to episode one and let us know what you think.

As equally important as what goes into the training, is what goes into the match days. So for this episode Mark and I are delighted to have the super talented and experienced Mr Chris Fraser joining us to share his thoughts on this key topic! Chris has been preparing players and teams for match days for over 10 years and we know he feels passionately about the rights and wrong ways of going about it. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Chris coach and manage teams on numerous occasions and am always blown-away by his technical understanding and the manner and style in which he communicates and delivers this with players, parents, coaches and all those he’s impacting. 

I also know that Chris is in his element on the training pitch or in a muddy field surrounded by players… so sat here with a mic in his face and a list of questions from Mark and I is very much out of his comfort zone….so we are extremely grateful he’s willing to do this for us and we know its because of how passionate you are about football, coaching and this topic especially!

Q) How important do you see matches and how should they `fit` alongside the training plan?

Q) What preparation and considerations should there be before match day?

- Squad selection for the season. Too many subs?

Q) What about match day itself, how would this look and what’s the objective?

- warm ups being as important as the matches

- Using cones to show formation (micro pitch)

- ball Mastery importance in a warm up

- competitive 1v1’s key in warm ups

- game related SSG in your warm up over a rondo

- team challenges 

- individual challenges 

- coaching with the players on sidelines

- appropriate language and code words for your players

- discipline of your players

- performance over results

Q) How important are formations?

Q) What about immediate after the match?

Q) What role do parents have to play in match days and how can we as coaches influence and support their involvement?

- Honesty with parents and players preseason regarding a match day philosophy