Are there any means of financial assistance available to clubs ?
Yes. You can apply for government grants to support coach education programs at community sport level. Why not fund all or part of the ACM product with government support ? Advanced Coach Mentoring can provide help to support you in your application for such grants.
I have never coached before. Where do I start ?
Advanced Coach Mentoring can provide support in a variety of ways.
There is 24/7 access to our online coach development program.
This includes access to :
1 - A progressive curriculum of 40 training sessions for each age group.
2 - The foundations of a game plan with structures and systems of play.
3 - Over 200 training drills presented in a variety of formats.
4 - Over 100 coach education videos to help improve your coaching and football knowledge.
Why is it important that the whole club gets on board and adopts the Advanced Coach Mentoring methods ?
The Advanced Coach Mentoring program is designed to suit the development needs of players at varying ages. The training curriculum is also sequential and as players move through the age groups their development will be progressive. When the whole club is committed to an integrated development program there will be no gaps in player skill development and game knowledge. Players will also develop a sound understanding of important match structures and systems that will stand them in good stead as they progress through your club’s program. Also, each coach will be promoting the same themes, using common language and promoting consistent methods which will help synchronise all the coaches and players at your club.
We have three teams in the same age group and our teams share the ground. Will this be a problem when implementing the Advanced Coach Mentoring program ?
Our training is designed around 4 phases. The Ball Skills Warm Up and the Kicking Drills only require relatively small spaces. The Decision Making activities and the Game Plan phases can be modified to suit your space (ie: take out one or more of the playing positions) or can be set up across the oval. When space is tight you may wish to combine the groups and just add more footballs to the activities. This will make sure each player is still getting plenty of involvement.
My team trains once a week but the Advanced Coach Mentoring training curriculum has 40 sessions. I will never get through all the sessions in the training curriculum.
If you only train once a week you will probably run about 20 sessions for the season. That’s fine. The training curriculum is designed around a rotation system where drills are repeated periodically. In 20 sessions your players will experience all the training drills (several times) and will be exposed to all the important football principles. Coaches only get a short time each week to influence player and team development – our training program will ensure that all vital components of the sport are developed and player improvement is fostered.
In the past I have struggled to make the link between what happens at training and how the team performs on match day. I don’t see the focus of my training drills impacting on the decisions and skills during games.
Once the players have participated in the ball skills and kicking phases of each training session the focus of the Advanced Coach Mentoring training switches to an emphasis on preparing your team for improved match day performance. The Decision Making Drills (or Game Sense Approach) help prepare the players for game day scenarios and decision making. The Game Plan training phase transfers these abilities to suit the needs of the style of play. Following our recommended approach to training will help coaches improve the links between practice and games competition, and leading to improved game day performance.
The Advanced Coach Mentoring training curriculum looks great but what if I have some of my own training drills I want to run to work on deficiencies I notice from match day.
The training curriculum is designed to be of support to all coaches and can be used to ensure that your team and players are systematically exposed to all the major components of the game. It is there to be of assistance whenever you need it, but there is no reason why you can’t be creative and run some of your own specific drills or even modify the activities in the training curriculum to suit your own situation.
Who do I go to for help when implementing the Advanced Coach Mentoring program?
The Advanced Coach Mentoring product has over 100 coach education videos to help develop your coaching. If you don’t find assistance here, the club’s Coaching Co-ordinator is a knowledgeable person to speak with. The Coaching Co-ordinator at your club will be in regular contact with Advanced Coach Mentoring and can seek assistance from us to help support all coaches at your club.
I have noticed that the Advanced Coach Mentoring training sessions don’t include any running or fitness work. Even the warm up uses footballs.
That’s correct. Your time with the players is short and needs to be maximised so there is no specific fitness or running training. Instead, we have designed the training so as to maximise player involvement and in so doing ensure that they are continually active. When the players are constantly participating in the drills they will not only get plenty of skill development but their football specific fitness levels will improve without you ever having to run special running drills.
The difference between my best and worst player is enormous. Will this impact on using the Advanced Coach Mentoring system.
Our training drills are designed to be inclusive and help develop the skills and understanding of all the players in your team. Players of all abilities will be able to participate and learn. There will always be variations in skill and ability but by implementing our training curriculum your best and worst players will improve. The Advanced Coach Mentoring training curriculum will fast track the development of the less skilled players and also challenge the better players to take their game to the next level.