Jacks Case Study

Jack is 16 years old and primarily plays as a defender. He’s played for Cuffley FC, Broxbourne FC and next year will be joining Stevenage FC in their college programme.

Jack has been training with Premier Football since September 2016 and is still currently doing a 1on1 session at least once a week.

The Back Story…

These days you can’t turn on the TV without hearing the importance of defenders having the technical ability and confidence to play out from the back.

While Jack’s ability to defend was never in question – being able keep up with the standard of the modern game was something Jack needed to work on.

So, in short – Jack wasn’t fulfilling his potential.

 

A Carefully Planned Training Programme

When Jack first started training with me he was mainly playing as a left back for Cuffley FC so I devised a plan that would reflect this standard of football – working mainly on advanced ball mastery suitable for a player of his age and ability.

This consisted of 3 specific components;

• Coerver Specific Training: By using a hybrid of ball mastery techniques in a more advanced training setup
• Creating a Competitive Environment: By pushing Jack to challenge himself and push the boundaries of his current level
• Hybrid Positional Play: By taking the techniques and skills that are more traditionally used to develop attacking players and adding them to his already sound defensive qualities.

This carefully planned programme would ensure that he could not only get in the mix with any big and strong forwards he might come up against, but so he could also confidently receive the ball to his feet, side step any advances from attackers and be the starting point for attacking play.

This is what’s more commonly known as ‘playing out from the back’.

These specific components of the programme would;

• Increase Jack’s confidence on the ball
• Contribute successfully to his teams attacking play
• Develop a picture in his mind before he’s even received the ball
• Upstage any playmakers on the field of play
• Improve his all-round game

Jack enjoyed the sessions and was a keen learner. After 6 months Jack became much more comfortable on the ball and now had the confidence to bring the ball forward in his matches and even take opposition players on.

A Vision for Success…

One of the other challenges I faced was Jack telling me that the team he was playing for weren’t encouraging him to be creative on the ball and instead preferred him to play the ball long and safe from his position.

I carried on increasing Jacks confidence on the ball with dynamic ball mastery sessions, and I was encouraging him to keep developing himself so that he could become a modern left sided defender (left wing back).

I also told him to keep doing what he was because he wouldn’t be at his current club forever and by adding all the attacking skills to his game he would then move onto a higher level of football where ball possession and the more modern way of playing would be a commodity not a hindrance.

After a year and a half of 1on1 sessions, Jack has now been signed into the Stevenage Academy system and is experiencing a high level of football with them and still developing his game further with Premier Football’s personal football coaching.

I’m really pleased with how Jacks football career has gone and the success he has achieved so far. I’m very confident he will continue to develop and have a successful career in football.

“Jack has been training with Steve for almost two years now and always enjoys the sessions. He has learnt a lot and improved his game under Steve’s guidance. The sessions are always intense and planned out so that Jack gets the maximum out of the session” – Karen (Jack’s Mum)

You find out more about the Premier Football Training Programme by clicking here…