The most satisfying part of coaching is that, very occasionally, you get to learn something from the kids. Tonight, one of my players brought the scrimmage to a halt with a fantastic dive inside the opposition penalty box. He’d been barely touched by the defender yet he keeled over as if shot by a sniper lying in the long grass.
‘Where did you learn that?’ I shout.
‘Watching the UEFA Champions League on tv this week,’ he replies.
Eureka! Another teachable moment. I gather all the players in a circle and get the kid to repeat the dive as they watch. Then I get all of them to copy him. I spend fifteen minutes teaching them the art of the fake dive. They love it. They spend so many hours playing violent video games that they love pretending to be killed.
Some say that’s a little too much time to spend on diving but, come on, the referees we get are still in their teens, and are easily swayed by dramatics and theatrics. This is a smart investment. Not to mention either that, as all the coaching courses remind us, the good habits these players learn today are the ones they will keep for all their soccer-playing lives. It’s so important this kind of stuff is done right.
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