The Art of Coaching | Coaching for Hope

June 17th, 2034.
King Baudouim Stadium, Brussels.
Group E, First Match
France vs India

Just 3 minutes left on the clock and still no goals. India has conceded a corner in the dying minutes of the game. Eight French players are up in the penalty box to meet the corner. Jean Claude Brami kicks it deep into the far post, but Indian custodian Manmit Chatterjee comes out bravely and punches the ball clear. The loose ball is picked up by the left wing back Anith Mathew and he quickly releases Salim Usman down the center. Yes, India on the counter attack bombing forward towards the French goal. Salim Usman ghosts past two French players and uses the run of Drupathi Pandey on the left wing as a decoy and plays the reverse pass to Toi-Mang Singh to his right. Ooh!! The French defense is caught off-guard and Toi is clear on goal. He calmly scoops the ball over the onrushing French goal keeper Laurent Panip into the empty net. GOAL!! GOAL!!! GOOOAALL!!!

Don’t get confused…. It’s my dream or imagination, or whatever you would like to call it! I see this dream of India playing in the FIFA World Cup finals almost everyday.

Let me introduce myself as Justin Jose. I have recently completed the FA Level 1 license in football coaching from London and following it up with the FA Youth Module 1 award. I have been enrolled for the football coaching degree under Arsenal FC, but it doesn’t start until next June. So I’ve plenty of time to write something about my love, football.

That’s it….. Enough of my story telling. Let’s come to the point.

The way to realize the dream of helping the youngsters to come forward to the frontline of international football can be done by using the Long-Term Player Development (LTPD) 4-corner system. And we need to start implying the LTPD system from the grassroots level. Long-term Player Development

In football, as a coach you must look at what is needed to develop the young players to reach their maximum potential. It is important in the child’s development that we introduce basic physical literacy; these fundamental principles of movement will provide the core skills, which must be in place as the player develops. The LTPD is based on a 4-corner model.

When developing its players, football has historically concentrated on the Technical and Tactical Corner. Football already encourages many of the basic physical literacy skills the young person needs to develop, and these natural football physical outcomes have been enhanced to become the Physical Corner. In addition to these two corners, we need to develop the whole player at all levels. For that, the coach also needs to encourage development in the Social Corner and the  * Psychological* Corner.

The 4-corner model applies to all players, regardless of age or ability. The emphasis on the corners may change depending on where the player is within the development pathway.

In the following weeks I will be explaining about each 4-corner Model in detail and will be including methods on how you can implement the 4-corner Model in your training sessions. I will describe about drills and small sided games with diagrams which will be easy for you to use, but at the same time very effective in your coaching.

All that I am trying to do is share my knowledge and learning experience from the FA courses. I hope the information will help the young aspiring coaches to kick start their coaching career.

Please leave your feedback and suggestions in the comments section. And a big thanks to Team FootballKerala for their support.

Justin Jose writes for FootballKerala.com

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 1 November 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.