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U11’s Griffin’s 2019/2020 Season Review

The 2019/2020 football season will be not be remembered for the right reasons. A season full of unpredictable weather, ruined pitches and a pandemic that sent the nation into lockdown will be how the 2019/2020 football season will be remembered. With only two games played in 2020, football around the country was cancelled and the season came to an abrupt end.

Although only taking over the reins in January, having this time away from football can be used wisely to reflect, analyse and develop. For the season to be ended so soon is totally heart breaking but this time can be used wisely to; reflect on the first two months of my coaching journey, analyse players strengths and weakness, develop a structured development strategy for the players to improve when football returns and also improve understanding of further drills and session ideas for future.

February 2020: It doesn’t get much more difficult than opening the new year with a home game to one of the strongest teams in the league. However, having not played for a while due to weather and the Christmas break the girls were more than excited to start playing again.

The result did highlight the importance of playing football regularly. You can do all the training in the world, but you can’t see true improvement without playing the game itself.  Every game has its positives to take and from that game brought huge positives for me as a coach.  It was the girls first game for me, and I got what I asked of them to do: express themselves, play with no fear but most importantly have fun.

Looking back now this game was by far the most important as it has laid the building blocks for what we needed to work on in the short time but also highlighted the pathway for long term development and success.

The next game was still a new game, a new opportunity, a new chance to develop as a team and as an individual. The girls stepped up again and took on the challenge that was in front of them. A huge improvement in confidence stood out by far; the successful implementation of skills transferred from training into the match and also the improvement in transition from defence to attack was most pleasing to see.

The girls had a number of good opportunities to score and on a different day it could have been a different story.

March 2020: A season to forget for the professional game and also the grassroots game…. Or is it…..

A year that brought a new team together, making new friends that can last a lifetime, a new manager with new ideas and different ways of coaching and an early end to a season allowing time for more reflection and personal development.

This season may not be remembered for playing and winning ‘x’ amount of games, it may not remembered for the number of goals that each player scored. But this season can be truly be remembered for the start of the ‘Project’. A project that once football returns will continue!

In the short space that I have had with the players, I would like to personally thank each player for their efforts in both training and matches and I hope this continues next season.

I would like to also thank each parent for their time driving to a from training and matches because the girls couldn’t play and we wouldn’t have a team to run without you.

Lastly a huge thank you to all of you that arrive early to matches to set up the goals and mark out the pitches it is greatly appreciated.

 

Until we see each other again,

Stay safe
Gav, U11’s Griffins
(Season 2019-2020), (Jan2020)