Coach Edwards

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Coach Edwards UEFA C Licensed Coach ⚽️
Barnsley 📍
• Pro-Formance Football Coaching
• Player Development
• Game IQ
• Speed & Acceleration
DM for Elite 1–2–1s

A young player usually knows when they’ve made a mistake. They don’t always need the touchline to remind them.How we res...
11/09/2026

A young player usually knows when they’ve made a mistake. They don’t always need the touchline to remind them.

How we respond in that moment can decide whether they want the ball again or begin hiding from it.

Three things I try to remember:

🧘 Stay calm
If our reaction looks bigger than the mistake, players can become scared to take risks.

👏 Praise the decision when it was right
The pass might not have reached its target, but the player may have recognised the correct option. We can separate a good decision from poor ex*****on.

➡️ Give one clear next step
“Check your shoulder earlier” is more useful than listing everything that went wrong.

Supporting confidence doesn’t mean ignoring mistakes or lowering standards. It means helping players understand what happened and preparing them for the next action.

Young players will make mistakes. The important question is whether our response encourages them to try again.

How do you help a player recover after a mistake? 👇

The little things often tell me more about a coach than the session plan does.A session can be well organised, but how w...
10/09/2026

The little things often tell me more about a coach than the session plan does.

A session can be well organised, but how we make players feel will often decide whether they simply attend training or genuinely enjoy being there.

Eight small things that make a difference:

👋 Make arrival personal
Use their name, ask how they are and make them feel noticed.

🗣️ Give players a voice
Ask what they see, think or find difficult.

⚽ Make it fun and use competition positively
Keep score, create excitement and let players enjoy competing.

👏 Recognise what goes well
Don’t only speak when something needs correcting.

Also remember to:

* Use their name when coaching.
* Ask how they learn best.
* Demonstrate when words aren’t enough.
* Get down to their level and speak eye to eye.

None of this needs extra time. It just takes intention.

Over time, these small interactions shape how players feel about themselves, their coach and coming to training.

Which one do you already do well, and which could you improve in your next session? 👇

“Scan!” is one of the most common instructions we hear in youth football.But simply shouting it doesn’t teach a player w...
08/09/2026

“Scan!” is one of the most common instructions we hear in youth football.

But simply shouting it doesn’t teach a player what to look for, when to look or how that information should affect their decision.

Three ways to make scanning more meaningful:

👀 Give them a reason to look
Include defenders, teammates, targets and space. Players need useful information to find.

⏱️ Focus on the timing
Encourage players to look before and as the ball travels, giving them time to prepare their next action.

❓ Ask what they saw
Instead of asking, “Did you scan?”, try, “What did you see before you received?”

A player can turn their head without actually taking in any information.

The aim isn’t just to create the movement of scanning. It’s to help players recognise the picture and use it to make better decisions.

How do you encourage scanning within your practices? 👇

Post-match conversations can quickly become the coach explaining everything that went wrong.But if we always provide the...
07/09/2026

Post-match conversations can quickly become the coach explaining everything that went wrong.

But if we always provide the answers, are players learning to reflect for themselves?

Three simple questions can help:

✅ What worked well?
Encourage players to recognise positive decisions and behaviours, not just goals or the result.

🤔 What was difficult?
This helps identify the problems they experienced rather than the problems we assumed they had.

🔁 What will we try next?
Turn reflection into one clear action for the next match or training session.

With young players, keep the conversation brief. Give them time to answer and accept that their view might be different from yours.

The aim isn’t to test whether they noticed everything. It’s to help them think about the game and take more ownership of their development.

What questions do you use to help your players reflect after a match? 👇

New season starts tomorrow for a lot of coaches so here’s some food for thought: Matchday shouldn’t feel separate from t...
05/09/2026

New season starts tomorrow for a lot of coaches so here’s some food for thought:

Matchday shouldn’t feel separate from the work we’ve done in training.

It’s easy to get caught up in the score and start coaching every mistake, but young players need a clear link between what they practise and what we expect in games.

Three things I try to keep consistent:

🎯 Set one team objective
Choose one simple focus from training, such as playing wide, protecting the middle or supporting the player on the ball.

👏 Praise the behaviour
If a player recognises the opportunity to switch play but the pass doesn’t come off, acknowledge the decision.

🗣️ Review the focus, not just the score
Ask the players when they recognised it, what helped and what they could try next time.

The match gives us a chance to see whether learning is transferring under real pressure. It shouldn’t become a completely new coaching session from the touchline.

What’s the one behaviour you’ll be looking for from your players this weekend? 👇

A session can look organised while players spend half of it waiting for their turn.At foundation-phase level, more invol...
04/09/2026

A session can look organised while players spend half of it waiting for their turn.

At foundation-phase level, more involvement means more chances to scan, decide, execute and learn.

Three simple ways to increase activity:

⚽ Use smaller groups
Split one large practice into two or three smaller areas wherever possible.

🔁 Keep multiple balls ready
When the ball leaves the area, restart quickly rather than losing valuable playing time.

🎯 Replace queues with games
Instead of eight players waiting to dribble and shoot, create small 1v1 or 2v2 games where everyone is involved.

More touches alone don’t guarantee development, but players can’t improve their decision-making while standing in a line.

A useful question when planning a session is: How much of this practice will each player actually spend playing football?

What changes have you made to increase player involvement in your sessions? 👇

Confidence isn’t built by simply telling a young player to “be confident”.It grows when they experience themselves makin...
03/09/2026

Confidence isn’t built by simply telling a young player to “be confident”.

It grows when they experience themselves making decisions, attempting something difficult and eventually succeeding.

Three things coaches can try:

⚽ Set an achievable challenge:

Give the player something they can realistically succeed at while still stretching them.

👏 Praise the decision:

Recognise what they saw or attempted, not only whether it worked.

🔁 Give them another chance:

After a mistake, avoid immediately changing their position or giving several instructions. Let them face the situation again.

If a player loses the ball while trying to turn, sometimes “good idea, try it again” is more useful than explaining everything that went wrong.

Confidence doesn’t come from removing mistakes. It comes from helping players respond to them.

What methods do you use to build confidence in your players? 👇

When I was growing up, nobody called it player development. We were just kids who wanted to play football.Before school,...
02/09/2026

When I was growing up, nobody called it player development. We were just kids who wanted to play football.

Before school, at break time, during lunch and again when we got home. We tried things, argued over whether the ball had gone over the jumper thrown on the ground as a goal post and learned how to deal with bigger, quicker and better players down the local park.

There was no coach stopping the game every couple of minutes. A lot of our learning came from simply being allowed to play.

Now that I coach young players myself, it’s something I think about regularly.

Structure matters. Good coaching matters. But sometimes the best thing we can do is create the right environment, step back and let the game teach them as not every mistake needs correcting immediately.

Sometimes a player needs the chance to recognise it, solve it and try again.

Perhaps developing intelligent footballers isn’t always about giving them more information.
Sometimes it’s about giving them more freedom.

What's the one thing you've learned as you've progressed further in your coaching journey?

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