BA (Hons) Football Coaching and Talent Development

The purpose of this module is to provide you with the necessary attributes and knowledge to enable you to develop the technical performance of young players. Firstly, you will examine the predominant technical components that are essential for football. Furthermore, you will examine the principles of play (both attacking and defending), how you can develop individuals understanding of the game and how to manage mistakes within practice situations. Taking a player-centred approach which allows the player to be actively involved in their own learning and development through decision-making and problem-solving rather than being coach-led, you will design practices which will develop players game craft and game understanding and learn what constrains lead coaching principles. Developing your knowledge on the three stages of skill acquisition which age groups ability levels they can be associated with and how you can plan to enhance your players’ ability through this.

The intense demands to identify, select, and develop some of the brightest young talents in the game places more pressure on a range of staff and clubs than ever before. Given such demands, you (as a scout or coach for example) will find yourself navigating through a range of changing, challenging and complex environments. Therefore, developing an ability to nurture talented individuals is seemingly an essential part of a football clubs (and coaches) daily task. This module, therefore aims to provide an introduction to the complexities and magnitude of talent development. The module will introduce you to a wide range of topics and themes that can support your understanding of talent development. Here, we include considerations around academic models of talent development, environments, cultures, as well as performance pathways for a range of athletes across a number of different sports.

In order for you to achieve your university and future workplace goals, you need to be aware of a number of personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed. It is also important that you understand the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to personal and professional factors relevant to employment in the sport industry, and to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape. Additionally, it will support you in developing some essential academic skills for higher education (such as academic writing and referencing). The module will introduce you to a wide range of perspectives, philosophies, and principles of critical and ethical thinking which will equip you with the competencies and confidence to achieve your academic and employability goals.

This module will enable you to develop awareness and understanding of the key coaching principles required for coaching in the Foundation Phase of a players’ development, where practice content is mainly focused on the player possessing the ball. This phase of development can be known as’ the golden years of learning’. You will gain the knowledge and insight needed to plan and deliver effective practices that will make the most of this ‘window of opportunity’ for learning. Your learning will take place through integrating theory with practice as well as sharing knowledge and understanding through discussion and debate. You will learn the academic theories and models needed to coach effectively within this particular phase of a players’ development, covering all four areas of performance; technical, physical, psychological and social, before being given the opportunity to apply these in a practical context.

As football seemingly turns into more of a global sport business, the intense demands to identify, select, and develop some of the brightest young talents in the game. Given such demands, you will find yourself navigating through a range of changing, challenging and complex environments. Therefore, developing an ability to continuously identify the potential in talented individuals is seemingly an essential part of a football clubs (and coaches) daily task. This module, therefore aims to provide an introduction to the complexities and magnitude of talent identification. The module will introduce you to a wide range of topics and themes that can support your understanding of talent identification. Here, we include considerations around academic models of talent identification, methods, philosophies, and cultures.

As a football coach working in the professional game you will find yourself operating in changing, challenging and complex environments. Therefore, the understanding and appreciation of various coaching methodologies and philosophies and their impact on talent identification and development pathways has becoming increasingly focused on coaching skills for development. This module aims to align theoretical concepts to professional industry-based practice, which will develop your skills as an effective coach in a talent development environment.

This module is designed to provide you with an essential ‘coaching toolkit’ with which to develop the technical performance of young players in a Small Sided Game context. Firstly, you will examine key nonlinear pedagogy such as teaching games for understanding and constraints led approach, used in football coaching. Secondly, you will explore the principles of play (both attacking and defending), how you can develop individuals understanding of the game and how to manage mistakes within practice situations. Taking a player-centred approach which allows the player to be actively involved in their own learning and development through decision-making and problem- solving rather than being coach-led, you will use a more ecological design approach to practices which will develop players game craft and game understanding.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on developing your practical skills relevant to a workplace environment. This module will ask you to apply your knowledge and personal skillset to problem-based learning scenarios, and live projects. You will learn project management skills, develop your personal pragmatism, and enhance your industry-based interests and understanding. You will work both as part of a team and independently, developing essential aspects of your emotional, social, and professional self.

This module will enable you to develop awareness and understanding of the key coaching principles required for coaching in the Youth Development Phase (YDP). Here, practice content is mainly focused on the player learning about 11 a-side football, and you will learn how to design practices that support the development of a player’s tactical knowledge of the game. This phase of development will see players going through physiological change and having their period of greatest physical growth. During this phase the players focus will narrow and become sport and position specific as football becomes a viable career. Your learning will integrate theory with practice as well as sharing knowledge and understanding through discussion and debate. You will learn the academic theories and models needed to coach effectively within this specific phase of a players’ development, covering all four areas of performance; technical, physical, psychological and social, before being given the opportunity to apply these in a practical context.

As a practitioner in your discipline you will be required to engage in evidence-based practice. This module supports your ability to become an evidence-based practitioner by providing you with an introduction to the processes involved in conducting research within your discipline and equipping you with the skills and knowledge to be able to critically analyse the work of others. This module will build on skills and knowledge which you will have acquired throughout your course so far, and has been designed to prepare you for conducting your own independent project as part of the Professional Project module at Level 6. Specifically, this module will enable you to gain an applied understanding of the research process. This will involve identifying a contemporary industry-relevant issue; developing project aims and objectives; understanding reflexivity and the role you play in the design and execution of a project; understanding methodologies and different methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and appreciating the importance of ethical practice. The delivery of this module will be facilitated by your engagement in a research project to investigate contemporary industry-relevant issues.

You will acquire a systematic understanding of the principles of play, appropriate to Association Football and advanced tactical and strategic knowledge relevant to the 9 vs. 9 and 11 vs.11 format of the game. You will also explore some of the different formations that are used within these formats of the game and the roles and responsibilities of players within these formations. You will look at tactical plans across all phases of the game and the development of patterns of play that contribute towards these strategies.

This module aims to provide you with a framework to support the ongoing cycle of the coaching process. Coaches are required to observe, analyse, evaluate and provide feedback to players after performance. You will explore key performance indicators with particular reference to both technical and tactical analysis. You will establish how to use a range of match analysis methods from notational to applying technological advancements to enhance your efficiency in providing feedback. You will develop techniques to evaluate teams’ overall performance both technical and tactical in order to provide feedback for intervention planning.

This module provides you with the opportunity to synthesise the knowledge and skills you will have developed during the course of your studies and independently design, develop and execute an individual professional project. This project aims to investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and will be a platform through which you will demonstrate the knowledge, skills, understanding and expertise you have developed in your discipline thus far. It is expected that your project output will contribute to industry practice and/or academic and practitioner knowledge. To achieve this, you will investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and make judgments on the basis of sound evidence and therefore, the project will be research- and inquiry-based. The project will be directly relevant to your course and will be produced and disseminated in the format best suited to the project aims and to developing a career of your choice. The project will build on the L5 Research Methods assessment and you will be working closely with a project supervisor who will provide guidance and support throughout your project.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on practical application of that knowledge during a workplace visit. Until now, your modules have provided learning opportunities about the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to a workplace environment. Doing so will allow you to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape through experience. This module creates a space for you to apply competencies developed in your modules to date to a real-life setting, leading to experiential and reflective learning.