Browse > Home / Coaching Theory, Features / Blog article: Preparing for Finals

Preparing for Finals

August 16, 2008

This is the time of the year that all coaches plan for when they are appointed to a coaching position prior to the start of each season. The reality is only a handful of coaches in each competition are given the chance to live the dream of testing their coaching ability in finals football. When the time comes around for you as a coach, there are many little things that must be done correctly to ensure that your team has every chance of success.

Variations

Interestingly each team that reaches finals will arrive there a different way. You may have a dominant team in the competition that wins enough early games to ensure that it will participate. This coach can afford to relax players, then work them harder in the weeks leading up to the finals (even be prepared to drop a game because of the harder training) to ensure that they are fit enough to handle the rigors of finals football. The contrast of this is the club that struggles to win early games through poor form or injuries and has to play each of the last few weeks as though it is a final, just to win enough games to reach the business end of the year. This team will be match hardened but may not have been able to rest players to freshen them up and may have even had to risk further injury to key players, because they needed them in the team to win the required amount of games.

History

History has shown that a lot of teams that do well early develop lazy habits and do just enough to win each week. Sides that have to fight hard to win a spot in the finals are normally very focused and committed to each other as they have had to work so hard against the odds without a guarantee of getting the opportunity of playing in the finals. How would you handle each of these scenarios if you were coaching either of these teams? The other interesting observation I have noted is just how many teams that have dominated the home and away season, then gone on to win the second semi final, only to play poorly in the most important game of the year. Is it bad luck? Poor preparation? Is it lack of matches? Complacency? Panic? Or through sheer opposition pressure a change of the game plan? There are many situations when I have been a coach in these scenarios where I have had to ask myself these very questions. The easy answer, which in most situations is wrong, is to say, “I would not have changed anything. Our preparation was very good”. It may have been good, but it can always be better.

Planning

Be prepared to plan ahead on the possibility that your team is good enough to play finals football. You plan for it preseason before a game is played and it is important to continue planning for it during the season while it is mathematically possible. Keep thinking ahead to the coming weeks. Watch your players closely at training. Are they training well? Is there genuine enthusiasm amongst the group? Do they look like they are ready to play finals football if it presented itself tomorrow? Keep asking yourself these questions and making sure that the answer is yes. If it is not, you may need to pick up the signs early and restructure training and support your players (freshen them up) as they may have doubts about their ability or be feeling the pressure of expectation. A good coach can solve these problems if he is prepared to be supportive and flexible. Remember that all coaches live and die by the performances of each player. Be prepared to talk to your players to ensure that those players who are feeling the pressure can be reassured and kept in a positive frame of mind. For the players in the successful team, having to wait so long for the opportunity of participating in the finals, knowing weeks ago that you were going to be there can also add pressure as well as frustration. Again a coach must keep working with his players to ensure that anxiety does not build. The other issue is bad habits that can creep into the team game and go unnoticed because you are winning games of football. The key to all good coaching is the ability of a coach to know his players well enough and watch for the signs. Having identified some of these issues it is also the coach’s responsibility to find the necessary solutions to problems that may occur. Do not take anything for granted when coaching sport. The moment you start to believe everything is going well is the very moment that you lose focus on what you are employed to do. The only time to start patting yourself on the back is after you and the team have won the most important game of the year. Until then you are just like every other coach in the competition and that is a person who has a dream. Don’t let it become a nightmare because you dropped away at the most important time of the season. Plan for every scenario and then have a plan B ready just in case.

Swoopercoach team wishes you every success.

Written by John Northey · Filed Under Coaching Theory, Features 
Tagged:

Become a Member

Click here to become a member. Membership is free and grants you access to members only information as well as letting you comment on articles and drills across Swooper Coach