Working Within The Four Corners
The four corner model was developed by The Football Association in order to aid coaches with their planning and delivery of grassroots coaching sessions. The aim is not for the affects and aims of sessions to dramatically change, but to encourage coaches to break down their sessions more intricately, and consider the impacts which their coaching has on the players they work with.
In order to make the model accessible and usable for all levels of coaching , the four corners are broken down simply and colour coded;
Red - Technical
Green - Psychological
Yellow - Physical
Blue – Social
The four aspects can be relatively easily be defined;
Technical – Football skills ‘on the ball’; control, passing, dribbling, shooting etc.
Psychological – Mental attributes; decision making, enjoyment, spatial awareness etc.
Physical – Movement within the game; sprinting, turning, jumping, acceleration, agility etc.
Social – Interactions with other participants; communication, teamwork, friendship etc.
Below are two examples of the use of the four corners to breakdown sessions, (the boards below are for matches as opposed to training sessions). One four corner board below is for a U14s group, the other is for a U8s group, can you work out which is which, and why?
The four corner model was developed by The Football Association in order to aid coaches with their planning and delivery of grassroots coaching sessions. The aim is not for the affects and aims of sessions to dramatically change, but to encourage coaches to break down their sessions more intricately, and consider the impacts which their coaching has on the players they work with.
In order to make the model accessible and usable for all levels of coaching , the four corners are broken down simply and colour coded;
Red - Technical
Green - Psychological
Yellow - Physical
Blue – Social
The four aspects can be relatively easily be defined;
Technical – Football skills ‘on the ball’; control, passing, dribbling, shooting etc.
Psychological – Mental attributes; decision making, enjoyment, spatial awareness etc.
Physical – Movement within the game; sprinting, turning, jumping, acceleration, agility etc.
Social – Interactions with other participants; communication, teamwork, friendship etc.
Below are two examples of the use of the four corners to breakdown sessions, (the boards below are for matches as opposed to training sessions). One four corner board below is for a U14s group, the other is for a U8s group, can you work out which is which, and why?
The four corners offers coaches an interesting tool which gives them an opportunity to break down the benefits of the session which they plan to deliver. Rather than planning and coaching a session ‘for the sake of it’, a coach needs to create a session which has specific outcomes for the players involved, and are highly beneficial for them.
An interesting conundrum for coaches is to decide which aspect of their session they plan first – either the content of the session, or the outcomes they want from the session. In my experience, a vast majority of coaches often use the first option, to plan their session, then consider what the outcomes will be. However, is this necessarily the best way to go about planning our coaching sessions? Should we not be deciding exactly what our players need to get out of the session, and then designing a session plan to meet those required outcomes? This is an interesting hurdle which coaches must cross, and it is clear to see that the planning the session first, and then considering the outcomes is often an ‘easier’ option, which potentially requires less effort. That being said, planning the outcomes, and then designing a session to meet those outcomes, may take more time and effort, but as we know, the hard work of today, reaps the benefits of tomorrow.
It's time to think, Think Coaching.
An interesting conundrum for coaches is to decide which aspect of their session they plan first – either the content of the session, or the outcomes they want from the session. In my experience, a vast majority of coaches often use the first option, to plan their session, then consider what the outcomes will be. However, is this necessarily the best way to go about planning our coaching sessions? Should we not be deciding exactly what our players need to get out of the session, and then designing a session plan to meet those required outcomes? This is an interesting hurdle which coaches must cross, and it is clear to see that the planning the session first, and then considering the outcomes is often an ‘easier’ option, which potentially requires less effort. That being said, planning the outcomes, and then designing a session to meet those outcomes, may take more time and effort, but as we know, the hard work of today, reaps the benefits of tomorrow.
It's time to think, Think Coaching.