Drills Are What They Do In The Army

 ****Funny, I was just saying to someone at practice this week that the best thing about Paulo's practices is that there is so little standing in lines.  Constant motion.****


Interview by Mike Woitalla
Bobby Howe, during his playing career, lined up with England greats Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Greaves at West Ham United. He was U.S. U-17 boys national team assistant coach in 1986-89, U-20 boys national team coach in 1989-1993, and U.S. Soccer Director of Coaching Education in 1996-2000.

SA: Since two decades ago, we have more players, more youth clubs, more experienced coaches …

BOBBY HOWE: We have more coaches than ever. But I’m not really sure some of these folks coaching are really great coaches, I don’t know. But in my travels I see people coaching and I’m thinking, they’ve got coach after their name, but I’m not sure if they’re coaching the right things.

SA: What are examples of what you see that makes you say that?

BOBBY HOWE: Several things. Behavior on the touchline is one. The types of activities in training is another.

I said to one of my assistants the other day, “Have a look around this field and give me a general observation of what you see on this field and tell me if there’s anything going on.”

And there were about half a dozen separate team groups on this field. What sort of movement? What sort of activity?

There are too many instances where the coach is the focal point of the session. The coach is in the middle and the players are standing around listening to the coach talk.

You see situations with the kids, with a ball each, waiting for their turn to kick it. That’s the type of thing I’m talking about.

SA: What should practice be like?

BOBBY HOWE: There should be activity. Practice should be a challenge. It should be a challenge to their skill. It should be a challenge to their decision-making and it should be a challenge to their imagination. Too many times I look around and see sessions where there’s not really a lot going on. You know, drills.

People call it drills in the United States. I remember Roy Rees saying to me, “Why do they call this drills? Drills are what they do in the army.”

They’re games. They should be stimulating little games. Every technique activity should have a game involved, or an objective, or a competition to excite the imagination of the players.

But there’s too much wasting time in training, too much standing around.

See what others are saying on the Youth Soccer Insider blog.