Floorball – Example of a practice week

An example of a Mourinho practice week:
Monday – defense
Tuesday – transition to attack and attacking
Wednesday – attacking and transition to defense
Thursday – defense and transition from defense to attack
Friday – game tactics

Floorball skill practice drills

Mourinhos coaching and football practices mixes the best technical features from the Spanish La Liga, the best tactical skills from the Italian Serie A and the physics of the English Premiere league. This could be a good mix, right?

Mourinho has strict rules on shin pads on the football practices, since he uses condensed space in a lot of his drills to encourage competitive situations, aggression and speed in practice game situations.

Floorball – coach for the right reasons

With the way most of our live and work these days, we have an increasingly isolated lifestyle. We sprint from our homes to our jobs, and then from our jobs to the grocery store, or to our children’s schools… and then if we’re lucky, from there to a quick dinner before collapsing into the sofa or bed, so we can get some sleep before the next day’s race. There is never time to become part of our community, never really time to do more than survive?

Coaching Young floorball players allows us to be part of the answer. Study after study has shown that when children are involved in organized activities like in floorball teams, they do better in school and within their families. So the real question isn’t how can we make time for this, it’s more like, how can we not make time for this?

Floorball practice shooting drill

I think we’ve all met the bad coach, the unreasonable guy who treats eight year olds like they are adult men in a NHL team. But we’ve also met the guy who motivates his floorball players to try new things in life, and to learn about self confidence and teamwork. You know… he’s the guy that we aspire to be, the one who generates respect from his players and their families. It really isn’t that hard… if you are coaching for the right reasons.

Floorball feedback, value it

and, always… coach for the right reasons. You are not involved with children in order to make all of them floorball superstars or national team heroes, you are coaching them into being better people …besides developing theire floorball skills.

 

Floorball – Mourinho – Everything can be controlled

Mourinho believe in control and his coaching methods focus on what is in his direct control, his opinion is that the only factor he can not control are the supporters.

One of his priorities is keeping things simple and therefore try to remove the complexity or simplify it. Focus or concentration is an another important area for Mourinhos’ players, the message is that the opponents are not stupid and can potentially have the same methods… In terms of weakness of the opponents Mourinho will try to and practice taking advantage of the individual player weaknesses, such as height of players or weak foot.

Floorball youth game

Other aspects of his leadership and coaching include a “brutal honesty”, with strict eye to eye contact and he does not censor his word no matter who the player, that you can read in the newspapers and in this book.

Mourinho believes in hard work ethics and a balanced game system, so it’s not about attacking or defending, it’s about balance between these two factors.

Floorball – Barcelona is the enemy outside the team?

The team spirit within the team will most of the times increase when you have another team to compete against or a common “enemy” outside the team.
This is something Mourinho is using many times, creating enemies outside the team to make the team stronger inside. I think Mourinho has already couple of scenarios ready, Barcelona is the favorite to win the La Liga in everybody’s eyes and the referees will give advantage to Barcelona… (this was written before the season started) Try to Google some of those sentences and see if you get any hits.

“I knew this would happen long ago, but I do not care. I know because I know who controls the game, and if you look at their statements, then you understand why they have made this decision. I worry about playing on a Saturday night at 22:00 then on a Tuesday in the Champions League. Barcelona [does] not want to play on the Saturday because they play on the Wednesday before, and because of this we need to play on a Monday.”

Floorball 2 on 1 practices and drills

As a leader you need to take responsibility for the extreme we and them situations that might occur in sports. A common fight against an “enemy” outside the team will strengthen the team spirit, but might in the long run create an unhealthy hostility against other teams or groups and it should not be necessary to do this in youth teams. You should focus on the challenge or compete against the situation rather than an enemy outside the team.

Floorball – Conflict Handling

First things first, calm down. An old referee used to tell anyone who would listen to him this one thing, once a floorball coach begins to yell, the discussion is over. Take his advice, speak slowly and speak softly. When conflict occurs, your best bet is to remain calm, remain logical, and speak your piece. Listen to what the other party is saying and take it seriously, and most of all, understand that you will not win most of the time, and it should not be the main purpose.

Working together as a floorball team

So, conflict happens, so now what?  Well, smart floorball coaches understand that in conflict, there is opportunity. During a conflict, the way you act will determine the ground rules for the next dispute. For instance, if during a floorball practice the head coach yells back at a frustrated player, there is a good chance that this player will shut down and stop dealing with this coach. On the other hand, if the coach remains calm, speaks his mind, and deals honestly with the floorball player, the coach will open lines for future communication.

So remember to calm down, conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In conflict, there is an opportunity to exchange points of view. Conflict can be viewed as a chance to learn another point of view.  And besides all that, no one wins them all.