Kids In Charge

Last updated : 24 March 2009 By Bournemouth Co-Ordinator
Joe Roach handed responsibility to his young charges, citing his motives in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as being: "It was an opportunity for me to step back and let them take responsibility. It was certainly interesting from a coaching point of view and I would imagine it was interesting for them. We always ask them to take responsibility during games but they still look across to the touchline for guidance. On this occasion, I gave ownership of the team to the players and kept quiet for 90 minutes - which wasn't easy for me! We stopped at the services on the way to the game and I read out the team. I then asked them to come up with three goals they would be responsible for achieving during the game. They organised their own warm-up and had to think for themselves about tactical issues while the game was going on. I had a brief chat at half-time but also asked the substitutes for their input. It allowed me to look at things from a different perspective. I've done things like this in the past and it is a different learning curve for the players. It's not something they are used to but they can learn from it and I hope they did".