1BUILDING YOUR DNA AND GAME MODEL

Before any coach analyses their players, they must first analyse themselves. Why did you first get into coaching, and what do you want to achieve within futsal? Perhaps you’re a football coach hoping to use futsal to enhance your footballers’ game, or maybe you’re a national league futsal coach seeking to take your team to the next level. Whatever your background, there are two broad aims that drive the vast majority of coaches: development (improving players) and performance (winning games).

Of course, many coaches will want to develop their players and win games of futsal. However, knowing which of these aims you prioritize will help you to set up your side, manage your team’s identity and approach the game with specific tactics (not to say that development does not happen in performance – it just has to be balanced with other priorities). Against a superior side which presses high effectively, for example, do you choose to develop your players by encouraging them to play out from their defensive zone – even if they lose possession and concede goals – in the knowledge that it’ll improve their ability to play under pressure despite increasing the team’s chances of losing? Or, do you choose to concede possession high up the court, sit in a deep zonal defence and seek to counter-attack when possible, knowing that such tactics will reduce your players’ time on the ball and development time in general? The coach will always be balancing these aspects, and the best ones will balance them enough to challenge the players at their disposal.

Self-analysis does not end there. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses will help you to understand the best way to work with your players, along with the ideal assistants and staff who can complement your coaching style. Even the world’s best coaches have weaknesses! Being aware of how to work with them, how to improve them, and how to make sure those weaknesses do not impact your players, is important. Once that awareness is there, action plans can be put in place to turn those weaknesses into strengths. What experiences do you need to have, for example? What tools are available to help you improve? What and where can you learn? When do you want to have improved by and how will you do so? Self-analysis is a constant, with coaching developing with experience and as new ideas come into practice.

In that regard, futsal is an excellent tool for coach development. The coach is central to everything that happens on a futsal court. While a football coach may give guidance from the sidelines during a game and is limited to pre-match and half-time for tactical input with the whole team, the futsal coach can sub players on and off whenever they like during a match to give tactical input and is also allowed to call one strategic timeout each half. Substitutions are unlimited, and coaches often choose to sub their entire team at once (known in the game as a ‘Russian four’ or ‘quartet’) to disrupt their opponents tactically, but also to give important tactical guidance to a set group of players. Each ‘four’ can have a set strategy, changing the flow of the game with each substitution. As coaches can select up to fourteen players in a matchday squad, there is scope to have a varied squad with diverse talents.

With just five players on court at any one time, every tactical tweak has a far greater impact than in a typical football match. Assessing these tweaks will help you to improve as a coach, enabling you to better service