AM Code Academy

Why You Should Teach These
6 Football Intelligence Themes

The AM Code’s six thinking football themes are designed to support both the fundamental R’s and signature skill moves within the curriculum. Whilst the other two themes focus on technical ability, the thinking football "football IQ' themes relates directly to the ability of the player to be thoughtful about game situations, using the correct technique of the thinking football themes to support decision-making and actions in the game.

Whilst there are multiple examples of combining AM Code curriculum themes together, let’s focus on a thinking football theme and a fundamental R – scanning & receiving.

When coaching the fundamentals of receiving the ball, the AM Code offers technical coaching points that relate to the appropriate technical use of the body and its key parts in order to receive the ball successfully. Receiving the ball is something every player will do thousands of times, through training and games, with each receive being different. The parts before and after the receive, create the full process of a performance action. Prior to receiving the ball, a player should scan to seek information about what their next action should be, when receiving the ball, the player will now have to concentrate on their technical skills to receive, but also think about what R they need to use next – release or run? The way in which players often decide this in the most effective way, is by scanning before the ball arrives.
Write your awesome label here.

Scanning 

Scanning is when a player is capable of looking away from the ball to gather information about where team-mates are, where the goal is, where the nearest defender is and where the rest of the opposition are.

If this information is processed well, the player has a clear performance action in his head as they receive the ball, making the next decision faster and more efficient.

Eyes Up

Eyes up is a thinking football theme in the AM Code. This theme refers to when a player is in possession of the ball and how they look for and gather information to support their next action. Eyes up is different from scanning because it refers to looking in front of you, whereas scanning is checking over the shoulders behind and beside you.

A common theme within younger players is to be staring at the ball when dribbling, therefore, not taking into account where they are on the pitch, space they have, space a team-mate has or where the opponent is. 

Safe Side 

Safe side is a way for players to protect the ball from opponents under pressure. There are a lot of small details which complete safe side and a player must understand these things in their brain, before the attempt the performance action.

Being able to understand & perform safe side, can give young players a huge advantage when receiving, running, releasing and retaining. 

Space

Space is a thinking football theme that has many links to different fundamental Rs, skill moves and other thinking football themes. In our technical and football IQ training for space, We consider the following situations:

• When space is limited in dribbling situations, close control (running with the ball) is required to retain possession
• In order to see space for a runs, releases or movements it is important to have eyes up or to be scanning
• Attacking with or without the ball, the ability to recognise space and dribble into space or have movement that takes you into space
• The space doesn’t always last long, with players moving all the time, so to create and utilise space, the player must make runs or movements at speed when not in possession

Back Foot

Back foot is a thinking football theme linked directly to receiving the ball and refers to the foot furthest away from the ball. When receiving, if the player has space and time to turn, they can control the ball with their back foot and run forward. With young players, it is important to address the body position in order to allow a receive on the back foot – an open body position supports back foot and the next performance action. 

Opposite Movement

Opposite movement is a vital part of the thinking football themes, as this movement is both realistic and necessary in professional football.

Opposite movement is the movement of a player in the opposite direction of where they want to receive the ball. This movement is designed to create additional space to receive the ball – by moving in the opposite direction, the defender may move with you, moving away from the space you want to receive in.

Most commonly in youth football, players are either static or don’t make good use of space. 
Cupar, United Kingdom
Terms & Conditions   |   Privacy Policy   |   Cookie policy
Powered By IEFA
Created with