How futsal can improve football coaches’ observation and decision-making skills
Coach | Approach | Mike Skubala | 19.08.2021
Futsal is an effective tool for coach development in football, says former England futsal head coach, Mike Skubala . Getty images: Jordan Mansfield - The FA collection
Learning:
- The benefits of studying both futsal and football
- How futsal can improve coach observation skills
- Developing decision-making through substitutions
Futsal shouldn’t only be considered as a ‘tool’ for player development in football, but also for coach development, says former England futsal head coach, Mike Skubala.
“We always talk about how futsal improves a player or helps a player’s journey.
“But I also think there's a massive learning in how futsal helps with a football coach's journey. It's giving coaches something different,” explains Skubala, who was Head of Loughborough University football and futsal before joining the FA to lead England’s futsal programme in 2016.
Skubala points towards the background and experience of foreign coaches working in English football to underline the benefits of a formative coaching experience in futsal.
“Just as the foreign players’ culture means they are experiencing and living in futsal, so are a lot of the foreign coaches.
“They might call it 5 a-side or they might call it small-sided but, ultimately, if you go back to the constraints that are on the game, actually it might be futsal that they're doing.
“For example, if you take the education system in Brazil, the game that they're taught in universities before they go to coach is futsal - because they've got the infrastructure and the pitches for futsal.
“So, they take this background in the small sided-game of futsal into their professional game.”
“I think the lens that you work in in futsal and the processes you go through give you more feedback and an opportunity to make more mistakes - which I actually think helps more learning.”
Coach development: observation, substitutions and decision-making
Mike Skubala, pictured, was England futsal head coach between 2016 -2021
During his five years as England futsal head coach between 2016-2021, Skubala took charge of over 200 international fixtures. The experience made him a better coach – for both futsal and football – he says.
“My observation skills had to be quick, they had to be on the money. And, like any coach, I made loads of mistakes.
“There was a lot of accountability within the decision-making process - if I make a mistake, it’s a goal against,” explains Skubala.
“I also think that you have to have what I call ‘laser vision’ on that small-sided stuff like individual tactics, 2v2s and 3v3s.”
The speed of futsal, which Skubala describes as a “fast moving game of chess”, has helped his observation skills when returning to coach football, where players have more time and space.
“When I used to coach futsal and football together at Loughborough University, when I went back to football I was like, ‘come on, this is slow’.
“You also realise that you want to influence and change the game more,” says Skubala.
“In futsal, you see things that you've got to make a decision on all the time: is a player left or right footed? How do we defend? How do we attack? How do we pass on? Do we exchange? Do we show them inside? Do you show them outside? All of the tactical stuff,” explains Skubala.
“So, you've got all these different decisions and ultimately you compute it all the time.”
“If I was going back to when I was a young coach again, I would definitely go straight to futsal and football. Because I think I’d have more chance of becoming a top-level coach in either one.”
Making 60 to 80 substitutions per game
Skubala believes he was making between 60 to 80 substitutions in a game of international futsal – each for a physical or tactical reason.
“If you go back to football, you probably make three changes and you might ponder it for five minutes. That’s not a negative because I've been in there in football and you think, ‘oh, shall I make that change? Because you can't put a player on and off’. That's the challenge.
“Having the ability to put players on and off in futsal is a good thing - it can actually refine your decision-making because you're making a lot of mistakes. Whereas in football sometimes you’ll wait [to make a change] because you don't want to make the mistake.
“So, I think the lens that you work in in futsal and the processes you go through give you more feedback and an opportunity to make more mistakes - which I actually think helps more learning.”
Adopt both futsal and football at the start of your coaching journey
Skubala believes that football coaches should adopt both football and futsal at the start of their coaching journey in order to aid their development and be successful in either sport.
“I actually believe the game of futsal is probably more relevant to coach development in football.
“But we're in this culture at the minute where we haven’t even got there yet about the benefits of futsal to football coach development. We're very much [focused] around the player development that we've got to get right.
“If I was going back to when I was a young coach again, I would definitely go straight to futsal and football. Because I think I'd have more chance of becoming a top-level coach in either one.”
Summary:
- Futsal coaches can make up to 60 -80 substitutions per game, with each decision impacting on the game
- Futsal coaching and the processes involved provide more feedback and an opportunity for coaches to make more mistakes
- Adopt both futsal and football at the start of your coaching journey
Reflection:
- Have you used futsal as part of your own coach development journey?
- If you can’t use futsal during training, how can you ‘speed up’ your sessions to challenge your observation skills?
- What process do you go through when making substitutions? How can you start to refine the process in practice sessions?