This week's Online Resource Library feature was uniquely provided by Steve Adlard, the Idaho Youth Soccer Association's Director of Coaching and 2013 NSCAA Convention clinician.

Posted today in the Library and to be showcased by Adlard is the "Winterbottom Exercise: Games to Targets." The exercise was created by respected England National Team coach Walter Winterbottom, who then shared it with his colleagues. As explained in the feature below, the session allows the coach to teach the true all-around player, allowing the player to learn to transition between offense and defense.

Adlard has added his own spin to the Winterbottom Exercise, which he will reveal at the upcoming Convention. Register to see the live presentation and more at the 2013 NSCAA Convention in Indianapolis.

Feature by Dean Linke, @VoiceofNSCAA

Walter Winterbottom is the only manager of the England National Team to take England to more than two World Cups.  And, he is one of only two managers in the world to have coached the same national team at four consecutive World Cups.  

“Walter Winterbottom, from what I have been told, was actually the first England coach to pick his own team when they played a match,” said former England youth goalkeeper Steve Adlard, who is now the Idaho Youth Soccer Association’s Director of Coaching. 

“A committee used to pick the team before Winterbottom arrived. Winterbottom left just before England won their first World Cup in 1966, yet his soccer coaching legacy lives on.”

Adlard, who was the head coach of the Marquette University men’s soccer team from 1991-2005, will teach the ‘Winterbottom’ exercise at the 2013 NSCAA Convention in Indianapolis on Friday, Jan. 18, from 1-2 p.m.

“As the story goes, Winterbottom’s first career choice was to be a teacher,” Adlard said. “The Winterbottom exercise was presented to us as young physical education students in England and it seemed to work within the ‘Game as a Teacher’ method.

“You put the Winterbottom activity together and because of the nature of the activity you learn how to coach. And, if done right, all of the roles within the exercise are actually things the players would do in a game.

“In reality, this exercise allows you to coach the player to be a true all-around player. You start out coaching offense, yet the minute the ball gets to the target, you immediately focus on the player’s defensive roles.”

Over the years, Adlard and his NSCAA coaching fraternity have added new pieces to the Winterbottom session.

"Stage after stage, we add to it, making it a little better each time,” Adlard said.

Adlard witnessed first-hand the impact the Winterbottom exercise has on young coaches.

“Back in the late 80s, there was a gang of us coaching at a Euro Soccer Camp, including (former Canada coach) Tony Waiters and (Portland University head coach) Bill Irwin,” Adlard said from his Caldwell, Idaho home, where he lives with his wife, Shelly, Evansville University’s all-time leading basketball scorer and a recent inductee into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. 

“Also at this camp was (current Sunderland manager) Martin O’Neill, who played for Nottingham Forest and captained Northern Ireland in the World Cup. He was a fantastic player who had to retire is his (late) 30s when he was injured.

“Here’s this great player trying to figure out what to do next, and he said to me, ‘I don’t like coaches and I don’t like coaching, but I am trying to find out if I can do this.’”

Adlard explained that O’Neill said that he could see when a player was doing something wrong, but "that he didn’t know how to fix it."

“So I told him, let me show you this little exercise here – ‘the Winterbottom’ – and you tell me if it helps you.”

O’Neill liked it. Before taking over Sunderland in 2011, O’Neill managed Leicester City (1995-2000), Celtic (2000-05) and Aston Villa (2006-10).

“It really is ideal for coaches learning to coach,” Adlard said. “Martin saw that and his career speaks for itself.”

The first level of the exercise starts out in a confined area (20x10 yards) with targets. 

“Obviously, one of the goals is to get the ball to the target,” Adlard said. “Everything is geared toward thinking quickly and moving quickly, allowing the players to play a back pass with no penalty, how to get open, how to defend the target and the ball. 

“Before you know it, in twenty to thirty minutes you have moved through five stages of the exercise, adding to the game each time, making it more and more challenging and realistic as you go.”

Adlard said that the Winterbottom method is one of the most holistic approaches in coaching.

“You are defending, attacking, making quick decisions and it’s tiring at the same time.”

Adlard also noticed prior to a college game at IU that Notre Dame’s men coach Bobby Clark used an adaptation of the Winterbottom exercise as part of the Irish’s warm-up.

“The most physically demanding aspects of soccer are one-on-one attacking and one-on-one defending,” Adlard noted. “The Winterbottom, with each added stage, is one of the best combinations of physical exertion and decision making you will find.”

It’s not the easiest exercise to explain over the telephone, Adlard laments. However, for any NSCAA member that has a goal of learning how to become a better coach, this 2013 NSCAA Convention session is a can’t-miss.

You can bet your Winterbottom on that.

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