Colin Johnstone, Coach of the ACT Under 13's, Capital Football High Performance Coach and Woden Valley Technical Director.

Colin has four Majura girls in his squad which will play at the National Championships in Canberra in April.

Here's the note he handed to his squad and parents recently. It should be noted Paul Whittingham has handed out similar material in the past at Majura.

At Majura we aim to give our children the best experience in playing and enjoying the game. Colin's outline clearly assists our players development at all levels of the game.

From Colin Johnstone:

ACT 13G

The purpose of the Bathurst weekend is to continue building the team and give the girls experience in a short tournament against strong opposition. We can expect very hard games against U14 country representative, NSW State League and NSW Premier League teams on both days.

Like the nationals, it will be treated as a development tournament.

All players will receive plenty of game time and as a team we will be committed to playing good football with the emphasis on how well we play, not on results.

The aim is to encourage player and team development towards a good football style of play based on effective possession, playing out from the back, building flexible attacks through the midfield predominantly through short passing.

To reinforce learning of good technical and tactical skills and habits over a period of time (years), players need to consistently try to play the right way regardless of the score or match situation. One of the game's real tests at any level is how well players and teams respond and perform when under pressure on the pitch and on the scoreboard.

At the nationals, in addition to the normal competition points system for wins, draws and losses, Football Federation Australia will award bonus points to teams that play the best style of football as defined by the national curriculum and assessed by technical staff at the championships. One of our goals is to be the best team we can be at keeping the ball, playing out from the back, continually moving the ball to players in space and building attacks predominantly through the short passing game.

Working towards this goal has already started, but will be tested and highlighted this weekend at Bathurst in a competitive environment against strong opponents.

The goalkeepers will be expected to mostly play quick balls to any of the backs in space. In turn, the backs should try to play balls into the midfield and then push forward to provide support to their team mate in possession. Very rarely should we see clearing kicks from the back or long balls for the forwards to chase. As much as possible, and even when under pressure in our own half, we will try to keep possession and play forward moving the ball around with short, angled passes.

The development of a 'good football culture' within a team comes when the coach, manager, players and parents are all aligned with the same goals, support each other and pull in the same direction.

Everyone needs to understand and accept that, along with learning this style of play comes risks of losing the ball in our half which can lead to the opposition creating more scoring chances. The challenge is to persevere with this approach even while under pressure and not become anxious about the risk of conceding goals when inevitably mistakes will be made and we can't always keep the ball.

Your total support is appreciated and expected.

- No instruction from parents during games is allowed. Relax, enjoy the game and just let the girls play. Low key encouragement and support is what they need most.

- Be relaxed when we sometimes lose the ball when trying to play out from the back and through the midfield. We know it will happen. It's a normal part of learning. We must be patient.

- Don't focus on the score, the results and the competition. Instead, focus on the girls efforts to play good football and applaud it as much as when we do score or stop goals being scored against us.

This can sometimes be challenging to parents and supporters as it goes against our natural urge to win but a supporting culture that understands and promotes this philosophy, leads by example and fully supports the goals of the team will greatly benefit your daughter, the team and their long term football development.

Thank you for your support.

Colin