Saturday 22 September 2012

MASTER COACHING

There is a feeling, in some quarters, that, in order to be able to engage young players in their development, we must use younger coaches.

Being closer in age to their players, the feeling is that, young coaches will be more empathic to the players development needs, having a more recent memory of what learning the game at a young age was like.

However, to be able to expertly develop good or excellent players, we need also to develop coaches who are excellent at what they do. Coaches need to understand the nature of their “game” – is it an early or late developing sport, what are we developing the player to be able to do, what does a competent or expert player look like and what are the stages to help them develop to that point, etc.?

Novice coaches often will work with young players and often, not always, young coaches are novice coaches. People who commence their coaching careers later in life, perhaps at the end of a playing ‘career’ or as a volunteer parent, will also be novice coaches, though their understanding of “the game” or coaching may be at different levels.

There are, of course, many formal academic courses which now prepare students (younger or older) for the science and art of coaching as well as any number of practically based courses to develop their game understanding and the skill of creating effective practice ‘sessions’ and how players learn, amongst other things.

NOVICE IN CHARGE

There is a tendency, especially at the grassroots, where volunteers make any sport ‘work’, to recruit a volunteer and put them in charge of a playing group. Often, this volunteer may well be new to coaching and, especially, new to coaching sport.

Now, I perfectly understand why this is – volunteer coaches are often the parent of a young player; they attend to watch their child play the game, they are available when the players are available and, usually, they are happy to donate their time having a community spirit. All essential qualities of a coach but, perhaps missing the key components of experience, knowledge and training – but we know why that is at this stage.

COACH DEVELOPMENT

So we need to develop coaches and, as described above, we start to do so by having them attend basic courses to attain a rudimentary understanding of a broad base of coaching skills and knowledge. But how do we develop them back in the club environment? Mentoring, in-service sessions, reflective diaries are all some ways in which we can achieve increasing knowledge and expertise.

EXPERT OR “MASTER” COACHES

But just how do you become an expert or master coach? Well, broadly, in the same ways as you do to become an expert player.

Deliberate practice, hours of study, review of and adjustments to practices already delivered, watching other coaches at work (and not just the “sessions” – Xs and Os, but HOW they coach and interact with players, what information and insights they offer and how they deliver or construct that knowledge).

WHAT DOES A MASTER COACH LOOK LIKE?

Typically, they may be older – mainly as a result of the years it takes to truly become a master (at anything) and also tend to be quieter and more studious. They observe (not just watch) much more than they speak.

Whilst younger coaches may have closer related empathic memories, as suggested above, think about grandparent/grandchild relationship – less formal, often playful whilst using homilies and wisdom to drip feed information for the benefit of the young developing child. This may be a less formal relationship, but it is still coaching.

Those grandparents have life (game) experience and have found more effective ways of coaching than, perhaps, the child’s parents or even when they were parents of their own children. In western cultures, we tend to progressively disregard aging individuals’ opinions or views whereas other cultures have valued increasing wisdom much more.

As comedian Richard Pryor once famously said “You don’t get to be old by being a fool !”


PLAYER INVOLVEMENT

They involve the player in their own learning and encourage them to think about the practice in order to deepen their understanding of what they are trying to achieve. It is not so much “the practice” that is important (organisation, balls, bibs cones etc.) as the purpose of the practice – what the player is practising, why they are doing it and what they will have learned whilst doing it.

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, INVOLVE me and I will UNDERSTAND”


PLAYER NEEDS

Expert coaches assess and understand the individual player’s needs and adjust their coaching to meet those needs. It may not mean adjusting the whole practice, but merely an individual interaction or signal to help that individual. That interaction may mean nuances of body language, tempo and tone of verbal communication as well as the type and content of information being provided.

INFORMATION, CLUES OR QUESTIONS?

It may be that NO information is provided – use of questioning to elicit reasoned outcomes or to challenge player understanding and problem solving are MORE important than giving the player a list of things to remember.

If questioning does not provide evidence of understanding, then master coaches do not resort to giving players “The” answer (it may only be one possibility anyway) – they will provide a clue in order to test the players reasoning and allow players thinking time to resolve.

“If it’s a choice between me TELLING them to do something, or them figuring it out, I’ll take the second option every time.” Robert Lansdorp, Tennis Coach

GAME RELATED PRACTICES

Practices designed, developed and delivered by master coaches will be game related – probably not the whole game, but a modified version of it that allows players lots of goes at those elements from which they will most benefit from practising. You won’t see master coaches providing a coaching session involving line drills – they are simply not effective in learning and understanding the game.


THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

Delivery or the extraction from the players of, specific detail is one of the key differences between sessions of novice coaches when compared to expert coaches.

Novices tend to deal in generalisations whereas the expert deals in minutiae – mainly because of their game knowledge but also because they know to what they are developing their players.

Famously, university basketball coach John Wooden began each year showing players how to correctly put on their socks to help avoid developing blisters (now THAT’S detail !)

IT’S NOT THE THING WE DO 100% BETTER, IT’S THE 100 THINGS WE DO 1% BETTER

Experienced coaches look for small improvements in individuals and teams rather than big strides. However, when coaching young players, you may see big improvements as they learn the game but as they get older, those improvements may not be so great, week on week.

INDEPENDENT THINKERS

Most importantly, coaches of complex, continuous games such as soccer, recognise the absolute importance of developing players who are INDEPENDENT thinkers.

As a coach, you can develop a vision and communicate a preferred game style and the principles of how you want your club/team to play the game. But, ultimately, it is the PLAYERS who have to interpret those elements and actually PLAY the game

"The game itself is chaotic. You go out and the game is chaotic and they’re the conditions you have to practice for. You have to replicate the game in training and develop players who can make sense of the chaos.” - Les Bee, manager of coaching and officiating Victoria Coaching Centre, Australia.

POSITIVE AND AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS

Master Coaches place the athlete/player at the centre of what they do. True development can only occur when the ‘student’ wants to learn and the coach understands that learning is what the player gleans from the experience and is not something that is ‘done’ to the player.

It grows and develops from the exchanges between individuals and is entirely dependent on a sympathetic, synergistic and mutually respectful relationship.

SO, WHO ARE THESE “MASTER” COACHES ?

Well, they come from different backgrounds and walks of life; sports, business, media and may not always be recognised as ‘coaches’ in the accepted sense of the word but here are some famous examples:

John Wooden, (see above) Jose Mourinho (different characters !)
Steven Spielberg (Director is sometimes a misnomer) – sure they direct, but their ‘players’ (the actors) interpret the vision (game-style) of the director (coach) and bring it to life on the screen/stage (pitch) using their developed skills, craft understanding and decisions about the character (decision making, game understanding and role requirements depending on where they are on the pitch)
Steven Covey - Educator, Author and businessman

Master Coaches have a vision and principles allied to their knowledge and expertise in order to help the individuals they serve to develop themselves.

Who do you KNOW or recognise who is a master coach?

FINALLY - VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers, no matter their experience ARE the lifeblood of sport in this and, I suspect, most, countries. They deserve our respect support and gratitude irrespective of what we think they SHOULD be coaching (do we really have enough understanding to make a judgement?)

Please consider –
“Volunteers are unpaid NOT because they are USELESS but because they are PRICELESS”

Darren Moss, Norfolk FA - 2012

References:

“The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle http://thetalentcode.com/author/
“They Call Me Coach” by John Wooden http://www.coachwooden.com/index2.html
“Principle Centred Leadership” by Steven Covey https://www.stephencovey.com/about/about.php
“Motor Learning & Performance” by Schmidt and Wrisberg
“Athlete-centred Coaching” by Lynn Kidman
“Teaching Games for Understanding – Theory, Research and Practice” by Linda L. Griffin and Joy I. Butler

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS / OBSERVATIONS / FEEDBACK

Thursday 5 April 2012

The Build-Up Game Style – A “New” Way..

The Build-Up Game Style – A “New” Way..

There has been a wave of recent appreciation for the style with which some teams have been playing football, here in “England”.

Swansea City, Reading and Brighton & Hove Albion, to name but a few, have caught the eye along with Arsenal and Barcelona, who have been recognised for a longer period, for trying to play with a possession based approach to the game.

Barcelona is even being described by professional observers as, possibly, the greatest side in the world, EVER.

I believe I have detected a groundswell of opinion towards this style of play even at the grassroots of the game and which is, for me, a movement towards something more beneficial for the development of the game, as a whole, in this country.

I believe a different approach is both important and necessary for youth players, especially at the Grassroots of the game.

WHY DO WE NEED A DIFFERENT APPROACH?

At present, I am told, we (England) have the HIGHEST drop out of young players between 14 and 19 IN EUROPE.

Now, why might that be, do you think? Too much organised (for organised read “League” football) too young? Too much pressure from parents (and coaches/managers) that this is a “must-win game” (at U11??!?! I kid you not), too little fun (I prefer the term “enjoyment”) from the game, too much abuse from the side lines (sad but true occurrences at a lot of games I am told) and so on.

Possibly a combination of some of these things but probably the key is the lack of enjoyment taken from the game.

So how can we help put the fun back into the game?

The youngest children always enjoy playing with a ball – possibly the best toy ever invented. So let us start at the youngest ages by teaching them to love the ball. Let’s teach them that it is clever to be able to manipulate the ball and to keep it away from an opponent (not “get rid” of it anytime anyone comes near).

We must learn how to enthuse young players to WANT to be two footed – they will need to practice away from clubs on their own to perfect this – it won’t happen purely on an hour and a half practice session (and can we all start to call it ‘practice’ instead of ‘training’ please?) at the club, so personal practice is essential.

Why should we teach young players to be so individually skilful with a ball, after all, it’s a team game where passing is the key, surely?

VISIONARY COACH

Well, I know a highly respected and VISIONARY coach who states, categorically, that football is an INDIVIDUAL game but that those individuals should combine (pass, link-up) when necessary.

Just think about this statement/view for a moment….


If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, surely the same is true of a team. And if INDIVIDUAL skill is the key to both technical ability (ball control and manipulation) and game understanding (‘reading’ the game) we MUST get our young players to be individually good on the ball and at resolving football problems, first and foremost.

A build up game style involves players running or dribbling with the ball to create and/or exploit space and to combine with team-mates, when appropriate, to advance the ball around and up the pitch in order to create goal scoring opportunities.

Sounds great; but, in a game, there is an opponent trying to take the ball from you. Playing in a style as described (simplistically) above WILL lead to a lot of mistakes, especially by young players as they learn the game. The likely consequence of playing this way is that goals will be conceded and games will be lost.

RISKY BUSINESS

So adopting a build-up game style is risky and takes a long time (think YEARS not weeks) to develop. We may lose a lot of games whilst teaching it….

It is, actually, a lot more detailed and complex to teach than Route 1 fight-ball (incidentally, not, in my humble opinion, an invention of the much maligned Charles Hughes – see another post for a view of that).
Evidence seemingly points to the English style having been built upon power, strength, running, “fight”, “passion” and “desire” since the early days of professional football with the much more considered and skilful approach of, variously, The Scottish, The Austrians, The Hungarians, The Brazilians, The Dutch and, latterly, The Spanish having been “for the foreigners”.

So with all this, WHY should we teach this style of play to our kids?

Well, because it is the ELEMENT of the game. Football, not KICK ball.

Kids love to play WITH the ball, so why not show them HOW to play WITH the ball?

What about losing too many games? Well, certainly at the younger levels, children are not obsessed with winning trophies and leagues – these are adult perceptions of what children want from the game. They will TRY to win the game; (most) children are naturally competitive, but shortly after the game has ended, their attention has been attracted to something else.

Now, if EVERY team tries to work with a build-up game style and doesn’t rely on the “big, strong, quick kids” to overpower teams to win trophies and leagues at young ages, the benefit will be seen throughout the game.

If you are a real coach, please take the time to teach players THE GAME.

JOSE MOURINHO

Jose Mourinho famously offered this comment in the last few years:

“In England you teach your kids how to win. In Spain and Portugal, they teach their kids how to play.”

Insightful …….

Now, here’s the paradox; we teach our kids to win from a ridiculously early age. We teach effort and fight and desire and kick long and run hard, whilst all the time the continentals are teaching their kids the nuances of the game. How to use space, how to find it (not just RUNNING to find it, mind you – jogging, walking, “drifting” into space and sometimes even STANDING STILL until the space of the game finds you !) how to keep the ball as individuals (on the “safe side”) and as a team with a view to creating forward play and goal scoring opportunities.

And then, when winning REALLY matters, at the top end of the pro-game on the international stage we have won, almost, nothing. One World Cup in ’66, a World Cup semi-final in 1990 (over 21 years ago) and a semi-final in Euro 96 (I may be missing another Euro semi-final before they played in “Finals Tournaments” but you get the picture!) Not much of a record to speak about in almost 130 years (count ‘em and weep)of professional football, is it?

So, we simply MUST take the lead from some of our more established European footballing neighbours.

THE DUTCH

The Dutch, for example….

Why are we bothered by the Dutch – they’ve only won one Euros, is that so much better than us?
Well, England has a population of around 52 Million. The Dutch have a population of around 17 Million, just about a third of ours and have been to 3 World Cup Finals since 1966 AND export their players, and coaches, around the world. The Dutch playing and coaching philosophy of Rinus Michels and Ajax of the late 1960s and early 1970s is being played out, in an evolved form, on Sky Sports every weekend (almost) in the current guise of Barcelona.


THE GERMANS

If you aren’t convinced by the Dutch argument, how about the Germans?
3 Euros, 3 World Cups, 3 Euro Finals Runners-up (they are not “losers”, trust me), 4 World Cup Runners-up, plus 5 other World Cup Semi-finals and another semi-final at the Euros

So, if we want real and sustained success on the international stage we simply HAVE to improve the way we teach young players to play the game at the absolute base level – grassroots.


GRASSROOTS? - INTERNATIONAL TEAM? WHAT’S THE CONNECTION?

Where is the connection between grassroots U9s (or U8s or U12s, for that matter) and the England team? Well, the England team players will ALL have started their careers at grassroots junior football. The majority of players (at LEAST 99%) will play all their careers in grassroots football. So, why not teach them a game style that is both entertaining to watch and in which to play?

If we can improve, en masse, the base of the pyramid, surely that positively affects the apex (the England team – sorry if you are from one of the other Home Nations, but the PRINCIPLE applies).

WHY GAME-STYLE IS IMPORTANT

I believe it will keep young players in the game – if they are BETTER at what they do and it makes it more ENJOYABLE surely they will wish to stay in the game.

As a coach, if you can raise the technical proficiency and game understanding of the players under your tutelage, then the few that are selected to play at a higher level (C of E / Academy) then you will have done them a massive service by better preparing them for that technical environment (interestingly, Centres and Academies are MORE concerned with individual player development and LESS with results than the average Grassroots team – think about that. TEAMS don’t become professional, individuals do.)

If we, as coaches, can encourage a more expansive game style I believe children will play and enjoy the game better and will stay with the clubs at which we coach because it’s good fun.

We can use some principles to help build this Game-Style and some ways to do so are:

Make practices game-like (no “line drills”) See Premier Skills or The FA Future Game document

Use the STEPs Principle to build success including using overloads (e.g. 5v2) – Overloads for the less experienced coaches are those practices where there is a numerical advantage to the side you wish to demonstrate(and build success of) the principles of the practice (you switch the payers around so they all get a chance to be the “advantaged” group)

Include defending and attacking in practice with some form of opposition, even if limited (see 5v2 above)

Encourage young players to play out FROM the back. Not play AT the back like we do currently. (For the difference, think about Puyol or Pique for Barcelona vs Terry for England - English teams tend to play from side to side across the back before sending a long, lofted pass down the "channels" whereas Pique regularly took the option to run the ball out of defence, in last week's game against Athletic Bilbao, for example, as spaces were created in midfield for him to do so by more advanced players.)


THE “PAYING CUSTOMERS”

It is REALLY important that, as coaches, we influence the watching appreciation of the game by spectators (at Grassroots that includes the parents).

For Donkey’s Years, we have been taught that robust fight-ball and the desire to “get it forward” is the best way to play. As mentioned, and illustrated, above, it has not been.

BUT if we are to educate the players then, at the Grassroots, we simply MUST educate the paying spectators (the parents) that what we are doing is for the Long Term Development of the players (“Google” FA Long Term Player Development model) we coach.

Premier Skills, developed by Visionary coaches John Cartwright and Roger Wilkinson, has its own blog where, it states, that to improve the playing style of the game in this country we MUST improve the understanding of the watching public (parents/paying spectators – it’s all the same !)

Have a look at this blog post (it may be uncomfortable for those who recognise themselves in the descriptions) where Premier Skills talks about teaching the spectators to appreciate the game.

So, maybe a “New” way for the game to be played and, at least as importantly, watched and appreciated, for the English perhaps, but we will only be starting to catch up with the rest of the leading footballing nations.


Please feel free to leave comments / observations / feedback