WE ARE ALL ROLE MODELS

WHAT IS A ROLE MODEL?

The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example; whose behaviour is emulated by others".

Other descriptions include:

A person whose behaviour, example or success is, or can be emulated by others, especially by young people

A person who someone admires and whose behaviour they try to copy

SURVEYS

The term first appeared in a research report of medical students carried out by Robert K. Merton, a distinguished American sociologist.

Merton suggested that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.

Merton emphasised that, rather than a person assuming one role and one status, they have a status set within a social structure that has attached to it a whole set of expected behaviours.

According to a survey of teachers in the United Kingdom conducted in 2008 by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers young people frequently chose role models from celebrity or popular culture

CHOOSE TO BE A ROLE MODEL

A well-known ex-player and presenter on a national sports talk station, infamously perpetuates that professional players are not role models. That is not their job, nor is it one of the requirements of the position of professional player.

I strongly believe this is a flawed argument.

You can choose to act as a role model, or not. However, especially if you are in a position of influence or in the public eye, someone may deliberately, or sub-consciously, choose YOU as THEIR role model, whether or not you choose to ACT as a role model.

A PROFESSIONAL’S VIEW

When professional basketball player Charles Barkley stated in a commercial “I am not a role model”

Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz offered this simple response:

“We do not choose to be role models. We are chosen.”

Plato observed centuries ago that young people would imitate the behaviours of bad role models as readily as those of good role models

So, I believe that, as coaches and therefore directly in a position of at least some influence, it is important to recognise that we all have the ability to inspire those around us by demonstrating values that are more outwardly than inwardly focused.

We can do our part to make the world a better place, and to help and guide the players in our charge to be good and positive citizens through our daily actions. It is not only by what we say but more importantly by how we demonstrate positive behaviours that we hope will serve as an inspiration to others.

We can all be good role models when things are going well, but it is the behaviours we demonstrate and the adherence to our values and moral compass when things go less well that separate the GOOD role models from the role models.

5 Ways in which to ACT as a role model:

• Be passionate (but controlled) about your area of expertise or interest and demonstrate inspirational behaviour
• Develop and demonstrate a clear set of values (Integrity means doing the right thing even when no-one is watching !)
• Show a commitment to community
• Be selfless and show consideration for and acceptance of others
• Demonstrate tenacity and an ability to overcome obstacles

“ No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be.

Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves.” -

Rudyard Kipling

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org

http://www.rolemodel.net/

http://rootsofaction.com/blog/what-is-a-role-model-five-qualities-that-matter-for-role-models/

www.cipd.co.uk

http://dictionary.cambridge.org

http://www.infed.org/biblio/role_model_education.htm

http://www.amersports.org/library/articles/12.html

KIDS’ FOOTBALL IS CHANGING

I hope by now that most people involved in Youth Football, at least, are aware of the changes to formats of youth football that are being phased in from 2013-14 season.

These changes were ratified by The FA in May 2012 following extensive research, consultation and listening to what the children said over a period of over two years, led by National Development Manager for Youth & Mini Soccer, Nick Levett (link to Nick's blog http://youthfootballdevelopment.blogspot.co.uk/ )

 If you aren’t sure about the details, have a look here where you will see links to documents, videos and booklets with all the information you need.

 
NEW FORMATS FOR YOUTH FOOTBALL.

Some of the main changes to kids’ football and possibly the most obvious are the changes to pitch and goal sizes but especially to the numbers of players on the field of play.

Contrary to some initial beliefs that the FA was trying to make soccer ‘non-competitive’, I think, in the main, it is now widely accepted that the FA is actually trying to make youth football and competition within it, child centred.

Whilst the smaller team sizes have well researched positive outcomes in terms of touches on the ball, shots, saves and simpler decision making and will help the development of players, I personally believe there are even more important considerations in the development of our young players.

The new formats will not, in isolation, allow our young players to develop apace and become world beating players as they reach maturity.

I strongly believe that the key to the development of a new breed of exciting player (at ALL levels of the game) are the coaches and, additionally, the parents of young players.

 

HOW COACHES AND PARENTS CAN HELP PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

The format changes to youth football will provide the platform to a change in the way we develop young players but the approach, attitude and mindset of those people with a significant influence over young players are the ones who will really facilitate the change towards more competent and exciting players.

 

FOOTBALL IS A SIMPLE GAME ?

The view that football is a simple game is, to my mind, a tad over simplistic in itself.

It is true that it is played to relatively few and simple rules and, consequently, is therefore relatively easy to understand, even for young or novice players.

Conversely though, it is extremely complex to play the game well and to any level of consistency.

I think it is recognised that football is what is described as a late developing sport, where male players are at their peak at around 27 years of age and female players perhaps a bit younger.

 

PATIENCE

That being the case, significant adults (parents and coaches, generally) have a key role to play in displaying extreme patience as young players develop and learn the game.

 Consider a player in possession of the ball in the midst of a game (whether in practice or a game against another team) and the complexity of their role.

They are, simultaneously, trying to:

·         Keep control of the ball

·         Advance the ball up or around the pitch whilst running or dribbling

·         Screen / keep the ball away from an immediate opponent

·         Look for a shot or pass

·         Deciding on the correct technique / skill to execute

·         Looking for a team mate to whom to pass

·         Deciding which team mate is free / the right person to whom to play the pass

·         Avoid opponents when shooting or passing

·         Execute the skill decided upon

 All of this whilst the football ‘picture’ is dynamically changing.

Each passing second of the game sees players, team mates and opponents, continually moving and therefore, the player’s activities and decision making mentioned above take on an additional level of complexity.

So, then, considering the degree of difficulty of a single player’s activity in a single action of the game it starts to become apparent that, especially at young ages, we must expect players to make mistakes as they learn to understand the game and to develop the skills to play it well.

MISTAKES

During practices and games players must be allowed to make mistakes without fear of criticism.

If players are not allowed to make mistakes they will play within their current ‘comfort zone’ and will not learn how to find new ways to solve football problems.

If players are taught to ‘get rid of it’ or ‘kick it out’ for fear of conceding a goal, they will never learn how to manipulate the ball under pressure, how to trick and dribble around an opponent when under pressure or how to combine with team mates in tight areas to retain possession and play around opponents to extricate themselves from difficult situations. All of which are skills I believe we recognise in continental teams, yet seem reluctant to praise in teams in which we have an interest

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

 The game, against an opponent, though, is only one part of a player’s development.

 Practices should be designed to provide a learning outcome related to the Principles of Play (Principles of Attack and Principles of Defence) in a dynamic format.

 I am an advocate of the Teaching Games for Understanding approach (see previous post here ) where adapted small sided games allow players to ‘play’ whilst learning tactical skills related to the Principles of Play.

Line Drills (or ‘Constant’ practices) do not transfer to the game well, are quickly boring for young players and are soon accompanied by the plea “When can we have a GAME coach?”

Coaches should try to design part practices which allow small group practices where everyone is ‘playing’ with targets/goals or challenges for both attackers AND defenders (try not to have defenders just give the ball back when they win it – what do you want defenders to do when they win the ball in a game against an opponent? Keep it and become an attacker!).

Part practices can quickly be transferred to a larger small sided game with two teams without having to relay cones/discs.

Alternatively, from perhaps initially playing ‘the game’ after warm up, it can be broken down into a practice to teach the theme before moving back to a small sided game again (Whole-Part-Whole practice).

Small sided practices that are adaptations of the ‘big’ game are great for giving players lots of goes at something.

Having said all of that, of course, players must be given the chance to test their skills in ‘games’ too. If less well developed players are not given the opportunity to improve their game craft, their development will be restricted.

 For examples of game related practices, try to get or read a copy of the FA’s Future Game document which provides many templates for small games involving attack and defence.

DEVELOPMENT/GROWTH MINDSET

So coaches and parents of young players should try to develop a relaxed approach to games and practices involving young players.

Try to observe, recognise and celebrate (“Well done...”) improvements in game understanding and skills without concentrating on the score at the end of the game.

Goals are relatively infrequent occurrences in the game anyway compared to the number and type of passes, controlling touches, decisions, throws, saves, tackles, headers and so on.

 If practice has been designed over a period to develop players understanding of how, where, when and with whom to make a challenge or tackle, for example, when defending, try to set individual players targets to achieve regarding defending in a game.

Try to provide challenges for all players too, not just ‘the defenders’ by game position that week. How will midfield and attacking players defend when the team doesn’t have the ball? Do they actually have to win the ball to have defended appropriately?

Then, during the game itself, observe, record and praise successes where elements of defending that have been taught in practices have occurred in the game.

Players will gradually become more confident and competent as they are, appropriately, challenged based upon their age and ability.

If coaches and parents can view practice and games as learning opportunities where young players develop their understanding of the game and the skills to play it well, without overt pressure, we can all make a major contribution to player and game development.

It is the process of learning the game that is of utmost importance foryoung players rather than the game outcome.

Player development is a long term process and takes years, not weeks or months. Good coaches and positive parents can help accelerate and enhance that development by providing the right environment and encouragement to be exciting, problem solving and independently thinking players in an expansive game style.

There will be plenty of time when players reach maturity (past 21) where the winning will become the priority.

So, Kids’ Football IS Changing – but what is most important; the formats or the mind-sets? Or do they go hand in hand?

For a thought provoking view of growth or fixed mind sets, try to read a copy of “Mindset” by Dr. Carol Dweck

 

Please feel free to leave a comment

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