The Grassroots Football Show is fast upon us and the question I have for you today is, when going to such an event as this, how can you maximise your learning and personal development as a coach? There will be loads going on, lots of ‘ big names’ delivering coaching sessions and plenty to watch and see, but what are you actually observing?
I’ve been to this show each year since it first started way back through the days in London and Coventry to where it has reached its’ home for the last few years at the NEC. I have seen many sessions from some excellent ones to some horrors. I remember one former England player / Premier League Manager delivering a session that was quite frankly one of the worst coaching sessions I have ever seen with children. What worries me is that if inexperienced coaches watch those kind of things and think they are the way forward the whole coaching world goes back 15 years!
Then you have the other extreme I have watched, another former Premier League manager deliver a top drawer session on working with a back four with a huge amount of technical detail and content. It then worried me that this session, pitched at U16+ in my opinion, would have been copied by U9 coaches across the land and we would have Mini-Soccer teams being coached in this manner! It’s about the balance.
So, you turn up, loads going on, you have a wander round the stands and exhibition area and get as many free things as possible; the standard stuff each year! You have a look at the programme and realise there are some sessions going on you would like to see. But what do you see when you take your seat?
Here are some top tips for ‘seeing’ the right things:
Copy the X’s and O’s - this for me is the first thing you need to get an understanding of; how many players is the coach working with, what age, what size is the area, do they have an overload in a particular area and if so, why. Get this scribbled down pronto as this isn’t the important part!
How does the practice start - try and get a grip of the mechanics of how the practice starts and progresses. Where does the ball begin, is it with the GK or somewhere else? What happens when the defending team get the ball? What are the rules of the game? Get this scribbled down sharpish as this isn’t the important part either!
This is the important part... Watch the coach. Listen to the coach.
When I was a younger and less experienced/greyer(!) coach, I would go and watch good coaches work, copy down their sessions, take them back to my kids like a hunter-gatherer to feed them with this new food. I would then proudly organise as per my diagram I had neatly copied and then wonder why it didn’t work!!
That’s because the devil is in the detail. Not the detail of the game so much but of what the coach does and what the coach says.
Therefore, when you are sitting in the stand watching an expert coach deliver, watch closely - where do they move? What are they focusing their attention on? How do they interact with the players? How do they feedback points for the players to learn and develop from - as a group? With individuals?
And then listen closely - what do they say? What questions do they ask? How do they phrase the question? What technical detail do they provide?
THIS is coaching.
Hi Nick, I'm interested in what you think an expert coach is, i.e. how would you define them? What makes them an expert?
ReplyDeletewhat does, in your opinion, an expert children's football coach "look" like?
That's a dissertation isn't it?! So much of info out there that defines this but i would include...ones that plan to an in-depth level, plan for individual needs routinely, use and understand why they use a variety of coaching methods etc.
DeleteRobyn Jones et al. have done some good work in understanding this in more detail from an academic perspective too.
Excellent. Many times when watching others I have written down the plan and then couldn't really replicate it. Now in additional to the plan I have started to right down the phrases I hear the most often it helps far more for me to recall and understand the session. I like the idea of watching how they deliver not just what they deliver. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteNick, good article and would agree that we should watch other coaches as often as we can.
ReplyDeleteAlso what are they NOT saying?
Do they have times when they are letting the players play and work it out for themselves, rather than trying to deal with every 'mistake'?
How do they balance positive comments to reinforce what they are coaching, with correction?
What kind of things don't you hear that may be common pitchside on a matchday or other training session?
Excellent additions to the list Mike.
DeleteGreat blog once again Nick.
ReplyDeleteWould just like to add, and I've been guilty of this, don't sit there and criticise things the coach has got wrong. Things you may have done differently, or the book says should be done differently.
For me that is ignorant and egotistical in the sense that you thnk you already know more than the guy you're trying to learn from.
Yes, think of how you might improve things specifically for your players, but focus on gathering the knowledge and the positives that come out in the sessions.
Totally agree, it is so easy to disregard elements or things you don't like than to take the positives. Lost count the amount of times I've been stood watching coaching sessions and listen to people criticise things they would have done differently or bits the coach missed.
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