To Stick or Twist? Rotating Positions in Youth Football...

It’s a hot topic in youth football that rears its head regularly, not one that’s as contentious as sideline behaviour or the intricacies of coaching, but still vital in the scope of player development. Take these players for example:

Player 1: over 75 England caps, over 400 Premier League games at centre back.

Player 2: over 100 England caps, over 400 Premier League games at centre midfield

Player 3: over 100 England caps, over 400 Premier League games at left back

Player 4: over 50 England caps, over 400 Premier League games at centre forward

What have they all got in common, other than fantastic careers? Well, all of them throughout their youth career played in a different position to the one they made full-time careers in. Player 1 spent most of his time in centre midfield or as a forward, Player 2 played most of his youth football as a defender or wide player, Player 3 played as a striker and winger most of the time and Player 4 played as a winger.

For young players, the benefits of playing in different positions are massive. Developing a whole round game understanding is a vital part of the education of young players and something that as adults we can help develop reasonably easily. To develop pictures in your mind of different scenarios linked to things that might occur in the game is really important.

For example, I played my main football career at full-back and had all the game on the inside of me, nothing to consider elsewhere and developed certain pictures in my head of how to play. I have now dropped down a few levels and playing for my friend’s team, he asked if I could play in the centre midfield. WOW! I need a map to play in there! The game is going on behind me, on both sides as well as in front of me and having never been exposed to understanding how to play in different positions I find it a real struggle. It’s just so different. Equally, when there had been injuries in other games and I was asked play in a different position I simply never had the experience to perform well enough in a different role for the team.

We need to allow players the flexibility to be able to play in different positions and ensure they recognise that it is in their best interests of helping them get better. As a coach, that is our role, to focus on the long term player development. This is a story from one of our senior FA coaches;

I’d worked with the team for a few years and got them to a position that they could take ownership for their own development. It was an U18 fixture and I can recall our centre forward after the first period coming over and saying “please can I play in centre defence next quarter?” I replied “of course, but I need a reason why” and the player replied “I have seen their striker causing problems for our defenders and would like to play against him to see if I can learn from his movement to then use it in my own game.

Two things strike me from that story. The first is how smart the player is to recognise that he can learn things to develop his own game and puts the development of that above winning the match or scoring goals right now. The second is how good the coach must have been to have worked with the team to foster in them that mindset and to take risks in the game for their development, over and above the outcome of the game.

The challenge is to get past our own ego first though! We have to put aside the score sometimes and recognise that we have to put the player’s needs first. This has to be done on several levels; first of all, managing our own expectations about when things might not go as well on a ‘team’ basis as it would do when playing all our best players in their best positions, and also managing the parents.

This is an education aspect, for the parents and the players. Once the children know it will help them become a better player, they may grumble a little but they will understand as long as you are consistent with all the players. You can’t then play your son or daughter as striker every game if you have declared a policy on rotation of positions! Equally, managing the parents is an important aspect too, explaining to them why you are doing this and the rationale behind this is imperative. If you suddenly just spring this approach on them without forewarning there is likely to be a bit of push back from them, so explain to them the approach at the start of the season.

So what are the options in terms of rotating positions? It will depend on the format of football you are playing, number of players you have available of course. The challenge is developing a policy you are comfortable with that meets the needs of the children and the club. Some questions to consider:

Q. How often do players play in a different position?

Q. What information do you give them prior to the game about different roles and responsibilities?

Q. What games do you select players to play in different positions? Tough games or easier games?

Q. How many positions will they play in a season?

Q. How long will they spend in one position to start to understand this before trying a different one?

There are lots of different ways to approach this and as a coach it’s important you understand what and why you are taking the approach that you are. For example, what are the benefits and tradeoffs of playing a predominantly left-footed player on the right side of the pitch? How do you manage this before you put them there? Do you show them You Tube clips of Lionel Messi and explain the benefits of being able to cut in to dribble and shoot? Do you show clips of Steven Gerrard scoring goals with both feet to highlight the importance of being two-footed and practising your weaker foot? How do you manage the self-esteem of the player when they go down the right wing and then kick it off the pitch because their weaker foot isn’t very good? How do you manage the other players and parents when they kick it off the pitch? (The answer is you praise them for being brave and trying their weaker foot!)

There are lots of things to consider, it’s not simply a case of dropping players into different roles and expecting great returns. Things take time to learn and develop. Top developing professional clubs recognise this too – Ajax, for example, rotate youth players around a triangle of three roles in one season; playing right back, right centre back and right midfield in their 4-3-3 system.

So the challenge for you as a coach is not to pigeonhole children from a young age. Just because they are big today doesn’t mean they will always be the biggest and therefore they don’t always have to play in central defence! Develop a policy with your club, involving all the different groups to do what is best in the development of the players.

That simply has to be the focus – developing a long term love of football and an all-round ability to play in our wonderful team game.

Nick Levett

FA National Development Manager (Youth Football)

@nlevett

Working with 14-16 year olds, dealing with a different animal...

Changing times...the emergence of a young adult

Across the country we have a challenge in youth football - when we get to U14 and upwards we start to see a decline in young people playing the game. This continues as a challenge in the transition from youth to adult teams and it all falls in line with a time young people experience some of their biggest changes. As well as growth and maturation developments being at their fastest for many young people, it coincides with exam pressures and a shift in their priorities too. As a young person eleven years old and below, their interest is in pleasing adults and as they get older, this shifts into impressing their peers before they start to connect to others and the world around them.

When you listen to young people going through these teenage years it is fascinating to hear their insight into what they would like their experiences to be. This article will look at the demographic of young people in the 21^st century; share some research from young people on why they are dropping out of the game and their views. You may not agree with these from your experiences, but these aren’t your experiences, these are the views of the people we spoke to and therefore cannot be written off or ignored.

When asked about the things they love about football, this was their feedback... (the bigger the size of the word, the more important to them it was)

It is clear from this that the ‘team’ and social outcomes from young people in this research, 14 – 16 year olds, is one of the biggest things they love about the game. Fun is hugely important for their continued participation, as is the ability to practice their skills. Notice also some of the words that aren’t as important from the perspective of young people too. Interesting that competition is bigger than winning and this fits from my experiences of speaking to young people – they want a competitive match every week, not a 15-0, but don’t get hung up on the outcome of the game as long as some adults do.

Some questions to consider:

How do you foster and develop teamwork?

Do you recognise the importance of teamwork and therefore plan to develop this as much as you plan for technique and skill development?

Having fun is a massive outcome for young people; do you create an environment that enables this to happen (on their terms, not yours)? 

Do you inadvertently focus on the smaller words rather than the bigger words because they might be your outcomes?

When asked about the reasons they joined a club, this was their feedback...

A mixture of outcomes here which suggests young people enter the game with a variety of different intentions. It is evident they want to be with their mates, aligned with what they love about the game, but that they also want high standards. They want an organised competitive match, with a qualified referee on some decent facilities. Winning is important as they get older and this starts to become evident here and there is also still a hope of being scouted by a professional team. 

Some questions to consider:

Does your approach align with their motivations and drivers?

Have you asked the players what they want from football?

Do you deliver the outcomes they are hoping for from their football experience?

How do you ensure there is opportunity for all to play in a professional environment?

When asked about the reasons they stopped playing football, this was their feedback...

Many of the reasons they stopped playing were extrinsic to their own thoughts; not getting any game time (decision made by adults), not getting picked (another made by adults), too competitive (influenced by adults), bullying (not managed by adults) and quality of training (led by adults). If we are going to ensure we keep young people in the game to transfer to become adult players these are things that we can manage better. There are factors on there we cannot influence as easily; girls, exams and school work, but there are many we can.

Have a read of many of the small words on there, does it scare you that adults are acting that way and causing young people to stop playing? It certainly does for me! Things like; arguing, angry parents, drills etc. Equally, things can be combined, such as if the negative situation causes one player to leave, and that’s their friend, one player leaving often becomes two or three because the reason they are there is friends in the first place.

Some questions to consider:

What can you easily influence and change to make the situation better?

How do you need to change personally?

What are the controllable factors you can make better and invest energy into rather than the uncontrollable elements?

Quotes from young people

These are all genuine quotes from players that have lapsed playing or felt like they were going to stop playing football. There are some really crucial messages we cannot afford to miss here.

“The A team is a lot more serious than the B team. Everyone wants to play on the B team.”

“You feel a bit sad if not picked, just sat watching the game.”

“As a kid you want to be a professional. As you get older you start to ask ‘where do I go from here?  Will it happen for me?”

“Training is too tedious. It’s the same every week and they do too much stamina training.”

“The parents take it more seriously than we do.”

“If it’s not fun, you don’t look forward to it.”

“There is more pressure than when I started out. You get punishments like 3 laps round the pitch if you do something wrong.”

“Your mates are like ‘come out’, but you have to train. I’d prefer to be out with my mates.”

“It takes up too much time. I have other things to do like school work. I need to study for exams.”

“The club expects you to give them priority. They expect you to turn up to training instead of doing homework.”

Many of those ring any bells if you have coached older players? Many on there we can influence? I definitely feel there are a number we can certainly affect which means we can keep more players in the game for longer. We might need to consider a number of things moving forwards if we are going to address some of these issues, things like;

-       alternative/later times

-       making it more affordable

-       more appropriate training for young people, with variety and ownership

-       summer leagues

-       youth leagues to make allowances for exams being a priority

In summary, coaching young players in their teenage years can be a challenging time. We all know about the hormonal changes going on and sometimes they can be difficult but they are just finding their way in the world. They are ready for more responsibility and get frustrated when they don’t get this. Your challenge as a coach is to manage when you start doing this together, developing them as decision makers in different ways, and giving them a voice on things that truly matter to them.

The best coaches I have seen working with older youth players make this look easy – they enjoy the company of teenage boys and don’t treat them like they are still 8 years old. They allow them to lead on the warm up, recognising that they have done GCSE PE and Sports Leaders qualifications and know plenty about the human body, they use current coaching methods that don’t involve just telling players what to do the whole time and they make the environment feel like it’s all about them, not the coach. Easy, when you look at it that way...

Being perceived as talented is great, but it comes with some challenges...

We have a habit of labelling things in modern society and we like to do this; frequently when making comparisons of one against another. They are often subjective by nature, “I think Messi was better than Pele”, and on many occasions, never even something that can be quantified. But this extends from harmless pub chat to labelling in schools and sport – “this young person is talented or gifted” (whatever they mean) and therefore better than others. But what is the impact of being labelled this as a young person? Too often we do not see the impact through their eyes and what it actually may mean to them. Let’s look at this using football as the example but you could replace football with any sport or indeed school subject.

1.     From an early age being labelled as talented increases expectations and they come to realise that when playing games the pressure is on them entirely; because they are talented and others aren’t. More becomes expected every game and can build and build.

2.     The knock-on effect for their own self-perception can become dangerous if others around them are deemed less talented by themselves or adults, bordering on developing an air of arrogance in many as that comparison kicks in.   

3.     Parents can have inflated expectations, and whilst that child may be happy just playing football with their friends, the parents habitually expect massive things and game winning performances every week.  

4.     Internal pressure on their own ability creates added weight with the child feeling that if they don’t produce these performances every week that their parents will stop loving them. This can stem from positive feedback only coming from a positive performance. This is produced from within but is a dangerous feeling to have for a young person and is linked to causes of stress and anxiety.

5.     Being talented in one sport leads to frequently being talented in others, using athleticism and game skills as the core underpinning of skill application. However, this may not always be the case, it could be domain specific. Expectations from teachers and peers because of a talent in one sport can lead to increased pressure when playing others.

6.     Sibling rivalry can have a major effect in a family dynamic. One sibling that gets praised for being mediocre in a sport (“trying their hardest”) leads to even greater pressure for the talented sibling to perform every week. There are no allowances for anything different.

7.     The constant need for approval and basing their own self-worth on what other people think of them is a dangerous place to be. It can lead to greater anxiety, because they never fail at anything, and don’t want to let others down. Managing this carefully is vital.

8.     In fact, the opportunity to ‘learn to fail’ is sometimes missed because of this pursuit of excellence. Failing is a huge part of learning and feeling like its ok to shoot for the moon and sometimes miss is essential. However, we need to create an environment that makes it ok for this ‘miss’ to happen.

9.     A feeling of jealousy from others towards them is something that is often passed by and helping young people deal with the feelings and comments from peers is something we can help them manage.

10.  Constantly managing high expectations is incredibly difficult. There are two options; if they perform great, that is expected, and if they don’t that is a failure. It is either neutral or negative. 

11.  The journey towards becoming an elite footballer is incredibly difficult and can also give a false sense of security. Being labelled as ‘talented’ from a young age just means they are talented today, not necessarily in five or ten years time. Helping them understand the journey and its challenges is important.

12.  Equally, young people are often deemed talented within their peer group, but what if that peer group is below average? Compared to their peers they are talented, but put them in the wider world and they become average. Having had a build up of expectations and self-worth about being talented to then see this come shattering down is difficult and tough to manage and internalise as a child.

The role of a teacher or coach is to help the child; help them understand the nature of the dynamics above and what it may mean to be talented (today) compared to your peers. Emphasising the need for hard work, recognising that it is ok not to be amazing every game and developing a growth mindset (see Dweck, 2006) in young people is essential life skills to help them with ongoing challenges.

The journey towards long-term talent is never easy and dealing with disappointment is inevitable. Helping them understand this may come in different forms is important; this could be getting de-selected from a professional football club, not being selected by the manager to play or dealing with a bad injury. But it is going to happen at some stage – we don’t always win.

As a parent, regardless of their performances, achievements or otherwise, they just want to know you still love them.

'8 questions' to consider before the new season...

“I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.” (Shelby Foote)

For a coach, to be reflective and have self-awareness is incredibly important. It helps you understand where you come from, what has influenced you and appreciate your own actions. I came across a few of the questions below, linked to teaching, that can have great influence for your own development as a coach and before the new season kicks in it might be worth considering some of these. Ultimately, time spent thinking about the answers will help make it better for the learner.

1.   Why are my most powerful sessions powerful?

You go to coaching, deliver a session and the children love it. You go home feeling electric, on a self-fulfilled legal high having organised some learning that gave some young people a wonderful experience and a great time.

Other weeks you deliver a different session, they aren’t well received, the children act up causing you more stress and you leave feeling deflated.

So what’s the difference? How can you take what works from the good sessions and extend to others? Was it you, your manner and approach? Was it the practice?

2.   What simple tools are available to me to help personalise instruction?

Learning is a fluid process and different fads come and go but one thing that will never leave is personalised learning for individual learners.

Providing learners with the right environment to learn, whether this is through small group work to develop a tactic or strategy, the type of questions you choose to ask to different children, or using different methods of assessment to chart the development of the players is bang on current trend – a trend that is not going to go away. So what are the ‘easy to access’ tools that can help with personalising learning?

Choice boards – http://www.teachingwithsimplicity.com/2013/07/choice-board.html

Exit slips - http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/exit-slips-30760.html

Flipped training ground - http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/flipping-the-classroom/

Project-based learning - http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb08/vol65/num05/Project-Based_Learning.aspx

Self-directed learning - http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/teaching-self-directed-learning-tools.html

Some of these ideas increase in complexity quite quickly but having a look at a variety of concepts and matching them with your situation is the key. If you are volunteer coach, with a full-time job and a family, you may choose a different option to a full-time coach whose job is to develop players.

3.   Where did I waste time last season?

There is something you do that wastes time and it may not be obvious. Letting a quick conversation with a parent eat into valuable practice time? Move cones around mid-session for different pitches that could have been planned better before? Start putting children in bibs once they are ready to play? Talked too long to the group on an intervention?

Try to highlight them, or work with your co-coach to spot them, and take them out the equation.

4.   Where did my best ideas come from?

The practices and games that really flow, that captivate the attention of the players and hook them into a feeling of enjoyment and progression, where did they come from?

Your colleagues? A course or in-service training event? Books, the internet or social media? Other coaches you have seen work?

Select the ones that worked, do more of them, and less of the ones that didn’t. If in doubt, ask the children what they thought.

5.   How can I use my strengths?

You may not be organised but you might be incredibly creative when making up practices. Your sessions might not look neat and tidy but you understand the game is messy and therefore vital for learning and development.

You have a personality that inspires children to want to try really hard but you aren’t so good at reflecting on what went well within the session.

So how can you use what you do naturally well to your advantage, recognise the other parts and work on them, to improve your overall performance?

6.   How do I respond to stress?

This question appears a strange one but you know the season won’t be without it and if you have run a team or coached for a long time, you know it occurs! So what strategy do you employ when times are tough?

Do you shout at the children more often? Take it out on your own son or daughter more than the other players? Play the weaker players even less if you are trying to hang on for a draw? Think more about your coaching and game day plans? Complicate things a lot more than they need to be?

Be aware of how you respond in pressure situations and challenge yourself to act differently before it happens, pre-empting your behaviour and ensuring that it fits with your philosophy and goals for the season.

If giving equal playing time for children is what you stand for as a coach, find tactics to ensure this still happens in the games that might be closer in score line. How can you manage your own expectations before the event, and that of others?

7.   What has changed since last year?

It is highly likely that a few things will have moved on, both from a process perspective in terms of how you go about running a team and possibly the actual foundations of this too – the format of football, the approach to competition, the rules that we play etc.

Understanding these are likely to change and what you need to do to prepare correctly can change how you planned for the previous season.

Equally, how have other things moved on, like technology? Can you work with your players in a different way by taking an iPad to training, loading up some clips from You Tube of Messi or Ronaldo in action and showing these as a means of demonstration when you are talking about improving their dribbling?

Better still, can you set them the task of finding out these skills and bringing along to coaching or match day to help improvement?

Every year things change – new software, new politics, new rules. Stay ahead of the game and adapt your planning and delivery accordingly.

8.   What’s my focus?

Without doubt, your focus should be on helping your children. But what does that mean to you? And in pursuit of that, there are loads of other smaller goals along the way – to give game-based learning a chance, to improve the quality of questions the learners receive, to focus more on player-centred outcomes.

Plus you probably want to develop a better relationship with your players, get better at coaching and enjoy the experience more than the previous season.

Having a focus doesn’t mean you don’t make these sort of commitments to yourself, that’s also really important. So pick a topic, try and learn more about it and have a go – Google it, skim Twitter, ask colleagues, read books.

It’s crucial that you then reflect and think back and be honest with yourself about how it all turns out. Above all, enjoy getting better too!