Personal Development - It's all down to you

This post comes in direct response to two different things, both of which might be able to be answered through one ramble. The first is in response to several questions raised at our National Coaching Conference and something I hear fairly regularly - "I have a sports science degree from University of x, why can't I get a job in a professional club Academy?" The second is the question I get asked reasonably often too - "what was my career pathway to end up in the role I have?"

Hopefully by sharing some of my story (note: it's MY story, not anyone else's) it might help some of the people that ask the first question a lot. There is a generation of young people now that come out of university and expect the world on a plate, that they will walk straight into a top paying job at a top establishment. There was an article in the Daily Telegraph a few years back about 'Graduate Divas', the young people born in the late-1980's as part of Generation Y that think the world owes them a living and they expect everything without hard work. 

Of course, and this goes without saying, not all young people fall into that category. I know lots of tremendously hard working individuals that have gone way over and above the expected to develop themselves. They have given themselves a broad range of experiences and skills, beyond their piece of university paper, and sought these out. They rightly deserve opportunities later down the line. It's the ones that just expect it that are the issue. 

My Journey:

As I mentioned above, this is my journey. It's unique to me. I have worked in sports development my whole (proper) working life but different parts have played their role and shaped me as a person.

School

I started coaching when I was still at school, helping the PE teachers run inter-form activities for younger year groups in football and other sports. The lesson for me was clear - I need to do something that I am passionate about and working with young people in sport was certainly that.

University

I did a Sport and Leisure Management Degree at university, had an interesting time for three years. Whilst I wouldn't say the degree helps me in the job, it was more the learning about myself in those years that made the biggest difference. To be honest, my course was about 9 - 12 hours of lectures a week and the rest of the time I just spent playing football with mates! However, I also did a few coaching badges during the time that started me further on this road. 

Coaching

During the summer holidays between my second and third year I came home and coached all summer with a guy that has remained a good friend to this day. He is sooo old skool it is frightening! He knows it, I tell him this and we debate this often! At that time however I didn't know any different. He was an experienced coach, had his UEFA B' and therefore was the role model I aspired to be. Surely he was right, wasn't he? So I tried to copy him. For acceptance? Maybe. 

After university I went and did three months coaching in the US. When I say 'coaching' it probably wasn't but it was a hugely valuable experience and a very enjoyable time. Three months travelling round California, Nevada and bit of Utah was fascinating. I coached all sorts of players, from 5 and 6 year old children where I ran around singing 'Old MacDonald' to working with high quality girls team's that could truly play the game. It gave me a real varied insight into working with different groups, how I had to change my coaching style, what worked and what didn't. 

Work

I came home from the US and needed a job. I went to an interview for a job in Milton Keynes. I had to deliver a session as part of the interview in a sport I wasn't qualified in - I did a netball session that was basically a football game with hands. It was my relationship with the kids that made a big difference - I enjoyed working with them, they had fun and gave me a glowing report. 

So I moved 100 miles from home for my first job out of uni that paid £15,000 per year. The next two years saw me teach football to primary and secondary age children, boccia to children with disabilities, develop all sports within the school and gain a great insight into a whole host of things. If the table tennis coach didn't turn up I would deliver. If the basketball coach was running late I would take the session. I was also doing outreach sessions in the local community, offering sessions for old people to keep them active and for those out of work. 

I did a variety of coaching qualifications along the way too, including Level 1's in cricket, basketball, hockey, netball and badminton.

Whilst all this was going on I was shaping my coaching philosophy and influenced by lots of people around me. I started running a girls U12 team at a Centre of Excellence and had some great times there. I made lots of mistakes, got lots of feedback from the players and learnt some valuable lessons. 

County FA

After three years I changed jobs to focus solely on football development. Again, this started to have a big impact. I was fortunate to start working for some great people at this time including Les Howie and Donna McIvor; colleagues of today. Working at the CFA allowed me to really get out there and understand how grassroots sport worked. I was working with coaches and volunteers every night of the week, from running club development workshops to child protection training. 

This taught me about the importance of relationships - internally and externally. It frustrates me hugely now hearing about development staff that aren't allowed to leave the office. Development work is about people and relationships between them and you don't develop these through email. I knew everyone in clubs and most of the Heads of PE and the schools and colleges too - we never had coaching courses cancelled because we could always fill them through our networks. 

FA

I moved to a national role at the FA in Jan 2004, to manage our young leadership programme and club links work. The grounding of working in education and football development made a big difference. 

Young leadership is awesome. I loved watching the young people in the programme grow right in front of you, developing into fantastic young adults with a real skill set that could change the world. The work of Harry Shier and Roger Hart was a big influence at this stage - give young people a voice and choice on matters that affect them. It's not about me, it's about them. 

My next role was to set up the FA Skills Programme, working with Tesco as the sponsor. Fascinating times and really powerful for my development. I was now in and around coaches that I would truly class as 'experts' every day - John Allpress, Pete Sturgess, Paul Holder - and if you can't learn from them then you may as well change careers! We also did a piece of work with Brunel University, a guy called Richard Blair who really challenged thinking and professionalised what our coaches were doing. And I sat in these sessions, taking notes, listening and learning. 

Playing and Refereeing

Has being a player helped my understanding? 100% yes. Whilst I was never a top professional, I played 400+ games in the non-league and Futsal at international level. I worked with some great coaches that have also shaped my views on coaching and learning. Some good, some not so good but you learn from them all. 

I also thought it would be good to see things from a refereeing perspective so did that for a season too. I refereed adult park football in my county, proper Division 10 stuff and really enjoyed that. It's very easy to moan at the person wearing black but I can empathise now having experienced this, and speak from a position of credibility on the matter.

Reading

Throughout this time I was doing a lot of reading. A lot! My bookcase expanded tremendously and it has made a massive difference in my career. I wouldn't say I was widely read but I have made the effort to try and read things - whether academic articles or coaching/learning books. Less 'football' ones too. For example, Lynn Kidman, Raener Martens and Guy Claxton all gave a tremendous insight into what really is 'coaching' and player development.

Courses

Doing qualifications is important, of course, but is a tiny part of what shapes your philosophy and understanding. Estimates from elite coaches are they affect your development 10-15%. 

The FA Youth Coaches Course in 2005 was superb, gave a totally different view of the coaching world than the experience I had through the traditional pathway and was the pre-cursor to the FA Youth Awards. I've gone on to complete the FA Advanced Youth Award but Module 1 is still my favourite course!

More Coaching

Whilst at the FA I have ran a grassroots U8's team to mentoring coaches in the U14 teams. Running the kids team was great, the reality of never knowing who or how many were going to turn up to training each week. We were a poor team, lost every week, but the one game we won that season will stick with me for a whole host of reasons forever. 

Since then I have done six years in an Academy, working with talented boys. This was five years at U10 and one at U11. Some coaches have aspirations to get through the age groups to older ones as quick as possible, fuelled by a variety of different motives, but I wanted to be the best U10 coach I could be. 

Additional Parts

If there was an opportunity to get involved in something that would help my learning and development I would do it! I would travel a few hours to see a coach work if he/she was an expert and someone I could learn from. 

I'm coming towards the end of a Masters degree and halfway through a Level 4 course in Talent Identification. I was asked to be on the Board at a schools Academy Trust and without knowing what it was about, threw myself into it! I am well out my depth at times when I look round the other Board members but learn something every time we meet and invariably I can translate to my coaching or job. 

Summary

In no way was this ramble set out to be a 'look at me, aren't I great' piece like a few I read. I'm still learning every day, know I have so much to do in order to be a better person and a better dad. However, hopefully it can give a sense of the breadth of different activities I have been involved in along my journey so far. 

Nothing comes easy, you have to go out of your way to work hard and the world owes you nothing. You cannot sit back and wait for your break to happen, thinking you deserve it. 

When I worked at the Academy and got requests from coaches to come in and observe sessions, brilliant, they are the guys I want on my team all day long. 

Coaching Young Children - It's an investment for the future

Coaching Younger Children

A shorter but hopefully helpful blog post today and it's about coaching young children in a specific way.

By using facets of 'play' for children, allowing them to be creative, exploratory and imaginative is essential. 

By using a games-based approach to learning sport, ensuring the experience is as close to the 'real thing' as possible, authentic and realistic is essential. 

By allowing young people to have a voice and choice in what and how they learn things, gently creating opportunities for ownership, leadership and responsibility is essential. 

By fostering a sense of self-worth, ensuring they feel valued as part of the learning process and being an individual yet also part of a team is essential.  

The returns from using activities that foster these skills are essential for long term development but be very clear, the returns on using an approach like this isn't about the returns you will get immediately. If we allow all the above parts to happen we are going to be in a better place in the future. 

You see, I would liken this to what you do with your money. By doing all of the above things you are essentially setting up a five-year ISA; a saving's plan that you can't draw the money out of for a long period of time but will reap higher returns later down the line. This process doesn't create an ATM/Cash Machine that you can draw out the money straight away!

Coaching in this way isn't about instant returns to help you win a league or championship or anything short-term. It's about equipping young players with the skills that will be of huge help in the future, whether they become a footballer or a fireman. It is very timely when working with younger children to develop these skills as some may be harder to develop later down the line.

I would quite happily be the coach of a group of U14's that have been exposed to this previously, to all of these coaching methods in the younger ages and be able to reap the returns. However, if they haven't, don't expect what you draw out the cash machine in five years to be anywhere near what you can get from the saving's plan!

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.