It's more than balls, bibs and cones, it's about people.

It’s just about ‘people’…

The more I think about things now, the more I’m coming to the conclusion that the development of young people in sport comes down to one key thing; relationships between people. The content of the technical components, the actual information you provide to help a learner improve, qualifications, the size of the pitch and all those other bits are often secondary. And I think this extends beyond sport into everyday life and business too.

I turned on the TV earlier this week and stumbled across ‘The Undercover Boss’, a programme where the Chief Executive of a large company goes incognito and down to the floor level of the organisation to find out what really goes on, the thoughts and feelings of the people that work for them. This episode happened to be about Biffa, the national refuse collection company. As ‘Mark’ donned his stubble and glasses he learnt a very clear lesson, demonstrated in the Boardroom – ‘this company is built on the foundations of good people’ and if you treat the people well, guess what, productivity increases, staff retention increases and costs are lowered. And for CEO’s, often that means profitability goes up too.  This finding has been replicated across all the episodes I’ve seen.

Think about the people in your life that make a difference, what are they like? How do they make a difference? What do they do differently? What can you remember about your teachers from school? I’m guessing the memories will either be very positive or very negative and often based around how they made you feel as a person?

I’ve interviewed A’ Licence and Pro Licence coaches for jobs they have applied for to work in primary schools and not actually appointed many of them, despite being way more qualified than the ones we have selected. Why - because it’s much more than the piece of paper. Does that coach have the ability to enthuse, inspire and captivate the imagination of young people? Do they actually like working with children? That’s ultimately what we are looking for in a coach. Would that coach be appropriate in a different setting, possibly yes, but we are at a crucial time now in the development of sport where we need the right coach with the right age group.

The person delivering the coaching, their make up and them as a person can essentially make or break everything. If they have the right traits, their character can ignite and accelerate a young person’s curiosity, learning and love for the game. If young people acquire these facets they will source the technical components themselves or ask questions of other people to find them out.

If they aren’t the right character as a person, they can do severe damage long-term to that child and put them off playing sport for life. The knock-one effect can then carry to their children, due to the impact of socialisation.

Who the ‘right person’ is becomes a debate but I feel you can drill it all the way down to being a good human being. Putting the interests of others before your own, helping out young people on their voyage towards self-discovery and just being nice to children goes a long way. We learn in the modern world through collaboration, interacting with other people, so the coach that can facilitate this beyond just being ‘the font of all knowledge’ him or herself is on to a winner.

Within grassroots football, we are developing more than footballers; it is about developing better people. All the dynamics that being involved in a team sport can bring you - understanding people from different communities, working in small teams, developing tactical and strategic thinking, allowing creativity to flourish, recognising that different people have different skill sets that make a team function and become high performing. These are all skills now valued by the modern day businesses.

It is often helpful to understand yourself before you can start to help others. How has your journey impacted on your own life? What has been the speed bumps along the way that has shaped you as a person and your character? If you can start to understand these you can then start to understand helping others. Emotional intelligence it might be known as, and if you like reading, try Daniel Goleman’s work as a starter for ten.

Coaching by its nature involves the interaction between people and the coach needs to allow the recipient to become part of the process; ultimately, we want to develop an independent thinking learner that can take responsibility for their own learning (when they are ready). 

We can then go a long way to developing a generation of young people that can flourish in the future, whatever sport, work or life throws at them. 

Coaching the modern day beast...

Coaching is an interesting art, definitely an art, and perhaps a science also. It challenges adults to think about someone else and delve into the mindset of another individual. In many of the cases of the people I come across and talk about coaching with, the people they are trying to get inside the heads of is someone infinitely different to themselves; a child. 

This is where for me coaching is difficult. For starters, many of our preconceived ideas about coaching, the ones we have in the depths of our episodic memory, evolve from how we were coached. And herein lies the first challenge - kids today are different. 

Back in the day, when there was one black and white TV channel, one opportunity to watch football and no Playstation's, children used to learn very differently. Some children would need a coach to learn things from, to gain new ideas and our perception of learning was very different - "I am the coach and I will get what is in my head, into your head". 

However, think of the modern day child you are coaching; 900 TV channels (mostly showing Friends or back episodes of Come Dine With Me), dedicated sport channels and football virtually available, from all over the globe 24/7. Kids today know more about European football and players from having played FIFA and watched the Champions League than our experiences. Furthermore, add in the wonders of You Tube - kids can now go on there, at any stage, and see a skills compilation from Messi and Ronaldo and guess what, they go and practice that!

You could argue now, with the availability of learning material on offer to the modern young person, their need for a specific 'coach' in the previous descriptive term of their role is possibly shifting. 

This is where for me another challenge exists; how does the coach who's preconceptions of their role go back 15-20 years adjust to the needs of the modern day young person? I think we can talk about coaching practices, the X's and O's, as much as we like, but the foundation of everything has to come from understanding the young person in front of you. 

How can you harness the modern day learning ability of young people for their benefit within your coaching? How do you need to evolve and change?

Two quotes to leave you with...

'Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time' (Chinese Proverb)

'If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow' (John Dewey)

Preseason is fast approaching...

It's the time of the season that adults typically fear; the endless laps, the 'bleep test', the military-style circuit training with one-minute planks and a 12 minute run. The thoughts of not seeing a ball for six weeks and having to take your 'runners' every week as doing those miles in your Copa's on rock hard ground wasn't fun for your feet. And why? Because someone can recall, back in their youth (circa 1960's), that this was the way to get people fit and ready for the test of a gruelling 8-month long slog of a season through the hardened English winters. 


So, it makes sense knowing what we do about physical development principles now to question some of these approaches to training. For example, doing a 12 minute run makes you a good 12 minute runner, it doesn't make you a good footballer. Nor fit for the game because the game actually bears no resemblance to a constant 12 minute run. Therefore, why do you do it?


It makes even more sense to question why we see this with children! I kid you not, 9-year olds doing the 'plank' have been witnessed on playing fields of the south east of England this very preseason! This post is not going to give you the answers about what to do or how to plan for a whole preseason but more to ask you to think about this question - Why are you doing what you are doing? What is the benefit? Is it appropriate?


Considerations
This time of the year is important and it could be for a number of factors. You might have new children that have joined the team and you need to integrate them with existing members. You might have new parents that then come with expectations of their perception of what a 'coach' is and what 'preseason looks like' so these need managing too. You might need to get the kids running about and into some kind of physical shape if they have not done much exercise throughout the summer. You might be going to a different format of the game and you need to introduce the young players to an alternative formation. There could be all sorts of different elements to consider and these need careful pontification.


Therefore, rather than do what you did as a youngster yourself, or regurgitate those adult-centric drills that we think worked for us, or repeat what you did last season and the three before that, take a good look at the process for the next few weeks ahead.


What does age-appropriate training look like?
Young children don't have the same bodies as adults; they don't regulate temperature and deal with hot and cold in the same way ours do, they don't deal with high intensity bouts of exercise as their anaerobic systems aren't fully developed yet...so park those shuttles and find a different way to help them. 


The challenge is to decide what is appropriate for the age of the young people you are working with. This could vary from no fitness related sessions at all and a focus still on developing fundamental movement skills and functional movement skills with little ones to doing some elements of capacity building, game speed and game strength with U18 players. 


How can you make the experience one that doesn't scare players for life?
We all have our own reservations about preseason training and you can sense my feelings on what I have endured in the past by the tone of this blog! So as a coach, how can you make this fun and enjoyable for the young players? These sessions have to be fun and where possible involve a ball too. Just because there is a ball doesn't mean the players aren't working.


For example, playing four games of 4v4 for 4 minutes (on a small pitch and small goals) with the simple conditions of a) the coach having lots of balls ready to use, b) the ball has to come back into play within 4 seconds and c) the player in possession has to be closed down within 4 seconds, can be an incredibly tough and high tempo workout. And this closely replicates the game they are getting fit for. 


Whatever your aims and outcomes are for the preseason period, please give them some thought. Plan appropriately for the group of modern day learners you have in front of you, use modern day coaching methods and make this an enjoyable start to the season. Now, wouldn't that be a modern approach for this time of year?! 

Tournament time is fast approaching for the kids...

It's Tournament Time!
Now the season has finished, all presentation evenings are coming to a close and rounding off everyone's achievements with a well-earned thank you, the next football door opens - it's that of the "7-a-side tournament" or whatever derivation you might find your team attending. 


This is a strange time for young players. It creates an environment that heaps a huge amount of pressure and stress yet fun and enjoyment in one day. It sees children and young people experience a whole season's worth of football crammed into one day and personally, I love them! These can be fantastic learning opportunities for coaches and players of all ages. So, here are a few things to think about on how to get the best of the day. 


What is 'Success'?
Before the day starts it's important to define what success looks like for the young players. Is it winning the tournament? Is it putting into practice all the things you've been doing in training? Is it the social side of a day for the families to come together in the sun (hopefully) and enjoy themselves? 


Whatever "success" looks like, it really helps if you can define this or, more importantly, ask the players to define what this means to them. We did this with our group of U10 boys on a recent tour to Germany, playing against 40 professional teams from the host country to far-ranging teams from Russia, Czech Republic, Italy and Brazil. The feedback from the boys before we went - "to have fun", "to get on well with team mates and not fall out" and "to get better". One player of the 11 that we took said "to win the tournament". We shaped all the discussions into three key objectives for us on the trip: 


1. To try and win the tournament - that's why we entered and it is a game after all!
2. To learn some new things - whether about how to travel well, words in another language, but importantly, things both on and off the pitch. 
3. To have fun - vital and incorporated the aspects of team bonding and enjoyment too.


The important part was the boys had a voice as part of the discussions into what they wanted to achieve, not just us as the coaches. Try and find some ways to let them decide what they want from it too. 


Now, depending on how brave you are feeling depends on how far you want to go. If the focus is on enjoyment and having a great day with all the families and other kids around, you can almost experiment more.


Why not try:
1. Let the kids decide who plays what game and when.
Can you challenge their leadership skills to decide this? Can you ask them to think about different reasons as to why certain players would play at certain times? Can you ask them then to think about who plays and why?


For example, if you know some of the teams you are playing against, the children might decide that the best player has to play against the best opposition but could be rested against a lesser team. There is every chance they will come to the same conclusion you would have done - but think about the added value of learning they get from making this decision themselves. This helps support empowering young people - vital. 


2. Let the players decide what positions they play.
Can you be bold and ask their input into this? That player that you have pigeon holed all season "because he kicks it a long way therefore must play in defence" might want to try playing somewhere else. Your goalkeeper might want to have a try playing out on pitch. In my experiences, I have one or two outfield players in my team that think they are a goalkeeper and love messing about with the gloves on, so let them play a game there maybe!


3. Let the learners decide on the formation and strategy to play.  
Have the discussion with the players - what is best to play and why? If we play a 2-3-1 and they play a 3-1-2 where does this mean we have advantages? Where does this mean they might have advantages? Rather than you decide every game what and how it shall all be done, relax and listen to the views of the children. They might have some really good ideas!


4. Manage the parents expectations.
If you have the kids taking ownership of the day on some of the matters above, share this with the parents. Explain that the kids have decided on certain aspects and they should be commended for having a go at trying something new. Share the definition of success for the day. 


One of the best pieces of advice is to ask your parents to bring a chair so they can sit down, relax, and enjoy watching their kids have a good time playing football. The ones you can get at a motorway service station, 2 for £12 that fold up and have a drinks holder in the armrest, brilliant, get yourself some of them!


It's amazing how chilled parents become if they are sitting down watching a game rather than standing up, edging along the touchline desperate to shout what they think is advice to their son or daughter!


5. Understand the day from their perspective. 
Tournaments and festivals are often long days, sometimes with long breaks between games and lots of boredom. However, it is a real necessity that you manage the health and energy levels of the children appropriately. Make sure they drink enough and have sun cream on, especially in hot weather. Make sure they eat enough, sensible reasonably healthy food too. The last thing you want is the players filling themselves with sweets throughout the day, massively high blood sugar levels (and managing them!) and then when they crash down, having to pick them up to play in a game. 


They will be very excitable at the start, probably expend more energy when they aren't playing doing other things (still playing, chasing each other, messing about) and then wonder why they have nothing left in the tank when it comes to game time. Try and ensure the players get rest between matches too and by engaging them in the tasks 1-3 above, this keeps them focused on football without racing about or throwing water over each other!


It can also be a time that pressure builds, depending on how far they might get in the competition. Manage this, make sure they don't feel under pressure to "have to win" but to constantly "try their best". That's all you can ask of them. 


And if they lose on penalties in the semi-final, expect them to be upset, expect a few tears. What is important is the learning and lessons that come from times like this, so focus on these factors rather than your own disappointment. This needs to be hidden away from their view - no flailing arms, moaning at the referee or shouting at anyone - be a good role model to the children, that's what they want from you. 


Children just want to know everything will be ok, you still love them regardless of whether they won or lost and that tomorrow is another day. 


Enjoy!

Watching expert coaches - what do you "see"?

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. 

Coaching Practice - Possession to Attack Game

It's been a while since I have posted an actual session plan so I thought after the success of a new game last night that I would share this with you. When I say a 'session plan' it isn't a full session plan. We have a specific syllabus that we work to with different component parts put together over a full week's training diary - three sessions plus a game. 


This 'game' formed about 40 minutes of the session where the theme was about developing passing, receiving and support play outcomes. So, here is the picture of what it looked like and then I'll explain it for you...

Last night I had 13 players turn up, always the dreaded number when you have planned a session but that is part of the skill of the coach - to adapt and include all the players. 


There are two pitches within one - a yellow pitch attacking the top goal, which had a goalkeeper in. This was an outfield player as the GK's weren't in so they were rotated round. There is then an orange pitch attacking the bottom goal, which inside the normal goal I put a mini-goal, which they had to miss for the goal to count. 


Yellow Pitch:
Yellow v Blue, 3v3 + GK. Yellow's had one midfielder and two forwards, matched up by the defending team. 
The coach started the practice by playing into the midfielder to then develop an attack.
If the Blue defending team regained possession they played into the coach, who was constantly moving about the top of the playing area so the picture always changed. 


Orange Pitch:
Red v White, 3v3. Red's played with two midfielders and one forward, matched up by the defending team. 
Same rules as the other pitch; play into Coach on regain and he would restart the practice.


The middle third of the practice was quite busy at times, with both games often starting in the same area. This provided a bit of contextual interference for the players, meaning they had to play round other bodies, not just their one defender. 


They swapped roles on the same pitch and the defenders became the attackers and vice versa. Then they swapped pitches and played in the other game with a slightly different set up. 


What is key are the questions you ask of the players - how can you create an overload? Where is best to attack and how? What techniques are you going to need to be good at? What did you find out from playing in that game? Can you find ways to rotate positions to create space? How can the forwards combine to make it hard for the defenders? The boys answered these in little groups of three when developing strategies as well as during the session.


The feedback last night from the boys, bearing in mind they are U10, was:
"We found that switching the ball from the middle to the wide areas was helpful to create a 1v1." (when they had two midfielders)


"Its important for one forward to drop short and the other to play a bit longer" (when they had two forwards). I followed this up with "how can the midfielder help at this stage?" and the answer was "for them to drive forwards and support the higher forward". Great answers. 


Outcomes:
Passing and receiving, combination play, decision making, forward movements, shooting and finishing, shot stopping, devising and sharing tactics and strategies, listening to others, respect for other people's ideas, teamwork (physical outcomes as well but they weren't the learning focus in this game).


What it gave the boys was a similar picture, but slightly different, lots of times. Nothing ever happens the same in a game twice so this varied was important. It's called 'constraint-led coaching' - have a look for some information on it. 


Overall the game worked very well. The boys went through a short process of 'learning the practice' before 'getting better' at the practice - normal when given something 


Feel free to give it a go and see what happens. We ask the players to take risks in the games and practices so we should feel comfortable doing this as a coach too! 

Something for your parents - youth sport.

Stumbled across this little gem, you might want to share this with your parents, specifically those new teams or at the start of next season. This for me is what grassroots sport is about and the last two verses sum it up well. 


A Parent Talks to a Child Before the First Game


This is your first game, my child. I hope you win.
I hope you win for your sake, not mine.
Because winning's nice.
It's a good feeling.
Like the whole world is yours.
But, it passes, this feeling.
And what lasts is what you've learned.


And what you learn about is life.
That's what sports is all about. Life.
The whole thing is played out in an afternoon.
The happiness of life.
The miseries.
The joys.
The heartbreaks. 


There's no telling what'll turn up.
There's no telling whether they'll toss you out in the first five minutes or whether you'll stay for the long haul. 


There's no telling how you'll do.
You might be a hero or you might be absolutely nothing. 
There's just no telling.
Too much depends on chance.
On how the ball bounces. 


I'm not talking about the game, my child.
I'm talking about life.
But, it's life that the game is all about.
Just as I said. 


Because every game is life.
And life is a game.
A serious game.
Dead serious. 


But, that's what you do with the serious things.
You do your best.
You take what comes. 
You take what comes and you run with it. 
Winning is fun.
Sure.
But winning is not the point. 


Wanting to win is the point.
Not giving up is the point.
Never being satisfied with what you've done is the point. 
Never letting up is the point. 
Never letting anyone down is the point. 


Play to win.
Sure.
But lose like a champion.
Because it's not winning that counts.
What counts is trying.


(Unknown)