El Col·lectiu

The F Factor

"Playing for England must be like driving a car and having the police in your rearview mirror"
- Comedian Frank Skinner

Thinking recently about the style and approach I take to coaching and in particular how I deal with the players in 'my' U13 team, made me wonder about how other coaches coach.

I never tell my players how to play. An odd statement to many I'm sure. But what I mean by that is I take a guided discovery approach to how I coach. For example, I might ask a player in a session some questions or issue a challenge. Their solution, for me, is never wrong, just that players way of answering. Who am I to say what's right or wrong for that player in their particular situation on the pitch?

That player might get tackled taking on an opponent but they can try again to find a successful way of beating that opponent.

I'm reminded of when I was at school, how I never felt comfortable putting my hand up in class to answer a teachers question in case I got it wrong and got laughed at for doing so.  No pressure to 'get it right' is placed on the players I coach. I try to create an environment where the players learning the game are having fun, where they can ask questions and try different things without the fear and pressure that thousands of them feel every week.

This leads me on to coaches who take a command/directive approach to coaching players. The coach telling and showing the required solution - "I want you to do it like this" and thus determining the outcome of the session.

I've found seeing coaches do this literally strikes fear into young players. Players are then frightened to do anything else other than what has been asked of them, scared to make a mistake with risk of being shouted at by coach or even parent. Afraid to take on a player or to pass the ball back to their goalkeeper, this can create a negative environment where guided and self discovery are ignored and it then becomes all about the coach, not the players.

I recently came across this below article from Sam Wallace of the Independent, written just after England's defeat to Germany at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In it he makes comment on differences between our english stars compared to their german counterparts but most interestingly he talks of the difference in personalities and attitudes. That "despite playing for a nation of 80million people with enormous expectations, players such as Müller, Ozil, Lahm, and Khedira didn't look stressed".

Although he doesn't comment specifically on coaching methods or techniques I believe the pressure he talks of the England players having is intrinsically linked to how we coach our players. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/sam-wallace-world-cup-failure-is-chance-for-clubs-to-start-creating-adults-not-just-footballers-2018438.html