Coaching/Playing Philosophies

I have been trying to rewrite my coaching philosophy recently, trying to update it and make it more relevant for my current coaching roles but have really struggled to define how I coach as it seems to change depending on the situation and the group and realised that I was trying to almost pigeon hole myself into one coaching style.

I preferred the description of my coaching toolbox, let me explain…

In my toolbox I prefer certain tools over others, and they probably get used more. But sometimes my favourite tools may not be the right tool for the job (I am not going to try and hammer a nail into the wall with my favourite screwdriver!)

I think it is more important to know what tools you prefer to use and why rather than say that you are only going to use a couple of tools. For example I prefer to use a lot of Q&A and stop stand still in one of my coaching environments because I have very limited coaching time across the year and want to get information across but also want to balance this with the players inputting in what they see. Going into another environment I might have the stop stand still coaching style in the bottom of my box because it isn’t relevant there.

But sometimes you have to use your non-favourite tools more often because they are the right tools for the job. My toolbox at home has 2 layers, a bottom layer where I tend to store the tools that I don’t use very often and a top layer where the most commonly used tools are kept, so I prefer to think about my coaching as what tools I would keep on my top shelf and which are on the bottom just in case I need to pull them out at some point.

I think if I try to outline my philosophy and make it specific to me, it would either be too general or too specific and not have the room to be flexible that you need as a coach. If I try to explain the tools in my toolbox this makes a lot more sense to me (and hopefully some of you if I haven’t lost you already!)

This potentially makes absolutely no sense to anyone else, but for me it has really helped to make my coaching style clearer. I do wonder if by asking coaches and clubs to outline their coaching philosophy if we are encouraging them to put themselves in one category and preventing them from exploring other methods of coaching that might be relevant to their players in that specific situation.

I also think that this is really important for a player to have their own toolbox. They may have a preferred way of playing and a particular style of play or team formation that suits them best that they might have in their top level of their toolkit but they also need to have other tactics in the bottom tray to pull out in case their first plan doesn’t work.

Culture, Philosophy and Values

A few years ago I had to write an assignment for my master’s about the philosophy and culture within our coaching environment. Since then I have been really interested in how different organisations implement a culture. Tonight I was lucky enough to see it in action!

Inspire others – our first value talks about our staff inspiring our players and our players inspiring others. Example behaviours from tonight were coaches using female role models, players talking about the videos we put online or the England game we organised tickets for on Saturday. Players also supporting each other positively comes into this category with players giving praise, checking to see if players are ok after an injury and sending get well soon messages. Coaches staying an hour after training ends to look after a player too.

Develop – Players taking ownership of their own learning, asking us to cover certain topics or to structure sessions in a certain way. Players going through feedback from higher up and thinking about the game. Coaches being filmed to review later and coaches from last week’s filmed session asking about it. Coaches linking up with other specialist coaches to learn more information or find out how to improve their players. Players trying to play in different roles to learn more.

Perform – I had a player tonight tell me how she has changed her diet when she comes in from school on a Friday to make sure she can train at her best. Players putting in some great performances at training across all 4 age groups tonight too.

These are just some of the behaviours on show from tonight, there were so many more I’m sure going on that I didn’t catch! It’s taken a few years but I’m incredibly proud of the staff and players for really starting yo

As I said I’m really interested in these types of things so please let me know if you know of any good reading etc on the topics.

Same destination – different route

It is the time of year where I tend to sit down and reflect on what I have achieved over the last 12 months. I would describe this year as a game of snakes and ladders, as I thought I was doing something well something else would come along and knock me back. 2017 has definitely taught me the importance of continuing to try and work at things and try new things out if something isn’t working (no matter how frustrating that may be!)

 

 

I have crossed off a whopping 21 things on my bucket list this year and have started work on a few more as well! I have had a promotion and got to work with so many fantastic people across so many amazing projects this year. Last year I set myself some targets to try and achieve. I think it has been quite clear where my priorities have been over the last year and the area they haven’t!

 

2017 has really opened my eyes to what I want as my next step. Although I absolutely love coaching, being the person who fits everything together for a player or an area or more has been what I have loved. I have loved putting together the jigsaw of different people and organisations to fit individuals and achieve the best result for all whether that is for a player, for coaches or organisations.  So this upcoming year my aim is to really make myself the best I can be with different off the pitch skills and keep working towards my final goal. I also aim to improve my personal lifestyle through more regular exercise and a healthier diet to give me more energy.

2018 is looking to be a year with completely different and harder challenges, but equally they could be even more exciting. With a couple of simple targets and a bit of guidance from those who help me most I am confident I can make it another positive year!

Changing your coaching style

I recently had a university lecturer who, despite being a very popular researcher, said in one of my lectures that a coach cannot change their coaching style. Needless to say I instantly tuned out of whatever else he had to say as I thought it was such an uninformed statement. I regularly change my coaching style depending on who I am coaching and what I am coaching them. I wouldn’t coach a brand new 5 year old girl the same way as a men’s team for example. Over the past year I have tried different methods of coaching with one of my groups and I feel I have got so much out of the sessions as well as seeing such a great development from the group. I thought I would share my insights into the different coaching styles I have used this year with my group and how I feel they have reacted to each one.

THE ORIGINAL

I started off at the start of the year using my “normal” coaching style with this group. Typical game related practices, quite often using small sided games with conditions and mixing it up between letting them try things and giving guidance. Generally the topics were the normal type of topics I would use again, for example when to play forwards etc. The girls seemed to take to it well, they learnt quite a lot at the time but at this time of year I find myself going back over things again to reinforce some things.

 

THE PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD

I then used problems as the aims of my session. Players would be given a problem to solve at the start of the session and we would play different SSGs with different conditions and overloads to get the problems out. I wrote about this in one of my previous posts. We had more discussions around what to do and then let the girls go try it with some reminder drive by coaching. The girls seemed to really develop their problem solving skills and started to understand the game better. I probably saw less development over a short space of time but by the end of the block they had really come on.

 

CONSTANT PRACTICE

I only used this for a short block but it was great fun. We did lots of technical and ABCs practices and lots of constant practices. I tried to make it really interesting by adapting the equipment and making it a bit competitive. The girls seemed to enjoy the different practices and it allowed me to work really individually with players to tweak techniques to help them improve. There was lots of repetition of the same action but by having the different activities the sessions were kept interesting. The girls now use these games as arrival activities that they can come in and organise themselves.

Physical Corner Games

 

INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

I am now on a block where I asked the players what they want to improve on and I have planned the sessions so that every player has a different outcome to achieve. We have done games where each player must achieve their individual challenge for the team to win, I have given each player a different restriction when playing a match. We have had different individual technical/skills practices to get out what each player wants to work on. Players have also been given the chance to practice what they feel they need to practice on for 10 minutes. The players have really bought into it and have supported each other to achieve their targets as well as being focused on their own. I have been incredibly impressed with these sessions and although it is much harder to plan it is definitely a fantastic move!

Individualised Session

 

Overall I have gone through the year giving more and more ownership to the players, although I have given more and more ownership to the players I have actually had more planning to do as I am having to think much more about the individuals. I have definitely enjoyed trying different ways of coaching and I believe that if I had only used one style for the whole year I wouldn’t have seen the same progression across their whole development. Using a range of coaching styles and methods has been important to both player and coach development.

 

 

Problem Solving in Football

One big skill I really want my players to have is the ability to problem solve. This is important on the pitch as I won’t always be able to tell them the answers to everything, my players are likely to play elsewhere but also it is a big confidence boost if they can figure out what is going on and improve it. It is also a key skill in every day life, trying to solve problems and find solutions will help my players in so many ways.

Recently I have tried out a new style of coaching with one of my groups in particular. I work with a group of u10 girls who are very good players however I am not there for their match days, I run one training session a week with them. In order to make sure they continue to learn and develop away from my sessions they need to be able to problem solve and understand how they learn. A typical session looks like this…

Before the players arrive I will have put the weeks “problem” on the whiteboard along with the session plan and their posters.

Players arrive and have an arrival task to complete (either a social task – sharing ideas and thoughts with each other, a technical task – something with a football or a thinking task – something they may need to think about and write down the answers). The players take it in turns to lead this and involve and explain to anyone who drops in.

I give players challenges based on the previous session to reinforce something they just learnt. We then get into some small matches with the U8s to allow them to use these challenges. Again these challenges could be around any of the 4 corners.

Physical corner game. We will tend to do a game to work with players in the physical corner. This might involve a tag game or a game of scramble (one of their favourites!).

We then move into activities or games that are game related. They are structured to allow the problem to come up a lot. We take breaks where we talk about the problem and what we can do as a solution and then go try it. Players may be set questions to think about when they go back into the game.

Towards the end of the session players add their learning and thoughts to the big sheet where we collect our learning, we have 2 sheets, one around the technical and tactical aspects, one around how we learn and think and behave. We then go back and play to really embed what they have just told me.

This way of coaching has really got the players thinking. It has provided the quieter players the opportunity to talk to partners and talk to others, it has provided leadership opportunities and it has provided us with lots of game realistic practices. The thing that has really stood out for me is the level of thinking from the players to make small adjustments to their game which can have a big impact. One example is one week our problem was “how we can win our 1v1 battles when defending?” We put the players into 1v1 games and I went round and asked questions of the players (no answers, only questions). I had a player ask me about body shape and which way was best and they talked it through themselves to find the solution. Another within the same session asked me what if the player knocks the ball one side of you and runs after it? We opened it to the group who came up with some great suggestions. This has continued throughout the sessions and players are constantly finding more “problems” to solve throughout the session and working together to solve them. I have provided very little information in the sessions but have posed lots of questions and scenarios to the players to allow them to think about the outcomes.

This is quickly turning into my favourite way of coaching these players, they are showing improvements in so many ways. Next up is to try and get them to identify the “problems” whilst playing and try to problem solve in the middle of games!

How 2016 has made me a better coach and person…

2016 may have been awful everywhere else but for me it was bloody awesome! Every year I fill up a jar with pieces of paper with something good that has happened on them, most years I get it about ¾ full, this year I was struggling to fit more in there!

Last year I made the resolution to be more positive, relax more and keep in touch with my family and friends more. Although I may not have done it all the time I have definitely done it more. I am not sure if I have more things in the jar because of things that have happened or my perspective of the things that have happened, all I can say is that it feels fantastic.

So what has gone so well? I have spent time speaking to my niece and have made a massive effort to speak to her weekly on facetime (ok so it wasn’t a massive effort, I loved doing it!). I have more times spent with my family in the jar this year, probably not more time spent with them but the time I had spent was really appreciated. I have also seen progress in all my coaching with working with the young leaders at the start of the year and then leaving the grassroots club to join Loughborough Foxes. The ACC has gone from strength to strength with an excellent review to finish the year on and my full time job has provided me with so many challenges and smiles (the biggest one being my visit to the Bahamas this year to coach! – learnt a lot here) I have also started as an FA Affiliate Tutor this year, earlier than I had planned to but definitely not complaining! In terms of qualifications I have improved my understanding of how to develop the goalkeepers in my sessions by completing the goalkeeper level 2, I have also graduated with an MSc in Performance Coaching which will be a big load taken off.

The 2 things I haven’t done this year? Enough exercise, eating properly and reading – 3 things I want to change for the upcoming year. In terms of my coaching I really want to get into the psychological side of the game and really understand how to “coach” it not just provide opportunities to develop.

My aim for 2017 is simple, and the same aim I have had and achieved in the past few years – to make 2017 better than all the last.

The MSc…

A little bit of background for those who don’t know, I was previously in a job where holding a masters degree was essential to me being able to do my role, despite being with the company for 5 years they still never put me on my MSc so I decided to put myself on it. After looking at the price and worrying I couldn’t pay it my AMAZING family helped me with the cost of it. Shortly after starting the course I changed jobs but decided to carry on with the course regardless. So for the past 2 years I have been completing my MSc in Performance Coaching alongside a full time job and normally part time coaching jobs and voluntary coaching jobs.

I am finally so happy to say that I got my final results back and I have passed!!! The last 2 years have been very tough with completing the course, the lack of time and at times motivation have made it a big struggle. I have had to listen to lectures in the car (I struggle to listen for more than 2 minutes to something so let along 3 hour lectures on topics i am not always interested in), write my assignments late at night or dedicate my entire weekends to completing it. Motivating myself to get out of bed at the weekend when it is cold and dark out can be difficult enough, let alone when you know you have thousands of words to write and even more to read! Completing the course completely distance learning is incredibly difficult!

I am not normally massively proud of myself for anything but completing this course has definitely been a challenge considering the last year. The only down side is that one of the big influences in my life who encouraged me to complete the course is no longer with us and never got to see me complete the course.

This post is mainly here for me to say thank you to everyone who has helped me! My family for their support, my friends for their support (and Martyn who even appeared in one of my assessment videos!), all the coaches and players who took part in my research so that I could complete my assignments and finally my class mates who, despite my moaning and despite never actually meeting each other, kept me going for the whole course even when I wanted to give it up. I currently can’t drink alcohol (so orange juice has been substituted in a nice wine glass) but here’s to you all, thanks for your support, I could never have done it without you! Congratulations to all those who made it to the end, see you at graduation hopefully!

 

Kids CAN do a lot more than you think

Working with the 3-6 year old group at my local club over the last 2 years has been frustrating, tough but so rewarding it’s untrue. It has taught me a lot about what kids and young people CAN do rather than what they can’t. I often hear that coaches of the younger ages try to take over the session or will only let young people run the warm up etc. It’s amazing what they can do if you let them!

I’ve said quite a few times about my young leaders but the 2 I have show me exactly what young people can do when given confidence and freedom. My 2 young coaches (14 & 16yo) run the 3-5 year old age group. Initially I thought I may have to flit between them and the under 6s and make sure they were OK and the sessions ran to the good standard we set at the start. I can safely say I have only had to step in once and even then it was more of a developmental step in rather than taking over. One of my young coaches has now passed their level 1 and I see great potential in both of them to be future leaders. Every week they tell me about the individuals in their group, I rarely get a whole group assumption, they always pull out individuals who have helped their session or who need to be worked with differently and suggest ways of doing this.

My under 6s impress me every week. They can now be told to get into fair teams and set up the pitches which they do brilliantly. Today showed how much they have learned. I had players who could tell me and show me everything we have been working on so far. They have been showing me excellent values (we work heavily on respect and being truthful in the sessions), I regularly get players come to me to tell me the ball came off them so the throw in should go the other way. Today what surprised me was the level of reflection skills they showed, I asked one team to go and have a team talk (and they did and came up with some good tactics!) and another to sit with me and go through tactics. They had some fantastic ideas and reflections, pretty much what I would have said to them if I had led it. The team who went off for q chat came back over at the end rather than messing round too.

I am seriously proud of how everyone is developing within the sessions, players and coaches. For the first year I was tearing my hair out and felt I saw no or little improvement. Now my under 6s show me a level of independence and good learning skills that are better than a lot of older players I have worked with and their football skills and understanding is progressing at a similar rate.

The under 6s will be having their first football matches after Easter for those old enough, and those not will be invited to help coach the team. I can’t wait to see how they react in a new situation!

I hear “they can’t do that yet” so many times, I bet they could if you let them try it a few times!

The biggest lesson I’ve ever learned

With all the driving I do I have plenty of time to think. One thing that cropped up recently was what is the biggest lesson that I have learned that has made the biggest impact to my life.

Such a difficult question to answer as there are lots of big lessons I’ve learned but one stood out. If it isn’t working, don’t waste time moaning about it, do something about it!

We all love a good moan so trying to change this was very difficult. When others around you are moaning or the situation seems really bad then it makes it even harder to try and stay positive and proactive but it is probably the best time to have this attitude.

I don’t know the facts but I’m going to guess that people at the top use this outlook more than most others.

So why is it the “normal” thing to do around others is to moan ant expect others to act rather than suggest solutions and proactively set out to achieve them yourself? The feeling of working out a solution and seeing it in practice is an amazing feeling! It’s addictive and pushes me to find my next challenge. It ties in with the learning theories!

Don’t get me wrong I’m not going round thinking life is perfect but if I come across an issue I (try and) choose to suggest a proactive solution or look at the positive sides to it rather than be miserable about it. It also doesn’t mean that I sit quietly when there are issues, if I think something wont work I will say it, maybe now in more of a diplomatic and productive way than previously. I am still learning (only had this change in thinking in the last 5/6 years – only done it properly in the last 6 months!) and still human and do sometimes complain about things but nowhere near as often and as a result I feel much happier and can see results 😊