Did you coach them that?
I was asked this question many years ago during my FA Level 2. Five players were playing a small sided game with a long passing topic. The team I was coaching (remember, we only coach one team, we manage the other) strung together a beautiful flowing move which ended with sweet finish. I responded with enthusiastic praise, as did those watching.
Post session the tutor mentioned the move and the goal.
“Did you coach them that?”
I said no, it wasn’t my topic.
“So why did you draw attention to it?”
I often wonder what I have actually coached (or taught) the players?Contextually I have worked and do work across various age groups and varying abilities, with varying amounts of contact time.
With the older groups of players it is plain to see when they produced a move that we have developed in game. Or when the team shape is as rehearsed. However, when a player plants a finish into the top corner, have I taught them that? When a young player dazzles with a piece of trickery, have I taught them that?
Perhaps more important a question is does it matter? Does it matter if I taught them anything that specific?
The idea of teaching or coaching an action into players is only really important if we cling to the idea of players being empty vessels for us to fill. That all of their learning is dependent on the knowledge of the educator. In reality it is far more likely that coaches will show young players something that they may or may not be able to incorporate into their repertoire (with adult players and games plans this is a distinctly different matter). Moves, methods, techniques can be seen as suggestions and possibilities that could help, but are certainly never the only way, the only solution. A range of possibilities.
Where do these possibilities come from? No single answer could possibly answer this. Unless we accept anywhere and everywhere as an answer. Every player is different with their own learning path. One aspect may smoothly improve in a single session, another may take several years to fall into place, another skill might develop through observation, another through coach led assistance, while another skill arrived through pure experimentation. Or, more likely, a combination of all of these factors and many more piled on top.
Did I coach them that?
Who can say? Possibly. Possibly not. To me it doesn’t matter. What is far more important is that I provided an opportunity for them to practice their skills and have accesses to as many diverse experiences as possible, building the banks of information in their memories to draw upon as and when required. Playing experiences created by practice design, game design and format variance. Learning experiences that may be self driven, peer driven or even coach driven. All can have value but not all will have value to all players. No one will know what holds value for them until they have sampled them. Even then we will struggle to tell which has had the greater impact. Yet, my instincts tell me that a large part of the reason that I have had players who are good finishers is simply because I have used goals and practices involving goals as much as possible.
So did I coach them that?
I know I gave them the opportunity. I may have implicitly coached them in more cases than I explicitly coached them.
Does it actually matter? They did it.