MATCH DAY
Only working at 11v11 meant that I did not experience the variety I needed as a coach for a very long time, only dipping into smaller formats during training or at summer tournaments. Upon reflection this remarkable to me, as I am an advocate for smaller formats, believing that 3v3 holds more benefit for under 7 and under 8, with 5v5 coming in for the under 9s, essentially moving the current format graduations back by two seasons. There were two watershed moments which led to me regularly coaching formats lesser than 11v11. The first one came when I enrolled on the Futsal UEFA B, meaning that a form of 5v5 would be under intense focus. The second came when I started working at the Brentford development centre, regular involvement in the games programme meant regular experiences at 5v5, 6v6, 7v7, 8v8 and 9v9.
No matter the format, the key principles of the game do not change. The width and depth may be over shorter distances in small sided forms when compared to 11v11 or even 9v9 but those principles still apply, along with the other principles of play. The younger the players the less we are likely to want to explicitly burden them with the details of the principles, though they should bleed through in our practices. At its core football is about attackers exploiting/creating space and defenders restricting/denying space. Individuals, units and teams then will find ways to do that, whichever format we play.
Tactically I originally based the team shape around 4-3-3. After all, the Future Game outlined that we should all be playing 4-3-3. A lifetime of influences went into these tactical choices, my personal preference has always been for three at the back and wing backs, but I would not force that onto a group of players without practice. Experience and education eventually taught me that the formation was less important than the team shape, at least when it came to being in possession. The 3-4-3, 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, all look very similar. A large kite or diamond shape, with variations in the number of wide players or number of forward players. Eventually my own philosophy regards formation is one of flexibility. However, many they have in midfield, ensure you have one more. However, many they have in attack, ensure you have one more. Have at least one player in wide positions. Whatever is left provides the number of strikers the team will player with. This idea has to work in conjunction with the players you have available and the learning opportunities.
These ideas filter down through the formations, subtracting from 11v11 to help generate formations in smaller sided formats that will have relevance when the players reach 11v11. Flexibility in formation when combined with players rotating positions should help provide players with ample opportunity for differing and enriching experiences.
Rarely is the tactical choice mine alone. I recall a lengthy debate about three at the back at under 14. I wanted the players to give it a try, a few of them were dead set against it while some were keen. A compromise was reached with a back three used in the first half and a back four in the second half. At the very least we would be difficult for the opposition to read. After a few months the back three was dropped entirely. Until the next season when the personnel available made it a logical choice. Three at the back became a part of the team’s playbook on an ad hoc basis. By the time the group reached under 16 they had three formations that they could easily shift between.
My style on match day has always been to try to keep calm. In my first season I was far more animated than I am now, but even then, it was noted that I had a calm manner on the side line. Not having a child on the pitch has helped with that. The emotional pull is not as strong. Perspective has always been a strength in my own character. I have always understood that whatever happens it is only a game of football (or futsal). There are far more impactful happenings in the world to become emotionally wrapped up in. The added bonus of thinking in this way is we can actually think during the action, concerning ourselves with what we might do next, rather than wasting energy on refereeing decisions. I have never seen the point in barracking the referee, generally all that will achieve is an annoyed referee, which is unlikely to help. I can only think of three times when I have clashed with a referee. Once when a referee was being assessed and he was overly picky with kit, my words to him were “right now these boys think you are trying to stop them from playing a game of football, you are setting up problems where there weren’t any”. The other was when a referee decided to lecture me about substitutions unnecessarily, which led me to question whether referees are educated in player development. The final occasion happened during the 18/19 season and incredibly high winds. A tree was blown over in the car park before the game. Neither set of coaches or parents thought we should be playing, yet the referee insisted the game would go ahead. A terrible time was had by all. Three in ten years is not bad, though of course zero would be better.
Staying calm on the side permeates into the players and into the parents. Of course they are not as calm as myself and they react differently to incidents, particularly incidents of violence. Or racism. The conduct of parents and coaches in grassroots football is always going to be a subject for debate. I have witnessed several incidents, but not nearly as many as I have heard about. There are abundant horrible tales, but I can only really talk about my own experiences. From what I have seen things are not as bad as can be made out on social media platforms. By far the most common offence is abuse of the referee. I have never witnessed physical abuse of the referee and very rarely has the referee been called anything offensive. What is common is players, parents and coaches questioning decisions with regularity and suggesting that the referee is useless/biased. Yes, we have had referees who are not great, but I would still rather they were out there refereeing than I had to do it. It is grassroots football, there is every chance that the referees will not be world class and will get things wrong. Just as the players, parents and coaches will get things wrong. How screaming at the referee will help, I do not comprehend. Just as screaming at players will not help. I can only consider one reason why adults do either of these things. The W word.
Winning is responsible for many of the actions taken by coaches and many of the undesirable behaviours of parents (and coaches). There is no doubt that the players have great desire to win and we should never take that away from them. What may need to be checked is the lengths which people are willing to go to in order to win a game between children. There are short cuts to victory, but these short cuts can cut out learning and development opportunities. By constantly instructing players we may be increasing their chances of winning a specific game, but we are restricting their decision making by taking the decisions away from them, treating the players kike puppets. Only by making choices that succeed and fail can they progress. My belief has always been that I am not concerned about whether they are winning or not at under 10, it is whether they are winning or not at under 21.
At a coach’s meeting a few years ago I asked the question “Is it our job to win games of football?” The only roles I have had in which my job was to win football matches have been in the adult game. At under 16-18 we made decisions that would help us win games, but it wasn’t our job. Especially at under 18, where the social corner had completely overtaken everything else. With so much going on in their lives, it was a social club and I had no problem with that at all. It met their needs. Which is definitely our job. Supplying the players with the building blocks to enjoy the game for as long as possible at as high a level as they are able.
Our job as coaches is not to threaten young players. One of the most shocking moments I have witnessed is a grown man threatening a 16 year old boy with the line “wind your neck in or I’ll wind it in for you”. The 16 year old boy, perhaps unsurprisingly, reacted in a testosterone filled manner and my energies were directed into pushing him away from the offending adult. The adult who at the end of the game attempted to shake the player’s hand, not surprisingly the player refused the offer. The incident was reported to the league. There may have been a fine, but for certain the same adult was coaching that team the next time we played them. If it had been our club he would have been removed from his position, never to be seen again. When the behaviour has been bad, it has been disgraceful.
Such as the time I had to substitute a player because he was in tears. He asked me to come off and when I asked him what had happened I could see the tears running down his face. It took a few minutes before he felt able to tell me that he had been racially abused. My response was to have a quiet word with their manager, who assured me that his player in question “was not like that”. The manager then came to my player and told him the same thing and he must be mistaken. I was assured that it had most definitely had happened. At the end of the game, I spoke to the referee who told me he had not heard anything but would include it in his report. I spoke to the manager again and he repeated what he had said before, this time beginning to lose patience. Some nearby parents chimed in that “it never happened”. All of which made it worse for this young player, around 14 years old. We retreated from pitch side and left the area, all of us somewhat distraught. We decided to do things the right way and report the incident to the league. To our knowledge nothing happened to the offending club. This is the only incidence of racism in a grass roots game that I have witnessed (though I have witnessed many more in school) but this one is too many.
Aside from the disgraceful nature of the incidents they have another commonality, the lack of decisive action from the authorities. Neither incident is minor, yet there were no ramifications. No attempt to educate the offenders. This from a league in which you can be fined for the ringing the doorbell of the league secretary. It is tempting to suggest that their priorities are in the wrong place. It might be suggested that changing league would be the solution, but other leagues have presented other difficulties. I do not wish to tar all leagues, because I know that there are many very good leagues, they just do not appear to be those I have entered youth teams into. It is questionable whether youth football really needs leagues, all they need are fixtures, but one of the great problems of a long and proud history can be that effecting change becomes harder to achieve. Being the change we want to be is a fine piece of advice, but it can be difficult to change many things at once. Perhaps this will make a fine target for the next ten years of coaching?
The youngest age groups would be a fine place to start. I have considered withdrawing the association of the under 7 and under 8 teams with the local leagues. I can predict each season what will happen. The first game of the season will be a 5v5 game on a pitch that is far too big for these small children against a team who have a little more of an idea of what they are doing. I have taken the new under 7s for their first game in the last two seasons, each time the pattern has been the same. I have watched them play a warm up game in the penalty area and thought “this is a big enough pitch for them, never mind the whole pitch”. With ten to fifteen minutes to go until kick off I check with them if they know the rules, they do not. They do not know about kick off to restart the game, they do not know about goal kicks or corners. Some do not even know about handball. The first game becomes about learning the rules as the opposition run riot and notch somewhere between eight and eighteen goals. The exercise is quite pointless and they would benefit far more from much smaller games. I am aware that 5v5 is a maximum, not a minimum, but I am not sure all coaches are aware of this or the flexibility in the FA regulations. Leagues (or perhaps even the FA) need to make this explicit. I have proposed to form our own weekly festival days, in which the games are monitored and can be adapted as desired, ensuring all players get the opportunity to play a format of the game that is both challenging and encouraging. I am hopeful that it will not be too far away.
LEGACY
Without wishing to be grandiose, I am conscious that as a coach I will have left a legacy. Hopefully a trail of positivity lays behind me, but as I have tried to illustrate before, not everything we touch can be golden. The more coaching we do, the more lives we have an impact on, the extent of that impact will vary. To some the coach will just be that person they see once a week when they are kicking ball, to others the coach will be that guru and guiding light. As coaches we can never quite be sure which we are and can be guilty of under estimating our influence as well as under estimating it.
It would be expected that a group with a seven year connection to the coach would pick up some influences. When the players went on to their level one course they told me that they had essentially copied and pasted sessions that they had done with me. Fortunately the sessions were well received and they passed. As coaches we are far more likely to be producing the next generation of football coaches than the next generation of professional footballers. When coaches start on their journey the most likely thing for them to do is to replicate sessions they have been involved in as players. With this in mind we need to set them the example.
At times the influence we have can be less expected. Human brains can be unpredictable, especially pertaining to what resonates. We just never know what is going to be retained. I have had a kid come to me and say “do you remember saying to me….?” The answer was no, I had no recollection. The kid was one who I had coached for three days at a summer camp. I had never seen them prior to that only seen them a few times since, but in that limited amount of contact time they remembered my words. As difficult as it can be, we need to choose our words carefully. I was asked to come in and deliver a session as a guest coach for a team before a cup final. The session focused on goalscoring, but one term stuck with them (and the coach who asked me to help). The term was “shit goals”. For months they talked about scoring “shit goals”, and the coach recently sent me a graphic of Bas Dost talking about the scoring a lot of “shit goals”. You never know what will stick.
Of course that language was used with adult players. It would be quite safe to suggest that I have had a lesser impact on adult players than on young players. Adults are generally less connected to their coaches than children. During the season I coach seven days a week most weeks. During the week coaching in schools, colleges and at development centres. At the weekend I work with grassroots clubs. Plus holiday camps and other miscellaneous work. I mention this to help calculate the number of young people I have had contact with. A conservative calculation would put the number at around 3,000 children in ten years. For some of those the contact would have been more prolonged than others. At school particularly there are children who I have coached their class every week for multiple years. This year I was present on the last day of school for a year six class. Tears and hugs were bountiful. I always got lots of comments about “the best coach”, I always shrugged those off, generally assuming they wanted something or saying to them that I was the only coach they’d had and didn’t have anything to compare to. I stated before that when I started coaching my objective was to be that best coach, but in the end I didn’t care about that. I just wanted them to have a meaningful experience in my lessons and still love sport by the end of their primary school journey. Or at the very least, not hate sport and not hate me for inflicting sport upon them.
All is not rosy in the school sport garden. I have seen some wonderful things happen in school sport, but I have also seen some less wonderful things. Young footballers who are struggling being made to play on a full size pitch (it still happens). A secondary school stating privately that they would only enter teams into the cup competitions if they thought the teams had a strong chance of winning the competition. Some questionable coaching from teachers (though this is not necessarily the fault of their teachers, they are subject to the vagaries of their own education). Lastly, the issue of how much time children spend in PE lessons will not go away. Sport remains the first thing that will be cut in favour of play rehearsals or exam practice. In ten years I have seen little to no improvement on the whole.
I would not be leaving any sort of mark without the organisations I have worked for. I spent the first seven years of my professional coaching life working with Rachel Yankey. I can never thank or praise her enough for giving me an opportunity. I was also very fortunate that her principles for coaching chimed with my ideals. The last few years have been spent with Brentford Community Trust, where the opportunities to impact with young people have been huge.
At grassroots level I have spent the last seven seasons at Old Actonians Youth. The first three as assistant head coach, the last four as head coach. I have been responsible for the coaching team, the club philosophy, equipment, coach education etc, etc, etc. Thus, I have had an influence on parents, players and coaches across the age groups. Sometimes they do not realise it, but all the documents regards philosophy and behaviour that they have read have been written by me. I don’t know how successful or not this has been, it may take another ten years to work out. At the least what I know is that the documents encourage freedom to play and freedom to make their own choices, but also give coaches the freedom to use their own judgement with regards the needs of the players. What I do know is that I have been very fortunate to work with some excellent coaches. They come and go, as their lives and needs change. As much as I may have had some influence on them, they have certainly influenced me. We have fostered an environment where it is safe to exchange ideas (even though I would like to create more time to do this). I have adopted an outlook whereby I do not want to be looking over people’s shoulders all the time. I made the hires, I need to back my own judgement and let them get on with it. I am there if they need me. By and large this is not very often, the quality has been excellent. Coaches who have worked at the club are involved in tutoring with the FA and some have gone on to make careers in the professional game. I can only hope that more do so. Even if that means I need means I need to hunt for more coaches.
My development has also taken me into the world of tutoring with the FA, exposing me to further influences. During the first year of my masters a conversation with a tutor revealed a trait about myself. I take risks. I try new things. Our first task was to write a blog, which is no risk for me. However, I decided to turn a twitter conversation into a blog entry. There was hardly any prose, but a huge number of clippings. No one else had dared write anything like it. The second task was to deliver a session and then record a track explaining in academic terms why we had chosen to deliver in that manner. I chose a session in the video games design approach style, as championed by Amy Price. This style was new to me and it was only the second time I had tried it. This masters is the first one of it’s type in the country, so it was something of a risk to get involved. This was also the case with the Futsal UEFA B. I received an invitation to get involved with the pilot course and took it up. I may not be the best, but I am often amongst the first.
Coach education provides another sphere of influence. Coaching the coaches is quite the responsibility, which must mean that educating the coach educators is even more of a responsibility. These are the people that rarely get any recognition for steering coach development in a positive direction, people like Ian Bateman and Kim Hyde. Their knowledge and ideas trickle down. Which also means that when I deliver a coaching course my knowledge (or lack of it, according to some) will also trickle down. However, just like with young children my job is to inspire the coaches to find out more and learn more on their own. Learning and ideas can come from anywhere. I have been influenced by art, music, documentaries about bubbles, curiosity in everything is key, nuggets can come from anywhere.
We coaches are the lighters of sparks. This must be our biggest legacy, that we ignite a fire in others to go on and achieve great things. We may never know the role we play, we may never even realise who we have influenced.
Which is part of the point of writing this. It is mainly for myself, to reflect and think. Despite the length of the article it is far from comprehensive, merely select points. I cannot possibly mention the full myriad of people who have played a role in my journey, influencing and guiding, some without their knowledge. Safe to say that if we have had significant and memorable interaction you can assume to have had some impact. These points may well resonate with a reader and if they help one person in their coaching journey then it has been worth writing. The same applies to my social media posts and the 3v3 book I wrote. Of course the more people these things go out to the more chance they have of helping, but it may only take one moment of connection to make an impact. Ninety nine people may cast it aside, dismissing this as nonsense, but the hundredth may grasp hold and be grateful that someone bothered. That is more enough for me.
It should also be more than enough for you. Remember the opportunity to impact that you have as a coach, and also remember that even if you can’t impact everyone, it is worth it for the few that you do. You might be surprised just who you connect with.