THE SESSION
I wrote a book on 3v3. I think the format is brilliant. However, in the book I state, “Do not only play 3v3”.
While I believe in it as a format, I can not believe that any singular format will act as a magic bullet. Football is the art of creating and exploiting spaces (as is futsal, which is why they make such fine bed fellows). While 3v3 is fantastic for players exploiting tight spaces the size of the area restricts the exploitation of space in behind or via the switch of play. Being able to dominate the tight space will draw players in and create more space further away, but there won’t be much space if the area is small.
The decade has brought me to a place where I believe that variety is key. Possibly even more important for player development than the knowledge of the coach. As situations change players have to think, with little to no prompting from the coach. A few well directed and well-pitched questions might be enough. Effective use of questioning remains one of the biggest challenges for coaches, no matter how good a coach thinks they are they can always be better at it. Choices of wording is vital. A who, what, when, where and why approach is a good starting point, but we also need open questions so as not to limit the possibilities. Using “how might” opens up a world of possibilities. Once we get good at this, we then need to get good at how we collect the answers, which is another great challenge. Using questions was something I thought I was good at post Youth Module 1, looking back, I realise that I wasn’t. Especially as it is something, I feel I need to work on now.
When I began, I did believe that I was the key to the development of the players. In some ways I, as the coach, am still the key, just in a very different way. Initially it was my belief that I would pour my knowledge into them. The level 2 style of technique, skill, game was preceded by ball mastery. After two or three years I started to question myself. What is the point of practicing these moves then not using them? The design started to look something like:
Ball mastery
1v1
Main Topic
Technique
Skill
Conditioned Game
Game
This structure worked quite well, but it was a little inflexible. The youth modules kicked in here, with the introduction of whole-part-whole and a carousel/circuit approach. Now my structure is less predictable. Whether that is good or bad is open to interpretation. Maybe it is neither and just is? I will often start with a game as an arrival activity, which is where an opening burst of 3v3 comes into play, no matter the age group. The purely technical/unopposed section is minimal, but I am prepared to increase or introduce a technical section if that is what the players need.
At this moment in time I am equipped with even more options and methods available. I may not have realised but Level 2 introduced me Teaching Games For Understanding and a Constraints Led Approach. The Youth Modules expanded on this, but it was implicit and unconscious. The futsal qualifications also built upon these principles. In ten years, the education has moved more and more to games and play. More play, less talk, less drilling. On the masters course all of these subconscious choices are being dragged into the conscious. Even blogging and writing as actions were subconscious forms of reflection until recently, now they are conscious choices. It might be questioned whether that matters or not? Possibly not if learning occurs, but it might be that by making the reasoning conscious the learning is more directed and effective. My understanding of the players drives the choice of practice, be it opposed, unopposed or another term that is less likely to cause an outbreak of coach civil war.
As I moved to different organisations and different roles, I was able to share this journey with other coaches. Also, able to share with them that I have always wanted to try new things and not been afraid to fall flat. Did I beat myself up about it afterwards? Of course. Do I still beat myself up? Less so, but the answer is still yes. It is less because I have learnt that quite often, even though you as the coach may think it is going wrong, the participants and observers normally do not. Even then, we might be able to embrace what is not working and use it. If the practice is messy, that is fine. What we need to be wary of is the session being too smooth, too in check, this is likely to mean it is too easy and not challenging enough. Chaos is not a bad thing, something I would never have said ten years ago.
THE PLAYERS
Everything I do, I do for them.
Is a lovely mantra, but I am not sure it is always true. As well as wanting to develop players I wanted to be the best coach. I figured that if I was driven to the best coach then that must be a great thing for the players I worked with? Paradoxes abound. Although by being a better coach the players should have a better experience, the subconscious focus would be on me, not them. By shifting that focus to them, I subconsciously became a better coach. The breakthrough moment was to remove the idea “of best” completely, driving my coaching in a different direction.
Another element is that we coaches are human. Just as the players are. Just as the parents are. Which means we are fallible, all fragile and all prone to error, moods and emotions. Perfection is a wonderful but unrealistic state of being, great to aspire to, but worth remembering the impossibility of achieving. When it doesn’t happen, we need to accept it, not overly dwell on it. Not until we have machines filling these functions and even then, they won’t be perfect.
Originally it was my job to make them perfect. To change their behaviours, because their behaviours were wrong. I was the master corrector. Within my level 2 journey I realised that although I was having some success with players improvements the players were not enjoying it. The “stop, stand still” alienated the players. It still does, but it is now spared for only when it is needed. I discovered the method was causing damage in a very simple and obvious way, the reactions of the players every time they heard the word “stop”, especially if the ball was in play. I thus learned to allow a phase of play to complete before addressing a matter (unless the reason for stopping is really important and appropriate for the age). When on my futsal level 2 course this habit almost undid me. In a fifteen-minute assessment the first play of the game took almost 2 minutes to complete, it was noted by the assessor that a slight look of panic was creeping across my face. Fortunately, what I was doing was appreciated as being a good habit, even though it ate into my time.
No matter their age, players want to play. If we can hide their learning inside play the likelihood is that their buy in will be greater. Some will accept that stopping the play is to help them improve, but they will always be reluctant. As the context of the players moves from sampling to participation to performance (and if we are fortunate, elite) the players are more likely to be open to regular correction, but that still does not mean they will like it.
Understanding context is vital. Some coaches are better at then others. I have seen very good coaches lose their group because their demands have been too high of groups of kids who just want to play football. Not all kids are interested in improvement and some will feel that the way they will improve is by playing more games. Whether they are right or wrong is beside the point, especially in a grassroots environment, not if a demanding approach drives them away. Our job is to keep them in the game, not push them out. I have been fortunate enough to work with players across various contexts. From U8 to U18 to adult men and women. Of utmost importance, alongside understanding their context, is time. Not how long the individual session is, but how many sessions a week they have attached to a particular organisation. The more sessions with one organisation (club) they have, the more they will feel a part of it, developing a bond and connection, especially if they see the same faces. The number of sessions can have an impact of what we prioritise within practices and also what the players are willing to partake in. With multiple sessions the more explicit coaching the players will be open to without the prospect of losing their commitment, though that is not say that they will not still want or need to play!
What brings players back? I have been fortunate. For the last seven seasons I have worked with the same group of players. When I moved grass roots clubs in 2012 I was given a group of under 15s. This group of players were a great lesson to me. I came in blind but as the season progressed I learned about the group and what had happened in the previous season. This group were playing in the top division of the grassroots league, a notoriously hard nosed division. It was a very tough season in which we won only one game. I preached to them about performances and looking for fair game time to little effect. Once the circumstances of the previous season came to light it was apparent where the problems came from. The team was artificially in the wrong division. The previous season the team had performed quite well for half a season, but then players left, a few went to academies, a few left the area. Their form dipped dramatically to the extent where they had to win the last game of the season to stay up. This was achieved, but only by drafting in the players who had left just so they could stay up. Players who would never play for the club again. Thus the season started with half a team missing and players drafted in to play at an inflated level. The players possibly learned a lot from this experience, but what they learned must have been applied elsewhere as come the end of the season this team disbanded. The experience was valuable to me, as whenever two teams join together and have a choice of divisions my advice is to go for the lower division, it might cause some problems during the season, but the likelihood of still having a team at the end of the season is massively increased.
During that first season we lost the coach of the under 12s. As my team trained on a week night and the 12s trained on Saturday morning I began to take their training. I had no idea that we would be together until the team reached under 18. Over the years players would come and go, but on the whole the core of the group remained. In fact, the core of the group made it from under 7 to under 18 together. Players came in from elsewhere, normally because they had friends at the club already but also because they were unhappy at their old club. Generally, that amounted to “not getting on with their manager”.
In some respects we had a perfect storm. I came to the team at the right time for me. I was also the right coach for them, as they had gone through a coach a season up to that point. The final element was the parents. I was very clear from the start about what my aims and objectives were. Fortunately they all bought in and they were positive throughout. Of course they occasionally shouted things out but over such a long time everyone slips. As mentioned before, we are only human.
The cliché at this point is that we have been on a journey together. Of course we have, if you have been with a group of people for seven years you are bound to build up a body of experiences and stories there are too many to detail in full but there are a few significant stories worth recanting. I will avoid using the players names, as I have not asked their permission.
Positions of players has been a contentious issue in youth football. Players can end up pigeon holed and one dimensional, through no fault of their own. Or, they can get it into their own minds that they only play in a specific position. A player who used to come to one of my drop in sessions came in early one day. He told me that he had been asked to take part in a trial game for a pro-club. He would have been around 13 years old at the time. This was great news, but he had a problem, they told him that he was expected to play at right back in the game. He told me he had never played right back before and needed help. I spent the next 30 minutes giving him a crash course in how to play right back. I would not expect a player going into an academy at this moment in time to be pushed into a specific role, particularly one they have never played in, but it does serve to show the importance of giving players a wide range of experiences.
With the players who made it through to under 18 two players had been pigeon holed at their previous clubs. “R” had been pushed into the right back role, “G” had played as a holding midfielder. They both arrived at under 14. R had a particularly difficult first season coming in, struggling with attendance and motivation. He was very quiet and we had to be extremely patient, as he made sporadic appearances on the wings. Only once the season had finished did he start coming to the fore in a series of friendlies. R began playing as a striker and goals started to flow, as they would for the coming seasons. R has had difficulties with receiving advice, sometimes giving the impression that he sees the coach as an enemy, rather than someone trying to help. He has also at times had certain ideas about his own playing style (playmaking winger, goalscoring and creating number 10) which have complicated his progress but now at 18 he can be a source of goals at a decent level of the game, just what level that will end up, who knows? One thing is for sure, he has a precious commodity, goals, which we may never have known about if he had stayed in his right back pigeon hole.
G surprised me. He came to his first training session and displayed some exciting dribbling moves during a 1v1 section. His first match he started as a right winger. At the end of the game his friends in the squad came to me and said that G played central midfield for his last team. This lead to a conversation between G and I during which he told me that he played in front of the back four, with instructions to play two touch. I was shocked. We decided that G would play as a central midfielder but he would not play two touch. I asked him to go at opponents at every opportunity, dribbling at them through the middle of the pitch. As time went by he moved to an attacking midfield position, then to right wing back before finally settling back on to the right wing. G is a match winner, who will sometimes hold onto the ball too long and sometimes miss passes, but it is worth it for when he gets it right.
Other players have journeyed from attack to defence and in some cases the development has been natural. At under 12 H was the teams best attacking player. He had an excellent long shot and could take people on. He started as an attacking midfielder. At the same time T was providing a solid base in front of the defence, doing this of his own accord. As time passed, T began making forward runs rather than sitting. When this happened H dropped in and covered, without any instruction from me. Through his own intelligence and game understanding H had turned himself into a holding midfielder, able to spot gaps left by full backs going forward, centre backs dribbling out or spaces being vacated by other midfielders. I take no credit for the change, he did it himself. At under 12 his teammates voted him player of the year as an attacker, at under 16 his teammates voted him player of the year as a defensive player.
Under 12, 13 and 14 are challenging ages physically. Players are changing but changing in different ways and at different speeds. For M he made just such a change. At under 12 he was not a very good player. He was a somewhat squat, slow, right footed left back. Over the summer he grew, became much leaner and much faster. He still played at left back to begin with but he was now getting forward a lot. Before his physical transformation one of his upsides was his confidence and creativity with the ball in training. Post transformation that manifested in matches, with cheeky and risky moves. Intriguingly the other players noticed the jump in his improvements before I did. I overheard them discussing the season and name M as the best player up to that point in the season. I had not seen it like that, but once they pointed it out it was blindingly obvious. That summer he was looked at by a scout for a pro club while playing as an attacker at a tournament. I then arranged for him to go to a pro club much closer to home for a trial. He never turned up. His confidence was not there yet. His improvements continued, going from right footed left back, to left winger, to centre forward, to a player who could quite literally perform in every position at a very high level. Unfortunately, he still has issues with commitment and focus, if he can conquer those he still might be able to reach the pro ranks. The example of M is one that I look at when people talk about predicting player development. If at under 12 someone had said to me that M would become the best player in his age group within 2 seasons I would have told them they were mad, but that is exactly what happened.
Coaching the game is only one of our roles. During a game at under 16 this was really nailed down to me. In simplified terms T had a melt down. He absolutely lost the plot. Shouting, screaming and crying. Midway through the half he stormed off. I made the sub signal and went to him. One of the subs was in charge of the team, while I followed to the position about 20 yards behind the opposition goal. Tears were streaming down Ts face. He was still furious, but he didn’t know what he was furious about. I told him that if he needed to shout at me he could, I could take it, but I needed to know what was wrong. For twenty minutes we stood there. A lot of things came out around anger issues that I had no idea about, especially as he was normally the nicest of kids. His parents weren’t aware of what was happening, and we decided to speak to them together. Eventually the half time whistle went, and we re-joined the group. The captain was giving a team talk, so I went to speak with the referee about what had happened. I also spoke to the opposition manager about what was going on. Both the referee and manager were happy for T to play in the second half. After 10 minutes he went on as wide player. A few minutes later he scored, I called him over to the side-line and hugged him. I will always remember the drama of the moment, the revelation of a personal issue and the way we got from a place where it looked like T was going into a very dark place to the joy on his face after scoring. After the game one of the parents talked to me about walking away from the team to deal with it, it was talked about as a positive, the parent said that a lot of coaches wouldn’t have done that. I did what I thought was right, but also, I had always said that I wanted the players to not need me, that they should be able to function without me. The players were smart enough and experienced enough to take control, and in the u17 and u18 years I had to miss more of their games due to futsal commitments. I had no concerns; they could take care of themselves.
During their under 17 season half a dozen of the players went on a level 1 course. The club and I wanted to leave a legacy, hoping that these players would come back at some point in the future as coaches. Two or three of them did come in and help coaches but were slightly hampered because sometimes coaches are not the best at working with assistants. One of the players who went on the course and did help out started to show more of an interest in coaching than playing. Which is perfectly fine, except that I wondered why that was? All of the stories relayed have been positive, but I don’t think this is a positive story. I think I let D player down. Though his enthusiasm was clearly waning, I don’t think I helped. From under 16 he had missed a number of games and when he came back, he came back as sub. I have seen other players leave, one player I knew was only coming because his parents wanted him to do something active with his friends, so I worked round that. Another player decided to prioritise rugby. I was asked to have a chat with him and my chat was “I hear you are enjoying football less than before and want to focus on rugby”. He answered that was correct. “Do what you need to do, I would love you to stay but I will not attempt to force you to stay. If you want to play rugby, play rugby. Just remember that there is always a place for you here”. He left but a few years later came back for a game or two. I was at peace with both of these players when they left. I was not at peace with D leaving. I still feel that I could have done more. Even amongst great successes we all still have failures.
I have dwelled on this group because I am very aware that it is over. I will not see many of them ever again. They have always been a challenging group. Prior to me taking them on they went through coaches at a rate of more than one per season. They were my project for the FA Youth Award and even now when I see my assessor, he remember the group. One of the reasons they have been challenging is that they are full of character, strong will and think for themselves. All traits I sought to encourage rather than quash. They stretched me and I had to learn a great deal because of them. At times I wanted to leave them for other groups but time formed string binds and I couldn’t leave them, just as many of them felt they couldn’t leave me, or each other. Sentiment is not one of my traits but I will miss them.
It has always puzzled me that coaches push to work with the older age groups. The more qualified and experienced the coach is the more likely they are to be working with older players, and the more likely it is that this is their wish. Yet, if we are truly serious about developing players our most knowledgeable and capable coaches need to be attached to the young players. Until very recently I had not practiced what I had preached. Not because of any choice of my own, but because I had often been handed teams playing 11v11. This past season I have spent most of my time coaching younger players. At the development centre I was asked to take the under 8s and then at the grassroots club I took over training for the under 8s. These two groups have provided great enjoyment. Their enthusiasm and the purity of the football being played has been refreshing after so many years with older ages. This year at a tournament there was a very rare event. The two teams I coached faced each other. We filed the game and clipped together a highlights package. Both sets of players displayed the attitude of risk taking I attempted to foster. If I get to work with either set of players for half as long as I did the 18s I will be very lucky indeed.