Sport and coaching will forever be filled with debate. Should we focus on this area? Are we doing enough of this? Should we discourage that? These debates are generally healthy and help push learning and understanding forward.
The development of young footballers is a particularly ferociously debated area, particularly as people become wedded to certain approaches. They will defend and fight for them with a religious zeal worthy of the Crusades. Heavy technical focus. One versus one. Games for understanding. Coaching the principles of play. Overcoaching. Undercoaching. Freedom. Versatility. Specialisation. Debate heaped upon fervent debate.
This is just the playing side of the story. It is a bigger picture. Underneath that little footballer there is a member of the human race with a huge amount of growing to do. Much of it under their parents guidance, some from their teachers and a small but precious chunk from you, their coach. There is a collective responsibility to provide core values or at the very least, not encourage poor behaviours. A debate exists in this area, outside of the core debate of how to create better footballers.
As coaches there is a further area of responsibility. The statistics show us that there is a less than 1% chance of becoming a professional footballer. There is a far greater chance that the young person you are coaching will become a coach, professional or otherwise. The goal for coaches has to be to give the players the tools to play at the highest level they possibly can. That is a wonderful triumph. It is no less of a triumph if they become a coach.
But what kind of coach?
The realm of football management is littered with lineage. The great managers spawn their own family trees of managers and coaches. Partially because clubs are keen to tap into the reflective glory of having a successful player as their coach but also because they have sat under the learning tree of men with a great deal of footballing knowledge. The two great footballing dynasties of English football have spawned many managers. The Liverpool sides of Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish. Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United teams providing numerous managers of the last 20 years. There is also the twisted lineage of Michels/Cruyff/Robson. Then Marcelo Bielsa, fittingly, has own special type of lineage. It is worth noting who certain players have had as their manager (something I looked at in this piece http://www.pger.net/football/2013/05/31/frank-lampard-and-the-renaissance/) as it may offer clues about their possible future.
The grassroots coach has his or her own personal lineage. It is far off into the distance and can be difficult to see, but it is there. Perhaps more so in this era than ever. For many of the current generation of coaches they will remember very little of the coaching they received as a young player. Possibly because they received very little. In my case I certainly remember very little beyond some games of attack versus defence and five a sides. It might be that the coaching I received was particularly poor, or it might be because of how little real coaching I actually received. My belief is that it was the latter.
My first influences into the way that I now coach came (and still come) from other coaches or coach educators. Not from people who coached me as there weren’t any. The first regular contact I had with coaches was as a coach.
Compare this to the modern football environment for a young player. The vast majority of their football will be played with a coach present. Their first impressions of what a coach is will come at a very early age, sometimes even as young as 4 or 5. These kids may not remember what their coaches do at such an early stage but if they remain in the game (which is the goal) until 15 and more it is highly likely that they will.
We are imprinting them.
The group if players that I coach are now under 17, I have coached them for 5 years. Six recently took and passed their FA Level 1 coaching course. I spoke to a few of them during the course and when it came to practices one of them admitted “We basically copied your sessions”. The tutors seemed happy with what they had done. Great!
This set me thinking. What else had they copied? What if my sessions looked different? The players could have developed in an environment where line drills were the norm. Or goalkeepers were ignored. Fortunately my sessions seemed to provide enough of a picture that was acceptable to an FA tutor. I told the players that I hoped they would develop to a stage where they did more than copy my sessions.
Here is the beginnings of my lineage. We all have one. I have witnessed the pride that other coaches take when seeing their former players delivering coaching sessions. The sessions might not be perfect but they can see that the values behind the delivery are aligned with their own. I felt this myself in recent weeks. First when my players witnessed an opposition coach behaving in a loud and rude manner. My players described him as “a disgrace” and “a joke”. The second when two of the boys were thrown unexpectedly into a coaching session with some under 7s. They coped admirably. The feedback from the parents was excellent. My heart swelled. More so than for any on pitch performance they had given.
Before this group I had another set of players. I spent three years with them. Sadly I have no contact with any of them, for all I know my lineage may actually have started earlier with those boys. If it did I can only hope that I provided them with an environment that encourages players to express themselves and develop. That my core values and principles are compatible with the modern game and will help give my generation a strong platform to go and create a generation of their own.
I hope you have too.