The Confidence Killers and the PIP Method

Developing confidence in players is one of the simplest ways to succeed as a coach.  Confident players perform well.  Scared players don't.  Players at all levels need confidence.  Screaming at players and sitting them on the bench are not great ways to develop confidence in youth players.

I have witnessed far too many coaches kill players' confidence.  A player comes to a team and its coach as a little bundle of potential.  They are the star of their AYSO team.  They score load of goals, dribble people, have an attitude that nothing can stop them.  They smile and you can tell they love playing soccer.

A player who came to a team this way, but consistently gets beaten down or consistently plays 10% of a game loses confidence and over time, becomes just a shadow of themselves.  As parents we expect so much from our kids and push them harder to return to their former glory days.  The child, typically a perfectionist, high performing individual starts to feel like they have lost it and that they are not good enough.  The parents push them to try harder.  The coach gets frustrated and tells them to focus and try harder.  The player gets worse and worse until they can't possibly do anything right.  Coaches and many parents then write the player off.  They've lost it.  They weren't that good after all.

All players should be playing nearly equal minutes (I will dedicate a whole blog to this soon).  I am sure that most people will take issue with this, but think about it.  You picked the players.  You trained the players.  Yet, you sit a handful of them the majority of games.  You never start them and you beat them down and pull them out when they inevitably screw up.  Who?  Me?  Nah?  Really?  Sadly, I watch this game in and game out, every season on nearly every team.  The worst part is that often it is on teams that are losing a lot of games.  Just play your players.  Give them a chance.  Try them in different positions.  They might just surprise you.

You picked the kids.  Play them.  They aren't up to snuff?  Train them better.  You are the coach.  Take responsibility.  Develop them and make them better.  At practice teach them what they need to know and encourage them.  Positive coaching is key.

Coaches and parents.  We cannot beat kids down and cannot tolerate it.  Especially in players under the age of 13.  They need to feel like they can do anything and everything. They need to be free to make mistakes and learn from them. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to belittle players at any level. At the younger ages it is unconscionable.

Forget for a second that it is just flat out wrong to beat down and belittle a child in your care.

As a practical matter, it is just poor coaching from a competitive standpoint.  Teams with confident, well trained players perform at a high level than teams with a coach who beats the players down and yells at them constantly.  For your own sake, coaches, learn to be positive.  Learn to trust your players to be free and creative.  To make mistakes and learn from them.

If you can't be positive, keep your mouth shut on the sidelines.  Better yet, coach players who are sitting next to you or coach players off the ball.

Tell these kids good things they do.  "Great shot.  Keep shooting!"  "Yes!  I love it!"  Yes - I know you want to tell him the shot should have been on frame.  You want to groan and moan and say, "you need to turn your hips more and keep your head down"...or whatever.  Don't.  Make a mental note, or better yet, jot it down and work on it at practice.  For now, just be positive.

If you really have to correct them, use the PIP method.  Positive.  Information.  Positive.

Positive: Great job of striking the ball hard!
Information:  Make sure you square your hips to the goal.
Positive: Keep up the good work!  I love the effort!

Don't be a confidence killer.  These kids are brimming with confidence when they come to you.  All you really have to do is not mess it up.


Some resources on this subject:

One Sports Mom’s Success Story: Dealing with a Bully Coach

http://www.youthsportspsychology.com/youth_sports_psychology_blog/?p=1505

Six Things Parents Should Say to Their Player

http://www.soccercoachingnotes.com/coaching/mental/six-things-parents-should-say.html


Build Confidence and Paths to Success
http://www.insideyouthsports.org/2010/04/build-confidence-and-paths-to-success.html

Performance Evaluations

I have heard a lot over the years about player evaluations.  Most coaches would rather not deal with them.  They take time and coaches are often afraid of upsetting a parent by being honest.  The truth is, that thoughtful player evaluations are critical to the success of players and coaches should be providing feedback to players and their parents regarding their expectations and what they need to work on to improve as well as all of the good things they do.

Just as important, I believe is that coaches be evaluated, and DOC's be evaluated to ensure that everyone is performing at a high level and that the players are benefiting from the best possible training environment.

Coaches and DOC's must hold themselves and each other to a higher standard if we all want what is best for the kids.  Lets be honest, just like any other profession, there are coaches, who despite their passion or best intentions should not be coaching children. Some are potentially great coaches that need to be developed (just like players).  Playing pro or semi pro soccer and getting an E or even a D or C license doesn't make someone a good coach.  Coaches should..must continue bettering themselves and working as hard to prepare and understand the best methods for coaching young players.

DOC's can be instrumental in this regard.  I believe that DOC's should be setting clear expectations for coaches and then constantly being available to evaluate and support their coaches to ensure that the players get the best possible training and treatment.

I don't know if US Youth Soccer has a club evaluations system, but if not they should.  I would also think that Cal South should be ensuring that clubs and coaches are performing their duties properly.

We are talking about children here.

Too often, good-intentioned coaches do the wrong things and treat kids poorly and do not develop them properly.  Just as often, there is no DOC there to keep an eye out and help those coaches get better.

Training young players is actually very simple, but most coaches make it more complicated and advanced than they need to.  Every single notable expert on child soccer development says the same things.  Smaller spaces...more touches on the ball...focus on skills and technique.  Positive feedback and validation.  Patience.  Not worrying about teaching complicated concepts at the younger ages when they should be learning the game through playing and getting lots of touches.  Not sitting them for 15 minutes talking to them about how they need to focus.

Regardless of all of this, you will still see coaches consistently running "training sessions" with 20 or 30 kids scrimmaging with one ball for 1.5 hours or a coach with 8 little kids spread out very far apart on a big field doing complicated patterns and crosses.

Neither are what is taught as good ways to train.  From AYSO to US Youth Soccer to Ajax, to Barca to ManU...you name it...

They don't do it that way.

We need to hold coaches accountable if we ever want to produce the best footballers.   Do it for the children.  Hold yourselves to a higher standard. Learn, develop our coaches so that they can properly develop our young players.

Offsides?

Why do we (Americans) say 'offsides' with an 's', when it is actually offside?

 FIFA Laws of the Game - Law 11 Offside: 

Offside position It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position. A player is in an offside position if:  he is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent

A player is not in an offside position if:  he is in his own half of the field of play or he is level with the second-last opponent or he is level with the last two opponents.

Offence:   A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by interfering with play or interfering with an opponent or gaining an advantage by being in that position.

No offence:  There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from a goal kick a throw-in a corner kick Infringements and sanctions In the event of an offside offence, the referee awards an indirect free kick to the opposing team to be taken from the place where the infringement occurred (see Law 13 – Position of free kick).
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2011_12_en.pdf

See - no 's' here.

It likely is because nearly all of us grow up with American football where the term, 'offsides' - plural is commonly used.

But, even the NFL rulebook states:


NFL RULES Section 20 Offside 
OFFSIDE
A player is Offside when any part of his body or his person is in the neutral zone, or is beyond the free kick line,
or fair catch kick line, when the ball is put in play.
 Exceptions: The snapper may be in the neutral zone provided he is not beyond the line (3-18-2).
  The holder of a placekick for a free kick may be beyond the free kick line (6-1-3-b-1).
  The holder of a fair catch kick may be beyond the fair catch kick line (11-4-3).
  The kicker may be beyond the line, but his kicking foot may not be (6-1-3-b-2)
http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/6_Rule3_Definitions.pdf

No s!

Is it like people from some parts of the country who say 'warsh' instead of wash or 'idear' instead of idea?  Maybe, but nearly all of us do it.  I rarely if ever hear anyone say offside, but rather the pural 'offsides'.  Even referees who should be students of the game or at least it rules use the plural.

I don't know...I said offsides - offside plural my whole life, but once I started following soccer throughout the world, I realized that no one else does and I changed.  Now it drives me nuts when I hear everyone say it with an s.  Even my spellchecker as I type this flags offsides with an s as a misspelled word!  I tell everyone I know how to say it correctly, but no one seems to care.  Why do I care?  I don't know.  Am I just a nutcase?

Perhaps...

I will be the guy on the sideline with the twitchy eye and nervous tick when all of the rest of you yell "OFFSIDES!".

Maybe I'll just hang out in Mexico where they say "Fuera de Lugar!"

Learning when to pass is easy. Stand near any field and you will hear dozens of parents who never played the game yelling to pass....

For the past couple of months I have been coaching a U10 Boys team and although I adhere to most of my personal philosophy regarding youth soccer development, I feel that I always fail in so many areas.  I am never happy as a coach and it is never about the boys’ performance, but rather the way I carried myself during the match or training session and how I managed the game.  I find that I need to keep studying and learning and talking to people about it or I fall back into my conditioned ways of focusing on winning.   I’ m far beyond win at all costs, but I do win at some costs and I desperately want to get past that. 

I believe strongly in the game being the best teacher.  I believe in positive coaching and doing my best to keep kids feeling confident to try creative things on the pitch.  I praise my players and give them positive reinforcement.  I rotate my players so that different players sit at the beginning of each game and my players get equal playing time.  I strongly believe that up to 13 years of age, this must be the way.  Consistently sitting on the bench kills kids’ confidence and does nothing to develop the creative players that our country lacks today.

I encourage my players to hold the ball and use their skills rather than just boot it away.  I believe that the game will teach them best, I really do.  By holding the ball and trying to dribble defenders they will learn far more than if they just pass the ball away as quickly as possible.  Kids need to have successes and failures on the field on their own to learn.  Every time a parent or coach yells for a kid to boot the ball or kick it away or pass, we are removing an opportunity for a player to potentially do something special and learn something that may stay with them forever.

Learning when to pass is easy.  Stand near any field and you will hear dozens of parents who never played the game yelling to pass.  If mom and dad, who really know little to nothing about soccer, can get it why can’t we trust that the kids will get it when they are a bit older?  We only have until a kid is 12 or 13 to develop their skills.  After that, teaching passing and tactical play is a breeze.  Developmentally they are more prepared for it at 13 and we didn’t waste valuable moments that they could have been developing skills.

I refuse to be a remote control coach who tries to manage every move my players make.  I make corrections off the ball.  I call players over to give them a bit of guidance…I generally sit and watch my kids play taking note of things we can work on.

In training sessions I insist that the players are all involved and I teach through 3v3 and 4v4 games rather than drills where the kids are lined up.  For me, practice time is so precious and I would hate to waste any time running the kids without the ball or sitting for 5, 10, or 30 minutes listening to me talk.

I play my kids in all different positions because I think it helps them to learn more and develop more fully as players.  At age nine or ten no one knows what type of player a child will become so we must play them in different positions.  I believe that we effectively kill off potentially great, magical soccer players every season by forcing them into positions at an early age and never letting them out.

Despite all of this I still fall short in one area.  I really love to win.  I suppose it is my competitive nature as a lifetime athlete.  Maybe it is that old American ‘exceptionalism’.  Whatever it is, I do secretly pride myself on winning.  I don’t win at all costs.  I do adhere to my philosophies, more than most, but I do let my decision making be driven by my desire to win.  I still think I “get it” more than most people, but I do still fall short in this regard.  I have to get better at this to become the coach I desire to be.

I believe we (I) must take our focus off of winning and move it to developing players fully so that they understand the game at their core, not by us teaching them, but by learning and feeling the game all around them.

Immersion. 

I promise you that Lionel Messi, who is by far the most magical and creative players in the game today was not born that way and wasn’t trained to be the way he is, but rather he developed.  He plays like a child.  He doesn’t think – he just plays instinctively.  This is the opposite of the American way right now.  Our soccer is run by guys who played in college and use lots of catch phrases and run patterns and can analyze systems of play…blah blah blah. 

Many of the most valued coaches and trainers in our country are the exact opposite of what we need.  This system is so entrenched right now, that it will take one or two generations of “soccer guys” (and gals) to cycle out before we see any real change.  National team boss Jurgen Klinsmann is a great soccer mind who has the right ideas, but has his work cut out for him.  I hope that if he stays strong and can have some impact on the entire system, then we might have a chance…

The reality is that to truly develop magical players we need to move away from this focus on competition.  That may be a lot to ask.  Competition is at the core of the Americans psyche and maybe that is not a bad thing, but it doesn’t do a lot to develop great players.  Soccer is so different than nearly every other sport in the planet and certainly in our country.

Since the competition is likely here to stay, we need to work even harder to create ample opportunities for kids to play in an environment that fosters experimentation and creativity.  Whether it is a formal part of our training schedule or it is on the street, in the parks, at school or at one of the many indoor places popping up that run pickup sessions, kids must play massive amounts of unstructured games between 5 and 13 years old if we really want to be competitive in the world when it really matters at the national team level.

 "Street Soccer"

I don’t know that I will ever stop wanting to win, but I hope that as I continue growing as a coach, that I will do a better job of trusting my players and allowing them to grow and struggle, and sort things out for them selves.  I am stealing this line from another article I read about developing players, but…give someone a fish and they will eat today, but teach them to fish and they will be able to eat for a lifetime.  The same applies to our players….

Kids Need to Play Soccer

I read this article every once in a while when I am looking for information about youth soccer, over coaching, and developing creative players.  

http://www.soccernation.com/street-soccer-a-young-ronaldinho-cms-193

Great article about creative play: Messi

The Magic of Messi

I may not be a great coach, but I know a bad one when I see one...

Let me start by saying that I don't think that bad coaches are bad people. I think they are good people who care about kids and want to help and believe in themselves. They just haven't been taught properly how to coach kids in our beautiful game.

That said...I watch other coaches out there, hoping to learn something and I am sadly now no longer surprised when I see really bad practices.

I watched a U8 practice last week where the coach showed up 5 minutes late and then proceeded to set up a very complicated steel goal. The kids where standing around doing "stretching" led by a militant 10 year old boy who was helping out. After about 15 minutes the coach "taught" (read lectured) the kids about push passes. He explained in detail about push passes and then finally had the kids pass the ball back and forth with the inside of the foot. Finally they get to touch a ball, after at least 20 minutes of practice.

After this, the coach did a really weird and complicated drill with the kids in line running a lot and touching the ball very little. None of the kids got the drill and since only two kids went at a time, there were 8 kids waiting. The last drill was all 10 kids lined up, dribble toward the fancy, complicated goal, and shoot at the coach who blocked most, if not every shot that the boys took on goal. On top of all of this, when the kids screwed up they were made to do push ups.

I was ready for him to finally turn the boys loose for some 5 v 5 when he then had them do sprints, then ended practice and sent them home.

I wish I had made this up as a perfect example of how not to coach, but it was real.

People argue different reasons why the US with all of its organized soccer cannot dominate on the world stage. The most common reason I get is that there are soooo many choices and that we get our best athletes playing baseball and football.

I think it is more simple than that. We have good people with poor coaching skills killing any love for the game out of our kids.

Baseball and football can work with this type of coaching. They are a series of stops and starts and rely largely on skill. with play calling and a fairly straight forward set of goals. You can run baseball practices all season and only have kids play an actual game on game day and it works.

Yes there are amazing and magical baseball players and in no way do I mean to diminish the skill required to play these sports, but soccer is just different. It may seem like it works to train kids "our way" and we may get lucky and get a few good kids with talent who learn the skills and become good players, but how many truly great players have we produced...?

Cue the cricket sounds...

Soccer is like a language. You can spend years and years in classes and "learn" a language, but to really be a fluent speaker, with no accent, you have to go and speak and listen and immerse yourself in the language and the culture.

Soccer is even more like that.

Soccer more than most sports, is constantly moving and the game is played in hundreds or thousands of small battles in every direction, across every part of the pitch. No line up drill or sprint or shooting on a goal all day will produce an intelligent, creative player who can do magical things on the field.

Even more so, a player who is bored to death from a horrible practice session will almost never be inspired to go on and love the game, play all the time and become great at it.

One problem is that most coaches don't understand the game and how players develop. Sadder yet is that many of these coaches played their whole life and some still play. They just don't get it. Most of them learned the game the same way they are teaching it. They didn't play 4 v 4 when they were a kid. This goes to the whole lack of street soccer in our country. That is a whole other post.

I read at least one article each day about youth soccer development and the overwhelming majority of experts throughout the world say the same thing...

The game itself is the best teacher. Just let the kids play.

Coaches - even if you feel compelled to line them up, run them, do your complicated drills and lecture them for 10 minutes about how to do a push pass, at least at the end of the practice let them play. They aren't out there to learn how to do a push pass or sprint really fast across the field. They are there to play soccer. The sport gives them joy.

If you believe in what you just taught them then give them a chance to show you. You may enjoy watching them for a few minutes and their parents might too.