by John White
It is a well known fact that some coaches are better than others. However, the better coaches aren’t always the ones with the best teams. I had a brilliant team when I first started coaching, however most of them were part of a soccer school and had been coached by somebody else before joining my team, so in a way, I hid behind the success of my team and basked in their glory, although my input was largely ineffective. That is something I have figured out myself, nobody has come up and said this to me. I feel that if I had adopted the Teacher coaching style, then my team could have improved even further and the players developed at a much faster rate. In a way, I feel like I let them down.
The Teacher method of coaching (the method you will use when doing your FA coaching badges) demands a lot of time and effort by the coach, which is why many coaches don’t use it. This style requires the coach to set up the drill, and then start to coach. The coaching style is as follows.
Observe
See fault
Coach and correct
Recreate
Play
What this means is, the coach will observe one group at a time doing the drill, and when he sees a fault, such as a poor shot, or a bad pass, he will step in and coach the player. He will offer coaching points, and even a demonstration if needed, so that the player can see what he did wrong. The coach will then recreate the scenario, for example by playing the ball back to the player who made the bad pass, so that he can play a different pass or make a run. Once it has been recreated, the coach will let them play until another mistake is made, or he goes and observes another group.
This is best practice, because the coach is maximising playing time for the players as well as stepping in there and offering coaching points – which are the basis for which improvement is made. If a builder builds a house but lays the bricks wrong, the house may collapse. If nobody tells him what he did wrong and the correct way to lay the bricks, he will repeat the mistake and the next house will collapse.
Sport needs more coaches, fact. But not any old coach. It needs somebody who is willing to put the time and effort in outside of the training session to become educated in the sport in which the work, by learning what the key factors for each skill is, learning the correct coaching points and knowing when to use them, figuring out what type of coach you are and which style is best suited to you etc. Without that time and effort, the future of sport is on a downwards facing slope.
How can a coach expect their players to put in the effort, if they don’t put in the effort themselves?
Follow John on Twitter @JohnWhite1994