Coaching the Team (Photo:StuBaker)

Soccer Coaching is 2 words. The first, obviously, is ‘soccer’. The second is ‘coaching’. I’d argue that the two words have equal importance and equal weighting. However, all too often I do not see them being given equal focus. Over the years I have seen many coaching programmes and coach education programmes. The majority of these put the ‘soccer’ centre stage and consign the ‘coaching’ element to the periphery. The vast majority of the focus and attention is ploughed into helping coaches understand the game; technical development, tactical awareness and physical preparation. Sometimes there is also room for the development of the mental game.

To me, that seems bizarre. When I look at the things that have the biggest impact on success in sport, the quality of coaching usually comes pretty high on the list. In my experience, that’s equally true for the U9’s team or a senior international team. In fact, when I look more deeply, the very best and most successful coaches that I have seen are not necessarily the best technicians or tacticians. If you read many reports from athletes, they describe how their best coaches had the ability to motivate them, or that their best coaches understood how to get the best from them.

To me, the job of any coach is to help the players to realise their potential. Again, I believe that’s equally true of an U9 coach or senior international coach. So, if the mission of the coach is to help the player to become the best they can be, and perform at their peak, the coach needs to have a very comprehensive skill set. World Class coaches are not just great technicians and tacticians. Of course, technical and tactical knowledge is incredibly important, but it is not enough to help players to achieve their potential. Some coaches become frustrated because they struggle to communicate their ideas to the players. Many coaches make the mistake of assuming that telling, or showing players how to perform, will help the player to change the performance. Sometimes it will be enough, but often it’s not.

World Class coaches understand how the athlete learns. They know that, as human beings, we learn primarily through our own experiences. Robert Duke, a professor of music and human learning, gave a lecture in 2008 which was titled “why students don’t learn what we think we teach them”. This simple statement makes a very important point. Coaches might set the session, but they cannot dictate what a player learns, or how they learn it. Every player has a different learning style. If you hold a coaching session for a squad of players and set them all the same practices, each will learn something different and will learn it in a different way. As human beings, we all have vastly different learning styles. Some of us use what we see to help us learn. Some of us use what we hear. Some of us are better learning through our feelings. If you were given a set of directions, would you learn them best if you were told them, or if you looked at a map? Do you learn best through hearing or seeing? How about physical skills? Do you learn them best when someone explains them, or demonstrates, or when you try it for yourself? More importantly, do you know how your players learn most effectively?

I recently talked with Keir Worth, who is Head of Performance at England Squash. Although not particularly famous, England Squash is one of the most successful sporting organisations on Earth, having dominated the world for the last 15-20 years. Keir and I talked about their movement towards coaching from the ‘inside out’, rather than the ‘outside in’. They recognise the need to draw the potential from within the player, rather than to coach at them. As an organisation, they are focused on truly engaging players so that they get the most out of every moment in a coaching session. To do this, they need to understand the player; their personality, how they are motivated, how they communicate and how they learn. If you’d like to hear the whole conversation, you can visit www.beworldclass.tv.

Personally, I believe that there is an imbalance in soccer coach education around the globe. I’d argue that we have forgotten the importance of coaching, and how to develop great coaches. Coach education teaches coaches to understand the game. How much time do we actually spend studying how to understand players? When we look at the impact that the quality of coaching has on player’s experience, their enjoyment, their development and their performance, it’s obvious to me that ‘coaching’ deserves at least an equal standing.

If you’re thinking, ‘yes that makes sense to me’, you might want to visit http://www.internationalstreetsoccer.com/coaching and also download ‘Habits of World Class Coaches’ webinar at www.be-world-class.com/webinars.

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Simon Hartley with Peak Performance Every Time

At Soccer Classroom, we love to see great things happen to great people! It’s why we invest so much time in creating a resource that is useful to the community. We wanted to share a great thing that has happened to “one of our own” and a great guy.

Simon Hartley, an expert in sports psychology, has been writing for Soccer Classroom since nearly the beginning. We have enjoyed his professional demeanor, his kind spirit and most of all – his amazing insight. In short, he’s a real friend of Soccer Classroom and all our readers.

Simon’s first book, Peak Performance Every Time, was just released (that’s Simon holding the very first copy off the press!). It’s available for sale in the UK and is on pre-order in the United States. Here’s what I can tell you from my experience about working with Simon: he’s a consummate professional who is able to take very complex ideas and theories and place them squarely into the hands of the average person in very understandable and actionable ways. It’s an amazing and unusual talent. I’ve already seen glimpses of the book and I can tell you that it is outstanding. I highly recommend it. In fact, I’ve already placed my order with Amazon.

A reviewer of the book:

“I loved reading and using the performance tools in Peak Performance. The eclectic range of experts who have used them, confirmed that Simon has found a key set of success principles that anyone can use to maximise their own personal performance. Reading the book felt like a world class performance psychology session that I could pick up whenever needed.”

Chris Cook, double Commonwealth champion and Olympic swimmer

I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Simon, on behalf of the Soccer Classroom community – Congratulations! It’s an awesome accomplishment!

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Get your own customized soccer jerseys in 24 hours: shop.primosoccerjerseys.com Neymar dancing in the locker room, and Ronaldo’s celebratory dance moves. What do you think of their dance?

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Nike have released a soccer shirt that is made from recycled bottles.

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Julian and Zarek

This morning I woke up and did my normal Wednesday routine; hit snooze about three times, made way to the kitchen for my shaker and my pre-workout supplement, and hopped on Facebook before going to the gym.  Usually I scroll through and read dozens of posts from people I don’t even talk to anymore, shake my head thinking “why would you post this on Facebook,” and then head out the door.  However, this time it was different. 

I read a piece in the ShinGuardian  from a friend of mine Julian Valentin (former LA Galaxy player, 29th overall pick in the 2008 MLS draft) that truly moved me.  After reading the article I immediately texted Jules complementing the article and told him I would share it with my family as well as with SoccerClassroom.

To me, what really makes a good article is when you can relate to it and as you’re reading you can visually see the events.  This is exactly what Oreo Prose:  The Maturation of Zarek Valentin did for me. 

Julian’s article shows the relationship between family and football and how much it really means to have a supporting family.  The Valentin family defines the word class and I am truly blessed to know them.  Enjoy Julian’s article and make sure you pass it onto your friends. 

Link to article:  http://theshinguardian.com/2011/12/13/oreo-prose/#more-30652 

Follow Julian on Twitter @JulianValentin as well as his brother Zarek @DubbZV.

Soccer Classroom

The first part of our “ How to effectively scout a soccer team “ edition saw us look at the benefits of what a good scouting system can offer you as well as looking at certain areas within scouting, specifically team shape. The second part covered practical tips for scouting an opponent.

This week we will look at defensive and attacking tendencies of the opposition and what we should look for within them.

Opposition: Defensive Tendencies

Soccer Scout (Photo: abbeyroadsblog.blogspot.com)

The name of the game here is simple, we want to work out how we are going to score goals against our opposition and by looking at our opposition’s defensive tendencies, we might help our Team do just that by looking for ways to exploit and attack any areas of weakness that we see.

Some of the things to consider when looking at this part of scouting are:

1. Preferred defensive formation both with and without the ball: Do they play with advancing full backs? Do the central defensive players play tight to the attackers they face or do they prefer to play in a zonal defense where they are more likely to be concerned about their positioning and a certain area rather than an attacker? Are the central defenders quick or do they rely on their strength? Are the full backs willing to come inside to a more central position to support the central defenders when the ball is on the opposing side of the pitch?
2. Transition: How does the defense react and cope when they lose the ball? Does the defense organize itself well enough and quick enough with quick transition of the ball? If so, how do they do so?  Do they actively press in order to win the ball back? If so, where do they press, do they press in certain areas only, who presses and is there a noticeable trigger for their pressing?
3. Distribution: Do they defense play the ball out from the back and start team attacks in that manner? Do they prefer to look for longer passes?  If so, are they to specific players and areas?
4. Support? Does the defense get support from their midfield and attackers? Are more midfielders and attackers more defensive minded than others and if so, make sure you note which ones are. Also note the shapes and formation of how the defend in other areas of the pitch, do they defend in a different shape when rebuffing attacks than they do when attacking? Once again, make sure you take note of this. Do the attackers make any attempt to close down players on the ball? Do the midfielders track back and track their runners when required?
5. Set pieces: Locate their aerial strengths. Who are they? Where do they position themselves? Why does they position themselves there? Is it to mark specific players or is it a specific area? If it is an area, locate and take note of what players are responsible for what areas or zones. Who doesn’t venture forward and how do they defend when they have attacking set pieces IE do they go 2 v 1, 3 v 1 etc defensively.
6. Defensive patterns – Do they play with a high line? Do they look to play the offside trap? Do they defend deep? Are they willing and confident to pass back to their GK? If so, how confident is he where his feet are concerned? What foot is he more comfortable with? If not, it may mean that the GK nor the team are not very confident in the GK’s kicking ability.

Opposition: Attacking Tendencies

For all the good it does gaining information on a team’s defensive strengths and weaknesses, it is of course equally important to get a comprehensive understanding of what they do at the other end of the pitch.

Some of the things to consider when looking at this part of scouting are:

1. Preferred attacking formation: Do they play with a front pair? Do they play with a lone striker who receives support from wide positions as well as midfield? How many players do they commit to the final third area of the pitch when they are attacking in a controlled manner and where are they positioned?
2. Transition:  How quick do they try to break when they win possession of the ball? Do they counter attack in a direct manner or do they prefer to slowly build up controlled, strategic attacks?
3. Attack preferences: How do they attack? Do they attack from the wings? Do they go through a playmaker who they look for to conduct their attacks? If so, what areas does he receive the ball from and from what players? Do they attack with a front pair who work in tandem, or do they attack with and use midfield runners who may get ahead of a lone striker and look to play off of him?
4. Goals: Where do they come from? Who scores them? Identify the main threat, most teams have various sources of goals but there will also be a player that is there main goal threat, identifying that player and try to collate as much information as possible on him such as what positions he tends to take up, where he likes to receive the ball, how he likes to receive the ball IE to his feet, on the run, on his head etc.
5. Set pieces: Who takes them? Where do they look to deliver the ball? Who comes forward and what positions do they take up? How is the ball delivered? Are in swinging or out swinging deliveries preferred? Who are the most dangerous aerial threats?
6. Final Third: Be aware of any other things that you observe in the most critical area of the pitch, the final third. Any and all instances, patterns or attacking methods that you feel the opposing team is instructed to do should be noted where possible in order to be able to relay your report back to your team.

Remember, what you are doing here is to obtain and ultimately present information to help your players, coach and team as a whole. An effective Scouting Report will help the team and players to prepare themselves properly and improve their end results while helping them to understand the game and the different areas within it.

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In a previous article, we already outlined the benefits of scouting. Now, we’re going to dig in and consider the important factors to consider when we are scouting. With the outcomes of our reports more important the further up the ladder we go, here are some scouting tips to hopefully help you prepare yourself to be able to get the best possible information you can out of your scouting sessions. These tips are in no particular order.

Scouting Soccer: Practical Tips

   

Soccer Scout – (Photo: abbeyroadsblog.blogspot.com)

1. Prepare for the weather – The climate can and will affect the level of the scouting reports we will produce. From driving rain to beating sun, we need to take the weather and what we can use against it into consideration. Sunglasses, umbrella’s, rain jackets, baseball caps and sun visors are just a number of things that can be used to help not letting the weather conditions affect your scouting reports.

2. Prepare your electrical equipment – You’d be amazed, but it can potentially happen to all of us and yes, I’ll admit it, it HAS happened to me ( embarrassing? Yes ). I have turned up for games with no battery charged in my video camera. There we go, I admitted it but I don’t mind doing so as it made me MUCH more organized and make sure that it NEVER happened again..

3. Prepare your documentation – Whether scouting a team or an individual player, make sure that you have the appropriate scouting forms with you. Scouting report forms can be easily accessed but designing your own will give you the best results as you can design templates for the specific parts of the game that you want to scout be it team play or individuals including defender, midfielder and attacker based templates.

4. Prepare your position – This is very important. Where you are positioned whilst watching a game can make all the difference between an accurate scouting report or not. Higher vantage points help you see things such as team shape and patterns of play much more easier. Add to that a centralized position as close to the half way line as possible and you may just be in a prime position to help you maximize the effectiveness of your scouting reports.

5. Prepare your Stationary – Much like with your electrical equipment, embarrassing situations can occur. Make sure your stationary is in order and you have all of your equipment ready to be used such as pens, pencils and even rulers if needs be.

6. Arrive early – Arriving early to a game gives you a great insight into how teams warm up, how individual players warm up and to view all pre game preparation. Something also worth considering is assessing team morale, viewing who are the vocals players and also taking note, if on player specific scouting missions, who are the better trainers and who warm up correctly.

Soccer scouting of course, isn’t an exact science, much like the game itself. We can however give ourselves the best possible chance of obtaining the information that we want by following these practical tips when and where we can.

Remember, what you are doing here is to obtain and ultimately present information to help your players, coach and team as a whole. An effective Scouting Report will help the team and players to prepare themselves properly and improve their end results while helping them to understand the game and the different areas within it.

Soccer Classroom

Check out all of the different jerseys from 16 years of Columbus Crew soccer. Stay tuned for the unveiling of the NEW kits for the 2012 season.

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I just watched my home town team, who I have supported since I was about 8 years old, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They conspired to lose a Cup tie to a team two divisions below them. In the first game, my team were 2-0 up with 10 mins to go. In the words of the commentators, we were “cruising to victory.” All we had to do was play out the last 10 minutes. With about 8 mins to go we conceded a soft goal. A few minutes after that we gave away a penalty, which gave our opponents an equalizer. The game ended 2-2. Okay, that’s frustrating, but at least we have a chance to put it right in the replay. Or do we?

You guessed it, we lost the replay – on home soil! What the heck happened?

The Momentum Shift

I’m sure you’ve seen the momentum shift in games. How is it that one team can go from dominating a game to being on the back foot, within just a couple of minutes? What happens to swing the momentum of a game so drastically? And, what can coaches and players do to control the momentum of the game?

There is a common saying in soccer, “goals change games”. But that principle is not limited to soccer. Cricket matches are often characterised by ‘batting collapses’, where a team will lose 3-4 wickets in quick succession when a partnership is broken. In the NFL turnovers tend to change, not only possession, but the dominance from one team to another. Many people would suggest that the famous come-backs in sport are prime examples of psychological momentum shifting.

• For coaches, athletes and applied sport psychologists, there are some obvious questions:
• What actually changes when psychological momentum shifts?
• How are changes initiated?
• What can we do to swing the momentum in our favor?

Let’s look at the first question. What actually changes?

Insight by Working Backwards

I start by working backwards. Obviously the score line changes. That’s the bit we tend to notice most. Unfortunately, changes to the score line are at the result of a series of events. The momentum has normally shifted quite a long way by the time we see the impact on the score board. At that point, we’re a long way down the line and it’s pretty tough to turn around. We need to respond before the score line changes!

As I watch games, I see that there are quite a few stages before we hit those critical moments (i.e. the loss of a goal in soccer or the interception in an NFL game). Normally, there are clues, which warn us that things are changing. If we work backwards, we can see that just before we conceded a goal, we often start to do things differently. Our processes often change. When I watched my home town team, I noticed that when we were defending, the distance between our players and their opposite number increased just slightly. We didn’t close down quite as quickly, we allowed them just a tiny bit more space, we began to defend a touch deeper. To start with, these changes are normally very small. They are often so small they seem invisible. However, these very small changes have a big impact because they compound. By allowing the opposition just a little more time, space and comfort, my team gave them opportunities to make passes they might otherwise have missed, deliver crosses that otherwise might have gone out of play, take up positions were unavailable to them previously. Therefore, those tiny changes lead to bigger changes when the opposition are then awarded a corner kick, or a free kick around the edge of the penalty box. Before we know it, we’ve handed them the momentum and they’ve created some dangerous chances…….and scored.

Changes in the momentum of a game normally result from changes in our processes.

The next question is, how do we control our processes?

Controlling the Process

As a sport psychologist, I know that how we think and how we feel effects how we perform. It impacts on how we make decisions and how we execute skills. From my experience working with athletes and teams, I’ve noticed that loss of psychological momentum coincides with a loss of focus. If our confidence is low, we also start making strange decisions if we feel ‘under pressure’, or if we feel “out of control.” Sometimes we force passes that are not really there. We make mistakes because we “try too hard”. We back off if we have doubts. We miss opportunities because we slow down when we “think too much”. Thinking takes a long time. Often, by the time we’ve thought about it, the moment has passed.

So, how can we influence the shift in psychological momentum? In my experience, understanding how momentum shifts is the first stage. Stage one is to recognise it early! I encourage athletes and coaches to understand when momentum is shifting. It is important for athletes to realise how their focus changes when they start over-thinking and becoming frustrated. It is also important that athletes know what to focus on in order to perform at their best. We need a game plan! I like athletes to know what to do if they sense the momentum is slipping away from them. I believe that they need to have a simple point of focus; a simple, clear task. That way, they can concentrate on delivering it really well.

In many cases, athletes and teams are not aware of how to control the psychological momentum of the contest. Instead, they simply go with the flow. However, with understanding and application, it is possible to stop momentum swinging away and also turn the tide if the momentum is not with you. It all starts when we control how we think and how we feel!

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