The Junior Coach
Thursday, August 22, 2013
By Andrew Nichol
Melbourne Football Club Development Coach
The million dollar question in under age football is which is the more important development or winning? Can the two co-exist in junior football?
How often do we see and hear on a Sunday morning at the local football ground, coaches pleading with their young players to get up and win this game?
Telling young impressionable people that they don’t want it as much as we do?
Junior football coaches need to be salespeople
The best junior coaches are those who are able to develop a 'product' that all players (and parents) are prepared to invest in and this doesn't equate to the win loss ratio or premiership at seasons end.
This product, in nearly in all cases, involves ‘the process’! The process of teaching all young footballers to work towards being all round players, not just one position players and more importantly, good people. That your best on baller can also play on a half back flank and play a crucial role there for the team.
How do you tell a player that has only ever played on ball the importance of playing on a half back flank? Brendan Goddard, Luke Hodge and Heath Shaw are all elite rebounding players at the top level. These players have great currency to a junior coach in helping him to sell his product.
Ask your ‘star’ on baller, why do these players play there when they are arguably one of their side’s best players? “Because they are excellent decision makers like you! They kick the ball very well, like you.” “They can run and carry the ball, which helps open up the game for their team, like you.”
By comparing a young player to an AFL superstar to help with your reasoning and justification for taking them from their usual and preferred role to a foreign one, can be a very powerful tool. Which young player doesn't like to be compared to an AFL player? Part of being a good salesperson/coach is to know your players and what makes them tick. Know which button to press in order to get the best from that individual player. By knowing this, when you need to select a player to model, choosing a player from the team they support will further enhance your player’s desire to emulate them.
Challenging all players
As a junior coach, you will always have 'star players’, however you need to find ways to challenge them (different roles). You also need to challenge players that are at the other end of the spectrum and don't have the skills or game sense of your 'stars'. These players have the most potential to improve - you can’t have a team of ‘stars’. These are the players who love the game but physically are unable to execute what they know they have to do. They may be the future coaches, presidents, etc. of football clubs.
How do you as a coach maintain their interest and development?:
Do you show the same faith in them during the course of a game as you do your ‘star’?
Are you prepared to lose a game to ensure that these players know that you trust them as much as the next player?
Do you reiterate this to them regardless of the outcome of the game?
The very good coaches do this. The very good coaches know that these players are of equal importance to the team as the 'star' players and this product is sold unconditionally. You will be amazed and extremely satisfied at what your lower ranked players are able to achieve individually with their development and consequently the improvement the collective team makes as a result. There is also the enjoyment that your better players get out of this and in seeing the less skilled players have success.
Be very clear in your philosophy
As a coach of an under age team, you must be very clear in your philosophy (development vs. winning) and ensure this philosophy mirrors that of the club. At the end of the season are you going to be assessed by whether you win the premiership or whether every player on your list has played on every line of the ground and been coached the correct kicking technique? You must ensure that these philosophies match; otherwise there is certain dissention ahead.
Young boys (and girls) as a rule are competitive. Do you as the coach need to further enhance this or give them the skills (basic fundamentals of the game and decision making strategies) to ensure that they give themselves the best possible opportunity to achieve their desired outcome?
As part of your development of the individual as an all-round player, the junior football club is a great environment in which to nurture the development of boys or girls into young men and women. The discipline, leadership opportunities, resilience and team work that a junior football club can foster are all fantastic life skills that should be contributing towards the development of well-rounded young people by the time they exit your club.
Feedback to young players is crucial
Feedback can make or break them with its delivery. How do you as the coach ensure that each player in your squad is receiving open and honest feedback? Assistant coaches are a great way for the head coach to be able to walk around and speak individually with players during the session after a game.
Young people crave (positive) feedback. Through having a positive focus with your feedback, Tal Ben-Shahar, a lecturer from Harvard University in Psychology, says that it isn’t a case of ignoring deficiencies but focusing on an individual’s strength. This creates self-esteem and the individual is then more likely to try and work on their deficiencies because they feel good about themselves and the fear of failure isn’t as daunting. He goes on too add that this positive psychology works when there is a ‘grounded reality’. This equates to statements that are grounded in real experience and history. The questions you ask to make this reality grounded are crucial. The questions create the reality!
So what type of coach are you?
What type of coach do you want to be remembered as? Only you can answer this question. You must have a clear answer in your head before the season starts.
Andrew Nichol is development coach – defence at Melbourne Football Club. This article was written as part of the requirements for AFL High Performance Coach accreditation
Last Modified on 23/08/2013 17:26