Adults and youngsters involved in all competitive sports must quickly come to terms with the certainty that things don’t always go how they would like, and you don’t always get the rewards your performance deserves. This is where the adults must step up and lead by example, ensuring that players feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes to learn and practise without fear of being blamed and reproached either in public or private.

Feedback should be honest and clear, constructive and useful with a focus on effort, intent and progress rather than solely on the outcome of a particular action or event.

Whilst confidence and good self-esteem are invaluable when learning and practising, uppermost in the players’ minds must be that they know their coach has their back, and that the coach would rather that they made a mistake than not try anything. Youngsters have to push the boundaries of what they know and can do because they don’t know how good they can be. Playing things safe just leaves them stuck in the quagmire of uniformity and standard practice, not moving forward in what is a fluid and dynamic long-term programme.

Adults, whether they be a coach, referee or parent, member of staff or bystander, should be positive role models and leaders demonstrating good sporting and ethical behaviour. The coach is central to this leadership role and is undoubtedly the person others expect to set the mood music for the group either in training or on matchday.

“A coach always sends a message by how they behave, and you never know who’s watching”

From timekeeping to picking the starting line-up, the head coach sets the tone. A coach always sends a message by how they behave, and you never know who’s watching. From the players the coach selects to the language they use, their behaviour is always under scrutiny and has a ripple effect throughout the group. So it is important that the coach is authentic and never promises what they can’t deliver.

The coach should show self-discipline, empathy, compassion, warmth, insight and build rapport with the players understanding their individual needs. Principally the coach is there to teach players what to expect and what is expected of them and that’s impossible without honesty and respect. This also builds a sense of camaraderie and belonging.

With young players, the coach should foster and cultivate skilful play, and a growth mindset focused on development, learning, practice and, for those who want it, mastery. Progression, not perfection, should be the objective and the watch word.

It rests with the coach to make things playful. Incorporate games and game like activities and launch learning and practice via individual, unit and group challenges so learning and practice becomes a personal experience. Follow this up with teaching. Remember the game is not the teacher, you are. The game is the players’ learning and practice tool especially when it comes to decision-making.

There are many useful ways to help players which include challenges, constraints, conditions, direct instruction, question and answer and demonstrations and it’s the coach’s call which they think is the most appropriate for the individual’s needs at the time. These are the coach’s tools and, while they should be used wisely, they should be used when necessary.

Free play time is vital during training too as it allows for unstructured practice to encourage exploration, experimentation and creativity which has a direct carry-over into match play where interventions in real time are limited.

Skilful play is an intricate combination of producing the right technique, at the right time, regularly, under pressure in a match. In order to develop this effectively so that it does not break down when the pressure is on, the coach should offer the group opportunities for varied and open practice where decision-making is front and centre. This should be combined vigorously with technical work and brilliant basics.

Practices should be set via simple objectives to allow for maximum opportunities for players to decide when to do what. An example of this type of group challenge could be ‘Be ready to play forward’, then unit and individual challenges can emerge as play develops. This approach allows the coach to promote decision-making opportunities by adapting the rules to the players’ needs.

Using your words

The language used by the coach is also vital. For example, ‘Look for opportunities to play one- and two-touch football’ or ‘Try to let the ball run across your body and play forward as a first action’ both allow the player to make the decision because they don’t say they have to do something.

Equally, the player may need to practise and focus on a particular aspect of their play, so a constraint may be the best way to help them progress. An example of this could be ‘You cannot pass the ball backwards twice in succession.’ The coach may feel the group needs an emphasis on their passing skills so gets them to play a small-sided game with the condition focused on maximum two touch with tackles not counting as a touch.

Open questions are very powerful and help to develop players’ reflective abilities. Examples of how to construct them are outlined below:

• Touches – how many do you need?
• Spaces – what is stopping you...?
• Decisions – how will you know when to...?
• Seeing – how can you see what to do next?
• Pass – how does the pass you receive help you?

All these examples provide opportunities for players to learn and practise in games and variable practices all allowing for an element of freedom to experiment and explore options – all of which can be summed up as an illustration of ‘how we do things around here’, ‘what we care about’ and ‘what we hold to be true’.

Our subtle craft of coaching

As we know, how you coach depends on who you are coaching and what you are coaching them for. The game is simple but teaching it is not. It is complicated and, as we have seen, contingent. As a craft it is subtle and multifaceted depending on what you are coaching, the age and ability of the players, the weather, the size and mood of the group, the personality and experience of the coach and the aims of the work.

In great part it also depends on the culture of the club and the ethos of the academy. How we go about things, what we care about and believe to be true can have a profound effect on the players, their progress, learning and practice experiences as well as their opportunities to develop into fully-fledged adult professional or amateur footballers.

As a youth coach you don’t need to worry about winning; ultimately winning will take care of itself if the youth coach does everything right by the players. For this to happen, it is important that adults create a culture where players feel comfortable and confident to give things a go, because if we keep doing the right things by our youngsters on and off the pitch, in the end those with the right stuff will have a fighting chance of success.

“As we know, how you coach depends on who you are coaching and what you are coaching them for. The game is simple but teaching it is not”