Soccer Edition 69

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject will deal with coaches and what makes them effective.

There seem to be so many discussions that place that deal with this issue that I figured it was about time to sit down and some of my views on this subject.

Before I go any further, I should point out that some of the points that I am going to make are mainly applicable to soccer here in the United States and while I don't mean to ignore all of the subscribers from other countries, I can only write about what I know.

First of all, there is the constant argument about whether a paid coach is better then an unpaid coach. The best way to answer this question is by through a true story. A club that I am familiar with had a number of unsuccessful, unqualified volunteer coaches. All of the other clubs around them were hiring paid coaches so they decided to do the same. The easiest was for them to get paid coaches was to simply pay the unsuccessful, unqualified coaches who were working with their teams already. Why in the world they would think that this would make them more successful is beyond my but it was the quickest and easiest way to get paid coaches. In other words, it doesn't matter if a coach is paid or not, it's what they know and how they can relate to the players that matters.

Many times when people are referring to volunteer coaches, they really mean mommy or daddy coaches. Here you have the arguments of favoritism by the coach (either for or against the coaches child) vs. the parent coaches advantages of knowing how to relate to children since they have children as opposed to the professional coach who might not have children and therefore might be ill equipped to deal with children. The problem with the argument against parent coaches is that without parent coaches, many teams would cease to exist. While there might be a few areas with a glut of coaches most areas are desperately looking for anyone who is willing to coach and this is the reason that so many of the people who first get into coaching do so because if they didn't coach, the team wouldn't exist. In order for the game to progress, we NEED these parent coaches to continue coaching and to be the foundation on which this game will continue to grow. However, this does NOT mean these same parent coaches shouldn't be trained in as many ways as possible (I will get into later on how this can be done). The argument that a parent coach has advantages of working with youth because they have children so are better able to educate and interact with the kids is also quite false. Just because a person is a parent does not mean they are qualified or able to teach others (without going into details, the qualifications to be a parent are NOT very stringent!). While almost anyone can be a parent, to be a good parent and a good educator (which are not the same thing) is very difficult. To think that many of the parents I have come across over the years while coaching are all capable of leading today's youth is absurd and this can be best shown by the frequent examples of lack of discipline and respect in society today. (Sorry if it seems I keep getting on and off of my soapbox). I have come across numerous parents who do such an exceptional job dealing with their own children as well as other children but at the same time, I have come across numerous parents who have done an inadequate job of dealing with children that while it might seem like an advantage to have a parent in charge of a group of kids, I think it really comes down to wanting to have a person who is good with children dealing with children regardless of whether they are a parent or not. As far as the favoritism that parent coaches might have toward their own child, that certainly is an issue and one that I have seen many times but I don't know any coach (parent or otherwise) who doesn't have favorites on their team. There is a huge difference between having favorites on a team and playing favorites. The difference is that when you play favorites, you not only like some players more then others but also treat them unfairly (whether in a positive or negative way). I can't think of any team that I have ever coached where I didn't have a favorite player or two and most of the players usually know who my favorites are because inevitably it's the players who work the hardest and also have a personality. Do my favorites get more playing time then the other players? Usually but that is because in most cases, the players who work the hardest for me turn into the best players so it all works out in the end. I do NOT believe a coach who says he doesn't have favorites and I almost think it's best when a coach does know he has favorites because it's that coach who will be more careful about treating the players all fairly (note I wrote fairly and not equally, I do not believe it's right to treat everyone the same but rather that it's important to treat them all fairly.

The next issue I want to write about is how important it is for a coach to have a lot of playing experience. While I do believe that it helps to have played the game, I don't think it's the most important factor nor do I believe that if you haven't played, you can't be a good coach. Frequently, the top player doesn't go on to be successful coaches for the simple reason that they are not able to relate to the average player. My guess is that Pele would not have made a successful coach for the simple reason that he would have a difficult time understanding why everyone didn't work as hard as he did as a player and why they couldn't do everything that he was able to as a player. Looking back at all of the sports, the most successful coaches have proven to be the people who had to work hard to be a decent player because they frequently had to become a real student of the game in order to offset their physical limitations. While there certainly are exceptions to this (one of the most notable being Franz Beckenbaur) being a top player does not make a person a good coach. It seems that too many former players assume they can step right in and coach the game with no problem. This frequently doesn't work out because while they might know the game, they don't necessarily know how to TEACH the game. To be a coach is to be an educator and this is where the former players frequently fail. The ones who also know how to teach the game, motivate players and read the game are the ones that prove to be successful. The advantages to being a player (or former player) are that you have been in the same situations as the players as well as that you are able to demonstrate the skills. However, the ability to demonstrate can be learned fairly easily by the non-player. In other words, while there are certain advantages to having played the game, if that is a person's only qualification, they probably wont make it as a player.

In the US, it seems that one of the most important qualifications in being a coach is being from a different country. For some reason, if a person has an accent, it is assumed they have played the game their whole life and also can coach the game. However, the same thing applies to them that does to the former player, without the knowledge and ability to teach the game, it doesn't matter much if a person has grown up around the game or not. If anything, it makes it a bit harder because if they haven't been in this country a long time, they have to learn how to teach as well as the new culture at the same time. It takes a special person to be able to do that. Am I saying that internationals are not good coaches? Of course that isn't my point. What I am saying is that if the persons sole qualification is that he grew up in a country that is strong in soccer, it doesn't mean they will be a good coach nor does it mean they will be a bad coach.

While I am actually a fan of coaching courses as one of the ways to become a better coach, having a coaching license or certificate does NOT mean a person is a good coach. (See http://finesoccer.com/soccer_edition_63.htm for more on this subject). It probably does mean they are a better coach then if they did not go to a coaching course but there are some terrible A licensed coaches out there and some excellent coaches with no license at all (or the absolute minimum since many states now require a coaching license in order to coach). Just because a person has a license does not mean they can coach but it does mean they have enough interest (and time and money) to go get a license.

If I were a college student and decided that I would like to go into coaching as a profession, the first thing I would do is take education classes, psychology classes and business classes. By doing this, I would get a better understanding of how to teach, how to motivate, how to organize, how to interact and much, much more. The soccer part would be secondary (one of the things we forget frequently is that soccer really is a simple game that if we know how to do these other things can be coached very easily. While taking all of these classes I would also try to be an assistant with as many different coaches as possible so I can experience as many different styles of coaching as possible. Being an assistant is a tremendous way to learn to coach (even if you are simply learning what NOT to do). Then I would take some coaching courses and then, and only then, would I even consider being a head coach. Unfortunately, while there are many people who seem to be interested in getting into coaching as a profession, there don't seem to be many who are willing to actually look at is as a profession and prepare for it accordingly.

I know that in writing this newsletter, I am dealing with some subjects that people really don't want to discuss but rather they know what is right and that is it. I will probably have some people unsubscribe because of this and I am ok with that as well. When people start taking the art and science of coaching more seriously, we will be more successful as coaches and will help develop better players.

I would LOVE to hear other views on this subject. You can either send them to comments@finesoccer.com or if you are willing to share them with everyone, post them at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm

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Have a great day

 Lawrence