I have changed.
I have become a better coach.
I am still improving.
In 2010 I became the head coach of the Lima Central Catholic girls program. There was a fair amount of trepidation on part in accepting that position. It would be my first experience as a head coach on the high school level. I am not Catholic. The then athletic director, Pat Murphy told me point blank "our parents are out of control and the players walked all over the last coach. And the program had never had a winning season. I accepted the position anyways based in no small part in the believing Mr. Murphy had my back concerning parents and players.
That's the back drop to the beginning of my grand experiment. The experiment itself had been percolating for a number of years. It began to heat up while I was an assistant at Shawnee high school and began to bubble while an assistant at Botkins high school. While both of those programs were very successful the idea they could be so much better kept nagging at me. Mr. Graham Ramsay who conducted summer camps at all three schools mentioned and whom I consider to be one of my soccer mentors was a driving force behind this restlessness and undoubtedly a source for many of the ideas I was formulating. Mr. Ken White, formerly of the University of Louisville and at the time a coach at BGSU was also responsible for stirring the coaching pot of knowledge coming to a boil in my mind.
Those teams at LCC were the first full trial run of my ideas. They produced the first ever winning season in the programs history, school records for fewest goals allowed and most goals scored. We also produced the schools first All-Ohio soccer player along with numerous all-district players. On the field of play the girls of those teams began to bring my vision of ho the game should be played into clearer focus. It was a start, but nowhere near what I was looking for in a finished product.
In the spring of 2012 I began the second full trial run of my system of play and its associated methodology and philosophy. The Grand Lake United U!6 boys team was a good group of young men eager to learn about the game. To be honest, there were a few head cases on the team who likely were with us because they wore out their welcome elsewhere. It's always been my philosophy to take whomever wants to play.
I began implementing the same system of play I had used at LCC with the girls. The results were mixed. We won games and a tournament, if I recall correctly, but I was largely unsatisfied in our performance. Let me be clear, I was unsatisfied with my performance. The team had not played to my expectations and that is no one's fault but my own. It was during the summer and fall of 2012 that I really went back to work studying the game of soccer. Techniques, Tactics, Physical and Psychological components all came under close scrutiny. I dissected every aspect of the game I could imagine looking not only at what worked and why, but also studying what did not work and why it didn't.
The thing that distinguished good play from bad play was the brain. How the brain interprets the information fed to it by the senses and then directs the body to apply the tools the player has available to solve problems is the difference between poor play and good play, the difference between good play and great play. I had long been a fan of a couple Johan Cruyff quotes and at some point during this time in my life they really came into bright clear focus for me.
"Soccer is a game that is played with the brain."
"Soccer a is a simple game,
but nothing is more difficult than playing simple soccer."
Both of these quotes address the fact soccer is a game of problem solving. It is also a player driven game. Therefore it is the problem solving ability of the players that determines the quality of play and directly influences results.
I knew all this to be true, but I still needed to work through the process of putting the pieces together in a manner that was coherent in my own mind before I could ever hope to communicate my knowledge to the players I coached.
As we moved into the 2013 club season things were coming together in my mind and on our roster of players. We won a league title and a tournament or two that spring. We were a much better team than we had been the previous spring. I had tweaked how I taught the game and also tweaked the roster. Still, I was not satisfied. Our on-field decision making left a lot to be desired at times. We still allowed both the ball and the opponent to dictate the game to us far too often for my liking.
It was while watching my son, Lance, play for Shawnee in the fall of 2013 that he final discoveries for this step of the process came brilliantly into focus. The coaching staff at Shawnee was the same as when I left it. I am unclear to this day on whether the quality of coaching had devolved or simply grown stale, but it was painfully obvious the coaches controlled the game. Ingenuity, cleverness, deviousness were all discouraged when players encountered problems to be solved on the pitch. The team was dreadfully predictable and therefore relatively easy to play against.
I had sought out unpredictability and creativity in both individual and collective play from every crack and corner I could find to little or no avail. Well, at least to an unsatisfactory extent. This is when I fully realized the importance of just letting the players play.
I had encouraged interchangeability of positions of the field for years. This had never come to full fruition or at least not to the degree held in my vision for the game. Why? If you are a regular reader of this blog you will appreciated "why" being my favorite question. Somewhere in this journey the idea of re-training the brain or how we think about soccer had taken root and began to flourish. First in my own mind, then in the minds of the players I coached.
Once again, I tweaked our roster and then subtly tweaked how we went about preparing to play. Previous success and the roster tweaks I mentioned resulted in us fielding both an "A" and a "B" team for play in spring of 2014. Both teams proved to be very successful in their own rights.
The "A" team came as close to playing total soccer - complete interchangeability amongst field players - as any team I have ever coached. They were dynamic on both sides of the ball. They call soccer The Beautiful Game and these men played it beautifully.
The "B" team had the talent of an average high school team which normally spells trouble when playing club soccer. These men got their collective heads handed to then the first couple of times out and then begin to gel into what would become a good club team. They finished with a .500 record and defeated some good teams along the way.
Both of these teams discovered who they were as individual players and collectively as a team through the experience and confidence gained by being allowed to make their own decisions on the pitch. I provided a defensive shape and basic cues or keys for utilizing the tools (skills & tactics) they possessed. The attack was free flowing with the resonating premise of space and pace being the only guideline. The players took it from there. Did they ever!
So, as I watched my son, Lance, play his final season for Shawnee this fall I was disheartened to witness their struggles. However, not only did their struggles serve to reinforce the soundness of my approach to coaching it also highlighted the weaknesses of what I have done over the last 5 years leaving me to wonder, where to from here?
I often watch a training exercise or a warm up activity and wonder the purpose of it. I believe everything we do should be functional - preparation to train or play the game. What I have realized is in concentrating on the mental aspects of play I have not brought proper functional emphasis to other components of play.
I always have a pad and pencil with me. I also use the notes and camera / video functions on my phone. Some people I know like to comment on this. A couple of them ridicule me for it. But if you attend class or a business meeting you ... take notes, do you not? Well, my journals, pictures, videos are providing the data for where we go from here. Lot's of ideas. The excitement is building within me. I want to take our proven formula and all these ideas for improving it back to the high school ranks next fall. That's where from here.
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