What you see is what you get. Maybe you should see something else?

There are numerous sports quotes that urge players (and coaches) to look at things from different perspectives. If all you ever do is all you've ever done, all you'll ever have is what you've always had. This is one example that implores change to be made.  In our camps we seek to retrain the brain, which is another way to say changes must be instituted before progress can be made. Asking players to step outside their established comfort zones is yet another means to motivate them to change.

As coaches we "borrow" from one another all the time.  When one coach is successful his methodology and systems of play will be examined and reversed engineered by his peers. Perhaps the most recognized example today is the spread of zonal defenses. The strictly man-marking system is nearly extinct although I suspect it will rise again like the mythical phoenix in retro-ness some day. A by-product of zonal defense is the incorporation of the outside backs into the attack. These players are filling non-traditional roles. Because of this the players manning these positions have been granted freedom in exploring how to execute their duties and responsibilities. In a sense the outside backs have been allowed to write their own job descriptions.  As a result we are beginning to see creative and innovative play emerge.

I often refer to "our" attacking system that we run from our 1-4-2-3-1 or 1-4-1-4-1 formations. I lay claim to it, but in the last 3-4 years I have seen it emerging independently at various ages and levels of play. It is a natural extension of the zonal defensive systems in prevalent use today. That the Columbus Crew SC are successfully running "our" system in MLS validates what I have been coaching these past several years.

Many of the coaches we conduct camp for want us to demonstrate how we have taught our players to make creative / deceptive runs that stress defenses. They want to know our patterns for making runs and are shocked that I spend less than one training session per season working on specific patterns.

I have written often of how I allow the players to conduct our half time discussions. One of things they cover is what the opposing defense is giving us and more specifically which opposing player(s) is (are) the weak links we can attack. We have learned to also identify how we wish to set up those players to be attacked. How do we move players and the ball to isolate the defender(s) we wish to attack in the match ups we prefer to have?

Patterns in soccer are, in my opinion, symptomatic of the problems that plague American soccer. American sports are largely coach driven sports and patterns in soccer are an extension of this. In short, patterns are restrictive. Patterns take the onus for decision making away from individual players. The coach teaches the pattern and its variations and expects the players to adhere to these. Even the decision of whether to follow the patterns or not is taken away from the players for if they do not, they will find themselves on the bench in favor of someone who will. Any deviation from the scripted established pattern and its variations is blasphemy regardless of if it is successful or not.

So it is when we come to conduct a camp on off-the-ball movement that we need to retrain the soccer brains of the players ... and coach.  A few years ago I had a coach ask me how to get his team away from playing direct soccer.  We watched some game film of his team and one of the first thing we noticed was nearly all off-the-ball movement was towards goal and at the same pace the ball was traveling.  What else could his team do, but play direct? So, if you want your team to have a balanced, dynamic and varied attack the off-the-ball player movement is key. Retraining the brain to allow for multi-decison, multi-tasking play is the solution.  The answer for how to go about doing this?  Well, you'll have to sign up for one of our camps for that!   ;) LOL.

Best Soccer Coaching Tool Ever.

I think it all started back in the early 1980's when I began to have interest in coaching. I would attend athletic contests and find myself watching the coaches as much as I was watching the games.  Legends like Bo Schembechler and Bobby Knight had huge impacts on me. In the heat of the game I learned what fiery passion looked like, but in their weekly radio and television shows I learned to appreciate how deeply knowledgeable and well spoken these men were on a variety of subjects. These were tough men doling out tough love during a tough time in this country.

When there came a need to hire a new basketball coach at the high school I had attended three of five school board members asked me about the then JV coach.  This both flattered and overwhelmed me. I remember thinking "why me" and also what an awesome responsibility had come my way. I knew the coach in question as a coach and just a bit away from the game. I believed him to be a good coach and loved the way he interacted with the team in the huddle and from the sideline. He received my endorsement and remains as a coach in the same school district to this day.

Of all the coaches from my youth it is probably Larry Lewis who had the greatest impact on me and he never actually coached me.  Larry was a football coach up until I entered high school and a successful one at that. However, it was as a youth baseball coach that I came to admire his coaching style the most.  I had seen the fiery side of Larry on the football field. He had been an assistant coach under Bo Schembechler assistantss Jim Young and Larry Smith before assuming the reigns as head coach,  Cut from the same mold on the football sidelines. 

As a youth baseball coach for my younger brothers team Larry was one of the calmest coaches I have ever been around. He spoke to the boys in a soft voice. When discipline was necessary he did it in private and often with an arm draped around the shoulders of the boy he was addressing. When mistakes were made he taught the game, again in a soft but firm voice.  I don't know that his teams were the most talented, but they rarely lost a game. The importance of coach / player relationships made a lasting impression on me.

To be perfectly honest, it took me a while to find my own coaching style. As I stated earlier, I spent a lot of time observing other people coach. I took what I liked from each and tried to incorporate those traits into my own style. Sometimes this worked and sometimes if did not. I learned through trial and error that in the end I had to be me, but all these observations and trying of different approaches did help mold me as a coach.

And then I began coaching soccer.

Almost everything I had learned about coaching became irrelevant only I did not recognize this for a number of years. Oh, the focus on FUNdamentals and basic tactics remained important, but nearly everything I knew about managing a game was no longer applicable only I did not recognize this.  I have written many times that soccer is a player driven game and my approach was still that of a coach driven game. This realization sank in over the course a couple seasons.  And I remember quite distinctly parents noticing the change in my in-game behavior. My own wife encouraged me to become more vocal from the sidelines during the game - to "coach like you used to coach" - and this was seconded by other parents.

And I did go back and forth over the course of a few seasons.  I'm not sure if it was a matter of old habits dying hard or it taking time for my belief in the new coaching style to fully take root in me.  Probably a little of both. Then came a day when I discovered the most important game day soccer coaching tool known to mankind. 

 

 

Yep, it's a chair. I made a conscious effort to take one to a tournament one weekend. I sit it up on the sidelines and sat in it throughout almost the entire contest.  The idea of soccer being a player driven game had finally taken lasting hold within me. I understood.  If one considers there are no timeouts and very few opportunities for a coach to actually influence the game from the touchlines this becomes elementary.  The in-game decision making process for soccer is the purview of the players, not coaches.  With the responsibility for in-game decision making lifted from me as a coach, I began analyzing our team play from the perspective of how we trained to play the game.  It is no coincidence that my teams suddenly began to improve from game to game at a hitherto unknown rate.

 

The players, at first taken aback by the absence of coaching from the sidelines, began to respond in a remarkable fashion.  Not having someone constantly shouting instructions to them allowed them to play more freely.  They began to take responsibility for the mistakes they made and adjust their play accordingly. Soccer for my teams began to resemble a player driven game and the success of our teams rose dramatically. I took the opportunity to note common mistakes and began planning our next training sessions while the present game was still being played. A result was in-season improvement took a giant leap and more importantly the new found display of trust in the players from me allowed for better coach / player relationships to develop.

 

The best in-game soccer coach tool ever - a chair.