IDENTIFYING A FOOTBALL PROBLEM

by Adam Clark | Jan 1, 2024 | Coaching Blog

For the duration of the game, the management team and substitutes occupy their bench/technical area viewing their team performance. In some incidences, you may also have members of your staff watching from the stand and feeding back what they’re viewing.

Whilst the game is being played, hundreds of things are taking place every second, with the clock passing by, until eventually the final whistle goes. We all know that, at the end of the game there will be a winner and a loser, or in some cases, it’ll end up in a draw.

Regardless of the result, the evaluation process should give you an opportunity to analyse (more effective if you have a camera) a number of ‘football problems’, that have been identified. While a victory can be bitter sweet, there is always an area to improve your team.

To define, a football problem would be something that is a threat to the team intention, by not being executed effectively.
The team intention could be to exploit the space behind the back line of the opposition, but a certain player was unable to execute the pass the team needed. This would then need correcting, in order for the team intention to be a success.

When observing your team from the touchline, you could have a checklist to identify potential football problems, but firstly;

> Can you SEE the potential problem, or are you just ‘LOOKING’ at the field of play?
> Does your team have intentions that are clearly outlined? Do your players know these?
> Is there a pattern of behaviour that a respective player displays, that could point to a problem? Or, is it just a ‘one off’ occurrence?
> How much impact are the opposition having on your proposed team intentions?

I’m sure we’ve all experienced some form of a loss, on more than one occasion. After a loss, did you reflect and come to some sort of evaluation on why it could’ve happened? Whilst it’s tempting to fall into the trap of, ‘all you see, is all there is’ and blaming an individual mistake (for example), there could be a ‘bigger’ problem taking place and not that of just a ‘mis-placed pass’.

In preparation for game situations, your players should know what they are expected to do within the team intention (communication). You then want the individual intention (deciding what) aligned, followed by them correctly doing it (deciding how/execution of decision).
The potential problem with the above sequence though, is that you can only see the execution of a player and not what is going on in their brain beforehand. So, when that ‘mis-placed pass’ is executed, could the problem have been a little deeper and not that of just technique.

> Could the team intentions be confusing, not clear enough or not possible to execute?
> Does the player understand the individual intention that’s needed to accomplish the team intention?
> Did they opt for the wrong decision (how they would execute it)?

From looking at the above, you can see that initially there could be a problem, in that the team intention could be wrong. This problem then accumulates and ‘snowballs’ into something much larger, which could point as to why the error occurred. Who’s responsibility is it for defining the team intentions? Yes, the coach.

So, next time there is an error executed during a game, it’s important that the coach/manager reflects on this and evaluates as to why it could’ve happened? This problem can then be noted and (hopefully) corrected properly on the training ground.

Next time you’re present at a game, zoom out and look at the whole scenario (team), not just that of a player (zooming in)!

Raising the bar – Part 3

by Adam Clark | Jun 30, 2023 | Coaching Blog

Throughout the last 2 parts of this series, I’ve given a brief insight into the week I spent at PSV Eindhoven with Raymond Verheijen and FC Evolution. While it’s important for me to share as much as I can, I have to respect all other coaches on the course, including the organiser and only share my experience. If you scroll through various social channels, you will see similar posts regarding the week that we had and what that coach in question thought.
While first impressions and my experience is worthless for others in this instance, it does give you a small snippet of what to expect on one of these coaches. Yes, it is very uncomfortable and you could overloaded until the last second of the course, but surely that’s what you want? When you’re training your own team, would you under load them and make them feel comfortable? Or, would you put them under pressure to develop their coping mechanisms? We know what answer you would choose, so it shouldn’t be any different for us coaches!

Coming to the conclusion of this 3 part series, I’ll now share my evaluation in 3 sections.

Coach educator – What he offers?

As mentioned in part 1, RV to some is very much like the marmite brand slogan. Quite often those that cast comment, haven’t attended a course, but seem to know quite a lot?
I’ve been on the pathway for many years and I’ve never experienced any problems. I have had moments where he has criticised me for my work, but that’s as far as it has gone. Was he right to do so? Yes. Did it improve me? Yes. These situations can be uncomfortable, but they are used to highlight incompetence and to show you the mirror. Does everyone always want/need praise and never told ‘wrong’ in this industry – or, would you rather have something highlighted and then given clear/concise feedback, that’ll improve you?

During this course, there were a couple of minor ‘hiccups’ that he dealt with easily and prevented further things happening. Again, if this was your changing room, at your club, would you strive to do the same?

Removing any biases or ‘emotional attachment’ with FCE, as expected the content on the course was excellent. Why? It was delivered in a logical process, with objective references and clear information. There was a common pattern of the same language being used throughout, which gave me a better chance to understand and to connect the ‘dots’.
Throughout my years on the courses, I’ve learnt an enormous amount and have built up many friendships along the way. Most, I’m still in contact with today and the common factor with all of them, is the coach educator. We all meet when we can, visit the courses and continue our coach development through online courses and literature.

Each course evolves, improves and continues to accelerate in quality, year on year. The demand on coaches is high, but why would you have it any other way? This is what coach education should be like.

We all have opinions on football, with some happy to share their own whenever they can. I have one, that I’d like to share.

From an education perspective, this pathway should be a must for all coaches. The disappointing thing for me is that the English FA don’t endorse it, so the amount of hours I put in (as well as others in the UK), doesn’t get reflected with my CPD requirements for the license I hold. Instead, the below ‘par’ content that is available here (mostly online), doesn’t come anywhere near what FCE offer and is clearly produced as a by product to generate revenue and to ‘tick a box’.
The question now is, why don’t the English FA endorse these courses? Could it be fear, arrogance or purely egotistical reasons? For a nation as big as ourselves, we need to do better and there are accessible options out there to assist with this.

While thing’s probably won’t change anytime soon, I’ll still happily invest my own time and money in learning abroad, as for me it’s priceless.

Sub group – Our reflections

Our sub group met up recently and discussed a number of things that we experienced during our time together. While we didn’t come to any conclusions, we did attempt to falsify some of our thinking and produce some new ideas. Each coach shared their main reflection and this consisted of;

Periodisation
Experience before comprehension
Scoring methods, during practice games

We originally arranged to meet for 1 hour, but we exceeded this easily. As we didn’t come to any conclusions on the above 3 reflections, conversations are still ongoing. The topic of scoring methods was something that absorbed a lot of our time while we were away, for the reason that it can have a big impact on the training session. Conditioning the behaviour you want is key and this will assist with the respective outcome you would like, so the scoring system has a huge part to play in this.

With daily discussions about this and other things still taking place, I look forward to sharing some ideas in a future blog!

Individual intentions – Were they achieved?

For context, in part 2 I shared my individual intentions with you;

“Before I travelled to the Netherlands, I tried to outline exactly what I wanted to get out of the week. Without having an intention, aligned with something you wish to achieve, you are going in no particular direction. You can’t also evaluate your progress, so the whole exercise is pretty pointless.

I decided that my intentions for the week would be to observe how other coaches, including RV, delivered their content and what use it could be for me.

I also had my eye on reverse engineering, session design and learning about 2 different coaching styles”.

Observation of other coaches – One of the main purposes of my attendance, was to see how other coaches work. I wasn’t concerned about, ‘what they say in the sessions’ or ‘what coaching points they had scribbled down’, it was more to see what they proposed for their training session design. In the build up to this, there was a presentation and this was equally interesting, in the fact that their application differs from mine and others.

Reverse engineering – This is a very complex tool that RV has used within his programme for the last 12-18 months. The purpose is to work backwards from the execution phase, within a player’s football action. You then explore if the deciding and communication are aligned, which can then give you an indication of where a possible fault may have taken place. This is still very much work in progress for me.

Session design – As a part of the course intention, this was an area that we spent a lot of time on. We focused on three different types of training session, which could lead to a vast list of different outcomes. Our subgroups ‘how’, was to design the training and then execute it.
The training session we designed, wasn’t the best and there were a number of small faults exposed. One of the players moved from his playing position regularly, which was due to the space that we sacrificed in trying to achieve our outcome. Instead of telling the player ‘not’ to do something, which is extremely false and artificial, we were encouraged to watch and adapt where needed. Doing it this way would unconsciously effect the players thinking and do what we wanted. During the session we did try and adapt, but it didn’t really effect the situation of what we wanted, so this evaluation is still ongoing!

Coaching tools – In the previous blog I listed this as coaching styles, which was incorrect. Upon reflection, it is coaching tools that I wanted to learn more about. The two in question are;

Reference coaching
Situation coaching

Both can be used and you would be encouraged to do so, when the occasion dictates. You could use reference coaching by asking questions in conversation and situation coaching at training, when you’re trying to expose something, to then improve.

Final message

Thanks for taking the time to read this 3 part series. It has been enjoyable to get some of my thoughts out onto paper and while a lot of it is still fresh, it may give me other opportunities to discuss certain topics further.

For any coaches that have any questions about this experience or the pathway I have chosen to take, please email me on adam@parktopro.com

For any FCE related enquires please email info@fcevolution.com

I wish you well for the season ahead.

Raising the bar – Part 2

by Adam Clark | Jun 27, 2023 | Coaching Blog

After giving some context to my journey in Part 1, you should hopefully now have clearer lenses, to understand what we took part in during the recent FCE Pro Course.
Firstly, I’ll outline the various intentions that were in place before we started. I’ll then share some of my own reflections and interactions with my sub-group, which were all part of my learning process.

The course

To summarise, each day was varied and formulated logical progression, between both match days. We started the first day by observing a game and then analysing this to identify patterns of incompetence during the game. Once this was agreed, all sub groups had to design training sessions, that could potentially correct these through training.

Day 1

In house fixture – This was the foundation of the course week
Analysis of the game

Day 2

In depth explanations of principles that you could use in training, via CDEF formats

Day 3

Live training sessions, focusing on execution of decisions

Day 4

Live training sessions, focusing on deciding

Day 5

Presentation from PSV Eindhoven coaching staff

Day 6

Live training sessions, focusing on communication

Day 7

In house fixture – To evaluate the implementation of coaching actions, throughout the training week. Were they successful or not? (find out in part 3 of this series)

During all course days, there was plenty of content (listed below) and the opportunity for all delegates to re-re design training sessions and discuss many different references that we could use.

Course intention

In the build up to the course, all of the delegates received communication that the course intention would be, ‘Improving your execution, within a coaching action’. A coaching action follows the same format of a player; Communicating, Deciding what, Deciding how and execution of a decision.

Sub group intention

Our sub group intention was to align individual intentions with the course intention. At the time of writing, we are yet to identify if this was successful or not, with an evaluation of this conversation coming in part 3.

My individual intention

Before I travelled to the Netherlands, I tried to outline exactly what I wanted to get out of the week. Without having an intention, aligned with something you wish to achieve, you are going in no particular direction. You can’t also evaluate your progress, so the whole exercise is pretty pointless.

I decided that my intentions for the week would be to observe how other coaches, including RV, delivered their content and what use it could be for me. I also had my eye on reverse engineering, session design and learning about 2 different coaching styles.

Content

Throughout the week, we were given a large amount of information. This was broken down into a variety of presentations, ranging from;

Analysis
Sub group – reflecting FOR (hypothesis for impending training session)
Sub group – reflecting ON (evaluation of training session)
Differences between knowledge and experience
Reverse engineering a coach action
Unconscious football actions

There was also plenty more to digest, which allowed for a very informative week as you can imagine. All presentations were designed to engage the coaches in conversation and to provoke questions. Having no opinions presented, ensured that all discussion stayed on an objective wavelength and kept the bar high.

My own learnings

While the week was extremely challenging and provoked plenty to think about, I thought it would be good to highlight 4 of my key ‘reflections’ from the course. To explain this, I describe the stimulus that was given to us, the response is my ‘pop up’ and the action is something I will consider, to apply in the future.

Reflections

Stimulus – Experiencing first, before comprehension.

Response – This was very effective when we had to sit and discuss in our sub groups. RV could have ‘spoon fed’ us the information first and then we could’ve executed what he wanted. Instead, not knowing what really to do at the start, led to more conversation and hypothetical arguments.

Action – This aspect of the course was a great learning experience, as it pushed the coaches to find the answer(s) themselves. This also led to me questioning what I do with my players and not just ‘telling’ them the answers straight away.

Stimulus – The effectiveness of relevant (worded) questions in a logical order, while coaching.

Response – Stepping onto the field to coach allowed me to experience something new and enjoyable. I was relatively calm and didn’t feel phased at all, by this new situation. By thinking calmly and having a clear plan, it allowed me to observe the players and not the session design. When I was coaching, I did use 2 different types of questioning, which did lead to confusion in small parts.

Action – Practice my question-answer patterns and have them prepared for training/games, in order to use them as much as possible.

Stimulus – Sub – group relationships.

Response – The sub group I worked with was very challenging (in a positive way) and it engaged a lot of conversation. On a couple of evenings we did get slightly derailed and that led to a number of us getting stressed, myself included. On a positive note, we did have some very good references to utilise and it did allow the group to progress and share learnings.

Action – Maintaining relationships with your ‘staff’ is one of the key areas in being successful. As a consequence our group has agreed to continue in meeting up, via zoom, to continue our learning.

Stimulus – Use the correct body language to reflect your message.

Response – How often do we find ourselves in situations of emotional discomfort? When trying to communicate during these moments, our message could get lost in translation, by the way we conduct our body language. At great example of this, could be when our team is losing and we need to convey something important. If we look angry and speak with an aggressive tone, the chances of the receiver taking the message correctly, will be far slimmer.

Action – Assess the different types of body language I display in all situations and how this could impact the message, that I wish to deliver.

Networking

While this isn’t my priority when I attend these courses, opportunity does always present itself to formulate new professional relationships. You regularly work with different coaches, discuss solutions to problems during workshops and build new relationships over breakfast, lunch and dinner, with no set plan on where you sit.

Throughout my time participating in this pathway, I’ve interacted with coaches from all sides of the globe, which warrants itself for a very unique coaching experience. Having such a large array of different cultures and backgrounds attending these courses, gives it another huge positive that you don’t normally get in your home countries, when attending events with your federation.

Thanks for reading part 2! The evaluation on this course will be released in part 3 of this series, on Friday 1st July!