For the past 3 months I’ve been mentoring coaches from outside of the UK – namely, Finland, Sweden and Estonia. We meet once per month via zoom, to discuss a topic that we have all recently studied.
So far we’ve discussed team tactics twice, with this past month being game insight. During the conversation all coaches shared some interesting pop up’s, that could be utilised in the future. Today, I want to discuss what game insight is and how a player develops it.
Firstly, what is game insight?
If we look at the logical order of a football action, it uses communication, decision making and an execution of a technique, for it to performed. While you can obviously break these parts into isolated events, it begs the question if football is actually being performed, if 1 or 2 of these components are absent?
Once a player participates in a game, they will possess some type of understanding, whether that be at a very young age or a senior player. There are rules that are universal (these never change) and other external factors that you can’t control. These could include the pitch surface, weather and referee for example.
The game itself, has a goal at each end of it’s pitch, with lines to highlight boundaries. There will then be a certain amount of players present, that will compete in scoring at least 1 more goal than their opponents and take victory.
This all sounds simple, but as we know, what goes on ‘during’ the game is unpredictable and as a coach, we have very minimal input on what actually happens. Some coaches decide to take it upon themselves and ‘commentate’ for the duration of the game. This doesn’t actually have any real impact on the development of the team intentions and the players that are participating on this occasion.
During the game the players will receive millions of different stimuli and then from this, they will be required to make decisions based on what THEY see or hear. The environment will communicate this to the players at every second of the game (so if you’re a coach, sit back and relax) and allow them to make their own decisions.
For the game to progress and show signs of a team working towards victory, the decision making component is now needed. The player will need to have communicated and now responds in action (to make a decision), then hopefully executes the correct technique…..
How does this happen?
What is this decision based on?
Is there such a thing as, making the right decision and executing it wrong, or making the wrong decision and pot luck playing a part?
While decision making itself is extremely complex, we know that the decisions players make are their own and they can be influenced by external factors. (Internal conflict and external influence, play a large part here). All of the stimuli that players consume has to be filtered at an extremely fast rate, to then enable them to execute a desired technique.
Making these decisions happen, is the brain. A very powerful muscle that we use in everything we do – so surely we need to ensure that our brain recognises these situations, to give us the best chance of succeeding?
How could we enhance this learning?
What situations could we create, to allow our players to recognise all these different stimuli, the game provides?
The answer is clear, train as you wish to compete on game day. By doing this, the brain will firstly experience and then store the information in the brain. These references can then be recalled upon in the future. There is of course, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ emotions attached to these decisions and this can influence what a player will then do.
Once a player has a number of references in their brain (or library of life), we can say they have insight into a certain subject matter. Game insight???? Well, this is simply references associated with what the player has experienced previously and is now stored in the brain. It would be safe to say that a Premier League player has excellent game insight, compared to a player at non-league level. What the Premier League player has seen and experienced will influence their ability to perform, whereas the non-league player wouldn’t have been in the same situations. Both would have game insight, but one will have a quicker understanding on how to deal with it.
Do your players have a ‘bare’ brain, or do they possess the game insight you need, to execute the desired team intentions?
While watching numerous games over the Christmas period, I took it upon myself to view as many games as possible, with the view of trying to understand what respective teams were doing, during game play.
The game is unpredictable and at times there will be situations that happen by ‘pot luck’, but are all situations reliant on this?
Throughout the process of viewing games, it was important to understand the differences between looking and seeing;
Looking – viewing the game zoomed in, following the ball and anticipating players actions.
Seeing – zooming out and looking at the game from a larger lens (focus on the team).
Using the above points within the context of viewing games, there was a high importance of ‘seeing’ in the games that I observed.
Depending on the ground that is hosting the game and the coverage that is provided, it is at times tricky to identify patterns that happen during the game. But, without any other software available, I had to rely on the camera angle that is provided, with mainstream television.
There are a few things that I used to assist my objective of, attempting to identify team intentions. I first used the followings steps;
Watch the first 10 minutes and try to identify early patterns
Look at the team in 2 phases to start – usually in attack and transitioning to defend
When the opposition had the ball in their defensive third (building up), where was the defensive block in relation to this
After gaining some initial thoughts here and looking at the teams behaviours, I then delved slightly deeper into the next part of questioning;
Where are they building up from most and where are they attempting to gain success?
When they lost possession of the ball, how did the team react?
Who are the key players so far in the game?
While gaining information from the previous 6 questions, I could then start to compile some notes of my observations and provoke some further thoughts of my own.
If player ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ are key to the build up, why is this? Are they on the same vertical or horizontal line, which could enable higher levels of communication or are they superior than their opponents with individual qualities?
Is the team in question being proactive in their approach to the game? Does the communication from the team look organised – is it working? Or, are there parts of the team that are struggling for a variety of reasons and is the opposition targeting this as a consequence?
When looking at the team (zoomed out), it’s vital that we understand the logical structure of football;
The game – what it is
Team task – what team task to use in a certain scenario – creating goalscoring opportunities (example)
Team intentions – how will we execute the team task – creating goalscoring opportunities
By taking the game as a starting point, players will have to communicate which is the first step of a football action. Communication, decision making and execution of a decision make up the action and there will be more on this later. The first step, communication, can be explained as;
Player interactions (meaning at least 2 players communicating with each other, with opponents present), in order to execute a given intention, which will make the team more predictable.
The decision making of a player will always impact an outcome of a given scenario, but the hope is that their individual intention will contribute to the overall intention, and the objective of the game (to score at least 1 more goal than the opposition).
So, when zooming out and viewing from team level, it’s important to really try and see what the team are intending to do, opposed to looking at each players actions and observing the outcome.
Take the team first and focus on the players second.
For 2022, there will be weekly blog posts on ramblings from my coaching world. This will be from delivered in an objective and subjective viewpoint, to give you the reader an opportunity (to hopefully) gain some new knowledge and understand my views as a coach.
Why the difference in blogs? On a weekly basis while watching different training and games, I see a variety of interesting things through my own lenses, that then provoke a variety of ‘pop-ups’. These pop ups are gold, as we as coaches could be thinking of something new, that could be unique, or even how we could possibly do something in that situation? While the context will never be wholly understood, the brain will always react to the stimulus and give our own response (interpretation) of what we see.
Most recently while watching games over the Christmas period, I took it upon myself to try and understand the team intentions from certain games. While this is an impossible task, as I’m not part of that respective team, it was interesting to try and work out what teams we’re intending to do and come to my own conclusion.
I then asked myself the question, how many coaches understand what a team intention is and how they do use them?
This first blog post on team intentions, will be posted this Friday!
We see it year after year, a football club needs to recruit some new players for the upcoming season and they invite player ‘X’ in for a trial. A trial is in place for the football club to assess the ability and potential of this player in question and if they are what ‘they’re looking for’. In other cases it can be for the player to observe the structure of the football club and if it will be a good fit for them (they may have numerous offers from different football clubs already).
For some this is the moment they’ve been waiting for, for others this moment could be too much for their brain to handle and the opportunity slips away. One thing for sure though is, that getting into this position is something all players should be proud of, as it requires a lot of dedication previously.
The question now is, what happens once you’ve been identified as a potential signing?
On occasion a scout may have spotted a player in the local park or they could’ve been recommended previously. They could also have been in the academy system previously and it’s now time for them to move on, to another club.
For this blog post, we’ll use the example of being spotted at your local park.
The season has been a resounding success and you’ve been performing to an exceptional standard every week. During the most recent game, a scout notices this and approaches your manager, about inviting you in for a trial to their football club. This is great news and something that would’ve happened to ten’s of thousands of players in the past, up and down the country.
You accept the invitation and await a date for your trial, whether that be in a training context or an exhibition game, to showcase your ability.
Before this all happens though, we have to address the topic of what the player actually got scouted for? Was this just an opinion of a scout watching or did they identify the player in question, using an objective framework?
Just to clarify that if the scout in question thought, player ‘X’ looks good. He showed he was physically strong and made numerous great tackles, is just an opinion. Opinions are someones thoughts, that can be provoked with previous experience and not so much knowledge. There is also the use of non-contextual jargon, that doesn’t fit into the universal reference of the game.
So what would an objective framework look like? This would include the characteristics of the game and how well the player in question can execute them. Is there a bigger impact on one part of the game, than another? Does this player have good game intelligence? Did player ‘X’ get noticed because of something they TRIED to do and not something they DID do? Again, all these considerations should be noted, when identifying a player.
For this example we will take the opinion of the scout as a starting point, as this is what usually happens, opposed to using an objective framework.
Player ‘X’ has now been notified that they have been invited to this professional football club next week, to take part in an exhibition game. This is the moment they’ve been waiting for, for so long and can’t wait to arrive at the training ground, to showcase their abilities. While this date is still a week away, the parent or guardian AND coach, should have a clear understanding from the scout and football club, as to why they’ve been invited to the training ground for a trial. A few questions to ask, could be;
Why did player ‘X’ get this opportunity?
What were the factors considered, to come to this decision?
How many other players are trialling on the same evening?
What will player ‘X’ be required to do, during the exhibition game?
Now, this last question highlighted above is a huge part of this process and will be the focus on the next part of this blog.
Check the next blog, where we continue the discussion of the process in a football ‘trial’.
Park to Pro tips;
When you have been scouted, enquire how long the scout in question has been observing the player in question?
Is the trial for the academy, or a separate branch of the football club?
Do you have to pay for the trial? (HUGE red flag!!)
What characteristics did the scout confirm competence in?
How many other players have been identified for this playing position at the football club? A small amount (quality) vs a large amount (quantity)?
Due to a number of extremely busy months and updating CPD via a course format, the month of June has given us the opportunity to bring out our next blog post. This will now be a regular occurrence, with plenty of content coming your way in the future months.
How do we coach football?
In the last blog, what is football coaching?, we clarified the context to ensure there is a clear foundation for the topic in this blog, how to coach football?
The previous situation was designed and can be found on the following link;
Before the training session takes place, you need to use the power of reflection to plan what you intend to do. By doing this, you will be prepared and be in position to diagnose competency levels, while awaiting the opportunity to coach.
If, for whatever reason you are unable to reflect appropriately before the training session, you could well rely on subjective experiences, to execute your intentions. “When I was playing, this is how we did it” – so this coach in question may well use this approach. There could be a problem with this though? The players in your squad aren’t you and have completely different external factors, so why would you use this approach?
In order for us to plan and execute a session appropriately, we will use a 3 step process and then focus on one of these steps. They are;
Reflecting FOR action – Before the training session and planning ahead
Reflecting IN action – During the training session and the decision of what to coach
Reflecting ON action – After the training session and the evaluation
Today we will focus on reflecting IN action and how we can use this to improve our training sessions.
In the previous blog we looked at the player in training who missed a number of opportunities, that could possibly have led to scoring a goal. We need to try and diagnose the exact fault and what we could possibly do, to help this player in the future.
A few pop up’s may now occur in your brain…
Is the player low on confidence?
Was he not focused enough?
Those are just 2 of the many questions that I’m sure all coaches would’ve heard previously. If we were to use those as a starting point, how could we possibly help the player?
Coach, “are you low on confidence?”
Player, “yes”
One question that you should then ask yourself is, how do you train confidence??? This is a non-contextual word and clearly doesn’t mean anything, within a football context.
As coaches we need to improve a players performance in whatever way we can. From a theoretical understanding, to the language we use, along with the execution of coaching actions, this all matters and has high importance.
So, we are now at the training session and the player in question has now missed a number of goal scoring opportunities. There are two things we have to consider now….number one is the situation. Did you reflect for action and design a session that has the situations you so desire in it? If the situation is correct, then the desired behaviours will have a better chance at being provoked. If the situation wasn’t quite clear enough, then anything could happen as the game is chaotic and unpredictable.
On this occasion, we will say that the situation is correct. The question now is how can we coach this player?
For this opportunity to present itself, you must have recognised that something wasn’t quite right and incompetence was shown, triggering a pop up in your brain. This is a good sign, as there will be some kind of alarm bell ringing and a reference being activated. You’ve seen something, you’re now aware and you want to address the situation. How do we now get the required information from our brain, into the players brain??
To give us the best opportunity of this being successful, we will use reference coaching. This is where we have information (references) stored in or brain and wish to download them into the receivers brain.
By using a variety of questions (verbal communication) and visual examples (non-verbal communication), we can give the information to the player. They then have to store this in their own brain and create their own references, which they can utilise in the future. The questions you could use to observe if learning has taken place, could be;
“How can you help him/her?”
“What can you see?”
“By doing this, what impact could it have on others?”
Using these examples can tell you as a coach where the competency levels are at with this player and how much game intelligence they have.
Check the next blog, where we discuss the process of a ‘trial’.
Park to Pro tips;
1 – Try and understand what the difference is between situation and reference coaching.
2 – Designing the correct situation to provoke your players behaviour is vital.
3 – Learn the 3 reflection moments, as these will make planning & evaluations easier.
4 – Explore what references you have in your brain and if they are objective/subjective.
The Park to Pro Coaching Blog is here to help you improve your game. Whether you’re a coach, player or parent, there will be a series of posts that will be released at set intervals, to take your game to the next level.
If you’re a player, why not check what we can offer you under the, ‘For the Player’ tab? Or, if you’re a coach, check under the, ‘For the Coach’ tab.
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We’re kicking off our first blog with a topic about football coaching. I hope you enjoy the read!
What is football coaching?
Where do we start with this question? What is football? What is coaching?
According to the oxford dictionary, football is;
“Any of various forms of team game involving kicking (and in some cases also handling) a ball, in particular (in the UK) soccer or (in the US) American football”.
…..and coaching is;
“Put simply, coaching is a process that aims to improve performance and focuses on the ‘here and now’ rather than on the distant past or future. … In coaching, fundamentally, the coach is helping the individual to improve their own performance: in other words, helping them to learn”.
To clarify here, we’ll be using the context of football (as traditionally known in the UK).
So now the question is, what does your football coaching look like?
Before starting to coach, you need to understand what football is. The game is made up of 4 phases, which are attacking, counter pressing, defending and counter attacking. Within each phase there are team functions and then, team tasks.
Without going too far ahead, we firstly need to understand each of the 4 phases.
Attacking – When our team has the ball and focus on the objective of scoring in the opponents goal.
Counter Pressing – When our team loses the ball and intend to win back ball possession, while the opposition are getting organised.
Defending – When our team doesn’t have the ball and focus on the objective of disturbing the opposition build up.
Counter Attacking – When our team reagin ball possession and intend to expose the opposition’s dis-organisation.
By reflecting on the above definitions, do you recognise when these moments take place in your practices and games? Are they happening often or are they non-existent? Only you will know the answer to this and if you as the coach, are designing the relevant practices.
Let’s take an example. You have an u11’s team and you want to work on, ‘finishing on the goal’, at your training session this evening. A few questions you may want to ask yourself are;
Where on the field does this take place?
When in the game does it happen?
Which players are usually in this position of the field?
Why do these opportunities happen?
Now, I’m sure you can answer those questions for yourself, but do you use those answers to design a relevant practice for your players? What if you consider the following;
What phase of the game does this usually take place in?
How does the ball get into this position, to enable us to finish on goal?
By firstly understanding how this moment may happen in the game, could lead to a higher chance of success for your team and allow them to be more predictable.
The next part of this process to understand is, what is coaching?
As mentioned above, coaching is a method used to help someone improve their performance. What does improvement look like and how can you, as a coach, impact this? If you we’re to ask someone about their own reflections on what they want to improve on, they may be able to give you an objective answer. As an onlooker though (you, the coach), can you objectively identify something in a players performance, that needs improving?
“He missed 3 opportunities on goal, in the last game”.
“She mis-placed 2 passes, in the last game”.
While reading those 2 statements, could you give an objective explanation, as to why it happened? Does it mean that those 2 players are incompetent and those 2 areas of their game are labelled as ‘weaknesses’?
Football is a random game and is unpredictable at all times. There are many external factors that we need to consider, as well as factors within the personal life of a player. All of this impacts the behaviour they display and could be a symptom for a decline in performance.
Going back to the, ‘football’ problem though and observing the missed opportunities in the last game, what can we do to solve this?
Firstly, we need to identity the football action that the player in question was attempting to execute. Once this has been identified, we need to understand if this was the desired decision of the player? If it was, was it an error in failed technique execution, or if it wasn’t the correct decision, then why? We can’t see a players decision so we can never make the assumption of, what you see, is all there is. Having dialogue upon reflection, will give you a closer understanding of what happened and why.
“Did you intend to kick the ball there?”
“Yes, I did coach”.
From asking 1 question, you can understand the players thinking and what they saw.
“Why did you kick the ball there?”
“I thought my team mate was going to run into that space coach”.
From the touchline it may have looked like the above player just kicked the ball into an empty space, no where near a team mate. When in fact, after dialogue, you can see that the player thought that their team mate would move there to receive the ball.
After coming to this conclusion, you can now see that something needs coaching and you are closer to finding a solution for the player.
Now, when do we address this situation and attempt to coach it? During the game? After the game? Before the next training session? During the next training session? The possibilities are endless and you as the coach, should know what is best for you and that player.
In this example, we’ll use the next training session to execute the coaching.
Check the next blog, to see what happens at the training session, when we’ll be addressing the situation.
Park to Pro tips;
Try and understand what football is, through an objective lens.
Analyse your team using the 4 phases of the game and attempt to recognise what they made need coaching with.
A coach is in place to improve football, not to ‘look busy’ and facilitate something that looks like football.
Use questions to try and understand what someone is thinking. By doing this you are creating an entrance point to their brain.
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