The football coaching world can be a very subjective place. There are hundreds of thousands of videos and articles online, which deliver all types of messages. These could be recipes on how to play a certain way, or there could be explanations on how Guardiola sets his Manchester City team up.
What is apparent in a lot of this content, is that the message is largely on ‘how’ a coach did, or is doing something.

The question now for you is, by reading and observing all of this available content, could it help you become a better coach?

While observing ‘how’ another coach implements a certain idea, the observer in question needs to understand a number of things;

Are these your players?
Are your external factors the same?
Do the abilities in your squad replicate that of said players?
The recording or passage of text, is someone else’s subjective observation. Does this correlate with your application?

….the list could go on…..

While only you know the answers to these questions and it would be extremely rare, if you were able to say ‘yes’, to any of the above.

So, now where would your approach take you in order for you to discover objective truth, in order to help yourself improve? By using objectivity as a starting point, you know that what your processing is truth and can be applied to your players, regardless of their abilities.

A number of methods you could use, in searching for an objective starting point could be;

Learning what the game of football is
What can be universally applied in South America, as well as Asia?
What are all footballers taking part in, independent of their abilities?
Is the objective of the game the same across the globe?

By answering these questions to yourself, you will see that you have given yourself an objective starting point. This isn’t going to improve you as a coach over night, but it what it will do, is give you further understanding of the game itself.

If you know that the game is 11 vs 11 and the objective of the game is to score at least 1 more goal than the opponent, then you already have a foundation to build on.

How do you ensure you know what your processing is objective, though?

Is it someone’s interpretation of the game, through their own eyes? Do they use words like, I use or I think??
Is the language they’re using non-contextual? In other words, are they using descriptions that aren’t in action language, non – use of verbs?
Is the report or imagery, purely their own description of a certain scenario?

If any of your answers to the above are ‘yes’, you will be falling into the whirlwind of subjective jargon that has taken over the coaching world.

Learn about what football is, alter your lenses and change your viewpoint. By doing this, you will understand so much more and really be able to improve your players! Copy and paste coaching and flavours of the month, can only get you so far. What are you going to do when you reach your glass ceiling?