Were asked in football what
does the future player look like now. Well I think, what did certain players
look like in the past? I certainly agree with ‘holistic’ development and the
vast majority of sports people who ‘succeed’ in becoming top professional athletes
will be ones who follow the path. But what worries me is how I see football
staff trying to put all players in the same mind-set. Just like we are with player’s
football wise. Seemingly creating all the same player, I now see signs of us
trying to create the same mind-set. Now I’m no psychiatrist (might need one)
but to me freedom on the pitch in attacking areas comes from freedom of the
mind. That is also not over thinking things.
All us that have earned a
living in the game dress up our input, importance and role in creating the
player and try to take some responsibility when it goes well. But what if good
coaching is stepping back, recognising something great and letting the player develop
their way almost organically. We simply set the scene, give them the best environment
and act as the race track barrier to keep them on the tarmac. I guess I'm asking, what if we have a genius and don’t recognise the signs in his/her behaviour. We just see it as deliberate bad behaviour and despite our learning,
we ignore the potential and send them to the club psychologist. Some of these
guys then, just in my view, stabilise or neutralise all this, almost suppress it
and the player marches out hypnotised, a new level headed, calm individual,
just like everybody else. Now I don’t think that everything these people do is
wrong either. Actually, genius doesn't come round often so for the majority it
could be simply attention and focus issues or others reasons that the psychologist
will have a tremendous input on. But when they globalise success as a certain
path of thought, actions & behaviours, I'm sorry, I disagree and I’ll try
to explain why.
Behaviour
When a player behaves
differently how do you cope as a coach and what do you see? I think many
coaches fear players, even young ones that have big personalities or issues. So
many sit in the coach education courses and listen to the social/psychological corner
on paper but they don’t apply it on the pitch. See when a player behaves so
called badly, lacks concentration, doesn't listen, has learning issues or has
punctuation, anger or other problems. What is the reason? My first thought is
always, is there an issue at home, school or socially. So I believe some
patience is required and I wish more coaches would apply some of their own words
and think about what they learned in the classroom. Rather than quickly snapping
at the player in public, demanding their attention and concentration. Is it
better to find a way to make them want
to listen?
There is of course many that
will fall foul of behaviour. Maybe they simply have a bad attitude and we all
know if that is the case they will likely not make the grade. Despite all your
efforts as a coach and surrounding staff you just can’t pull the player round. Ultimately
players that can’t be controlled overall will be waved out of the door. But
bear in mind, if players are running wild that can also be sign of weakness in
the coach. I don’t mean fear factor either, coaches earn respect from players
of all ages and most of all, when it’s interesting, players apply themselves.
But what about that odd individual that’s a bit more of a test? I'm not scared
of so called ‘different’ behaviour, body language or personalities. Recently
after training a parent came to me. “How was they today (brothers)”? Fine, I
replied. She went on to tell she has had issues with their coach with
concentration and behaviour. I thought for a second. I told her that if she
means smiling, laughing then yes, they do that. They also poke each other
around but I don’t see those as issues. There is definite improvement in these
players, but I already began re-directing their thoughts, creating games where
they were separated or had to work better together and if there is too much
standing still, they get bored and poke each other. If you talk to long, yes
they start juggling with the ball. Every coaches red rag to a bull! I don’t see
that as bad behaviour, I'm the same, I get bored quickly. So, for me I don’t have
any issues with their behaviour. After I walked off I thought about what their
coach was seeing. Was he standing them around talking? Is it because there not
looking at him listening attentively hanging on his words, (I've seen coaches
take massive offence to this) that’s behaviour problems? Not for me. But then
how do I know they learned? Guess what, we did a similar session where we
worked on passing & receiving with movement to receive. Without talking to
them, we set up. Off we went, they did all the things we did the week before. So,
they did learn. They just don’t like waffle.
Do we
really embrace creativity?
For me there are certain things
in people that are closely linked. If I think about a list of great, but eccentric
people, I think about their strong personality, some being unpredictable with
anger problems but maybe strong leaders. But most of all, there creativity. For
me, these individual won’t always comply, they won’t always be the same as
everyone else. Maybe they are different for a reason? The fantastic late
musician Kurt Cobain said “They laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same”
Great
Eccentrics?
How would you define this list
of footballers?
Eric Cantona, Paul Gascoigne,
Maradona, George Best, Garrincha, Peter Schmiechel, Roy Keane, Mario Balotelli,
Paulo Di Canio, Zinedine Zidane, el-hadji Diouf, Gennaro Gattuso, Joey Barton
and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Possibly throw manager Jose Mourinho in there as manager?
In here are some of my favourite players ever. But I would ask, are they
entertaining? Would you pay to see them? I also think, what did these guys look
like as youth players? Also, were they easy to coach? Imagine that lot in front
of you as you shout “ok guys in you come, what did you learn there then”? What
did this lot do when you shouted “Stop stand still” “Oi, Listen to me” “Oi,
Stop bouncing that ball and concentrate”? Were they easy to manage &
control or did they test managers? I had a reasonable size business and without
question, the most difficult person to manage as an employee, was the most successful
salesperson. Do I sack him for an easy life? So, these certainly are characters,
they have a view of how they see things, they’re willing to say things, they’re
willing to try things. So are they ‘Eccentric’? I looked that up for definition
and found this…
What is
an eccentric person? Is it a form of insanity? Or are these people simply free
spirits who have the courage to do their own thing?
There are five salient
qualities: nonconformity, creativity, curiosity, idealism, and self-awareness
of being different.
Some
secondary characteristics include: high level of intelligence, being
opinionated and outspoken, possessing a mischievous sense of humour.
I thought then of other sports
people I admired. Ronnie O’Sullivan, Usain Bolt, Muhammad Ali, Chris Eubank,
John McEnroe, Valentino Rossi, Serena Williams, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson
and so we could go on. But their is something similar here, big personalities.
When you consider music there
are a vast array of great artist like Kurt Cobain who are not frightened to try
new things and could be argued are very much their own people. Michael Jackson, Elvis, Prince, Sinead O’Connor, Liam Gallagher, Morrissey are great examples and today we see the amazingly creative Lady Gaga.
To really look to cement
my view that some great people can be so called ‘different’ I looked further
into history and found a couple seemingly great people who were noted for being
difficult, different, unusual, learning issues, sleep issues, concentrations
issues etc. These are Thomas Edison, Beethoven, DaVinci, Oscar Wilde,
Michelangelo, Albert Einstein & Charles Dickens. No, surely you don’t need any
more convincing that genius doesn’t always march around nodding they’re head,
looking you in the eye and ticking the boxes.
If kids are actually ‘pieing
off training’, that to me is another issue. Likewise unruly, nasty behaviour or
bullying. All completely unacceptable on my watch. But others might need
different types of activity and a certain level of discovery to keep them
stimulated. Maybe they are just bored? Find a way, try something new. This
includes some that might just need an enjoyable environment. Is smiling wrong?
Some coaches think learning looks stern faced. Not always, you can smile and
learn. It’s called a different way. I know for example, I cannot learn in a
presentation/dictatorship fashion. I work in technology but was shown a
computer application in a presentation. It doesn't stick, I have to be hands on to learn. But because
the lesson was one person talking for an hour, it didn't stick. When I later
asked some questions the reply was ‘you have already been told this’. This was
a person in coach education.
Lastly if you do nothing else
please look up this great guy. One of the best presentations Ive seen.
Actually, why is it this stuck with me? Was it interesting? Did it contain
personality? Was humour injected?
Please see my key snippets I
feel relevant to us in football youth development.
Ken
Robinson said in his great TED Conference ‘How schools kill creativity’
-
Were educating our children for a world that we don’t know what
it will look like? We don’t even know what it will look like in 5 years’ time.
-
All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them pretty
ruthlessly
-
Story of the little girl drawing a picture and the teacher asked
what it was a picture of. The girl replied “it’s a picture of GOD”. The teacher
said “but no one knows what God looks like”. The girl replied “They will in a
minute”
-
If you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with
anything original
-
We educate people out of their creative capacities
-
We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it
-
We don’t think of Shakespeare being a child, he was in
somebodies English class
- Gillian Lynne was labelled with learning difficulties. She couldn't stop fidgeting and had lack of focus, she couldn't concentrate. She was taken
to a doctor who actually said there was nothing wrong with her, he turned on
the radio and she was moving, he told her mother to take her to dance. They
took her and she said the room was full of people like her, people who needed
to move to think. She graduated, formed a dance school, worked with Andrew Lloyd
Webber and was a dancer/director/choreographer in a string of award winning
musicals including Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Ken says, somebody else might
have put her on medication and told her to calm down.
Tony McCool
@antmccool7
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