Sports Coaching Brain » Teams Development

Hiring and Developing a COACHING / PERFORMANCE TEAM

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:42:25 +0000

Gone are the days of the “GURU” coaches.

Sure, the great names of coaching have all been “one man bands” – strong, decisive, authoritarian, leadership focused head coaches who controlled every aspect of the team’s performance.

However, elite sport has developed at an incredible rate over the past twenty years and the knowledge and skills required to win an elite sporting competition are greater than any one person can bring to the table.

Think of the advances in sports science, sports medicine, analysis, IT, nutrition, psychology and technology since the 1980s.

How can we expect that any one person can be THE expert in all performance areas plus coach the team, deal with the media, work with Club Board and Executive, recruit new players, talk to sponsors, meet the fans etc etc etc?

So – the Coaching Team and Performance Team concepts are born.

In the past, sporting organisations have recruited “Head Coaches” and given them the freedom to change all aspects of the team’s performance environment from the recruitment of young athletes to the strategies and tactics of the senior team.

However, as sport has become more complex and increasingly sophisticated in all performance areas, sporting organisations have realised that often what is needed is a precise set of specialist skills, knowledge and experience to help them perform – a skill set which is unlikely to be provided by a single individual - no matter how talented he / she may be.

In response, organisations have begun developing “Coaching Teams” or “Performance Teams” to provide the solutions to their performance problems.

The first step in creating a Coaching or Performance team is to comprehensively review the organisation and identify it’s needs in the coaching and performance areas.
Once this has been completed, a “Performance Skills Profile” is developed which details the skills needed by the organisation to compete successfully.
Then the process of identifying the right people (i.e. as opposed to the right person) to provide these skills can be undertaken.

For example:

CLUB needs coaching skills: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J AND K.
Head Coach has coaching skills: A,B,C,D,H AND K.
Support Coach One has coaching skills: E,F, I, J AND G.
Support Coach Two has coaching skills: E,F AND G.

So by hiring these three coaches – a “Coaching Team” - the Club gets the full compliment of coaching skills it needs right now.

This “Coaching Team” concept also applies to the wider “Performance Team”.

For example:

The organisation needs performance skills A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P and Q which are a combination of coaching, sports science, strength and conditioning and medical team skills.

Head Coach has performance skills A,B,C,D,E AND L.
High Performance Manager has performance skills F,G, I AND Q.
Strength and Conditioning Co-ordinator has performance skills H,I, J AND K.
Team Medical Director has performance skills M,N, O and P.

Summary:

When recruiting, a sporting organisation needs to clearly understand its performance needs right now.

The organisation needs to identify what skills, knowledge, abilities and experience can help them achieve their performance goals – understanding that with the complexity of modern sport, it will be necessary to employ a team of people rather than try to find a “guru” who can successfully drive all key performance areas at a high level.

The more elite the level of competition, the greater the attention to detail needs to be in all performance areas - and therefore the greater the need for a performance team with high level specialist expertise.

The organisation also needs to accept that their current performance needs will change over time. This means they have to commit to:

Ongoing training and development of all professional staff
Ongoing assessment and evaluation of all professional staff
Review and – if necessary - change of professional staff

The organisation needs to think progressively, innovatively and creatively rather than follow the existing performance team models of other teams and Clubs. There is no one “perfect” performance model for all teams, all sports and all levels of performance.

Wayne Goldsmith

Running better meetings in football: too long, too much, too similar.

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:17:04 +0000

There are five key elements in professional football these days:

1. Training

2. Playing

3. Recovery

4. Life Activities – e.g. work, study, family life, business.

5. Meetings!

Teams are spending more and more time meeting and discussing past games, future games and all the other games, training activities, travel and logistics issues involving the team.

The increased use of video at all levels of the game has led to more and more analysis and subsequently more meetings to discuss, review and present the analysis.

This has also presented some challenges for coaches and players on how to best manage the increased flow of information.

Three Golden Rules of Fantastic Football Meetings – 3 x 3 x 3

3 messages per meeting: Aim to deliver no more than three messages to players in any one meeting
3 minutes per presentation or video show: Aim to keep all presentations or video clips to less than three minutes
3 engagements of players into the process: Aim to engage players, e.g. seeking their input, feedback, comments etc at least three times per meeting.

What we know about how most footballers take in information?

There has been a lot of study done on how players learn and how they prefer to receive information:

They want to be engaged – they want some sort of involvement in the process: to be involved in the presentation and the information that is available.
They like it to be short. One flow on from the technology age we all live in is that players have grown up with video, DVD, CD, Internet, video games etc and like short, sharp, interesting messages.
They like variety – not just in what is delivered but how it is delivered and the environment in which it is delivered.
They like to DO – more than just listen.
They like to SEE - more than just listen.
Their learning styles are individual and unique.

Typical Monday morning or Tuesday night football team meeting (i.e. first meeting after the game): Too much: too similar: too long.

Coaches love to talk! Typically after a game, coaches will spend hours working through video, stats and other analysis tools to prepare a synopsis for players for the next team meeting. In general, coaches make several errors in delivering this important game analysis information:

Too long – some post game team meetings go longer than 60 minutes!!!
Too much information – most of it goes in one ear and out the other…..
Too much talking AT rather than talking WITH the players and staff.
Too MANY POWER POINT SLIDES – let’s say it again: too many power point slides.
Too much telling and not enough asking, questioning and enquiring.
Too much video.
Too much same venue / same environment / same seating / same meeting format
Too much of the same presentation format regardless of the learning preferences of individual players.

In other words, too much information delivered over too much time to too many players.

Ten Tips for running effective post game meetings in Football:

Limit team meetings to a maximum of ten minutes and no more than three minutes on any one topic.
Limit the number of slides on any one topic / message to three.
Limit the amount of video in any one meeting to three minutes.
Ask lots of “why” questions and “what happens next” and “how can we improve on this”.
CONSTRUCTIVE rather than DESTRUCTIVE. The video era has led to the ANALYSIS era. Analysis by nature is destructive as its purpose is to pull apart, study and understand what happened. Use the analysis process to find new and creative way to construct better performances.
Deliver information to players in a way that makes sense to them – that is consistent with their unique learning styles and learning preferences.
Learn, think, act – make sure there is opportunity for players to learn from the meeting, give them time to think about it and to put it into action.
Regularly seek feedback from players on how effectively meetings are conducted.
Change the meeting structure, format, venue, presenters etc.
LESS MEETINGS – MORE ACTION! I see and I learn: I do and I understand.

In the end team meetings are about three things:

Will the information delivered at this meeting help improve the performance of each individual?
Will it help the team as whole to perform better as a group?
Will it help make the performance environment more efficient and effective?

If the answer to these three questions is “yes” – you are in for a great meeting!

Wayne Goldsmith

Winning Against the Odds

Wayne Goldsmith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:00:48 +0000

Question:

How may times do you actually go out on the field with all of your best players 100% fit and healthy and in the best form of their lives?

Answer:

a. Sometimes

b. Often

c. All the time

d. Never.

If you answered d. Never – give yourself a round of applause.

There is a popularly held belief that successful professional teams have found the secret to keeping players injury free and that every time they run on to the field, players are in peak physical and mental condition.

In reality, in all the football codes – especially where collision is involved – never at anytime do you have a fully fit and healthy team in the best form of their careers.

All teams and players have to face the reality of winning under pressure, winning with injury, winning when they are out of form – winning against the odds.

That’s not to say it’s right. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be striving for 100% fit, healthy and in form teams. It’s just a fact of life. Teams and players have to be able to win regardless of pain, fatigue, pressure, fear, form or injury.

So if you accept the premise that all teams are in the same boat – the question is what to do about it?

Pain, pressure, fear and fatigue etc are not excuses for poor preparation. Consistently prepare to the limits of your capabilities.
Pain, pressure, fear and fatigue are not performance limiting: they are challenges to be overcome through hard work, tenacity, a positive attitude and working as a cohesive team.
Belief in yourself – belief in team mates – belief in your preparation: belief is the key factor in overcoming the doubts that often sneak in during tough times.
Make training tougher, more challenging and more demanding than any game could be.
Thrive in adversity in practice. Embrace difficulty and hardship in training. Prepare to win in tough conditions.

So don’t wait for the Football Fairy to sprinkle magic dust over your heads and make everything warm and wonderful.

Accept that all teams have to learn to win in tough conditions and prepare to deal with them better than your opposition.

Wayne Goldsmith

The Jersey is Dead: Long live the Players

Wayne Goldsmith — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:17:55 +0000

By Wayne Goldsmith |

The Jersey. The Strip. The Colors. The Jacket. The Jumper.

Doesn’t matter what you call it – the “jersey” is dead.

Gone are the days when a bunch of blokes could train two or three days a week, have a poor diet, skip training sessions, enjoy a few beers and then, come Saturday, suddenly get Amazing Super Powers because of the magic of putting on the “jersey”.

In those days, poorly prepared players relied on the emotion of the jersey for their performance. Putting on the old “black and green” colors – usually incorporating a “rev-up” by a former player about the “pride of the jersey” etc was enough to fire the spirit and inspire the soul.

That’s not to say that tradition is wrong or respecting and celebrating the past is a bad thing. The point is that the jersey is just that – a jersey – a piece of clothing (usually made in China) – and, as a performance enhancement tool in 2008 – it is dead.

Why do I say the jersey is dead?

Because of two main reasons:

1. Professionalism in the major football codes – soccer, American football, AFL, rugby league and rugby has made the concept of the “jersey” obsolete.

Players change teams, states and even nations if the price is right. In days gone by, a young player dreamed of playing for his local professional team. He grew up with flags and beanies and caps and posters and every possible piece of team memorabilia plastered all over his room. His idea of heaven was to be selected in the run on team for his local professional team and kick a goal in front of mum and dad and the people he grew up with. It was “his” team.

Now players chase money, cars, contracts, sponsorship, endorsements and the trimmings of success wherever they can find it – and as full time professionals they deserve it. Loyalty is given not a jersey or team but to the club which offers the best financial package.

2. Player preparation has changed dramatically – it is the era of the individual.

In the 1950s and 1960s it was about preparing the Team as a whole.

Then in the 1970s we moved to preparing Elements of the team, e.g. Forwards or Backs, Attacking Players or Defensive Players.

This evolved to coaching Units, e.g. Inside Backs or Outside backs, Front midfield or Back midfield.

Where we are now is about Optimal Preparation of Individuals.

Teams and competitions are so close that a coach or player can not afford to have a weak link anywhere. In the old days, some individuals could under prepare, have a few chinks in the armour and still perform well.

Now, with all the analysis, video reviews and emphasis on optimal preparation of individuals, no professional player can afford going into a game under prepared in any area of performance.

Coaching lessons:

1. Instead of relying the magical powers of the jersey, teach players to take pride in their own performance and give them the skills, opportunity and environment to prepare optimally: physically, mentally, technically and tactically.

2. Respect the achievements of the players who have gone before but empower players to “own” the current team and the colors now. The jersey is only meaningful if it is meaningful to the current player group.

3. Do not rely on the emotion of the jersey for performance results. Prepare each individual optimally, then if the jersey can add a little passion and improve a specific element of performance – great: just don’t rely on it to produce a result in a poorly prepared team.

Wayne Goldsmith