In soccer, perhaps more than any other sport, success hinges on team performance rather than individual play. As coaches are well aware, inspiring a group of players to perform as a finely tuned, coordinated unit is an on-going challenge. While several factors interfere with cohesion and flow of a soccer team, no published work has specifically addressed how to prevent and conquer such problems . . . until now.
In One Goal: The Mindset of Winning Soccer Teams, internationally renowned performance psychologist and author of the best-selling Focused for Soccer, Bill Beswick, delivers an unrivaled guide to developing a winning team mindset.
One Goal is arranged sequentially, providing invaluable insights on the various challenges facing coaches when pursuing a winning team mindset. You’ll find techniques, tools and suggestions to implement when addressing both common and unique challenges throughout the season. Specific contexts such as cup finals and tournaments are featured as well.
Recognizing team mindset as a factor distinguishing success from failure, One Goal features proven strategies from one of soccer’s top performance psychologists. It’s a soon-to-be classic that you will turn to again and again.
Part I Direction
Chapter 1. Unifying Purpose
Chapter 2. Creating Positivity
Chapter 3. Focusing Challenge
Chapter 4. Encouraging Leaders
Part II Relationships
Chapter 5. Forming Bonds
Chapter 6. Fostering Coachability
Chapter 7. Requiring Accountability
Chapter 8. Synching Aptitudes
Chapter 9. Managing Mood
Part III Performance
Chapter 10. Competing Cohesively
Chapter 11. Summoning Momentum
Chapter 12. Handling Pressure
Chapter 13. Overcoming Adversity
Chapter 14. Keeping Fresh
Chapter 15. Repeating Success
Bill Beswick is a leader in the field of applied sport psychology, internationally renowned for his work with elite soccer players and teams. After earning a master’s degree he worked as head coach of England’s gold-medal-winning basketball team at the Commonwealth Games. Beswick became the first full-time performance psychologist in English professional soccer.
Beswick has worked at Manchester United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland in the English Premier League and FC Twente in the Dutch Eredivisie. He has been a contributor to UEFA Pro Licence award courses for European football associations. He has international experience with the England U18 and U21 squads and as team psychologist with the English senior men’s national team. He is currently a consulting performance psychologist with Derby County FC in the English Championship Division, the English men’s rugby team and the British Olympic swimming team, along with advising athletic programs in the United States, including the one at Clemson University.
Beswick’s book Focused for Soccer (Human Kinetics, 2001) is now in its second edition and is regarded as one of the best guides ever on psychology of performance in the sport.
“Alongside me, Bill has experienced the highs and lows of football at club and national levels, and no one is better placed to advise coaches on winning the mind-set battle with their teams. For all coaches, One Goal is a must.”
Steve McClaren-- Manager, Newcastle United FC
“Togetherness and cohesion have been the trademarks of the great Liverpool teams. Coaches should spend more time learning to shape the mind-set of their team, and One Goal is an invaluable resource for that.”
Jamie Carragher-- Former Player, Liverpool Football Club, England National Team, Sky Sports Commentator
“Bill Beswick has been a mentor and transformational figure in my coaching career. He has helped me build a winning mind-set that has led to championship performance. Now, the winning advice in One Goal can help you.”
Mike Noonan-- Head Men’s Soccer Coach, Clemson University
“This inspirational new release offers insightful ideas from the very highest level of sport. Bill Beswick’s influence with countless winning teams makes One Goal a top priority for anyone seeking to become the best in sport, business and life.”
Tom Bates-- Performance Psychologist, West Bromwich Albion Football Club
“The lessons I have learned from my mentor can now be yours. Read One Goal and become a better coach.”
Steve Round-- Former Assistant Manager, Manchester United, Everton
“For nearly 20 years, Bill Beswick has given me great advice at the college and MLS levels. He has helped me become a better coach and, more important, a better person. I cannot recommend his work more highly.”
Schellas Hyndman-- Head Men’s Soccer Coach, Grand Canyon University
“I value Bill Beswick’s wisdom in helping our team work toward achieving their potential each year. His understanding of situations and individuals makes him an amazing resource for all coaches.”
Shelley Smith-- Head Women’s Soccer Coach, University of South Carolina
“Bill Beswick has built my awareness of the importance of a team mind-set. Learn how to keep your team relationships healthy with One Goal.”
Anthony Hudson-- Head Coach, New Zealand National Team
“Meeting with Bill is best, but this book is a good second best. It has a special place on my desk so I can continue to help in developing the stars of tomorrow.”
Chris Panayiotou-- Developmental Director of Coaching, Virginia Rush Soccer Club
“Bill is the man! Read this book and find out why.”
Brent Erwin-- Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach, Grand Canyon University
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
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Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
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Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
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Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
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Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
Learn more about One Goal.
Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
Learn more about One Goal.
Leadership Mindset
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility.
Leadership is a way of thinking. It begins in the head of each player with a desire to achieve and a willingness to take responsibility. Every member of a playing squad has a purposeful role to play and therefore a responsibility to him- or herself, the team and the coaches (see table 4.1). Players should be taught responsibility, individually and collectively, from the very start of their involvement in soccer. The power of a strong, collective team mindset is based upon the conviction that every single player can be trusted to carry out his or her responsibilities.
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On one of our regular phone calls during which we discussed the mental and emotional state of the FC Twente team, former head coach Steve McClaren said,'This team is not as good as I want it to be. But it is going to be as good as the players want it to be!'
Steve understood that leadership emerges from the habit of taking responsibility. Certain players will emerge who are capable not only of taking care of their own individual responsibilities but also of helping the team with their collective responsibility, taking the lead and therefore making a difference.
Player leadership can emerge in differing forms:
- A captain who accepts responsibility for representing the team
- An inspirational leader - a talent who inspires the team
- A core group of players determined to succeed
- An emotional leader - a player who can capture the feelings of the team
- The social connector leader - a ‘mother hen' figure
- Pop-up leadership - a player nearest to the situation taking charge
When the layers are peeled back to analyse a great team, many of these elements will appear. As discussed later in this chapter, for younger or less talented teams a good solution lies in establishing a small core of players, a leadership group, who share the coach's ambitions and passion and have the ability to spread the message.
A growing trend in soccer is to focus on player ‘entitlements' - rights and respect - but young players must learn that responsibility comes first. Every player must learn to take responsibility for her or his actions, and responsibility means being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing to the standard that the coach requires. Especially important is the discipline to continue to do the right things consistently when nobody is watching.
The philosophy at the excellent FC Twente Academy is that to build character, you have to give responsibility. The former director of football, Cees Lok, as a great player in his time, was aware that the building of character must go alongside the development of talent. When young boys and girls enter the academy, they are quickly made aware of their responsibilities. As they progress through the academy, player responsibility is reinforced at every level. The aim (see figure 4.2) is to build the kind of self-disciplined, self-managing players who can emerge as leaders and deal with the tough environment of the first team locker-room. At all times the players are made aware that they have ownership and control of their behaviour, that becoming a soccer player and being in the team is their choice.
Steve McClaren always tells his players, ‘I don't drop you from the team, you drop yourself!'
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The journey to leadership.
Being a Model Leader as Coach
The leadership characteristics and style of the coach create the conditions that allow player leadership to emerge. How the coach looks, what she or he says and how she or he acts send powerful messages to the players. The coach must be secure enough to allow space for player leadership to emerge and not be threatened by it. It could be said that coaches get the player-leaders they deserve!
Through intelligent use of power, authority, personality and presence, the coach is able to create a tight yet loose environment. A framework of control is established that includes a small number of non-negotiables (tight) yet enough negotiable (loose) aspects remain to allow player-leaders to shape large parts of the process. This move to increased player ownership is an important part of coaching the modern team.
The coach must always set the standard by personal behaviour, being confident and optimistic, seeing challenges not problems and focusing on what the team can do, not what they cannot do. Communication is especially important. Coaches must ask great questions and listen at least as much as they speak.
Learn more about One Goal.
Being Coachable
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences.
Coachability is a key to performance breakthrough for individual players and whole teams. The one essential requirement is the willingness to listen and utilise external input and influences. The extent of this openness to learning determines four levels of coachability:
- Not coachable - already knows everything, not open, listens only to own voice
- Selectively coachable - does what's asked but only when he or she feels like it, mostly goes own way
- Reluctantly coachable - does everything that is asked but doubts it, never fully committed
- Completely coachable - does everything asked, surrenders own voice, trusts and empowers the coach
Players and teams who reject coaching often believe certain myths:
- Coaching is for beginners.
- We already know everything - we just need to apply it.
- Experienced players coach themselves.
Gareth Barry, a Premier League player at Aston Villa, Manchester City and then Everton FC, was asked to fulfil a number of roles in the midfield of the England team to complement the particular skills of either Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard. In my opinion Gareth's coachability became key to the team's performance. His character and maturity were evidenced by an ability to listen, a willingness to try new things, an ability to adapt to change and the strength to accept accountability.
Of course, Gareth made mistakes, but he freely admitted them, took responsibility for them and rarely made the same mistake again.
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Top coaches demand coachable players.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
The Coachable Player
- Humble
- Respectful
- Loves the game
- Stays in control
- Takes responsibility
- Thinks long term
- Keen to learn
- Excited by change
- Willing to try new things
- Unafraid of mistakes
- Not hung up on the past
- Inquisitive
- Trusts coaches
How players adapt to coaching says a great deal about who they are. The same is true of teams. Coachability is an aspect of team mindset. Progress depends on the commitment of all individual members to learn their team roles and responsibilities. Great coaches can win with less talent but only if the team have a high level of coachability (see table 6.1). The New England Patriots of the American NFL have been Super Bowl winners and a dominant force in the league under the guidance of their outstanding coach, Bill Belichick, who recruits coachability:
Belichick's system relies heavily on smart, adaptable players. The intellectually rigorous, team-centric Patriots system would flop without smart, selfless, passionate players. Belichick's previous club played the same system but failed because many players weren't coachable. The Patriots have acquired many superb players who achieved little on other teams that did not utilise those players' intelligence and adaptability.
Belichick's staff relentlessly squeezes maximal performance from players whose ‘excellence' is defined by their heads and hearts as much as their arms and legs. (Lavin 2005, p 53)
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Being coachable is important at all ages and levels of competition. All coaches have limited time to teach the skills of soccer, so they rely on players to be early for practice; ready, fresh and alert; keen to learn and determined to excel.
Superstars Have Coachability
When Steve Round, the former assistant manager of Manchester United, walked out for his first practice session with his new squad, he was a little nervous. Coaching superstars is daunting, and he was still unsure of the right approach. However, one of the senior players walked alongside him and told him how much the players were looking forward to the session. He went on to add that the players loved being challenged to learn new things. The word was that 'Roundy' and the manager, David Moyes, were demanding coaches. A valuable lesson learned - many superstars are highly coachable and need to be challenged every day!
Being Uncoachable
The world's most brilliant coach would fail without players who are willing and able to learn from her or him. I saw Paul Barron, a goalkeeping coach responsible for the development of many fine goalkeepers, fail with only one goalkeeper. This particular player had had some early success before Paul joined his club. From the start the player rejected Paul's coaching and experience, insisting that he knew best how to prepare. The other goalkeepers in the squad responded well to Paul, and it was no surprise when one of them accelerated through to win the first-team jersey, leaving behind a talented but uncoachable failing star.
Unfortunately, coaches, especially of younger players, are encountering more players who are uncoachable. Some players believe they are never wrong, others think that the coach picks on them unfairly, and, of course, some will not take responsibility for mistakes or failure. These instances of uncoachable behaviour reflect various forms of mental or emotional weakness:
- Arrogance
- Indifference - doesn't care
- Anger - instantly fights back
- Subversion - finds victim ‘friends'
- Low self-esteem:
- Unwilling because afraid
- Makes assumptions and avoids accountability
- Being wrong, when this is associated with feeling of less worth
- Takes everything personally
- Worries about things he or she cannot control
The moment that determines whether a player or team are coachable or uncoachable is immediately after a coach intervenes with advice, instruction or criticism. Figure 6.2 illustrates the choice for the player or team between responding positively and reacting negatively. From the first moment a young boy or girl starts to learn soccer, that choice reflects the person's character and determines his or her soccer destiny, unless a coach at some point can influence a change from negative to positive.
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Responding or reacting to coach intervention - a measure of coachability.
Developing Coachability
Coachability is a function of the following factors:
- The player's motivation to learn and improve
- The player's desire to achieve her or his goals and dreams
- The strength of the relationship between the player and the coach
For the team we must add these points:
- Trust in others to do their jobs
- Open and honest communication
- Open and clear expectations of each other
Ensuring player and team coachability is about shaping these thoughts and emotions positively. This notion goes beyond physical, technical and tactical instruction and engages the coach more as a psychologist and relationship builder. Of course, the coach's job is to challenge players to improve, but if these elements of coachability are not in place, no learning will occur. Basketball coach Phil Jackson had to coach the uncoachable LA Lakers, star players who had lost any sense of humility and gone backwards from a ‘we' attitude to a ‘me' attitude. The lesson he shared was this:‘The essence of coaching is to get the players wholeheartedly to agree to being coached, then offer them a sense of their destiny as a team' (Jackson 2013, p 17).
Coach Jackson convinced his players that the only way to win was by being willing to be coached as one cohesive team unit.
Fully developed coachability means players become self-managing and take responsibility for their own learning. This is the mindset of a champion player or team. They come to learn every day and never waste a practice. I recommend that players engage in a 12-step programme to develop self-management:
- Take responsibility and make no excuses.
- Decide whether you want to be a fighter or a victim.
- Set an achievement journey.
- Plan targets for each day.
- Define your own job description.
- Profile your own strengths and weaknesses.
- Build a disciplined routine.
- Manage your own time and energy.
- Learn something every day.
- Don't get in your own way.
- Accept that you are accountable.
- Never give in!
Martin Krag on the website bundesligafanatic.com (2012) gave a fascinating insight into William Kvist, a top Danish international soccer player who is dedicated to self-managing his coachability:
William Kvist is a true professional and his approach to football is similar to the one you'll find in individual sportsmen like triathletes or swimmers. He takes responsibility for his own development in a world where players are used to being taken care of and catered to as long as they get themselves to the training ground and to the stadium on match days. Kvist himself calls it the hunt for perfection and that's why he has surrounded himself with a team of psychologists, hypnotherapists, dieticians and mental coaches.
‘I didn't become a true professional before I took responsibility for my own development and started to train on my own with the help from my team of practitioners. I had a contract but didn't behave like a professional. That came when I started to focus on my weaknesses. What I didn't get at the training ground I worked on myself, and the improvement followed,' says Kvist.
In the team bus on match days you'll find Kvist at the back with headphones on and closed eyes listening to the voice of his mental coach telling him that he will control the midfield, that he will dominate and own the centre of the field. And in the car on his way to the training ground Kvist will be listening to classical music because the radio commercials are disturbing his concentration.
William Kvist is a good example of a highly coachable and self-managing player. Every coach should encourage this mindset in young players. It begins with creating a practice and game environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded. At first the players must be shown the ways in which they can improve their performance, though eventually, like Kvist, they should be able to develop intrinsic motivation and be allowed to take control over their own learning.
Creating a Learning Environment
In my experience many of the barriers to learning and being coached are removed by creating a healthy and productive environment as a foundation upon which to build. Such an environment is the sum total of everything that affects the player's psychological and emotional well-being and therefore has a direct or indirect influence on performance. Coaches create a learning environment by making learning a key objective of performance. Because soccer is learned through trial and error, coaches must create a zone of psychological safety that fosters change and innovation and, more important, removes the fear of being embarrassed by making mistakes. Fear can stifle the learning process and prevent the development of those valuable players who can think outside the box.
Coaches remove fear and encourage new learning with a tough and warm coaching style that challenges but always stays in tune with each player's and the team's feelings.
The coaching environment is important because the coach has control over it and determines whether it is a positive, productive place to learn soccer or not. Many of the mental and emotional strengths that players gain are achieved through daily exposure to a challenging but positive and productive coaching environment. This sort of setting enables players to maximise their talent potential. Because the programme is well prepared and organised, nothing detracts from quality teaching time. Enthusiastic coaches teach mastery of the skills and constantly stress excellence in performance rather than focus on results. Players are given individual learning goals and allowed sufficient learning time every session. Progress is measured and rewarded. Effort is constantly recognised and praised, and the player receives continual feedback, especially after making mistakes.
The most effective leaders always explain why a skill is being taught and what benefits it will bring. They think and act positively, spreading optimism and a can-do attitude. From careful observation they offer the players accurate, objective and supportive feedback. Tolerance of mistakes is part of the learning process, and the good coach is able to interpret such failures as learning moments.
Of great importance is using games as an important learning experience, as a test of development rather than simply a win or a loss. All learning progress in practice can be destroyed by a results-fixated coach at game time. The best coaches do their best teaching at game time.
Establishing Work Standards
Understand exactly what work is required.
Ensure that all work is relevant to the age, gender and competitive level of the players.
Always explain why the work is needed.
Communicate your high expectations.
Encourage all players to work to their maximum potential.
Establish hard work as a team ethic.
Model the high standards you set.
Do not accept mediocrity.
Reward good work.
Inside the Team
Overcoming Resistance to Coaching
Coach Tom inherited a team of U15 boys who rejected coaching and had seen the departure of several well-meaning coaches. Tom discussed this with me, and we decided that we needed to change the way the team were thinking and slowly build up coachability. Because of the deep-rooted nature of the resistance, we had to think creatively. We came up with the following programme:
- For the first three practices Coach Tom was a pleasant guy with a whistle who just let the team play games.
- A practice game was arranged with a well-coached opponent. When the boys lost 0-4 Tom simply remarked, ‘Well, that was fun'.
- As anticipated, by now a reaction was building from both players and parents, so the coach called a meeting before the next practice.
- At the meeting ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT?' was written on the board. The answer came back that everybody wanted to achieve. So Tom wrote on the board ‘WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?' The answer included being coached to improve. Tom then handed to each player and his parents a sheet containing his eight rules of practice:
- Be on time and be ready.
- Run when the coach whistles.
- Listen attentively.
- Try very hard to play as the coach asks.
- Help each other to learn.
- Respond positively to feedback from the coach.
- Be willing to change your game.
- Understand that change can be uncomfortable.
When every player and his parents had signed and returned the sheet, Tom continued with practice.
- Tom did not revolutionise practice, but he slowly integrated short, sharp learning moments within an enjoyable game structure.
- A visit was arranged for the team and parents to watch a professional team practise. The whole concept of work, focus and coachability was emphasised.
- A return match with the previous opponents saw the team tie 2-2 and appreciate the improvements they had made.
Tom is now in his third season with the team!
Learn more about One Goal.
Perceiving Pressure
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
The demands of soccer exert five key pressures that can affect the mindset of teams.
- Performance pressure - the expectations of others and the consequences of defeat leading to anxiety and fear.
- Competition pressure - making decisions and executing skills when challenged and under fatigue leading to confusion, lack of confidence and errors.
- Time pressure - the need to respond quickly throughout the game and at the end of game when the clock is ticking down leading to anxiety and frustration.
- Distraction pressure - the crowd, the noise and incidents on the field distracting attention and leading to a loss of focus.
- Emotional pressure - refereeing decisions, mistakes and frustration with teammates leading to anger and loss of composure.
The mindset of a team can be strengthened or weakened by how they assess the challenges awaiting them. This definition of the situation shapes and drives subsequent performance.
Four-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most successful athletes of all time. He acknowledges that his psychological approach to competition was crucial to his sustained success on the track. Meticulous planning and preparation complemented by intense focus allowed him to perform consistently even when under extreme pressure. Johnson's approach was to train his mind to be disciplined and so deal with the intense pressure of competition. His definition of pressure removed any negative connotations in his mind.
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of a great opportunity.
‘Toughness is not a destination, but a journey without end'.
All performance starts in the mind before a game as teams and players seek answers to these questions:
- What exactly is the challenge we face today?
- What do we know of our opponents?
- What is our record against them?
- How strong is our team?
- Are we well prepared?
- Who will lead us into battle?
- Do I feel confident?
- Do I want to do this?
- What are the risks?
- What are the expectations of others?
- What are the consequences of failure?
The answers to these questions define the situation as perceived by the players, thus also defining their level of confidence and subsequent game behaviour. A positive definition of the situation is a frame of reference that can carry teams through difficult games because they think and behave like fighters, not victims. The task of coaches, supported by sport psychologists, is to help each player win the internal dialogue and overcome the weaker self.
Young players, especially girls, hold five common though irrational perceptions:
- My self-worth is on the line in this game.
- I must perform to please others.
- I must be perfect.
- The world must always be fair.
- I must always hate my opponent.
When Gary Kirsten coached the Indian cricket team to World Cup victory in India, the team had a major external pressure, the expectations of one billion people! Gary eased the pressure on the team by changing the picture and having them visualise one billion friends walking hand in hand with them to victory! The key to handling pressure is seeing challenge as a chance to shine, not a reason to fail.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Epictetus
Greek philosopher
The process by which a team agree a collective mindset towards a game begins when each player assesses her or his ability to meet the challenge. All players can then be influenced by the actions and words of senior team leaders, the coach's positive definition of the situation and any additional motivational techniques, such as a film or visiting speaker. From this process a collective response to the challenge emerges.
A winning mindset handles pressure by ensuring that positive values, attitudes and emotions bring behaviour that helps to conquer anxiety and fear. Coaches and sport psychologists need to teach players to define the competitive situation positively through using the skills of positive mental self-regulation, becoming comfortable with being intense but not tense.
Moment of Truth
The moment of truth for any player or team is when they cross the white line into a major competitive arena. It is at this moment when they feel the full pressure of the occasion. Here are some observations of the thinking that underpins the way that pressure affects performers and is then dealt with.
- The pressure of performing live - the time is now!
- A moment of no return - we cannot defer any longer.
- A feeling of being alone to fight a personal battle.
- The internal dialogue sways between confidence and anxiety.
- Rapid heartbeat, muscular tension, sweaty palms, nausea.
- The world awaits a response - fighter or victim?
Hard-earned experience is drawn upon:
- A lifetime of self-doubt
- Years of struggle
- Years of conquering fears every day
- Years of overcoming failure
- The discipline of repetition and habits
Emotional courage is summoned:
- Thinking, ‘I can'
- Feeling, ‘I will'
- Release of positive energy
The first step is crucial - years of training crystallised into a single moment:
- First touch
- First header
- First tackle
- Habits take over - preparation is everything.
- The crowd respond.
- The player responds - ‘I did it'. What better feeling?
- The experience is banked for next time.
Coping With Pressure
Teams can't be expected to play well under pressure if they have not been prepared to handle game situations. It is not compulsory to feel pressure. Well-prepared teams can easily handle the pressure of the moment.
After winning the 2014-15 Premier League title, Chelsea's mid-field player, Cesc Fabregas said of his manager, Jose Mourinho:
You need someone behind it all, which is the manager, who every single day makes you be at the top of your game. He just loves winning. I'm not just saying other managers I have played under don't, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with. The mentality shows every single training session and every single game. I now understand why he has won what he has won in his career.
(Hughes, M. ‘Obsessive Desire to Win has Made Mourinho the Best, says Fabregas' in The Times, 2015, 5 May, Sport p 64).
Good coaches fully appreciate the direct link between proper preparation to a state of game readiness and the resultant quality of performance on game day. Seeing the link physically is easy, but if the coach demands game-day mental strength and disciplined thinking under pressure and fatigue, then this too must be rehearsed continuously in practice. Teams cannot practise without challenge or competition and then be expected to deal with such pressures on game day. Figure 12.2 shows how coaches can help players identify their own particular pressure points as part of the postgame performance feedback process. Using this exercise, coach and player can work together on improving the player's capacity to cope.
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Make Pressure a Part of Practice
The practice-field environment is different from the game environment with its many unpredictable variables. The key to handling pressure in games is to replicate that pressure as nearly as possible in training. Coaches must integrate competitive and challenging situations within practice and simulate game scenarios. The more that practices resemble game day, including coping with unexpected situations, the better the team will cope with game pressure.
Practice must combine physical conditioning, skill acquisition by building a range of techniques and stress adaptation by increasing the demands on the player and team.
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Physical training is a key element in adapting to the increasing demands of stress and coping with game pressure.
© skynesher/iStock.com
When done well, this approach increases player awareness of potential pressure situations and provides a range of tools to deal with them. Practice performed in this way limits likely game pressure by increasing awareness, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.
Coaches can ensure that their teams practice under pressure by
- simulating a crowd effect by adding noise, distractions and so on,
- increasing the consequences of not performing well,
- favouring the opposition,
- reducing the time available and
- increasing complexity.
One coach I observed created a pressure scenario by combining a game with physical conditioning. The squad played a 12-minute game that included specific instructions for both teams (for example, 12 minutes left in the game and Red team leading 1-0, so Reds defend the lead and Blues try to equalise). The players then broke off for a 6-minute circuit-training session at the side of the field. After repeating this process three times, the coach evaluated their ability to handle pressure under fatigue.
Players with a warrior mentality welcome intensity in practice. They love practicing and seeing the improvement by pushing themselves as hard as possible. They also get annoyed when they think that they got nothing out of a poor practice session. This self-imposed pressure during the week is the perfect preparation for handling pressure on game day.
Soccer is a game of 95 per cent preparation and 5 per cent performance. The whole of England remembers being one minute from failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the deciding game against Greece in October 2001, well into stoppage time, David Beckham stepped up to take a free kick 25 yards from goal - last chance saloon! The pressure on David must have been enormous, but he could handle it because he was fully prepared. He always took a bag of balls out early before practice started, and he would have made at least 20 shots from that distance on many occasions - adding up to a memory of thousands of shots from that position. David felt confident because his body knew what to do. That confidence overcame the external pressure of the moment. David relaxed and scored a memorable goal.
I came across an excellent description of this coping with pressure by Jeff Wilkins, an NFL kicker, in Selk (2009, p VII)
The thing that all reporters get wrong when they ask me about ‘pressure' after the game is that, in that one moment, there is no pressure. When I try to explain why, they can't fathom it, but I've been there a thousand times before. In every practice I see myself executing flawlessly, I know the feeling of being calm and aggressive at the same time - where my mind has a pinpoint process on the one thing I need to do to be successful. In my mind I've practised that kick a thousand times.
The doubts everyone is curious about, wondering whether they creep into my mind, have no room in my head because I practise controlling my thoughts the same way I practise nailing down my technique. It all becomes routine, and mental toughness is what brings everything together.
Incorporating pressure in practice will both reveal and build each player's
- level of self-belief,
- strength of self-discipline,
- reliability of emotional control,
- intensity of competitive fire and
- ability to show leadership.
As the screw tightens, players either choke, cope or thrive (see table 12.2). Regular doses of intensity and stressful challenge in practice will see players at first learning to survive, then deal with and finally overcome pressure.
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Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, was recently rated NFL Coach of the Decade. Described in Lavin's book (2005), Belichick explained the team's success:
The biggest change came when we racked up the expectations and competitiveness of practice. Players had to pay attention and focus to survive and we saw both physical and mental development. Hard work is not a coaching strategy but a consequence of putting players in a practice environment that is competitive and performance focused every day.
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Winning Mindsets and Sustaining Excellence
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement.
Winning can change coach, player and team mindset from the positive drive that brought success into a negative weakness that fails to sustain further achievement. After winning, new pressures emerge, whether real or perceived, that challenge the established mindset.
1. Expectations
After a winning season people around the team, many of whom are significant influences on the way that players think and feel, hold the team to a new, higher standard. The team are expected to win again and again (often unrealistically). A good example is the team who win a league championship and are promoted to a higher league. Fans, media and so on expect the team to deliver the same results. Many such teams, from recreational youth teams up to professional league teams, are crushed by the weight of unrealistic expectations, fail to deal with the defeats that ensue and often return to the comfort zone of their original league in the following season.
2. Consequences
When a team at the top of the league table lose, the loss can be perceived as far more dramatic than any previous defeats the team has suffered when positioned lower in the league. Of course, it is just a loss, but winners have to deal with the enhanced consequences, often intensified by the reactions of the people who have influence on team and player mindset. The fear of consequences when required to repeat success can cause a team to choke. Players' minds switch ahead and become infected by the consequences of an unexpected defeat. Anxiety about the outcome begins to shape the actual performance. Concentration, composure and momentum are all lost as the team effectively defeat themselves.
3. Sideshow
Winners inevitably attract greater attention, sometimes accompanied by celebrity status and often intensified by media attention. Without control, this prominence can be a major distraction to the mindset needed to maintain success. Team sport offers many examples of one-off champions but far fewer repeat champions. When teams of these two types are compared and examined, one of the essential differences is that the teams able to manage the distractions of the sideshow are the teams that stay engaged in the daily task of continual improvement. These are the teams that are more likely to repeat success.
Of course, most teams in a league are more used to chasing than being chased, and they may be very inexperienced at dealing with sudden success. Inevitably, most coaches spend far more time and effort developing the mental strength of their teams to handle failure than they do dealing with success. The players may be quite unprepared for the pressures that sudden success can bring, including the feeling of being on trial and being expected to exhibit excellence on demand. Eventually, a team can feel that they are in a no-win situation. If they lose they are ostracized, and if they win the pressure increases. This situation may eventually erode team mindset and commitment. The dangers of success are clear:
- Loss of hunger and commitment
- Complacency caused by living off past reputation (see the Chelsea report)
- Exhaustion caused by lack of recovery time
- Believing the praise and publicity
If a coach cannot teach her or his team to handle and get past these issues, then the team will not be able to sustain and repeat their success. Rather, they will falter and return to a position in the league where the pressure drops to a comfortable level.
The options facing coaches with teams who achieve success are to do nothing, to reestablish and grow the existing team or to reinvent the team by introducing new players.
In this situation, a great deal depends upon the resources available for the coach in the context of the agreed vision for the team and the club.
Handling Success - Three Types of Player Mindset
- Those who reach the top because they believe they can. They are in the best position to sustain success.
- Those who are capable of success but have difficulty handling the sideshow. They will need a lot of help to stay on top.
- Those who are simply content to be in the team. They will not contribute to repeating success.
Complacency Destroys
In 2008 Chelsea suffered a surprise 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Roma. Captain John Terry identified his team's complacent mindset:
We sort of strolled in, thinking we were better than them, when clearly we're not. What was disappointing was that we didn't fight. Even after we went one and then two down, we didn't show the fight and desire that's got us where we've been over the past few years.
First and foremost, when you go to a place like Roma you need to fight and show more determination than them. If it comes to quality, then nine times out of ten we're better than most sides. We have to start with the desire to win. (Hughes 2008)
Sustaining Excellence
Shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson acted to kill off overlong celebrations following Manchester United's treble-winning season, I was tasked with helping the team set goals for the new season. I was concerned about how we would set new goals after such an outstanding season. I shouldn't have worried! The team, led on this occasion by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, came up with a beautiful response: ‘Win again! Win better! Win with class!' This was the mindset of champions determined to sustain success!
We have established that the major change in a team who first experience significant success is mental and emotional. The strong collective mindset that drove the team to victory is now besieged by the increased expectations, greater consequences of any defeat and the heightened sideshow described earlier. The team now find themselves being chased instead of doing the chasing. Without intervention by the coaches the team may start to get in their own way. Individuals flushed by success begin to push their own agendas ahead of that of the team. The team may then display reduced cohesion. Coaches must prevent the spread of negative influences on mindset by reinforcing the mental strength of the team if it falters.
Figure 15.1 suggests a programme of recalibration actions for coaches who want to train their team's mindset to deal with success on the way to sustained excellence.
- Celebrate - reinforce the good feelings that accompany the initial success.
- Move on - the coach defines the end of celebrations and commences team preparation for the next challenge.
- Set new goals - the refocusing process is helped by agreement on the new goals to be achieved.
- Reengage - the coach remotivates the players so that they are invigorated and again commit themselves to the hard work ahead. New players may be recruited to strengthen the team.
- Refocus - to win again, the team have to narrow down attention on the tasks ahead. No distractions!
- Smart preparation - repeating success is tough, so the coach finds ways to keep players on track with new challenges to meet the desired objectives.
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The process of sustaining excellence.
The whole philosophy of chasing excellence and mastery in soccer is that it can never be attained. But the pursuit ensures that the team achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Coaches of Champion Teams Who Repeat Success
- Have an insatiable passion for excellence
- Employ the very best staff
- Retain inspirational players
- Have an intense belief in being the best
- Build a history of success
- Celebrate success and look beyond to greater things without delay
- Never get tired of winning
- Find key players to provide strong leadership
- Adapt creatively to changing circumstances or increased competition
- Plan for succession to stay ahead of the game
Immediately after winning the Super Bowl, Coach Bill Belichick reverted to thinking of his team as number two.
He then went on to say, with all respect, that the team that had just won the Super Bowl had a lot of work to do to reach the ideal of consistent championship contenders. It meant that the team in the front office, coaches and scouts, were going to have to get back to work soon. And the team on the field shouldn't get too comfortable. He was asked how many players on the Super Bowl champs would have to be replaced before he could call them perennial championship threats. He didn't hesitate: ‘About 20!' (Holley 2011, p 48)
Repeat champions who achieve ongoing excellence seem to have a number of enduring principles in common. In an excellent piece of research Yukelson and Rose (2014) determined 10 such principles:
- Having a game plan to develop continuity and consistency from year to year.
- Never playing to defend a title but rather to win a new one.
- New and challenging goals especially emphasising performance excellence.
- A daily dedication to practise with attitude and effort - ‘Today's preparation leads to tomorrow's performance'.
- Attention to detail - an understanding that big games are won by moments of excellence.
- Coaching for player accountability and self-responsibility.
- Player leadership that releases the power of the locker-room.
- Having team resiliency that ensures quick recovery from setbacks.
- Quality relationships that reflect strong emotional ties between players.
- Acceptance of team roles even when changed.
Finally, it helps if the coach, like Alfred Schreuder at FC Twente as described earlier, sets a team goal with some room to manoeuvre. Aiming solely for the number one spot can become self-defeating over time and may make attaining a second or third league place seem a failure. If the coach sets an early season goal of being in the top four, then there is wiggle room to maintain team belief in the case of one or two defeats. This approach is a great help to a team on the way to repeating success; players can endure a temporary dip without feeling like failures. At the appropriate time the coach can refine the team goal to being number one!
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Setting new and realistic goals early each season gives players a chance to repeat success.
Photo courtesy of FC Twente.
Guidelines for Players to Repeat Excellence
- Be a fighter - never a victim.
- Improve every day.
- Think like a champion.
- Preparation is everything.
- Deal with the sideshow.
- Beware celebrity.
- Be a leader and step up.
- Challenge yourself to be better.
- Deal with the setbacks.
- Think team - ‘we' not ‘me'.
- Stay in the race.
- ‘If it is to be, it is up to me'.
Coach's Checklist on Raising the Bar to Repeat Success
Questions that a coach must answer throughout the season.
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Inside the Team
Overcoming the Pressure of Success
Coach Kerri e-mailed me about her successful U18 girls team:
We have averaged 13 wins a year and regularly qualify for the playoffs. This year's team have the talent but hit a road bump recently. They usually play well under pressure, but this year they made some unusual choices in their captains and that, plus the loss of some key players, set off a chain reaction that culminated in some losses and a serious beating where I saw them emotionally unravel. They are burdened with team history and are finding it difficult to handle the pressure.
The team were clearly struggling to repeat success and were suffering from the attitude killers of high expectations and the heavy consequences of defeat. The programme Coach Kerri and I agreed was based on rebuilding passion, self-esteem, team identity and competitive toughness:
- Making soccer fun again
- Increasing communication to decrease anxiety
- Rebuilding team identity and visualising what could be:
- The great feeling of being part of a team and family
- Deciding what is special about this team
- Adding some social events to reconnect everybody
- Setting new goals and team expectations:
- Focusing on performance goals - ‘This is the way we want to play'
- Ignoring outcome goals - ‘Let the score take care of itself'
- Reestablishing good practice habits and ensuring role clarity so that the players know what they are supposed to do in every situation in the field
- Having each player declare to her teammates,
- ‘These are the three things I will do well for the team . . .' and
- 'This is how I will be a good team member . . .'
- Discussing and coming to terms with failure and removing fear
- Reminding players that failure is a learning moment
- Asking players, ‘What is the worst that can happen?'
- Committing to continual improvement
- Gradually increasing the team's challenges as confidence is rebooted
The skill of the coach in applying the programme gradually turned the team around. The key, however, was when Kerri offset the power of the captains by asking for leadership from everybody in the team. Two of the younger, talented players came out of their shells, and suddenly the team had inspirational leadership. The team responded, regained their hunger and competitive fire and rebuilt their winning record the next season!
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