The Art of Coaching | Psychological Corner (Part-I)

Before I start writing this week, I would like to pay tribute to my special friends from V-United Club Vasai and their mentor and coach Maschy Uncle for the inspiration they have given me to follow my heart. Wish I had met them a lot earlier in my life and I really miss the live match screenings and Sunday morning footie meets with the Arsenal Mumbai Supporters Club (AMSC).

The coaches in our country are pretty good in the Technical Corner and Physical Corner of the game. But it seems to me that most of the coaches often ignore the Psychological and Social aspects of the game while coaching the young players through their core development phase. Rather than just posting a lot of drills and mini-games, that’s the main reason why I want to, put through my views on the Psychological Corner of the game first, before moving to the other Corners of the LTPD system.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CORNER (Part-1)

Youth football is all about FUN, and I mean lots and lots of fun. You need to take out the pressure of winning & losing from the game. If the training is interesting and boredom doesn’t creep in, you won’t even need to control it. The kids love colors and always try to use a lot of colorful bibs and cones in your training session just to create an ambiance.

While coaching, you need to remember that each child is an individual and his character and emotional levels can never be compared to another child. You will never know in what state of mind he has come for the training session until or unless you have made an emotional bond with the child. There can be plenty of examples to relate.

The child might not have had breakfast, because his mom woke up late. He might have put up a fight at home to let him go play football. He may be insecure because of his new born little sister and feeling that his parents give more love & care for the baby. He is tensed about the exams coming up next week and is not prepared. He might have had a sweet crush on a girl classmate at school.

The chances are tremendous for a child to get stressed out easily for tiny little things that most of the time we ignore. The 2 hours that he spends over the weekend with you and his team-mates might be the only time that he can set himself free. So it’s the coach’s responsibility to make sure that the children have lots of fun and enjoyment during the session. If so, the child will be eagerly waiting for the next training session with you.

A casual talk with the players before and after the training will do wonders for you, I promise. You don’t need to dig into his personal life, just a “Hello” or “How is your classes going on” will do. This will give him a feeling that the coach cares about him and he will feel safe around you. The trust you gain is vital to keep the player motivated and committed on the long-term.

As a coach, you always need to be there for the young players as an emotional support. Even though the hours a child spends with you are relatively very less compared to his parents and teachers at school, you might be the only person he feels comfortable enough to open up his mind.

Make sure that you divide the playing time equally for all the young players. It doesn’t matter if he is tall or short, black or white. If the child has come for your training session, you owe him game time as a coach.

Never let the kids feel that they are good or bad among their team-mates. Each player has his own strengths and weaknesses. When you select a player from the group to do a demonstration or skill with you, make sure you don’t hand pick them and let them feel “why not me?” To ask them “who wants to show me?” would be a bad idea too, because most of them will raise their hands and they will be left disappointed if you don’t pick them and will start to doubt in their own ability. Make it look just like a random selection even if you want to pick a specific player. For example: “who is wearing red boots today? Okay come over here”

Image not recoveredAlways be enthusiastic and encouraging during the session, and your positive vibe will soon be reflected on the players. As a coach, you always need to encourage your players and give feedback. It will help to build self-confidence and stimulate the player to practice harder and for longer. But, praise them only when you feel they have done exceptionally well. There is a big difference between Encourage & Praise.

Youth football isn’t Rocket Science and you need to have patience throughout your coaching stint.

Use the “Sandwich Effect” while giving comments or feedback to your players. i.e. Positive / Negative / Positive.

For example: “Good effort Bony. Hhmm….don’t you think Sam was in a better position to score? But that was a really nice attempt from that angle”

Here, first I have appreciated the child for his effort (positive) and then I have questioned his decision making (negative) but never criticized it. I’ve left the child to think what the better option was during the game rather than have a shot from a difficult angle. Again I’ve appreciated him for trying to score (positive).

If you think you need to make a disciplinary action against a player, you need to take him away from rest of the group and explain it to him in a calm manner; what & where it went wrong. Don’t shout at him in front of his team-mates to set an example for rest of the group. You will end up insulting and hurting the child and it may take a long time to heal his mind.

We want the players to practice in a safe environment that promotes learning, but at the right level for the player. Allow the players to learn at their own rate, be supportive and watch how confident and playful the players become. Let the players learn from their own mistakes by offering them bits of key information.

The average concentration span of an Indian child is less than 3 minutes. The role of the coach is to make information easy to understand by not giving too much at any one time. Remember, children are not mini-adults and they process information in a different way.

I would suggest to you that if you are really interested in coaching football, along with gaining coaching qualifications it would be really good for you to take part in a First Aid or Emergency Aid short term course. I’ve done it as part of my FA Coaching License and it has really helped me in my coaching. The coach needs to know when and where he has to stop a player from playing to reduce the risk of injury or long term damage. Most of the players will play with a minor injury through the pain, just because they love to play and chances are that it may aggravate into a permanent problem.

Football is a contact sport and accidents can happen. In case of a clash of heads between players or concussion you need to know what to do as an emergency aid to keep the child safe. This isn’t Europe to call ‘999’ or ‘112’ for help and by the time an ambulance reaches the spot it will be almost 30 minutes. The young players are under your responsibility the moment they leave their homes for training and until they reach back at home safely. If you are not sure about what you are doing to an injured player, DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID for just the sake of it… go and get him some help soon.

A child may be shy and reluctant to say about a groin injury for example, and in these cases the emotional support and trust you share with the player will come handy.

If you are wondering why I have mentioned about injuries and emergency aid in the psychological corner, there is a specific reason for that. Even though a player recovers from a serious or long-term injury, there are plenty of chances that it creates a psychological stumbling-block in the players mind. For example, if you have a talented 12 year old kid who has recovered from an injury, but since has developed a scare to go for 50:50 or 1-on-1 challenges; it will hinder the player’s development.

As a coach, you need to give enough support and guidance for an injured player during the rehabilitation process and ensure that he has recovered both physically and psychologically from the injury.

I hope this information will help you in your coaching and handling of your players psychologically. These are my views on the game and I am not saying that it is absolutely perfect. You can judge yourselves and accept what you feel is correct and ignore the rest of it.

Next week in Psychological Corner (Part-2), I will describe about player Image not recoveredcharacteristics for each age group and the coaching styles that you need to use for them specifically. Till then enjoy coaching!!!

The support from you readers has been amazing and would like to say thank you to all. Please leave your feedback and suggestions in the comments section.

Justin Jose writes for FootballKerala.com

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 9 November 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.