MY PHILOSOPHY

ABSTRACTPositive Coaching is paramount in football in the process of developing confident and respectful youngsters ready for the demands of modern football. Technical and tactical philosophy should reflect on the psychological aspect and vice versa if the player is to receive consistent ‘positive coaching’

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

I was born and raised in a country were football has not reached the ethical standards of most developed countries. In many cases honesty and fair treatment is severely lacking, thus creating a deficiency in our ethical football standards. For this reason, it is my desire to unearth players with respect towards fair play and the fundamental principles required for the sport. For six years as a youth football player in the Cypriot and Greek professional academies I managed to acquire a great amount of understanding of the game as well as the skills to play the sport. The truth is, in Cyprus and Greece being a good player is not always enough.

COACHING EXPERIENCE

Indeed, my four-year experience as a community football coach has left me with some wonderful memories and experiences including some bad moments. The advice and mentoring I received from my football directors and mentors have helped me mature as a person which has positively influenced my coaching philosophy and made me a better coach at the end of the day. Truth be told, my goals and expectations reach way beyond community football. My aim is to coach in a professional academy so that I can deliver, progress and learn at the same time by working alongside knowledgeable and experienced people and players who are 100% dedicated in what they do.

PSYCHOLOGYPOSITIVE COACHING

As a modern coach I truly believe in the number one rule,’ Positive Coaching’. I am completely aware that being a coach means holding a child’s or a player’s future and dreams in your hands and that words and actions can either break or lift a player’s self-esteem and confidence. I strongly believe players are a ‘precious material’ to work with and it is the coach’s responsibility to respect the power and be very careful with how the coach interacts with the player.

RESPECT

Similarly, showing respect and care to the athlete is of vital importance to me. Treating them with dignity, caring about them, rewarding them when they excel, encouraging them when they struggle, cheering them up when they fail can have such a positive influence in their overall development both technically and mentally. The players need to be aware that their leader is always there for them no matter what and that they can trust the coach. Generally, the relationship between the athlete and the coach is paramount to me in a well-functioning team.

MOTIVATION

Just the way coaches need to be motivated by their surrounding people and mentors I believe that coaches need to motivate their players too. Small and frequent individual chats

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and life-lessons can inspire a young athlete to dream big and take risks in pursuit of his/her goals. That way the coach can develop mentally tough young athletes who will not give up on their dreams and goals after the first setback but will keep chasing their goals instead. I believe in giving them real life examples that young athletes can easily understand and apply in their real life.

HONESTY

In all the teams I coached so far I always encourage the athletes to be outspoken by expressing their thoughts and opinions freely when they feel like so that any issues can be solved through constructive discussion. Athletes should learn that honesty should be rewarded and that they can freely express their opinions without the fear of being dropped by their coach. It is of my belief that honesty is a crucial component in maintaining a healthy environment and relationship between a coach and a player or even between the players. Building trust between teammates so that everyone can work for a common goal by relying on each other for inspiration, motivation and support is also a key element.

FAILURE IS NOT AN ISSUE

What I make clear every time I take over a group in front of players and parents is that ‘mistakes and failure is not a problem, it is how you deal with mistakes and failure that really matters’. Nowadays, players tend to get bullied by their own teammates and coaches because they fail or make a mistake at training and games. People refuse to understand that ‘failure’ is the breakfast for success and ‘mistakes’ is feedback for improvement. Players tend to get anxious and stressed at games because they fear of mistakes and that their teammates and coach will intimidate them. Taking the pressure off the players for something that is completely normal and human nature will encourage them to step out of their comfort zone and explore new pathways, try new tricks and skills. Young athletes need to understand that nobody has ever achieved something significant in his life without failing first. My number one aim is to encourage them to execute ambitious runs, passes, shots, through balls and skills regardless of the final product. Young footballers need to know that failing or losing the ball is not a problem, not trying to win it back is the real problem…

INSPIRE PERFORMANCE

Before games, I always try to inspire my players and convince them to focus on their performance and not on the result. What really matters to me as a coach is the overall performance and whether the team and each individual has performed up to their potential? Has the team corrected previous mistakes or at least worked towards correcting them? What have we done wrong and right and what can we improve on next time? They need to understand that self-criticism and evaluation is important and that there is always a next time to improve on that. They need to stop competing against the opponents and focus entirely on competing against themselves by trying to repeat a previous best performance or even beat their previous best. That way I try to develop a progressive mind-set to the player of always try for the better, always aim higher. Players need to focus on themselves, trust themselves and their team members and that they can make the difference both individually and collectively regardless of who they play against. Thinking of all the

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uncontrollable factors can only bring negative results. It then results in stress and anxiety which both have a negative impact on the final product as the performance suffers. Trusting themselves and the team and focusing on what they can control can boost confidence and self-esteem.

TECHNICAL DRILL/WARM UPTHE EVOLUTION OF FOOTBALL

Football has evolved so much over the years and truth be told the demand for mentally tough players who can make decision themselves is quite high. It is important that football academies produce technical players who are confident with the ball and can use their critical thinking to produce something good with it. Over-coaching does not benefit the players in the long run, players need to make decisions themselves either right or wrong in order to be able to assess the decision made and maybe make a better decision next time instead of receiving it straight from the coach.

THE COERVER METHOD

The Coerver method can be used with any age group to develop ball mastery and decision making characteristics at the same time. It aims at developing key skills and techniques while the player is expected to use his/her critical thinking to solve problems during small-sided games. I believe in incorporating this method in warm ups and in some occasions during training to work on the individual and help him/her gain more confidence or become more independent as a player.

Diagram 1

Ball Mastery Boxes are very simple to execute with minimal equipment needed to set up. Players are expected to execute various skills and turns over and over again while the coach has to identify the weak spots of each player and try work with him/her individually so that he/she catches up with the rest. Coaches should never apply a ’one size fits all’ method but

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try dedicate some time with individuals if needed. I prefer giving the players smaller balls to execute the skills as that would benefit their technical ability in the long run. Smaller balls challenge the players more and force them to focus more. When they go in the game with normal sized balls they are more confident.

Those kind of exercises stimulate the engrams which are responsible for storing information in the memory part of the brain. By executing a skill over and over again, or a sequence of skills, the move or turn is stored as an engram in the memory so when the player needs it in the game he/she can pull it off almost unintentionally. This mentally demanding exercise can be used during warm ups with great success. Players need to be challenged at all times and depending on the quality of the players the coach can progress the exercise with more advanced skills and moves.

TECHNICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRILLSDiagram 2

The finishing circuit drill illustrated in diagram two can be used for different purposes. It involves defending, finishing, dribbling and decision making. It can be used for psychological purposes and for that reason I prefer using it after a setback so that the players can find the net multiple times before they go home. We are aiming at high percentage of success hence, why players tend to love that drill. There is nothing more enjoyable for a player than finding the net, everybody dreams of a wonderful screamer in a game or big competition. That exercise provides the player with the opportunity to experience that feeling even at a training session. It is incredible how it changes the surrounding atmosphere when the percentage of success is high. As a coach I hate seeing heads down and I certainly do not want any player to go home with the head down as that would mean I failed in my job. I always try to make sure every individual has succeeded during the practice before he/she heads back home.

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The exercise begins with a green player stepping in by attempting a shot without pressure to begin with. He then has to defend the other goal while a blue player steps in trying to beat his man and then find the net. The one who shoots has to defend his goal afterwards. We are aiming at high percentage of success therefore, depending on the quality of the players, if the level of success is low, the coach can choose to exclude the defenders and focus on finishing.

This is a mentally demanding exercise as it tests the player’s ability to stay focused and alert when the attacker steps in. The attacker needs to make a decision quick using his skills and critical thinking, assess the angle he is standing at and decide whether shooting or dribbling is appropriate. Quick decision making and skills can be developed over time as the player is developed individually. It is important that goalies are not exposed, I always try to explain to the goalkeeper that saving 1 out 5 is considered high level of success.

Diagram 3

The composed finishing exercise illustrated on diagram three is of very similar purpose and nature as the one on diagram two and aims at high percentage of success with plenty of finishing opportunities in front of the goals. I believe in those exercises as they tend to lift the player’s morale by a great deal. Isolated practices are not real game related as players will never shoot a ball without an opponent in a game but they are really beneficial in lifting a player when he or she is down. Jose Mourinho tends to use it for psychological purposes after a tough game and when the players need it.

Players standing next to each post combine together before the ball is played to the wing. Both players need to time their run and attack the ball which is played from the winger. As soon as the ball is dead two other players from the opposite goal combine and pass it over to the winger before attempting a shot or a header on target. The demand for decision making is not that high as on the diagram two routine however, players are expected to attempt numerous shots on target. Encouragement and constructive coaching when missing

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the target is important while praising and rewarding success including when the goalie makes a save.

TACTICAL DRILLSMy tactical philosophy is based on a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 based on the circumstances, player availability and the opponent. Both formations are very similar in nature although in a 4-3-3 formation wingers are more offensive while the three in midfield can rotate during the game and have more freedom of movement. I personally encourage freedom of movement and players are encouraged to use their critical thinking and understanding of the game to identify gaps to move into. Complementary movement to fill in the gaps is also part of my tactical philosophy. Particularly with my U17s team we practice building out from the back with the two centre backs while the two fullbacks are expected to push up high and create the space we need. I like using attacking players as fullbacks as that can facilitate my philosophy of attacking with numbers, underlaps and overlaps stretching the opponent out. That poses some kind of risk at the back but I truly believe in attacking football as that excites youngsters the most and gives them more freedom during the game. At this age my priority as a coach is to develop youngsters so that they can play attractive and attacking football regardless of the final result.

Diagram 4

One of my favourite routines is the 4-3-3 positional rondo as it helps the players to understand how developing the game from the back works by using the two yellow centre backs and the two red wide fullbacks. One notable feature in the diagram is the triangle in the centre formed by the three midfielders who are free to interchange positions during the rondo and fill in each other’s position through complementary movement.

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The exercise commences when the coach kicks a ball onto the centre back. The team in red and yellow have to transfer the ball all the way across to the only yellow standing on the outside of the rondo who represents the striker (the target man). The team in possession has to complete five passes before attempting to find the target man. (non-directional play). Once the striker receives the ball he is then expected to build up the game in the same way and try to find the players across. The coach is expected to rotate the defending team every now and then.

When introducing those kind of routines, I try to encourage the players to be patient with the ball and not hesitating to recycle it using the back four. They need to understand that non directional play is not always bad and that keeping possession before finding the target man can disorganize the opposition.

Diagram 5

This shaping routine gives the players the chance to experience a real game situation. I like using a relatively tight pitch so that the players struggle and learn from it. It is important to remind them that mistakes will happen and that we can use them for feedback for the next face of play. I like raising the level of difficulty so that they can adjust their playing style and adapt to the new conditions. That way they learn how to get the ball out of tight areas. As a result, when they go in the game there is more space to repeat the same action in a bigger area which makes it easier for them. It is incredible how building out from the back can boost players’ confidence on the ball as well as benefit their technical abilities. Modern centre backs and goalkeepers need to be confident with the ball on their feet and are expected to participate actively in the game.

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The play starts from the goalie who is also encouraged to participate. The two centre backs spread out wide on the edge of the box while the two fullbacks push up wide. The midfielders are expected to communicate with each other, someone has to create some space for the other midfielder to drop in and receive the ball. The two small goals are positioned wide in order to encourage the fullback’s participation in the attacking part of the game, they are expected to make the run and receive the diagonal through ball from the midfielder. Greens are encouraged to intercept the ball and attempt a shot on target. It is a tactical exercise which tests the player’s technical ability as well as his/her decision making.

SUMMARYTo sum up, it is of my belief that the psychological aspect of my philosophy should be reflected on the technical and tactical part. I believe in attacking football and in the defender’s and goalkeeper’s participation in the game which can only benefit them in terms of self-confidence and self-esteem. The attributes developed during training should reflect on their real life (i.e school performance as well as personal and professional life). I aim at developing the ‘go for it’ mind-set by encouraging players to take initiatives during training and games regardless of the final outcome.

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