It's all relative - and nobody has 'the' answer
I'm gonna keep this one unusually short. As for sweet, there may be those who find it anything but.
I'm continually amazed by the Twitter coaching community. Mostly in a good way. The amount of information and opinion that can really help a coach at any level is incredible, and it's a fantastic place to discuss various coaching topics. I've "met" some incredible coaches - helpful, selfless and incredibly keen to support the development of others. I do however have one slight bugbear.
There are so many categories of coach out there, and I've listed a few I can think of off the top of my head below
Grassroots kids (5-16 yrs old)
Grassroots senior
Nonleague development
Nonleague senior
Private academy kids (5-16 yrs old)
School teachers
Pro club academy staff - foundation phase
Pro club academy staff - development phase
Pro club 1st team staff
Football in the community staff
Futsal coaches
County age group coaches
National age group coaches
1 to 1 specialist coaches
There are a few more but the list above covers most angles.
I see far too many coaches on Twitter fail to grasp the context of others' roles, and some times the ignorance falls the wrong side of being plain rude.
If Tony Pulis spent hours drilling his players on set pieces or shadow play and then decided to put the content of his sessions up on Twitter under an assumed name, I'd hazard a guess that he'd be ridiculed by many for the use of what se perceive to be archaic coaching methods.
By the same token, a young coach who believes strongly that enjoyment and expression through largely free and unstructured play might be subject to criticism from an ex pro or two who feel that the players need to get down to what might be considered more relevant, competitive and structured sessions.
Who's right? I'd say there's no right or wrong...and every day that passes I'm convinced there are many ways to achieve your goals as a coach.
Context is so important - as a coach who isn't in the pro game I had a great conversation with someone in the pro game about coaching style and how much instruction a coach should give as opposed to guiding players to find their own answers. I have no more than 90 mins a week on the training ground, and have maybe 10 mins to achieve what he might have 40 mins to achieve in terms of player understanding of one function.
The conversation was healthy, challenging and respectful. I left reflecting on my approach - I think I'm effective at doing what I do but he gave me some ideas on how to tweak, experiment and hopefully improve what I do. Even if it doesn't work for me next time I take to the raining pitch, it may do in another environment for me in the future.
It appears not everyone out there can exchange views without eventually demonstrating one or more of a number of negative, sometimes rude behaviours.
Respect each other, don't dismiss fellow coaches regardless of how much more important you perceive you or they are in the food chain or how inappropriate you think their approach is, and try to take something positive from every interaction.
I'm continually amazed by the Twitter coaching community. Mostly in a good way. The amount of information and opinion that can really help a coach at any level is incredible, and it's a fantastic place to discuss various coaching topics. I've "met" some incredible coaches - helpful, selfless and incredibly keen to support the development of others. I do however have one slight bugbear.
There are so many categories of coach out there, and I've listed a few I can think of off the top of my head below
Grassroots kids (5-16 yrs old)
Grassroots senior
Nonleague development
Nonleague senior
Private academy kids (5-16 yrs old)
School teachers
Pro club academy staff - foundation phase
Pro club academy staff - development phase
Pro club 1st team staff
Football in the community staff
Futsal coaches
County age group coaches
National age group coaches
1 to 1 specialist coaches
There are a few more but the list above covers most angles.
I see far too many coaches on Twitter fail to grasp the context of others' roles, and some times the ignorance falls the wrong side of being plain rude.
If Tony Pulis spent hours drilling his players on set pieces or shadow play and then decided to put the content of his sessions up on Twitter under an assumed name, I'd hazard a guess that he'd be ridiculed by many for the use of what se perceive to be archaic coaching methods.
By the same token, a young coach who believes strongly that enjoyment and expression through largely free and unstructured play might be subject to criticism from an ex pro or two who feel that the players need to get down to what might be considered more relevant, competitive and structured sessions.
Who's right? I'd say there's no right or wrong...and every day that passes I'm convinced there are many ways to achieve your goals as a coach.
Context is so important - as a coach who isn't in the pro game I had a great conversation with someone in the pro game about coaching style and how much instruction a coach should give as opposed to guiding players to find their own answers. I have no more than 90 mins a week on the training ground, and have maybe 10 mins to achieve what he might have 40 mins to achieve in terms of player understanding of one function.
The conversation was healthy, challenging and respectful. I left reflecting on my approach - I think I'm effective at doing what I do but he gave me some ideas on how to tweak, experiment and hopefully improve what I do. Even if it doesn't work for me next time I take to the raining pitch, it may do in another environment for me in the future.
It appears not everyone out there can exchange views without eventually demonstrating one or more of a number of negative, sometimes rude behaviours.
Respect each other, don't dismiss fellow coaches regardless of how much more important you perceive you or they are in the food chain or how inappropriate you think their approach is, and try to take something positive from every interaction.
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