Welcome to the Playa Development Project audio blog. In these podcasts, we'll be reading you some of our most red blogs at all time, sharing them with you in a new format to help you create better coaching environments. We hope you enjoy the content and don't forget, head over to Playa Development Project.com to join our community and access all content. Get over yourself by Dave Wright.
Ego, why does it dominate coaching? Playa Development Project editor and academy coach Dave Wright challenges the place of ego in coaching, questioning where it comes from, the difficulty of removing it, and accepting that as a coach you may not have all the answers. The Coomara, sweet potato, does not need to say how sweet he is. It's game day, a cold winter's morning, you look outside, it's gloomy, but there's no rain, game on.
You've planned and prepared for weeks through a grueling preseason. You've looked at the balance of your side and constantly questioned, which formation should I go with? Do my players have what it takes? How can I best ensure my team success?
The nerves keep you on your toes and as you roll out of bed you grab your tracksuit off the hanger, the three stripes of a little take alongside that club badge make you feel like a pro. You know you're mentally ready, but are your players? You arrive at the ground, drive into the car park, listen to that last song that will get you focused before you head towards your team's changing rooms, your mind is clear and your tactics are sure. You walk into the changing room, like a true professional, you're early and prepared.
Two or three of your players arrive soon after, kit bags and tow, track suits on, press and ready. Then one of your players turns to you and says, can you help me tie my laces? At this moment you wake up, realise it's not windly on a fake up final day and you have to get over yourself as the nine-year-old boy looks up at you, his mentor, his role model, his coach and asks for help with his boots. The cup final that you have in your head is not what's about to play out.
You invest in yourself to soak up knowledge to help your players and become a better coach, yet you still haven't got the point. As harsh as it may sound, the scenario I describe is one that happens all over the world, every weekend in any country where sports teams have coaches, where adult expectations are projected on children. Ego is something that we all possess, let's not kid ourselves, we've all got one, we all like to feel good and we all like to think we have the answers. However, when coaching it's crucial to understand the why, why do you coach?
In an interview recently with John Van Ship, former head coach at A-Link Club Melbourne City, and former IACS and Netherlands Assistant, published an issue 15 of Play Development Project magazine. I asked John, what makes a good coach? He swiftly replied, the realisation that it's always about the players and never about you. I fell in love with coaching because it gave me an opportunity to bring people together.
Maybe I'd seen too many sporting movies as a kid, but I love the challenge of leadership. I kept in football and cricket teams as a younger player and have been fortunate enough to coach them as an adult. Building towards common goals and seeing the development of individuals is the reward of coaching. In order to continue to grow, we have to say humble, we don't know at all.
Coming from New Zealand makes the rest of the world exceptionally interesting. New Zealand is a self-effacing and notoriously humble, sometimes too humble. This is partially because tall poppy syndrome is rife, so naturally people will talk themselves down. Ritchie McCaw, the recently retired or black captain who achieved everything possible in the game of rugby is for me the ultimate sporting role model.
No big noting, always self-effacing, forever humble and a true team man. Ritchie is a quiet achiever and a phenomenal competitor. He personifies grit and sacrifice and experienced unrivaled success as a rugby player and leader. There is a beautiful tribalism to football in the UK, a pride and passion that is entirely unique, but the track suits can lead to inflated egos when perhaps they are no more than a three-stripe to mask of our own insecurities.
The club badges are part of English football, and there are plenty of unbelievably good coaches around who wear them, but the best of the best seem to remove their own ego from the equation, putting their players development first. In James Kerr's best-selling book about the Orbax culture, Legacy, he cites a Mauri proverb, the kumara, sweet potato, does not need to say how sweet he is. I like the sentiment that goes with this and believe we can learn from it as coaches. I've been exceptionally fortunate in my time to meet some fantastic coaches.
In the last few years I've been privileged to interview some of the best for the Play Development Project. The common traits I've seen with industry leaders are, no swagger, no ego, just for it. A desire to help their players and to help their team. An obsession with knowing their players and building relationships, patience on their own journey.
Many of these top coaches have been in the game 10-20 years at least and are drafted to get where they are. Self-awareness and finally a desire to look beyond football in their quest to get better. PDP Lead researcher James Vaughan discusses the impact of ego in coaching and the value in removing it. He explains, ego is often about looking, feeling or simply being perceived as better than others.
The focus on others breeds social comparison and we define our success based on societal norms which means we conform to societal norms, the way we dress, speak, behave, coach, even the tactics we use and the team talks we give. Guiding our ego is about recognizing that we don't know and we don't have all the answers. It's recognizing that others, your players or other coaches, may be able to come up with answers to football problems without you and that's okay. It's also recognizing that creating the chaos and space for this to happen will often reflect badly on you as a coach because it looks like you don't know what you're doing but quieting out ego is about not caring what other people think and doing what's best for our players.
It's important here to differentiate the idea between confidence and ego. I believe confidence is essential and any coach has to have faith in his or her abilities and have a philosophy which can be backed up with methodology. I want my players to feel confident, to show resilience but there is enormous value in taking a humble approach to your journey and valuing discomfort both as a player and coach. As an example, the reality of working in an academy for the first time is exceptionally exciting for any young coach but have you made it?
No. You've earned the right to coach in a position of privilege with young people who are deemed to be the best in their sport, nothing more. That's when the hard work starts. Are you good enough to challenge them?
What can you learn from them? Whatever level of sport you're working at, keep the players' needs at the forefront of your mind. In a wide-ranging interview with former England under 16 coach and now MK Don's manager Dan Machichi published an issue 11 and 12 for PDP Magazine. Dan said, I've learned more from all of my players and they will have ever learned from me, a humble statement and worth keeping in mind in your next session.
Good things will come to those who work hard and if you make it to the top of your industry you are no doubt worthy of praise and you've had to work hard to get there. I'd give anything to be working day in, day out with full-time professional players and it's one of many goals I have but I have a long way to go. Whether your own coaching goal is non-league football, your son or daughter's local sports team or to manage a Premier League club, we all have ambitions and if you achieve those goals enjoy them, celebrate them but don't forget why you're there and drop the bravado. I question how ego comes into coaching and why we feel the need to keep up the charade.
I challenge developing coaches to remember your own coaches, teachers and mentors when you were a young player or student in any learning environment. What impact do they have on you? Who were the good ones and why? I certainly don't recall my teachers swaggering into school claiming they were responsible for the development of the world's preeminent thinkers, researchers, doctors or entrepreneurs, so what right to coaches have to claim the success of their players?
Football is without doubt in industry. In fact it was said at the Socker X Global Convention in 2015 that the value of the global football industry is worth around 2% of global GDP, more than the entire international food industry. I accept the commercial realities that go with the game although I will argue for eternity that 18-year-olds should ever be on 10,000 pounds a week, perhaps a blonde for another time. But I do not believe that we should be playing football manager with young players' lives.
As Claudio Renieri so eloquently said in early 2016 about his Leicester team's surprising surge to the top of the Premier League, in an era where money counts for everything, I think we give everybody hope. Let the players enjoy their time. You've had yours. Your opportunity now is to create, facilitate and nurture a safe, challenging positive environment that encourages your players to be brave and learn from mistakes, to have some fun, to adopt a growth mindset and become the best they can be.
If you're lucky, maybe one day they'll think back and be grateful for the positive impact you had on their lives. About the author. Dave Wright is a UA for A licence coach and co-founder of Play Development Project. With 16 years coaching experience and currently working with Football Federation Victoria, Dave is coached in New Zealand, Australia and England where he works for Fulham Football Club and Readford Football Club.
Dave is also the author of a Foreman Soccer Coach, a guide to positive play development available on Amazon. Thanks for joining us on the Play Development Project Podcast. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at PlayaDP or find us on Facebook. Don't forget to head over to playdevelopmentproject.com where you can sign up for our algorithm coaching community and gain access to our wide variety of resources to help you in your coaching.