Hi everyone, this is Dave Wright and welcome to the Play Development Project podcast. I hope you're having a great week working with your players all around the world. Over the last week or so at PDP we published some great new content including a fascinating research review from our resident professor Bill Harper on Skill Acquisition Creative Behavior and Session Design. And this is well worth a read.
We've also got a new session playing live on the site called Fast Finishing. This is a really good small-sided game designed to work on close range finishing and combination play and it's adaptable for players of various ages and abilities. We're also really pleased to announce that Tony Readings has joined the new PDP Mentor Program. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Tony is a former New Zealand woman's head coach, he holds a pro license and is attended multiple women's World Cups and Olympic tournaments.
Now working at High Performance Sports New Zealand, Tony's got a huge range of experience. So if you're looking for a mentor to help with your coaching, head to playdevelopmentproject.com, click the green banner at the top of the page and find out more about the new PDP Mentors Program where we've got a range of mentor and options for coaches. With that said, this week's podcast is a Q&A discussion with Dan Wright and I answer a challenging community question which focuses on the social science sport and a player who appears to be quite unhappy in the environment which indicates that perhaps there's some issues going on behind the scenes. There's lots to consider in this discussion and hopefully some ideas for you if this issue arises in your group.
I hope you enjoyed the conversation and as always you can head over to playdevelopmentproject.com and sign up to access all of our coaching content. Hi everyone, welcome to another Play Development Project Q&A. As usual, I'm joined by PDP Technically Advisor Dan Wright to tackle another community question. Dan, how are you?
I'm very well, thank you. How are you, mate? I'm good. I'm good.
I'm good. I'm good. I'm looking forward to a really interesting conversation here and we'll get to the question shortly. But first, how's your week being and what have you been up to?
Yeah, week's been good. Weather's starting to get a bit better in the UK so we're getting outside, getting on the grass a little bit. Really excited this week because I've got some tickets to the FA Cup semi-finals. I'm a big move of fans.
I'm excited for that. Just working out the logistics but we hope we can see a wall steam in the FA Cup final. That'll be a good week for me. That's very exciting.
I do miss the culture of football over there. It is fantastic and they've had a hell of a season so it's really good to hope you enjoy it. Over here down in Melbourne, it's been fantastic. Really good performance from the boys that I'm working with on the weekend.
So I'm delighted with that. Got some good things happening in the program there. Just had a really nice performance with the boys, put some challenges together and showed some great knowledge transfer and went out and put in particularly a really good second half performance. Some good strides to be made with the group.
On the PDP front, some new content on the site this week which has been really good in the session playing research reviews and so on. And plenty more coming up in the month of April. So yeah, pretty busy and looking forward to this question. So let's get to it.
It's coming from Michael via email and I've had a little bit of conversation with Michael on email about this. The question is a little bit long but I'm going to read it because it provides context and we've both agreed that it's a very real situation that can come up in for all environments or sporting environments. So the question is I have a challenge with number 14 player. The player doesn't smile and does not get on with the rest of the team and it seems to be for an unknown reason.
I'm new to the club and I'm still getting to know the players. We've been together for two months and all the players are getting on great except for this one player and I've tried really hard to motivate and reassure the player that it's about player development and teamwork. How would you handle this situation as it's starting to affect the team's harmony? So a few things to consider obviously in terms of the age which Dan particularly with your work you'll be very familiar with the challenges that go with under 14s and 13s and that kind of teenage bracket.
And then obviously some conflict which is potentially going on. So lots to weigh up. What are your sort of first thoughts around this one? Yeah I think the first thing is we're not really talking about football here are we?
Like although maybe football is a vehicle and that's why you're seeing it. We're talking about a young person and we're talking about behaviour. So there's probably lots of layers to this story. My initial kind of attack would be to understand what's going on with the player off the pitch, kind of family life, school life, home life, what that looks like because probably what we've seen is just kind of the tip of the eye-spake that the behaviour that you're seeing in a 5v5, 77 training session or not interacting with the players is probably a reflection of the stuff that's going on off the pitch.
I think it's been my quick guess. How about for you? Yeah I think I would sort of tackle it straight away with if I was in the coach in this position I'd be asking why is the player at football. I think that's a sort of starting point for me.
I think it's important to consider that at times young people can be pushed into organised sport and perhaps they don't really want to be. Maybe this player is particularly over football and maybe doesn't want to be there. Or maybe there's some social issues within the group. I think there's a huge amount on the website around the influence of social cultural constraints and the broader environment that goes on around the player.
I think the first step for me is to have one-to-one with the individual. I think the first step for me is to have one-to-one with the individual. They said to try and understand the way or background of how they got to where they are. And then maybe talk about what it is they want to get out of it, what a success it's like for you.
I would then be keen to touch players with their parents and understand whether it's the parents at one to a bit more than a child. Maybe understanding of what this child is like in different circumstances or different environments. So what's he like at school, what's he like at home, whether this is a club specific problem or is this something that follows the individual around the school. And then I think maybe you're then talking about what the environment, what's the structure or the social construction of your environment, what do we accept and what don't we accept and where that behaviour fits in.
I think maybe there's an awkwardness about enforcing some of those standards or rules for essentially if you've got a group of 15, 16 players and we're all pulling in one direction apart from one player, you need to refer back to what it looks like in our club. So that would be the three nuggets for me. I know one-to-one with the player understanding their individual journey a bit more. Maybe in some sense from parents and teachers.
Maybe if you could, if that's appropriate. And then what do we expect to our club and keep referring back to that when you talk to the individual. So we expect team, whether we expect you to communicate positively with people and the hard line or the end point, this has to be logical consequences if that's not taking place. Yeah, and I think it'll get to a point where some decisions have to be made around whether it's the right thing for the player to be in the environment.
Obviously within Academy football, sometimes players get released or they get signed and often the release can be because at this time the environment is not what's best for that individual. Now I'm not saying this is the same example, but after this process that you're potentially going to go through as a coach, there may need to be an outcome where the player continues because he or she's happy to do so. Or maybe it's best that this player finds another club or potentially chooses another sport if they're really not enjoying it. And I think we've got to go back to the whole premise that sport should be fun.
And if this player is miserable and not happy and it's affecting team harmony, then there's sort of a consequence or a guess and outcome that may emerge. I think the other thing to consider is that I agree with you 100% on the one-to-one with the player. I think that's a great starting point. I think if you start by immediately involving the parents, then perhaps that could be threatening to the player.
Oh, well, it's just adults coming in over the top here and they don't understand me. There could be a lot of anxiety that goes on for the player. But in order to get to that one-to-one, given the context of where Michael was at with the season, maybe it's going to take a little bit more time. So I think there's got to be some trust built up here between a relatively new coach in this environment and the player who may not know the coach that well yet.
So any opportunity that Michael can get to potentially have conversations around what other interests this player's got, how their day's been, what's going on, is everything okay at home, just on the run, not making it a sort of formal sit down. Could start to build some trust and understanding and that this player can start thinking, actually, this coach really does care and this coach is interested in more than just putting out the cones and putting a practice on. So I think that may take a little bit of time to get to that. But let's assume that over the next couple of weeks or months Michael can get to that point.
How would you start the one-to-one conversation? I think I would try and talk to them about non-football stuff first. So how things have school and I like to then lead into what's your football journey been. So what was your first football experience and trying to understand why they love the game and how they got to, where they got to being under 14 in their club.
So did they start early or did they take the sport late? What team did they support? You always played in these positions because then you might see the spark of why they're here. And then I would lead into how do you think it's going at the moment because I think maybe the one angle we've ever looked here is that the player, the individual it's talking about, might think everything's fine.
They might have a perception that their behavior is good, their performance is good and what's the problem. So it might be making sure that the reality, you know, you've seen the world through the same lens. So when you sit down with the player like, you know, how are the games going? How's training going?
Do you think you're getting on with your teammates, you know, or skillful questions like that so that you could then get into, well, actually we think there's a bit of room for improvement here or focus on the positives of these things you're doing well and these are the development points that we could work on. And then when you talk about kind of the coaches' behavior, I think the coaches got to be authentic, got to be honest, and he's got to be kind of transparent and make sure that he is building that trust. Also not being walked over so there has to be a point where they go, you know, this bit's great, but that behavior there was unacceptable and I'm going to call you out on it and then, you know, just repeating that so the player doesn't feel like the coach is always kind of on him or at him. It's obviously what we do in the club.
So I love these bits, but this bit needs to get a bit better. And the first time you do that, that will be really difficult, I'd wish with a few players who initially, their behavior didn't kind of match my values or didn't match their clubs values. And so I was really honest with them, it's like, I love this bit and I love this bit, but this part doesn't fit. And then kind of over a six month period, the relationship became really strong because I think like I said, the trust was built and they kind of say, okay, well, you know, Danny's consistent with these things.
And if they can conform to what's needed in the environment, then we can both get success. But it can be a fine line to trade. And then there's times where you've got to have a deep breath and walk away and think about what you're going to say because as coaches, we can be emotional too. So you don't want to be sucked into the center wrong thing at the wrong time.
Yeah, you touched on an interesting point there around, you know, I guess the harmony angle and just, I guess the cohesion between players. And I think one of those clever questions you could ask could be around, who are your friends in the group? You know, is there anyone you particularly get along with? Because in reality, most team environments or most staff within a business or most staff within a football club, you're not going to get along brilliantly with everybody.
That's just life. You're going to have relationships where you get along with different people, I guess, better. But in this instance, asking that question may mean that you can sort of look at some of those social dynamics. And perhaps even just casually talk to the player, let's say they identify one or two players, say, oh, yeah, get along with those two, all right?
Well, maybe it could be, oh, you know, how have you noticed this player's traveling or just have those sort of, again, informal conversations? The other thing that, you know, I guess if we go away from the fact that this is a problematic player, so we, on one hand, we could say, okay, there's certain values and values that aren't being lived and sort of standards that aren't being met. And that is an issue of somebody's playing up in the group and it's affecting others. And it could be something more at play here where perhaps this child is being bullied, perhaps there's something going on at school, perhaps there's a social problem within the group.
And there could be even things like anxiety or depression at play as they start to end to those teenage years. And maybe this player's just really scared of being in the environment, maybe they're not feeling that autonomy and competence and getting success. So potentially that's isolating them. So I guess you've got to go both ways.
And one of the things I said to Michael on email was that if you do have a club welfare officer or somebody within your state federation or the local borough, potentially go and talk to them about what the best steps are because it may be something that is beyond just the coaching as you touch on the start. So I think those things need to be considered. But let's take the other example you touched on around the values not being lived. If this is just a play on misbehaving, obviously there'd be reasons for that behavior.
And again, it could be any of those variables we touched on. But outside of just the conversation, how would you start to get the buy-in of that player back in terms of bringing those values into line? I mean, honestly, it's one thing you touched on. But are there any other avenues you go down?
Yeah, I think this is where club philosophies or club documents become important because if we truly believe the values that are on the PowerPoint slides, then we should be living them and we should be using them in and around training. So an example, a really simple example could be, and I do this with my group, is we have, you split them into four kind of subgroups and three of the four groups have to do a job. So they want to do those ball grips and cones, one of those water bottles, one of those match they get, one of them has a month off because I'm not a no-go. And we rotate those jobs.
And the beginning of the season, I explained to the players why that was important. And I tried to do it more organically, where I said, these are the jobs that need doing. You pump up the balls, you bring them to training. You take some responsibility and accountability for your session.
And that didn't really work. It was too much freedom. You get in three weeks of who's doing the water bottles, who's doing the kit. Or you get the same two or three boys doing it.
But the accountability or taking responsibility for our staff is one of our values. Then when we do those jobs around, we can hold people accountable. So these balls are flat or you have balls out or you bought some of the bibs. So that's been a really interesting way to drive some conversations between players because you do get one that will do all the balls and you get two.
I've got a nip off or I'm just going to toilet or turning up left if you're turning every excuse you've ever heard. And what I tend to do is I can change it every month. And the beginning of the month I bring those four in and say, like, this is your job of the month. Hey, the idea is up to you.
But I don't want to see one person doing it all the time. And then you might get some really positive role modeling as well. So you might get one boy that turns into a leader or somebody that holds another player accountable. So there's loads of ways to do that.
And kind of football way of doing it, if you've got a player that's not fitting in socially, is to think about your groups that you're manufacturing. So if you're doing it wrong though, you can put boys into certain groups and you might put boys that are more working together and getting one group and boys that aren't or splitting up the players are a bit more difficult. And then the last idea that's popped in my head is if you've got a player in your group who is like the role model, the perfect example in terms of behavior. So that'd be the best player.
But in terms of behavior, somebody that's always kind of on time and always polite and always hard working, all the things that perhaps you value that kind of culture carrier. It might be a good idea to try and match him up with this individual that's having some problems because if you can kind of trust this person in terms of their judgment and their values, then some of that might kind of bounce around between those two players. And that friendship might grow. It might be a positive influence on what you're doing.
So kind of a machine gun of 59 days there, but lots of things we basically get in case there to talk to each other and open up that social corner of it. Yeah, definitely. I think just about every team I can ever remember being involved in. There's always those two or three unbelievable characters who are the ones picking up the cones and so on.
So I like the idea of the challenge of setting those tasks. And I also think that by building that trust over the next few weeks and potentially empowering the players and leadership challenges, that could bring out the best of them and they could surprise you. So it could be interesting. And I think the other thing here is that Michael's demonstrated great self awareness to sort of come to us with this question to say, look, I've identified this is aware of what's happening in the groupies observe the dynamics between players and coach and so on.
I think it's important that you then look at your own sort of coach behavior. So is there anything and I'm not saying this at all is the factor, but could it be something that the coaches have done, which is disenfranchised as player? And often as coaches, we can say things off the cuff that perhaps you think, oh, should I say that? Or, you know, we're all human and people can sort of have a slip of the tongue.
So I think it's important that the self awareness piece here from all of us as coaches is critical that yes, this observation has been made. And what does the environment that we're sitting look like? And are we doing things that perhaps are affecting this player's enjoyment or confidence? And by the nature of the conversation I've had, I don't think that's the case, but I think it's just a note to be aware of.
So, you know, I think anything that's going to empower the player, start developing trust, being honest with those conversations around standards and values and most importantly why they're there. Just going back to the one of the ideas we touched on at the top of the conversation around including the parents. So again, let's assume over the next few weeks things do get better and some trust forms and develops. Then maybe you want to get the parent involved.
How would you go about facilitating that conversation now that there's an extra party in there and there's a couple of adults having that chat with the player? Yeah, I'd be tempted to do it without the player to start off with. I think you might get some more honesty. I think when you call parents in, I think the initial kind of thought in that head is that the players in trouble has been north to something bad is going on.
So maybe I would just try and open up a conversation where the parent talks more than the coach. So, you know, how are things going from your angle or how's they getting on school or he talks about what Dave's like away from the football club. And then that might take you down some avenues of, oh, yeah, he's really struggling with X, Y, Z or, and then you could say, well, we've noticed something similar in the club or we've noticed this behavior is like that or isn't like that. And, you know, is there anything we can do?
Where he talks about the coach being self aware, there might be really simple language or intervention styles. Like this player might not like being called out in front of his mates. So you might be doing a coaching style. We're really trying to help the player and stop in the practice and giving them technical detail.
But inside he might be dying. He might be embarrassed that you've squashed in front of his mates. So it's just kind of aligning those visions to the more layers of context we get. There's some parents whether it's from school, whether it's from the player himself.
I think then you can try and build up a more colourful picture. So getting that context, kind of walking the walk is what you would say. So we've got other A's and we've got other A's and we've got other A's and we follow them up. And then completing that loop of the player is not matching the values that we believe to be true.
How we transmit that back to the player and his parents. So we keep going and it's at what point do you pull the player and say, we talked about these things and you're not doing them and what are these things and they've got slightly better? Well don't keep going. So it's recognising when they do good behaviour as well.
I think that's a skill with proper behaviour. If you can catch them doing the things you want to do, I find that a lot more powerful. So from a technical point of view, if you've got lazy wingers or lazy number 19 maybe don't like the fending. Once you catch them doing something brilliant, whether it's pressing or forcing players into an area or a cover e-tecicle, I tend to try to make a big deal of that because that might not be easy for them.
So it's similar to think in a social corner. If you see them doing something that's positive, even if it's like a 1% improvement on what they normally do, you can recognise that, highlight it whether you talk to them one to one or whether you say in front of the guys like that, that's brilliant because of X, Y, Z. I think they're not behaving like going in the direction you want to. Yeah, absolutely.
And I think just to wrap it up on the parent player conversation, I think if you might view on that, would be that if you did get in the room and you've perhaps spoken to the parent outside of that and then you three of you do get in the room, perhaps it's about leading the player open up first and I think it would be really important that the player could feel like they've got a voice in that scenario. And actually I'm just really not enjoying it because of this or the situations happen at training and between all there might have been a conflict between two players. So giving the player the opportunity to speak up would be key. So really, really challenging topic and I guess when a lot of people are starting out and coaching and working in those grassroots environments, we all go in there thinking about decisions and the games and all the great stuff that goes on with whatever sport we're involved in.
But at times you can be put in that position where you have to be a leader and you have to be the part time psychologist and you have to try and motivate and all of these different areas that go with coaching. A really difficult challenge. So hopefully we've helped Michael there. Again, I would look at some content on the website, look at the work of Lara Mossman.
If you search Lara on the site, she's got a huge amount of examples of magazine articles, masterclass discussion and blog pieces where she's contributed around autonomy. So we'd go to her and of course Jimmy Vaughn's work around the motivational climate. Obviously this is weird, he has area of expertise as well. So we recommend that Michael searches those.
Dan, any final thoughts to help Michael just to wrap it up? Yeah, you've done super well to go through a whole queue and have a talk about legacy. I think the book will be perfect. Like, I know you're slightly biased with the Kiwi slant, but the book about kind of team building, holding values, making sure this way is a live.
That book is excellent for this over the culture. It's going to learn a bit more. I recommend purchasing or downloading that because that book is a really good one. So it's kind of tough.
It is. And we do have a book review of that on the site funnily enough. I'll have to remember who wrote it. But anyway, Dan, thank you again for your time.
A really challenging conversation and an interesting question from Michael. We wish him and the player and question all the best with that scenario. Thanks again for your time. No worries mate.
Enjoy that. And we'll look forward to another Play Development Project Q&A very soon. Thanks for joining us on the Play Development Project podcast. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram, our Play at EP or find us on Facebook.
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