The Athletic Triangle: Coach-Parent-Athlete Triad

Parents/guardians arguably have the most significant influence over their children and consequently play a crucial role in their child's development. Whilst sports coaches have also been identified as being in a position of influence over young people, due to the limited contact time that they have with the young people particularly in grassroots sport, having a strong relationship with the young people's parents/guardians is of particular importance. Consider the average grassroots coach who will see their players for a 1 hour training session and 3 hours on a match day per week. This equates to the coach having contact with his/her players for 2.4% of their week, and therefore emphasises how parents are influential. Despite this, through the many discussions that I have each week with academics, coaches, and mentors one belief continuously emerges, 'We [coaches] don't engage with parents enough'. 

The coach-parent-athlete triad (see Figure 1) has been referred to as the “athletic triangle” (Smith, Smoll & Smith, 1989). The nature of the interactions between the members of this triangle can have significant consequences for the psychological development of the child (Davis & Jowett, 2010; Weiss, 2003). Indeed, coaches are in a position to channel parents’ genuine concerns and good intentions in a way that heightens the value of young peoples' sport experiences (Smoll, Cumming & Smith 2011). Further, parents can influence the quality of the coach-athlete relationship through their perceptions of and feelings towards the coach. If parents feel a connection and understanding with the coach they are far more likely to be complementary about them and if parents portray a positive perception of the coach their children are far more likely to possess feelings of trust, closeness, commitment and complementarity which in turn will enhance their confidence and motivation and subsequently increase the likelihood of them continuing in football. More importantly, when the going gets tough and young players experience stressful situations and/or perceived failure, more often than not it's the support of their parents that has the greatest impact on them be it positive or negative.

Figure 1 - The Athletic Triangle

Parents are the main support network for their child and can look out for their own chid's best interests. They can be forgiven for only seeing experiences from their own child's viewpoint and can be forgiven for unintentionally forgetting about the other children in the team. After all, we all want whats best for our children. As coaches, we are taught to be inclusive, to understand each players perspective, and to challenge them appropriately based upon their needs so that their learning experience is maximised. This in itself can be tough and when the need to manage the expectations of parents is added its is understandable why so many coaches opt for the easier option of minimal interaction with parents. However, given that the primary objective of both coaches and parents is to provide young people with a positive and fulfilling experience of football (sport) a common sense approach would be to work together. Below I will outline some ideas for engaging with parents and encouraging them to play an active role in their child's development.

Pre-season coach-parent meeting

Holding a pre-season coach-parent meeting to initiate open, healthy communication with them, can improve parents’ understanding of youth sports and gain cooperation and support for the approach taken by the coach for developing young players. Firstly, it's important to show your gratitude and that you value the parents' contribution. Thank them for their support and the commitment they will show in bringing their children to training and matches throughout the season. If your club has a philosophy this meeting would provide the ideal opportunity to articulate this. For those coaching at a club without a philosophy, outline your coaching philosophy (support for developing a club philosophy can be found in one of my earlier blog posts here). When doing so consider, what is it I'm trying to do? How will I help their children? What can they expect of me? What do I expect of them and their children? How can they help enhance their child's experience and subsequently learning? Have a 1 page handout containing the key information for parents to take away. Even better would be if this one pager become part of the parents code of conduct. 

Make time to speak to parents 

After initiating the relationship through the parents meeting, maintain regular communication. Make yourself available to them should they wish to discuss anything but more importantly keep them informed of what's going on in sessions and matches. Be smart in your planning and approach to sessions and you'll have time to speak with parents during sessions which means you don't need to find yet more time. Simple arrival activities that the players' can lead themselves provide an ideal opportunity where coaches can inform parents of the session aim and learning outcomes. Why not share a copy of your session plan with them and take 5 minutes to explain it? This will help parents understand the key messages which may lead to reinforcement of learning away from your session, increasing the impact of 'your messages'.     

Include them in team talks/debriefs

This will ensure consistency in the messages you communicate as parents will hear the same information as players directly from you. This can help reduce the instances whereby parents receive contrasting amounts of information that are often told in numerous different ways depending on who communicates the information. Involving parents in team talks can also serve to inform them of the way you are approaching each game, the information being given to each player, and the challenges set for the team, units, and individuals on match day. As a result, parents will hopefully be less likely to 'coach' their children from the touchline or at least it will be far more likely that any instances where this does happen will be reinforcement of and consistent to your information. Therefore, players will receive 'one message' as opposed to several contrasting ones. You can promote this approach through asking parents to only offer encouragement from the touchline (To view a video demonstrating this please click here). In addition having the parents present can be beneficial for helping the players to understand the information your giving. More often than not if players don't understand something it's because we [coaches] haven't explained it well enough. Who better to relay this information in a way that each player understands than their own parents? 

Parents providing feedback to their child 

However you decide match day challenges, whether you set them for players, you ask the players to set them for themselves, or you set them together it can be difficult to provide meaningful feedback to all players throughout/after each match. Maybe parents have a role to play here? I'm sure many of you have been on the receiving end of a series of questions from your parents after a match like why you didn't pass instead of shooting, dribble instead of passing and such like. Some may have experienced even sterner talks after a game particularly when your team didn't win. Most of the time young children don't remember the instances that this questioning refers to and even when they do concentrating conversation around the negative aspects of a game (if not managed correctly) will often lead to a lack of confidence and subsequently over a prolonged period motivation towards playing. So what can we encourage parents to do?

I have previously asked the parents of my players to observe their child and offer feedback against that players individual challenge for the game (e.g., if a young player had an individual challenge of successfully taking an opponent on 1v1, his/her parent would record how many times they had managed to do so). The focus then is on successful performance with a view to increasing confidence and each player working to achieve their own challenge as well as their team's. The conversations between players and parents can then be more meaningful and the feedback offered to the player can serve to set targets for future games (e.g., number of successful take ons), where players aim to beat their last score making learning self-referenced and match day about more than just the score.

In summary, as coaches we must strive to develop strong relationships with the parents of our players through involving them in their child's learning. The above tips are just some of the things that you might do as coaches and the list is by no means exhaustive. At this time of the year where many of you are preparing for next season I would urge you to consider how much you involve parents and challenge yourself to try some of the above (Please let me know how you get on!! @CeriBowley) they may help you to make the football experience even better for your players.  

  

Developing a Club Philosophy

This has been written in response to questions I, and colleagues are often asked about how to develop a club philosophy. There are some excellent examples of how a philosophy can be developed and delivered across grassroots football, none more so than that of Longfleet YFC (@LongfleetYFC). Graham Parkes, whom I employed as an FA Coach Mentor in Dorset was responsible for coordinating the process of developing the philosophy and in a recent meeting he explained how he receives several requests for copies of the philosophy each week. We discussed how the document was produced to suit the specific nature of their club (Longfleet YFC) and that simply applying it in another club would be of little benefit to coaches and players respectively. We agreed that there was a need to develop a framework that clubs could use to develop their own philosophy, something unique to their club that would serve to enhance the development of coaches and players alike. This framework is presented below but first it’s important to consider what a philosophy is. Simply put a philosophy is a way of thinking about something, a group of ideas that act to guide how we behave, in this case as coaches. The benefit of developing a club philosophy lies in providing an identity for your club, and a consistent approach across your club to make sure the key messages are the same throughout all age groups.

Consultation

Consulting with parents

A philosophy should represent the thoughts of the people involved in its delivery.  In order for any plan to be delivered effectively and supported by the key people within the club it must represent everyone. Grassroots coaches across all age group report parents as being the biggest challenge preventing them from effectively fulfilling their role. Parents questioning the coach’s decisions, and coaching from the side are among the most popular responses received.

Parents are arguably the most important influencers in their child’s development. Coaches should involve them in the process rather than assume they know the purpose and vision of the coach. Involving the parents in the development of a philosophy is crucial for many reasons. Make them feel valued by giving them a voice and allowing them an input into what their child will learn. After all, parents spend every day with their child and know them individually better than us coaches. We can gain an important insight into their child and how they learn if we just ask. Consulting with parents can be done in various ways including workshops, feedback questionnaires, and informal discussions.

Consulting with players

As coaches how many times have we delivered sessions that we want in a way that suits our delivery? Ask yourself that question, I did. My response taught me that I deliver some good sessions, some not so good, and many that I don’t even know whether the players have truly been motivated to learn. Why? Because I hadn’t asked them why they played football, what they hoped to achieve from the game, or what they wanted to learn form my sessions.

The FA youth modules first alerted me to the need to challenge my own approach, and this need was substantially strengthened when conducting research for the first study of my PhD where I interviewed a range of key stakeholders in grassroots football. The overwhelming expectation of grassroots football coaching reported by players was to allow them to develop social skills. Yes that’s right social skills not football skills. In fact less than a third of the players’ main expectation was to develop football skills. Quite staggering to some maybe, and I’m not suggesting this is true of all young players in all clubs. However, other research such as that conducted by Nick Levett as part of the Youth Development Review revealed similar findings. I therefore urge you to ask your players and find out: why they come to your sessions, and what they’d like to achieve/learn. They may very well support other research in grassroots football.

Consulting with coaches

Coaches play a significant role in developing young people. Everyone remembers their youth football coach, quite often more for what they taught you about life and being a good person than about football. This is certainly true of mine who taught me the true value of hard work, being determined and committed to everything, and respecting everybody equally.

It’s vital that the coaches at your club believe in and are passionate about what they are delivering if the philosophy is going to be effective. Giving all coaches the opportunity to contribute to the development of the philosophy is crucial. It’s easy to assume the best person for writing a philosophy is the most qualified or knowledgeable coach. Whilst they will no doubt create something spectacular it will reflect their values and beliefs and not all coaches.

What do your coaches stand for?

Find out what your coaches value. Our values are things we deem important and can include things like equality, honesty, effort, perseverance, loyalty, education…. Why are these important – because they are very much individual and every decision we make is based on our values.

What are your coaches’ beliefs? Our beliefs are assumptions we make about the world. They grow from what we see, hear, experience, read and think about. They determine not only how we see ourselves but also how we see other people.

The clearer each coach is about their values and beliefs, the more effective they can be.

Once you’ve gained input from parents, players, and coaches it’s important that you find the common ground between them all. The easiest way is to pick out the key things that represent each group (parents, players, coaches) before bringing them together to identify the things they agree on. These then become your core values and beliefs that provide your club with an identity. That is, a mission statement, as a club we believe in ………….. and strive to ……………

Consulting with others

The power of social media allows people to connect easily. This makes it easy to consult with thousands of experienced coaches, teachers, and educators to gain a wide array of perspectives that can support, and influence your thoughts. It also provides a fantastic resource for acquiring good practice resources and templates.  

  

Developing a programme/curriculum/syllabus

The next stage in the process is to develop a programme that allows you to promote your values, beliefs and live your mission statement. This is important as it demonstrates your commitment, ‘walking the walk’ if you like. There are some excellent resources that will help you to do this. The FA’s Future Game document is a great start point. It’s important to stress the importance again of compiling sessions that do what you need them to do, and that allow you to deliver them in a way that enhances your players learning. Simply copying sessions from any document or from watching another coach does not ensure a great session. Make sessions your own.

Think about giving players what they want and need, creating opportunities for them to make lots of decisions, allowing them freedom to experiment and be creative, and ensuring lots of time active in the session. Much is reported in media about the England ‘DNA’ launched this weekend, being active in the session was emphasised where for 70% of the session the ball should be rolling. This provides a great start point for structuring sessions. Coaching in this way is not easy and we could be forgiven for thinking that our role is to allow them to play. Whilst this is somewhat true, as coaches our role is to unobtrusively facilitate learning. This doesn’t mean simply allowing the children to play but providing challenges and finding ways to intervene with the relevant players without stopping the session – not all players need to hear every instruction, challenge, or question. Be specific over who needs what – your consultations will help you with this.

Drawing upon the expertise of a range of coaches is immensely beneficial for developing practices and I know Longfleet YFC did so when developing theirs – again the important part is ensuring the sessions reflect your needs as a club. It’s also important not to underestimate the experience of the people involved in the club who will all no doubt have a bank of session to contribute.

Share, share, share

Once the philosophy is developed share it with everybody at the club. You may wish to present it in meetings or provide handouts. Consider writing a one page summary rather than handing out full copies of the philosophy – few people will sit down and read multiple pages. A summary will also allow you to produce posters and other material that can be displayed and serve to inform, reinforce, and remind of the key messages.  

Live it, challenge, and reflect

There is little point spending considerable time producing a fantastic philosophy if it becomes a document that nobody uses. It’s important that coaches in particular are prepared to follow through their intentions, delivering sessions and behaving in a way that promotes the values and beliefs that shaped it’s existence in the first place. We should be prepared to challenge each other to ensure we all strive to ‘live it’. I appreciate this isn’t easy to do, particularly when working with volunteers. The success of Longfleet YFC demonstrates that this can be done though.

Once developed its also important to reflect religiously on it’s effectiveness and seek ways to continue to improve. The easy way would be to think the hard work has been done. The world continues to evolve, and so will the demands and challenges faced by young people. We as coaches need to ensure that we continue to develop players as people. As new players join the club, expectations may change. How do we continue to service their needs?

In summary, ask yourselves: Why do we want to develop a philosophy? What will it allow you to achieve? How committed are you to living it? Don’t fall into the trap of writing something that only reflects your thoughts: this is a coach philosophy and whilst it will no doubt be very useful for you as a coach, it will likely do very little to motivate and engage other coaches at your club. A philosophy takes time to develop and should continually evolve, take the time to consult with as many people as possible. This is a long-term investment not a short-term fix, avoid the temptation of taking another philosophy and simply changing the name and badge – it won’t meet the needs of your club, coaches, and most importantly your players.

Coaching Successful Performance to Develop Decision Making

The coaching process has long since been recognised as a model for intervening in order to correct unsuccessful performance across sport.  Indeed, many coaching courses in football are advocates for the use of such processes.  Whilst many schools of thought exist, the coaching process in its simplest form follows a five step process consisting of:

1. Observation - The coach observes player's performing in training and/or competition.
2. Analysis - The coach breaks down their thoughts on the performance based on their observation.
3. Evaluation - The coach identifies whether performance was successful or not leading to possible intervention. 
4. Feedback/intervention - The coach provides feedback to the player.  This may involve a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication, and demonstration/modelling of the practice. 
5. Clarifying - player is asked to reproduce what was modelled (often unopposed), before sessions go live again.

Whilst utilising such process can improve performance in certain scenarios in a given session, does it really develop a player's ability to make decisions?  I would argue not, because very rarely does the exact scenario repeat itself in a game, something will be different:  the position on the pitch; the position and distance of opponents; the position and distance of team mates; the weight and type of pass being received and so on…. 

I'm sure you are all familiar with the saying "the best players make the best decisions, most of the time".   Indeed, research focusing on the differences between elite and non-elite players suggests that elite players are able to make sense of the environment quicker.  This means that elite players are able to recognise and process cues, identify familiar patterns, predict what their opponent will do, and react accordingly using the correct technique to perform the required movement/skill.  If this is true, how do young players become good decision makers?

Granted some players may naturally be better at reading and understanding the game.  However, I believe that as coaches we can play a significant role in developing our players' decision making ability. Personally, I think how a coach responds to successful performance is more important than how he intervenes following a mistake or unsuccessful execution of a skill.    

I was watching an under 14 game recently and one player instantly caught my eye.  He was playing in the no.10 position and clearly the creative player in his team.  10 minutes into the game the ball was played into him with the defender marking him tight, and he performed a drag back and Cruyff turn, nut-megging the defender before playing a pass through for a team mate to shoot at goal.  His coach clearly enjoyed the moment shouting "Great skill son, well done".  In the second half, a similar situation presented itself and the same player attempted the same skill.  However, on this occasion the ball struck the defenders leg, bounced away to another opposing player, and the opposition broke.  The coach responded with "Stop flicking the ball, pass it and keep it".  My immediate thought was to question how a player can be praised so heavily in the first half, and shouted at for trying the same thing again?  The reason why the skill didn't come off on the second occasion reinforces a point made above, very rarely does the exact scenario repeat itself in a game - the defender was further from the ball in the second attempt!!  Did the player understand why it didn't work second time around?  I don't think he did.

This brings me back to my point that coaching successful performance is crucial if we are to promote the development of decision makers.  What exactly does this mean?  For me, the best time to intervene is when a player has performed well.  Start with praise for what he has just achieved, before asking how and more importantly why he did it.  Try and understand yourself while helping the player understand why he/she made that decision, what did they see?  In a recent conversation with a former professional footballer I asked how he felt his playing career had helped prepare him to coach.  His response, "not much, I've had to learn again really.  When I played I never thought about what I was doing, now I have to break everything down to teach it and I've found that really difficult".   

Helping the player break the skill down and recognise what influenced his thinking is crucial.  Without this reflection, very few players fully understand why they did what they did.  Once players are able to break down the decision making process they will better be able to understand the environment, recognise cues (e.g. position of opposition; position of team mates; area on the field), identify familiar patterns (between performing a skill in two different scenarios), and use this information to:

1) Make the correct decision more consistently;

2) Correct their own mistakes through providing a structure to revert to under pressure.

Allowing the player freedom to try new things is important as is the coach's ability to facilitate the process (e.g. encourage players to revert back to breaking the process down after unsuccessful performance).  Without this, young players will continue to perform as requested because the coach has told him/her its right, with little or no understanding of why the decision to pass instead of dribble is the better option.  

Help player's understand making good decisions!!

Personal Development: Developing the person through football

Football participation has long been associated with personal and social development.  Indeed, many believe that sport is responsible for developing many skills such as confidence, self-esteem, and social skills.  In recent years, personal and social development has become a significant focus for much of coach education delivery largely due to the holistic development of players being stressed, and the emergence of the four corner model to focus on the technical, physical, psychological, and social development of players/athletes. 

There has been a definite shift in the approach many coaches are taking towards a more player centred focus and away from coach led methods, with skills such as communication and teamwork being stressed.  But how do we know that social skills are being developed?

Taught not Caught

Whilst football can be used as a vehicle for developing social skills, it is not magic.  Participation in any sport does not guarantee personal growth. In order to develop these skills and enhance the personal and social development of young people, coaches and leaders in youth football must shape and facilitate the environment and young people’s learning.  This involves teaching skills across all four corners; skills are ‘taught not caught’.  Simply giving players ownership isn’t enough.

In my many conversations with coaches who talk about a modern approach to coaching, the concept of giving players ownership is frequently at the forefront of all discussions.  I often hear “we need to let them play and discover for themselves’.  Whilst I agree somewhat with this statement, the role of the coach should never be underestimated.

Role of the coach

Allowing young players to play is one thing, facilitating the learning process is another.  Coaches should always aim to enhance their players understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it, and also its relevance to other aspects of life away from football to assist players in transferring what they’ve learnt.  Without this transfer can we actually claim to be enhancing personal and social development? 

I don’t believe we can.  If we develop a young person’s ability to work as part of a team in football without improving his understanding and teamwork skills in other aspects of life, all we are doing is developing football skills.  Youth football coaches have a duty of care for the young people to ensure that each participant develops as a person first and foremost to maximise their potential not only in football but wider life including at home, school, and later when entering the world of work.  Youth football delivered well inspires each young person and provides the platform from which they can excel.

A process for enhancing personal development

A simple three-step process can be followed to enhance personal development.

Message  - Introduce the learning focus of the session to the players (e.g. develop communication skills).  Question players and facilitate a discussion around the importance of communication in football.  Why is it important that we communicate to each other on the pitch?  How can we communicate to each other?  Can you think of a player who is really good at communicating to his team?

Developing the skill – Devise practices that promote development of the skill.  Question and challenge players throughout to develop understanding.  Don’t forget to question players after successful performance too.  Don’t take for granted that they know and understand why they did it just because they did well.

Transferring the skill – Consolidate learning by asking questions and facilitating a discussion around what they have learnt.  Ask the players to evaluate their performance against the learning focus, and suggest ways they might improve in the next session.  Question and discuss where the players may use the skill (e.g. communication) away from football.  Where else is communication important?  Why is it important to communicate at home/with who/how?

Challenge the players to use the skill that you have focused on in other aspects of life and report back how they have used it at the start of next session.

In summary, facilitating personal and social development is more than ‘letting them play’.  Football participation doesn’t automatically result in personal/social growth, instead learning is ‘taught not caught’.  As a coach, focus on developing the person in order to develop the player.