By Luke Whitworth

Recommended reading

Coach Development: Special Report

10 Considerations For Your Coach Development Pathways

Framing the topic

The field of coach development continues to grow at a fast pace. We are in a space where the value of coach support is becoming more apparent and important across high performance environments. In this roundtable, we looked to explore and hear about the focuses of others around how they are focusing on developing their coaches.

Discussion points

1. How others are thinking about evolutions and trends in the field of coach development.
2. What have been some of those interventions and how have they been utilised in practice?

• Learning networks: creating an awareness of who they speak to the most, who and where they go to for new knowledge. Mapping this, and aligning it to their personal development plan – are there any gaps? This ties into the key area of focus within the coach development strategy of having self-directive learners driven by their individual development plan.
• Individual development plans: plans are becoming more individualised, driven by the coaches themselves. Some organisations using software such as Hive Learning to try and make them as live as possible. They can invite multiple people into their personal individual plan group and documents/videos to be uploaded, chat function available, which all leads to further actions and development.
• Application & sense-making: now things are all about application and sense-making, how can you learn from other sports, and work in small groups practically, rather than just listening to someone tell you what to do. We’ve seen a shift in topics, wellbeing and care of coaches is now much higher on the agenda than it ever was before.
• Seascape of learning: as a coach you navigate your own journey, as opposed to just being told what you need to do. People are there to support you navigating the journey but not there to be directive. The role of the coach developer is to raise awareness of different things they want to look at themselves, or potential blind spots.
• Impact: how do we truly know if we’re having an impact? Shifted reporting from quantitative to qualitative. Explore the narrative that comes out of those conversations – where does the coach feel that they’ve moved around their personal efficacy etc? The value of storytelling is important within this. Another powerful approach is asking the athletes themselves for feedback.
• How often do you review the development plans? What are we actually doing already, and what are we looking to develop on top of that?
• Online reflection: consider this framework which covers four areas: craft, self, people and culture. Underneath those areas the coach can work with a coach mentor and evaluate where they are currently at; they then choose two priorities for the next six months.
• Feedback: seek this from the athletes, but also parent feedback and communication for the younger athletes.
• Vulnerability: key from coaches to invite feedback from athletes. There have been examples where coaches have put their individual development plans up on the wall next to athletes to allow the athletes to also input to it. It takes a brave coach to do it, but if you want genuine feedback on your coaching (behaviours, impact and communication) create space for the athletes to understand what the focuses are – make it a two-way process so that the development plans aren’t sitting separately.
• Leveraging athlete management systems: typically these systems are utilised by sports science and other specific disciplines within your environment. Is there an opportunity for coaches to better utilise this to help inform how they design sessions, but also how they interact with the athlete?
• Becoming more interdisciplinary: many of us are striving to become more interdisciplinary, to blur the edges and share practice across disciplines. When thinking about coach development, this presents a huge opportunity in terms of how we nurture interdisciplinarity and skillsets to accompany that. It’s harder to impact this style when being reactive, but if we can be proactive in advance using other disciplines and departments to support that journey. It’s also important to state that many practitioners are referred to as ‘coaches’ so this doesn’t just relate to sport-specific coaches who are more accustomed to the technical and tactical elements of their sport.
• ‘Sticky interventions’: we often hear that coaches want to talk to other coaches about coaching, but they come back to the challenge of time. We’ve got to find sticky and intentional interventions such as coaching collaborations and ‘coaching cells as a direction of travel to encourage this.
• Coaching cells: this has proven to be a powerful intervention for the cross-pollination of ideas. Cells are small groups of coaches who get together and take it in turns within the group to present one or two coaching problems that are going on – it provides a space to spitball ideas and solutions. Cells are also a great way of developing relationships away from just being focused on challenging questions associated to coaching practice.
• Focus on intentional growth: when thinking about coach development, it can be easy to just ‘ do stuff’ to be seen to be active in developing our coaches. We want there to be intentional growth, less is more. Don’t go broad and shallow, go narrow and deep with some topics and focuses.
• Creating momentum: typically coaches will have check-ins around their individual development plans throughout the course of a year. How are others continuing to create momentum away from these reviews and check-ins? Time is prioritised each week aligned to elements of coaches individual development plans. One environment leverages an annual coach retreat, where coaches are taken off site to either be together or spend time with other coaches. The question really is ‘where are we segmenting the time to actually work on these things?’
• DORA: Do. Observe. Reflect. Adjust. Allow your coaches to explore using that framework – one of the environments on the call is using an internal website where all player development plans are housed. The coaches will review these, but it has extended to the coaches and individual staff to have the conversations around their own practice, and in turn how are those objectives align to the players plans.
• Evidencing growth: how do we find ways to evidence that coaches are getting better? It could be something as simple as getting feedback from the athletes.
• Coach motivation: this is a good question to start with – where are they trying to get to? Coaches often don’t know what they don’t know, which is why we have seen the power of interventions like mentoring and learning networks to provide learning experiences at different times during their journey.
• Coach wellbeing: we’ve seen developments in the athlete space when it comes to wellbeing but we are still yet to see it really move forward in coaching. There is so much pressure in coaching, so how are we creating those safe spaces? In terms of the coach development journey, where does the wellbeing support and education for coaches come?

By Sarah Evans

• Harness the athlete’s internal drive, create a realistic vision.

• Encourage your athlete to be their own best coach.

• Create a belief that no matter what happens your athlete will rise from setbacks.

Cultivate a clear vision

Cameron McCormick, who has coached an array of PGA and LPGA players, has been Spieth’s coach since the latter was a 12-year-old dreaming of winning golf’s most prestigious major, the Masters. He saw in Spieth “the drive and determination that fuels the necessary ability to do work,” as he told the 2016 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in New York, and worked to support Spieth’s goal of winning the Masters for almost a decade. Spieth possessed what McCormick called the “internal drive that sees a future reality,” making the link between Spieth’s drive and vision of the future. The youngster set his goal very high from a young age and, with the right support, was able to chase his Masters dream without being afraid to aim high. In 2015, aged 21, Spieth became the youngest player to win at Augusta since a 19-year-old Tiger Woods in 1997.

Self-belief and resilience

McCormick explained that one key way of being able to bounce back from a defeat or bad performance is “a self-belief that no matter what happens I will rise again”. He emphasised the critical importance of self-talk, and “signal-to-noise management”, whereby the noise that exists has a decided advantage, i.e. taking in the jeers from Augusta or playing forward negative situations in your mind versus the signal that you want to control. “Be a creator of the scene in your mind, not a viewer of what you are experiencing,” he said. McCormick is able to measure this with the athletes by reframing the scenario and creating perspective. It is a centring process, and needs to be repeated and cultivated consistently over time.

He then spoke about the round briefings he has with Spieth and how he uses these as an opportunity to “pump his tyres” and how Spieth is then able to build his self-belief. It is all about the principle of reinforcement, the more you think about and talk about something happening, you increase the probability of it taking place, which works, of course, both positively and negatively. Therefore, playing a highlight reel, remembering your strengths and building positive self-talk before competition is paramount.

The Three C’s – Collect, Correlate, Correct

McCormick‘s goal, although it seems counterintuitive, is to make himself redundant to the athlete. He fosters a sense of self sufficiency amongst the players, and sets out to educate them on how to be their own best coach. McCormick only wanted his players to come back to him when they really needed his help. He calls this process the three C’s: collect the clues, attribute a correlation or causation, then close the loop with a correction. This ability for the athletes to figure it out themselves and “dig it out of the dirt” is critical when their contact time is at a minimum.

Get buy-in from key influences

Athletes rely upon a good support system and McCormick understands how important it is to filter his core coaching messages through the key influences in an athlete’s life. Done well, those messages will resonate beyond the coaching session itself. McCormick called it “the rule of 168”. There are 168 hours in a week and he might only get one hour with an athlete. “Therefore that hour needs to be high octane and have longevity over a week or two-week period so when they come back, you’re not in the same place,” he said.

By Sarah Evans

Framing the topic

This was session one of our three-part Performance Support Series focusing on the overarching theme of talent development, with the title ‘Synchronising Player & Coach Development’. Across these sessions, which are being hosted by Edd Vahid, Assistant Academy Director at English Premier League club Southampton FC, the aim is to understand the challenges faced during transitions for talent, whether this be players or coaches, and explore a number of interventions to positively influence this in your environments.

Understanding the challenge

• When we say ‘challenge’ within this session, it means the transition of players through the pathway from academy to seniors.
• First and foremost its crucial to understand what these challenges are in relation to transition.
• The challenge of transition is at the heart of most sporting visions.
  • UK Sport – ‘Keep winning and winning well’ places a requirement on young athletes to have an impact on the senior stage.
  • Southampton – ‘Be the Number One Player Developer in Football’

 Aims of the session

1. Provoke thinking on player/athlete transitions
2. Create space(s) to reflect on existing approaches and challenges
3. Explore the utility of several sense-making models
4. Encourage a commitment to action

Discussion points

How effectively is your club / organisation facilitating the transition of an talented academy player to first-team player? Or in turn, how are you facilitating the transition of talent coaches within your environment?

Pre-Mortem: Your highest potential academy player / coach does not transition into the first team / elite environment. What would have contributed to this outcome?

• Opportunity: pathway, lack of bumps in the road, long-term injury.
• Competition: insufficient game time, too much expectation, mentality.
• Assessment: coaches decisions, selector bias, positional decisions.
• Differences between professional sport and Olympic sport, and individual vs team sports.
• Pressure to win games now, focuses on short term rather than a longer term developmental outlook.

Performance = Potential – Interference (Timothy Gallwey)

The reality of transitions is that they’re a zero sum game, meaning that if someone makes the step up into the senior team, someone else will move out of that space.

Challenges in creating effective transitions

• Recognising the landscape or ecosystem you operate in.
• The tension that exists between the first team environment, which naturally prioritises a shorter term focus, than a development environment that has a longer term outlook and possibly greater stability.
• Trust and Empathy: the heart of talent development work is trying to influence the trust that the senior staff have.
• Vision: the aligned vision between the first team and academy. Club’s vision led by board must have buy-in across the organisation.
• Individualised element: everyone’s pathway is so different, so it’s important to create a system that acknowledges that individuality.
• Ensuring there are aligned processes between the various stages of the pathway.

Sense Making Models : Pierre Bourdieu – Habitus, Field, Capital

• Habitus: ‘The Individual’, a product of their history, influenced by a multitude of factors. Their history will influence how they perceive, how they think and ultimately how they behave moving forwards. Are we preparing these individuals to be a ‘fish in water’ in the senior teams?
• Field: e.g. The training complex. A social arena where people compete for resources and demonstrate their power. The new ‘field’ establishes the ‘rules of the game’ and the individual must adapt if they want to succeed. This could be their attitude at training, their image, where they sit in the changing room etc. How well are we preparing them to make a good first impression?
• Capital: The currency that is going to influence success – physical qualities, cultural qualities, reputation you come with.

How well do we know our players’ Habitus? Their History?

How well do we understand the Field, and the Capital required to succeed?

Task: What are the key influences on the First Team ‘Field’? For example, the pressure to win on Saturday?

70% of behaviour is determined by our environment. Therefore if most behaviour is understandable then we need to understand where the behaviour comes from.

Understanding the landscape – O’Sullivan, Bespomoshchnov and Mallett (2021)

• Microsystem: the immediate environment – e.g. an individual playing in the academy.
• Mesosystem: the interconnection of settings – e.g. interconnection of academy and senior team. Things that can influence this are the managerial tenure, which in football on average is 18 months, financial incentives, and the average age of players in the senior team.
• Exosystem: the broader context – e.g. the Premier League, with many players being brought in from overseas, player contract length, and the transfer spend of the club.
• Macrosystem: cultural elements – e.g. the role of the media and social media.

In summary:

1. Successful transitions are critical to our talent development aspirations.
2. Understanding the transition challenge precedes intervention.
3. The transition challenge is influenced by factors that exist on multiple levels.

“There’s a tension there that exists between knowing what you’re going to cover and responding to the humans that are in front of you,” said Iain Brunnschweiler, the Head of Technical Development at English Premier League club Southampton FC.

“We’ve tried to evolve a curriculum, a player development framework, that manages that tension. We want to cover specific topics and we also want to coach the player that’s in front of us.”

Brunnschweiler was speaking onstage at Leaders Meet: Coach & Player Development on the 24 March at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, where he was joined by England Netball Head Coach Jess Thirlby to discuss the progress being made in coach and player development.

During the session, which was moderated by Dan Clements, the Performance Coach Manager at Wales Rugby Union, the duo discussed:

• Why curriculums need to be carefully implemented [3:00];
• The value in playbooks and the implications for creativity [12:00];
• The most meaningful learning experiences they provide [16:00];
• Finding work-life balance [24:00].

John Portch: Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

By Sarah Evans

• How readily are mistakes discussed at your organisation?

• Experiential learning provides a useful framework for discussing performance

• Debriefs should contain a human focused element

1. People are encouraged to talk about their mistakes – ‘just culture’

At the 2019 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Atlanta, Brad Sheehan, Managing Director of Flight Safety at Delta Airlines, spoke about fostering a learning culture where everyone accepts mistakes are going to happen, and pilots are encouraged to talk through and learn from their experiences. He said: “When a pilot reports, as long as they don’t lie and they didn’t make the mistake on purpose, their report will always be accepted and they will never be disciplined for an inadvertent act, no matter how significant.” The most important thing is to have a conversation and pilots are afforded the psychological safety to be vulnerable and to be open to talking about their mistakes, which are the basis for learning.

2. Reporting is voluntary, but expected

A crucial part of success, and maintaining success, is debriefing and evaluating. Delta have created a culture where everyone is open to talking about their performance, the good and the bad, so that everyone can learn from the experience. Safety reports are shared between Delta’s 1400 pilots so that everyone can benefit from the learnings that come with each experience.

3. Delta affords pilots the space to grow and develop

Experiential learning is something that more and more high performing teams are prioritising, and Sheehan explained that Delta have shifted away from memorising to scenario-based training. He said: “What we lack in a pilot having not experienced all those bad things, we can make up for in sharing like we’ve never done before.” It is through the evaluating and learning from all of their flights and performances, that Delta are able to prepare pilots for a broad and diverse range of scenarios they might face under real pressure. Delta prioritises safety over compliance, which allows pilots to interpret each situation as it comes. They want pilots who are mission-focused, but risk averse.

4. Understand your biases with human focused debriefs

We can accept that mistakes will happen, but of course within high performance environments the more you can reduce mistakes the more consistent performance and prolonged success you will enjoy. “We now spend a lot of time discussing human performance,” said Sheehan. “When can I predict that I’m more likely to make errors? How can I combat these things? Checklists, automation, pushing the other pilot to be an advocate”. Understanding yourself is the first step in effective peer to peer feedback and learning which he stressed as a key component to their success.

At Delta, they create a “shared mental model” so the pilots can understand each other and measure each other’s performance in the moment. “How do we work together, and how do we communicate our plans?” It is quintessential to think ahead and have plans for different scenarios you might face under pressure. Within this, they also created a ‘Threat and Error Management Model’ which is about being vulnerable and understanding how to get the best out of the team under real stress.

5. Beware of groupthink

Sheehan also highlighted how “groupthink can be a threat”. He argued that we need “healthy sceptics” and “trust that is verified”, so that co-pilots can be assertive and stand up for themselves. If one gets too comfortable with their co-worker or teammate, one may let them get away with something as we trust that they will perform, but sometimes that’s when an intervention is needed to help them prevent a mistake occurring.

By John Portch

• Public speaking is an art not a science – find what works for you.

• Practise using these tools, just as you would expect an athlete to practise.

• Use the listener’s language to forge that connection.

There are no rules – but there are tools

Chris Anderson, the Curator at TED, told an audience at the 2016 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in New York that public speaking matters more than ever. “The thing I want to emphasise is that there’s no formula to doing this,” said Anderson. “But there are tools that you can choose from to construct the talk that is right for you in the moment – and these tools teachable – I am convinced of this.”

Start strong

Anderson suggests that people dispense with platitudes in an attention-demanding world. “I’m not saying in the first sentence you have to sock people between the eyes. You have about a minute. In the first minute you have to give them a sense of what it is you to build in their minds and have them trust you to do it.”

Be human

The trust to which Anderson alluded is rooted in authenticity and being human. “There’s lots of ways to do this,” he said. “A bit of humour can help, tell an anecdote, maybe some vulnerability, or you can actually just look at people. Your eyes have super powers. When two humans look at each other their minds literally start to sync up. So don’t spend your talk with your eyes buried in your notes or projecting out as many speakers do to this place where no one actually lives. Find faces in the first few rows and look at people and speak to them conversationally because everyone can actually sense that connection when you do that. It’s powerful.”

Tell a story

Storytelling can be a powerful tool in sport. “Stories can make or break so many talks. Our minds are wired to love them,” said Anderson. “A story can also set up the idea that you want to share.”

Explain

Anderson said that in order to construct an idea in someone’s mind you have to be able to call upon elements that are already in their minds. “You can use your language, your jargon, you have to use concepts that the audience already has,” he said, “and the key tool to connect those is metaphor. Metaphor is literally is shaping an idea based on a shape the audience already has. So when the science writer Jennifer Kahn came to TED, she wanted to explain to us CRISPR, this bio technology. She said: ‘it’s like a word processor for the genome. You can cut and paste the gene from any part to any other part’. I know what a word processor is so I know what CRISPR is. It’s powerful.”

Persuasion

Anderson said: “If explanation is the construction of an idea in someone’s mind, persuasion first involves a little bit of demolition. You have to take out something that isn’t right first. How do you do that? By showing how implausible or even ridiculous it is.”

Rehearse

Don’t expect to just wing it. “Your teams practise, actors practise, musicians practise, speakers should practise – it really matters,” said Anderson. “The difference between owning a talk and being owned by it is rehearsal.”

Talk your way

Feel free to sit, stand, walk, use a lectern or do cartwheels. Anderson said: “Do it your way. because, when all is said and done, the only thing that really matters in public speaking is this: that you have something worth saying and that you then say it in a way that is authentic to you.”

By Edd Vahid

Fifa describe the transition from talented academy player to first team regular as a ‘delicate phase’. The term ‘delicate’ arguably underplays the challenges characterising this period.

Whilst many young players harbour dreams of playing Premier League football, the well-publicised reality is reserved for a minority. Enhancing the existing transition rate remains a priority for most academies and requires a collaborative approach engaging key internal and external stakeholders.

Before exploring existing and future interventions, an awareness of the current landscape is important.  According to the Football Observatory, during the first half of the current season (2021-22) the average age of a Premier League player has been 27.16 years old with only 4.2 per cent of these players younger than 21 years old. Significantly, 59.5 per cent of players currently plying their trade in the Premier League would be considered expatriates (i.e., their origin exists outside of England) who have been secured on lucrative and often long-term contracts (the average stay in a Premier League club is 37 months).

A gross transfer spend of £1.4 billion by Premier League clubs during the two available transfer windows this season, significantly eclipses the €380 million combined outlay by clubs in La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France), and reflects a generally positive trend in expenditure since 2003. These insights arguably highlight a league that present limited opportunities and favour more experienced players. Young players are competing for game time with the finest players in the world. This clearly represents a challenging landscape for young players with Premier League aspirations, and clubs with a desire to facilitate the transition of academy graduates.

The challenges evident on the pitch are often further exacerbated by an incentivised short-term focus and instability that can characterise off-pitch activity. Indeed, in 2021, Statista reviewed the average tenure of Premier League managers in the past ten seasons. According to the report, the average tenure at Southampton Football Club (accurate as of 08.11.21) during this period was 513 days. Our current Manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl, has surpassed more than 1000 days in post and offered a stability that encourages a more future-oriented outlook. Coupled with the financial incentives available when winning games, managers might understandably prioritise short-term results. Arguably, young players may require time before delivering game impactful performances at a Premier League level. Clubs must negotiate this tension, and there is evidence of positive progress in the past decade.

Despite the challenging context, since the inception of the Premier League-led Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in 2012 a positive increase in home grown talent is evident. Notably, last season young English players were securing significant game time domestically and in European competition relative to their homegrown counterparts in the big five leagues (i.e., Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1). Specifically, English under 23 players ranked second for domestic minutes (behind France) and first in Uefa club competitions. Given the challenges presented, this represents a positive return and evidence of sustained progress.

Whilst clubs must ultimately take responsibility to review their pathway and explore ways to improve the transition rate of young academy players, organisations occupying leadership roles in the wider footballing ecosystem (e.g., leagues and governing bodies) represent important collaborative partners.  For clubs, a clear and agreed vision, the existence of trust and empathy, underpinned by aligned processes responsive to an individual’s needs, appear to represent necessary elements. Firstly, an ownership and board-led long-term vision that acknowledges the club’s youth development aspirations is critical. A clear and agreed vision importantly provides a framework for decision making. If youth development is prioritised, this should have clear implications and evident impact on the decisions related to player transfers, contracts, and general investment.

Creating a viable pathway for talented young players is important. Victor Orta, the Director of Football at Leeds United Football Club, recently highlighted a policy that protects space in the squad for young players. The approach represents a deliberate attempt to create a pathway that facilitates the development of homegrown players. Separately, during a 365-day period commencing in February 2021 our first team played 40 games in the Premier League. These fixtures were fulfilled with the use of 32 players, a figure broadly reflective of the average across the league. Significantly, more than a third (n = 11) of these players would be considered academy graduates; each player accruing varying levels of game time and sustained activity with the first team.

Given the relatively short tenure of a head coach or manager, it is vital that clubs employ guardians of their philosophy. Radically Traditional studied organisations who have enjoyed sustained success.  These ‘centennial’ organisations, as they termed them, were characterised by two distinct headline features, namely a stable core and a disruptive edge. A new manager arguably provides the disruptive edge that is necessary to evolve. This might involve changes to a playing style or training methodology. Complemented by a stability that safeguards an organisation’s identity, this represents a formidable partnership for progression. An instable core where purpose and identity are frequently negotiated ultimately creates confusion and inhibits continuity.

Deploying strategies that help support the development of trust between an academy and first team is vital. In his 2006 book Speed of Trust: the one thing that changes everything, Stephen R Covey considered trust a function of character and competence. In a transitional space this has implications for both staff and players. Senior academy staff and first team personnel must develop relationships embodying trust. An absence of trust will be debilitating and potentially impact the opportunities presented to young players. Whilst character arguably exists on an individual level, competence can emerge from a shared understanding of player development and potential. A shared understanding is often the product of a regular dialogue, which effectively serves to calibrate people’s views of individual players. This might involve discussing match performances and sharing training observations. Importantly, frequent feedback amongst staff operating in the transitional phase (i.e., academy and first team) should help enhance a player’s experience by clearly identifying agreed areas for development.

Empathy is closely intertwined with trust. It is important that both parties (i.e., academy and first team) appreciate and seek to understand their respective challenges. It is also important to acknowledge the inevitable tensions that exist. For example, an academy affords a time and space that is rarely available to a first team, which is under constant scrutiny from media and fans. Results in a first team setting represent the essential currency and this can conflict with the developmental needs of transitioning players. Arsène Wenger described management as ‘living on a volcano’, presumably in acknowledgement of the intensity and uncertainty inherent in the profession. Michael Calvin later adopted this phrase as the title for his 2015 book Living on the volcano: the secrets of surviving as a football manager, which provides an insight into the challenges experienced by managers. The competing tensions further emphasise the necessity for a vision that transcends a pathway and the importance of a clearly defined and stable club purpose.

The partnership between academy and first team staff is helpfully supported by aligned processes. This might include similar playing styles and approaches to set plays, which are designed to minimise turbulence during this critical transition. Indeed, our B team model at Southampton was introduced under this premise. The B team are philosophically aligned with the first team, operating a playbook that encourages a consistency in approaches to training and games. Ideally, individual development plans for the highest potential players are co-created amongst selected first team and academy staff. This should ensure a common language is deployed and a shared understanding of the demands and expectations evolves. Additionally, a schedule that permits regular opportunities for academy players (and staff) to observe and participate in first team training provides an important benchmark for performance. In recent seasons this has more formally involved a season-long sabbatical for selected members of the senior academy coaching team. Importantly, these interventions should help determine the training and competition needs of each individual player.

Facilitating a successful transition from senior academy player to first team player is difficult. However, this difficulty can be mitigated if an ownership-led and collectively agreed vision promoting young players is supported with an infrastructure characterised by the interdependent features of trust and empathy. As previously mentioned, each club is ultimately responsible for supporting the development of their players and creating conditions that enhance an individual’s progress. However, clubs operate within a broader ecosystem, and it is important to acknowledge the important role of leagues and associations. For example, the Premier League and Football League have effectively collaborated to provide young players an opportunity to feature in competitive fixtures against senior teams. The initiative, introduced during the 2016-17 season, invites senior academy teams to participate in the Football League Trophy. This opportunity complements the under-23 fixture programme and adds to the breadth of experiences that are necessary to prepare young players for the challenges evident in the senior game. Whilst it has not been universally accepted, the intent is clear and should be recognised.

The Premier League have previously reported the valuable role that a loan experience can have in a young player’s development. Specifically, there is evidence to indicate that a loan (or multiple loans) can provide a helpful platform preceding future Premier League appearance milestones. Whilst causality could be speculated and is likely to be individually determined, it is important that a loan system permits an appropriate degree of flexibility. A scenario where a young player has restricted playing opportunities and is locked into a loan experience for several months is counterproductive for all parties.

It will also be interesting to observe how the re-introduction of a rule permitting clubs to make five substitutions during Premier League fixtures will impact young player’s next season. Clubs will continue to be able to name a total of nine substitutes in their match day Premier League squad. Whilst intuitively this appears to present more opportunities, clubs must be mindful of an unintended consequence that could see young players deprived of meaningful game time and restricted to the role of an observer. This further emphasises the importance of detailed individual development plans with clubs ensuring their highest potential players are exposed to the appropriate training and match stimulus during a critical stage of their development.

Gareth Southgate recently called up 26 players to the England international squad in preparation for fixtures against Switzerland and Ivory Coast. The initial squad comprised players from 15 different teams, with individual development histories reflecting the diversity in transitioning experiences. A minority of the group have enjoyed Premier League opportunities as a teenager with their parent club, transitioning seamlessly following their academy experience. Several have negotiated the lower leagues (as both permanent and loan players) with carefully crafted and deliberately implemented development plans. Others have enjoyed less refined journeys that have seen them respond to setbacks during the infancy of their career. Each player has a unique story, which further emphasises the importance of a footballing ecosystem that is agile, responsive, and capable of facilitating multiple pathways to a first team transition. This outlook is broadly consistent with the conclusion Fifa reached following their extensive research into the transition of talent.

Edd is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.

An article brought to you by our Main Partners

By Sarah Evans & Luke Whitworth

Our first Leaders Meet of the year took place at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium this week [Thursday] and proved to be a resounding success.

Members of the Leaders Performance Institute came from far and wide to discuss the dynamics of coach and player development.

Across the numerous conversations on the day ran a consistent thread that often boiled down to a single question: how is this dynamic evolving and what could it look like in 10 years’ time?

With this dynamic in mind, here are the choice insights from the day’s proceedings.

Session 1: Coaching & Development – What Does the Research Tell Us?

Speaker: Dr. Dan Clements, Performance Coach Manager, Wales Rugby Union

For the first session of the day, Dan opened up the conversations by sharing some stimulus around the challenges and considerations when reviewing our coach and player development frameworks. Dan leant on some evidence-based research to explain some of the embedded principles that Wales Rugby are currently focused on.

Questions to ask ourselves:

• Why do we look at coach development and player development in silos? How do we make more connection between the two, as we know there is a tendency to focus on the specialisms in isolation?
• Are we adding value to the coaches that are operating within our programmes? Are we adding value to the players within the system?
• How can we make an impact on coaches that sustains change – benefitting them and the players?
• Are we stuck in a paradox of fixing problems? Generally in performance sport we are in this mode of thinking.
• How can we make an applied development approach the norm?
• When it is going well, how can we keep a coach working in a specific domain (a perceived natural transition for a successful under-18s coach is to go to the senior game, but are they better skilled or better suited to working with younger talent?)
• How do we ensure alignment across the pathway in what to coach through a curriculum that encourages innovation?

Wales Rugby coaching principles:

• Wales Rugby principles: contextual understanding… how do we help coaches deliver better on the work included in talent development frameworks?
• Adding value: the Wales Rugby framework considers coaching support, the learning environment and then the player.
• Principles to add value: a flexible and accessible offer. Continuous learning is vital. Collaboration across the game is key. Focused on the needs of the player and coach.

Coaching matters:

• Coaching is the key to sustained success. From community, to talent to the professional stage, the most significant influence on a players.
• We are not here to develop players to do what has already been done – it is our job to do it one better. The game is constantly changing, innovating, and has evolving demands.
• Every journey is unique. We need to do more around understanding what those environments are like? How do they differ to others?
• Coaching is multifaceted, non-linear and context specific. A question we have to reflect on is are we seeing an impact in terms of player development? How can we as coach developers help to better deliver on this?
• As coaches we want to prepare you to be the best person to handle the problems you will face.
• Wales Rugby philosophy: self-concept, leadership, people and coaching craft – all wrapped around the notion of contextual understanding. It’s all well and good having a philosophy, but what does that look like in practice so it isn’t just words on paper?
• What works in coaching? Actual coaching. Observation of other sport. Discussion with peers. Self-reflection. Mentoring. With these in mind, are we providing enough opportunity around these for meaningful learning experiences?

Action research – interactive inquiry:

• Action research is transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking an action and doing research, which are linked together by critical reflection. It involves learning through action and reflection, with a practical-based approach.
• Action research has four core stages: plan, act, reflect, observe. It’s important to identify that this is constant and ongoing.
• Leveraging action research in practice and how it applies to the enhancement of learning environments (motivational climate); coaches positively engaged with their peers in learning. It gave them more confidence. Increased ability to manipulate the environment. It impacted sustained engagement – too often we do one thing, move on and under appreciate the need for something sustained.

Leveraging appreciative inquiry:

• Appreciative inquiry is similar to action research. It is strength-based, more collaborative and has an applied focus. It allows you to start with strengths and encourages engagement with new ideas
• Performance sport generally is obsessed with problem solving. We actually want players that can problem-solve. Can we move to a more asset-based approach and spend more time unpicking success?
• Considering the 4 Ds: Discover / Destiny / Design / Dream
• Positives of using appreciative inquiry: safe, agile, instructive, new knowledge, solution focused, iterative and democratic. It doesn’t ignore hard issues or problems and really attempts to achieve a healthier balance where it can often be more deficit-led.
• Some of the findings from leading an appreciate inquiry study with talent coaches: there was more positivity, collaboration and generative capacity for developing new ideas and increased innovation.

Tiered approaches to learning:

We can’t be everything to everyone. How can we do more to influence people?

• Tier 1: Bitesize Self-Directed
• Tier 2: Network Driven
• Tier 3: Collaborative Learning
• Tier 4: Individual & Bespoke

Session 2: Coaching & Development – Problem-Solving: How Does Our Approach to Player & Coaching Development Need to Evolve?

For the second session of the day, we leaned towards the expertise in the room to explore the question of how the space of coach and player development needs to evolve. Through the method of ‘diamond thinking’, the groups came up with a number of ideas and filtered them into recommendations for the wider room.

Group recommendations:

Group 1:

• Courage to challenge: in a lot of programmes there can be an underpinning fear and a lack of psychological safety in offering sufficient challenge.
• Specialism with caution: exploring the power of specialism but appreciating the blind spots that can come with this? e.g. an under-14 foundation phase coach with a specialism in coaching teenage footballers.

Group 2:

• Changing demographics in coaching pathway: the demographic of those transitioning into coaching is changing.
• Development of domain expertise: a continuing area of opportunity is to enhance the expertise in specific domains (pedagogy, sciences etc).

Group 3:

• Development space is disaggregated: bringing everything back together with performance at the heart in a more holistic way.

Group 4:

• Bespoke learning pathway: opportunities for coaches to have more options and take on a more self-directed learning approach.

Group 5:

• Balancing elements of technical, tactical & social: factoring this all in collectively. The humanistic element is often left out; so how can we make it more integrated?
• Technological Opportunities: sense-checking what’s good and what’s not across the core elements of technical, tactical and social.

Group 6:

• Enhancing learning environments by using technology: imagine a coach you’d benefit spending time with? What is the context you’d like to be in with that coach? What would you like to interact with them on? Using technology and potential impacts of VR to create realities and enhance learning environments.

Group 7:

• More accessibility: providing a highly personalised offer. Shifting the narrative around us going to the coaches to them coming to us.

Session 3: Coaching & Development – Developing Your Non-Directive Coaching Skills

Speaker: John Bull, Director & Lead for High Performance Research, Management Futures

For the third session of the day, we shifted our attentions to exploring a skill that can be hugely impactful in working with others, whether coaches or players. Non-directive coaching skills: believe in people’s potential, give them autonomy and have the skills to draw out, develop and focus their talents. To explore the skill, we leaned on the situational leadership model.

• Situational Leadership Model: pull & push. ‘Pull’ refers to the degree of coaching and motivation. ‘Push’ refers to the degree of directive input of ‘how to’.
• Situational Leadership Model: there are four types of activity – directive (instructive), delegation (hands-off with clear intent), mentoring (combination of directive and coaching) and non-directive coaching (we are not the expert, the other person is).
• How much of the conversations you have should be pushed or pulled? When you consider your conversations, consider the three levels of listening below and what gets in the way of these different levels?
• What gets in the way of your ability to listen and be open?
• If you think of times when you’ve been really good at listening, what helped?

Three levels of listening:

1. Level one – focused on your own agenda

• Relating what they’re saying to your own experience.
• Listening with our own agenda in mind, and to influence.

2. Level two – seeking to understand

• Respect their insight and expertise.
• Listening to understand without judgement.
• Fully engaged, creating good thinking space and being more curious.
• Summarising back to check understanding.

3. Level three – listening for what is not being said

• Observing body language and listening to tone of voice.

Session 4: Coaching & Development – Real Life Examples from Football & Netball

For the final session of the day, we had the opportunity to explore coaching and player development from two different organisations, supported by the research and questions that had emerged throughout the day, with England Netball Head Coach Jess Thirlby and Southampton FC’s Head of Technical Development Iain Brunnschweiler. Jess and Iain shared some of their thoughts around the siloing of coach and player development, impactful learning experiences, and developing oneself.

Speakers:

Jess Thirlby, Head Coach, England Netball

Iain Brunnschweiler, Head of Technical Development, Southampton FC

• Frameworks & curriculums: at Southampton, there is a written coaching philosophy and 11 statements about coaching. The club has evolved from having just curriculum topics to having documents around how to bring these coaching skills to life. Contained in the documents are coaching skill pillars and a number of principles that sit around the coaching sessions – the coaches are held to account so anyone visiting the environment should be able to come along to a coaching session and there is an expectation that you can see some of those in practice.
• From a England Netball perspective, there is a focus on trying to capture what ‘the Roses’ way’ looks and feels like – it includes skills, behaviours and character. Character was something that wasn’t included in previous frameworks. There is also as much a focus on social skills as technical and tactical.
• What is your point of difference? In the Roses environment, they are diverse both in terms of personnel but also tactically.
• Curriculums can be highly rigid, so it is important that there is space and scope for flexibility, or we are undoing the message of creativity and innovation that we as coaches we want to convey? The players need a sense of autonomy and freedom.
• During the Coronavirus pandemic, Southampton First Team Manager Ralph Hasenhüttl created a ‘playbook’ for the club’s playing philosophy. An ongoing challenge is balancing that tension between preparing talent to go into a really clear and specific environment, whilst also understanding they need a variety of developmental experiences within the pathway. The challenge however, is that we have to be cognisant of not filtering people into one way of doing something.
• What does the future game look like, then, what does future coaching look like and what do future environments look like? Have clear intent of how to get ahead of the curve. We know players are very knowledgeable, so it’s important to embrace this as opposed to avoiding it.
• Meaning and learning experiences: Jess shared the story of one of her richest experiences in netball. It came during a tour to South Africa where the senior players were given the opportunity to lead the team, whilst getting high challenge and high support from the actual coaches. It’s all about the timing of experiences and rubbing shoulders with others in the environment – one thing Jess is trying to create in the Roses environment is providing more opportunities for the younger players coming through who perhaps aren’t ‘Roses ready’ to rub shoulders with more senior players.
• A meaningful learning experience that Iain shared around Southampton’s coaches was in observing the coaches – filming them, coding and feeding back. This allowed the coaches to see themselves as a coach and hold a mirror up in a non-judgemental way.
• What are the relevant experiences we need? Iain talked about Southampton starting to use an ‘experiences tracker’ with the aim of identifying trends and mapping into the development plans of talent.
• When thinking about people development, find people who are disruptive to your thinking. There is also a lot of positives in wearing lots of hats.
• Coach burnout: it’s a very personal thing. If we are really clear on what we are going after as outcomes, and we empower people to do that in their own way, that’s a very powerful thing. There isn’t one way of doing it, so we shouldn’t judge others on how they go about it. If you want to be in a lead coaching role over a sustainable time, you need a stable base. What nourishes you as a coach and allows you to be the best version of yourself?
• Embrace difference: seek out people who are and do things differently you.
• Future development: Iain is studying the power of language and interacting with others – understanding their map of the world and helping them to understand it. He is also learning to play the piano to stimulate his creativity and support his mental health. Jess shared that she has a better understanding herself and how that impacts how she coaches – to tie in with an earlier point, rubbing shoulders with others away from the sport and surrounding yourself with different thinking is hugely important.

Learn more about membership