{"id":950,"date":"2020-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-to-instil-the-habit-for-self-development-in-your-athletes\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","slug":"upskilling","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/upskilling\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Instil the Habit for Self-Development in Your Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Jan 31, 2020 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How to Instil the Habit for Self-Development in Your Athletes<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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We explore examples from European football, from Chelsea to AZ Alkmaar, with a quick detour through England\u2019s famous Eton College.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The most accomplished athletes in the world never stop the process of upskilling themselves.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

Whether it is their technical ability, tactical nous or related to their preparation, the best never rest on their laurels and, when matched to a team-first ethic, these athletes are a coach\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

Take Liverpool\u2019s world and European champion James Milner. The midfielder who, at 34, has more than 800 senior appearances to his name, has in recent seasons played some of the finest football of his career.<\/p>\n

While not seen as the most-gifted, Milner, has outlasted many of his contemporaries and confounded the perceived wisdom that players cannot improve into their 30s because of his studious application to self-improvement. It is no surprise that his Head Coach J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u00a0 has dubbed him \u2018Mr Professional\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be playing a long time and played with some great players and under some great managers,\u201d Milner told the official Liverpool website last year. \u201cBut every single day you go out on that field you can learn something.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe my role\u2019s a bit more about helping the younger guys now as well. But I can learn from my teammates, I can learn from the manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve always got to try to improve as much as you can, so I\u2019ll go into every training session, every day, with that mindset that you never know anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure the manager\u2019s learned things and he\u2019s been in football a lot longer than me. I think if you\u2019ve got the mindset where you think that you know everything, you\u2019re going to be struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milner\u2019s attitude is laudable and there are practical steps teams and coaches can take to instil such attitudes and to encourage a hunger for self-development, whether for veterans of Milner\u2019s vintage or those just starting out in their athletic careers.<\/p>\n

Here, the Leaders Performance Institute brings you a snapshot from the world of European football with a detour through Eton College.<\/p>\n

Give your players responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the tail end of 2019, Chelsea FC Women announced the signing of Australian forward Sam Kerr, who many consider to be the greatest player in the world.<\/p>\n

It was seen as a coup for the 2018 Women\u2019s Super League champions and their Head Coach Emma Hayes<\/a>. <\/u><\/p>\n

Kerr was certainly not the profile of player Hayes would have been able to actively pursue when she first took the Chelsea reins in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had barely won any games so you have to create that team identity to begin with,\u201d she told the 2017 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn that at such a large club \u2013 and Chelsea are like a conglomerate \u2013 you have to take responsibility within your departments.\u201d It was incumbent on Hayes to educate the players who thought \u2018the club\u2019 was something larger or abstract. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m the club, you\u2019re the club\u2019,\u201d she would tell them.<\/p>\n

Two Women\u2019s Super League [WSL] titles and two Women\u2019s FA Cups later and the best have started to take notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WSL is the best league in Europe,\u201d Kerr told the official Chelsea website upon her signing. \u201cI want team success and I don\u2019t want it to come easy. I feel Chelsea have been building something special over the years and I want to be a part of that \u2013 I want to lift some trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayes tellingly added: \u201cThe fact she chose Chelsea when she could have gone to any club in the world is a testament to the players and the staff here because she saw this is the best place for her to grow and take the next step in her career. That\u2019s a wonderful compliment to us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a subject she broached onstage at Leaders, where she spoke of encouraging her players to provide feedback on performances. When a team works from that shared sense of purpose she described previously then self-development is a natural consequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a week we\u2019ll put a couple of games on a remote server that they can watch on their phone,\u201d said Hayes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t tell them to watch it, we just tell them it\u2019s there. We then put them into different groups. They\u2019ll come in on a Wednesday morning with their notepads and they might have very centred questions around five phases of the opposition\u2019s play where they\u2019re educating the room about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve found that our players are watching more games now by giving them responsibility and they\u2019re getting more confident when they present back to the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is easy to envisage Kerr, who has hit the ground running at Chelsea, thriving in the environment cultivated by Hayes.<\/p>\n

Implicit learning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every coach wants to be able to call upon athletes for whom self-betterment is a daily process, but there are steps coaches can take to ensure such attitudes are instilled early in an athlete\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

Take Marijn Beuker<\/a>, the Director of Performance & Development at AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie. He wrote for the Leaders Performance Institute about his work with the club\u2019s academy and touched upon the theme of implicit learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to develop implicit learning, where a player unconsciously trains themselves,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s the difference between telling a player what exercise to do, which is based on explicit learning, to telling them what the result needs to be and allowing them to find the solution for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The approach is innovative, but if AZ are to compete with the larger lights of Dutch football with their big budgets and greater resources, then Beuker feels it is essential for the club to develop a unique profile of player, who has the ability to think on their feet.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThere are multiple ways to achieve a result on the pitch but if the player only knows one way then they\u2019re going to be at a disadvantage. So we make the players more aware of their situation; the players are developing the connections in their brain, which can only come from experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, we\u2019ve also been able to develop a computer programme together with a couple of universities, which enables players, via two half-hour sessions a week, to train their soccer brain at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Character development<\/strong><\/p>\n

So far we have discussed the development of cognitive skills but that is only one area of enquiry for Eton College\u2019s Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning [CIRL].<\/p>\n

CIRL\u2019s Director, Jonnie Noakes<\/a>, spoke at the 2018 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London and caught up with the Leaders Performance Institute to pick up on the theme of character development.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments, businesses and schools are increasingly recognising that the teaching of non-cognitive skills is of equal importance to teaching the narrow band of cognitive skills that schools have tended to focus on in recent decades,\u201d he said of CIRL\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Eton has often been the first port of call for other educational institutions looking to address their own questions of character education. \u201cCharacter goes to the heart of what we, as a school, do; what we say we do; and what we believe we should do,\u201d said Noakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharacter matters and we want to be able to understand it in a way that is not just tacit but is conscious, so that we\u2019re aware of what we are doing and how, and can talk about it in a way that\u2019s not just tacit but is conscious, that we\u2019re aware of what we\u2019re doing and how.\u201d<\/p>\n

Character has been a prime concern for Eton since its founding in 1440 and the world of sport is starting to catch up.<\/p>\n

In 2015, football coach and former Manchester United scout Tom Vernon<\/a> installed Keith Sharpe was installed as Group Head of Character Development at his Ghana-based football academy Right to Team.<\/p>\n

Vernon believed it to be a world first and, in a Leaders Performance Institute exclusive, explained his rationale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built the academy on our three core foundations of football, education and character development,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe have established educational pathways in America and the UK, where over 44 of our students secure scholarships, first to leading high schools, and then to some of the best universities in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to create life-changing opportunities. They all continue their education if they don\u2019t become footballers, which is a groundbreaking achievement, as some of these kids come from less than $2-a-day families.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In 2015] one of our boys was identified to be first pick in the MLS draft, but he had the strength of character to complete his degree, before joining MLS once he had graduated. We realised that character development was the most important thing we were doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe empower the players with the skills and understanding of their opportunities, rather than having them focusing solely on money-making and taking the wrong development decisions for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt Milner and Kerr would approve.<\/p>\n

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What is it going to take to win in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is the focus of our latest Performance Special Report. Download The High Performance Manual: Winning in 2020<\/em>, which features sports organisations as diverse as Red Bull<\/strong>, the Brisbane Lions<\/strong> and the Royal Military Academy<\/strong> discussing the pertinent topics across Leadership & Culture, Coaching & Development, Human Performance and Data & Innovation.<\/p>\n