Quiet on the Sidelines

Mark Potter Head Football Coach, Bangkok Patana School

I have been questioned a few times as to why our coaches are quiet on the sidelines as opposed to some of the other coaches we play against in fixtures and tournaments. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some insight and hopefully give some clarification on what may be occurring.

Concentrate without noise

Over many years of observing my wife drive, she will often listen to music, the radio or a podcast while driving. She then goes about singing along or offering her thoughts on what she is listening to. This is always the case until she is lost or needs to park - then she immediately turns off the radio. At first, I thought it was quite sweet and never really questioned it, until one day I asked her why she had just turned the radio off - she told me to “shut up” and proceeded to park. After she parked, I asked her again and she said that having no noise helped her concentrate without distraction. This is something that has stuck with me.

Be loud during the week, quiet at the weekend.

My previous job before arriving here was working with elite players back in the UK in a Premier League academy. My old boss Paul ‘Noddy’ Holder had a few clear maxims that he expected from his coaches, one of which was "be loud during the week, quiet at the weekend”. I have brought this ethos with me to my role here at Bangkok Patana School.

In training, I have asked our coaches to be loud and to reinforce key messages from the session's topic (similar to a learning outcome within a classroom), taking the time to speak to everyone; as individuals and in small groups. We should be descriptive and prescriptive, setting the highest standards using technical but age-appropriate language.

In matches, I have asked our coaches to observe and offer positive reinforcement, whilst adding 'reminders' only when needed. I have asked them to control their emotions, to never raise their voice to a shouting level, and to only use their 'coaching voice'. On occasion, especially during festivals for the younger children in our programme, I have asked them to observe from afar, giving the players opportunities to learn, play and make mistakes with absolutely no fear.

To remind and not chastise

Reminders come into play when a young player continues to make the same or a similar mistake over and over again, in this instance, I have asked the coaches to offer some guidance on how to get out of that predicament. This should always be done calmly and fairly without showing any frustration or exacerbation. They should address the child by name first (so they know you are talking to them) and offer clear and concise information.

Reminders also come into play when one of our players are not representing our school appropriately or not displaying the right levels of commitment, hard work and attitude. Some children require these reminders more than others!

Your role

In my experience, I have found that during match situations (playing against external teams) young players have far too much to think about without having to respond to and action the instructions from the adults on the side-lines. This is their opportunity to show their learning.

This is their opportunity to succeed or fail (both are fine).

This is their opportunity to play the game - after all, it is their game.

As coaches and parents, it is our job to help the children learn and improve. The best way for them to do so is by allowing them to make their own decisions.

Shouting “SHOOT” when a young player is near the goal may make them change their original decision, it may put them off completely or they may indeed shoot and score. As a parent, you might not realise that we have been working on "creating off the ball"; asking players to scan for their teammates and pretending to shoot before playing a Through Pass. If the player was to shoot, we have lost our opportunity to observe their learning.

Everybody hears but not everyone is listening

In one of my previous roles within the Football Association in England, we did a small anecdotal test to see if people can listen and understand what going around them whilst doing a task. We asked two coaches to stand eight metres apart and they had to play a game of one-bounce"; a game in which players must pass the ball to one another whilst only touching the ball once and bouncing it once (harder than it sounds). Whilst doing this, the other coaches would shout out football-related commands: "PASS", "SHOOT", "TACKLE". When this happened, the player's performance dropped; they lost their rhythm and required more than one touch or bounce. We put them off; we become their 'car stereo'. Whilst doing the same exercise, we set about shouting random words for a minute. Again, they struggled to complete the task but did manage to continue for a minute. We then asked the players to recount the words which were shouted to them. They got 2 out of 15 words correct - one was their own name and randomly, the other word was 'pig'.

This further reinforced that shouting from the sidelines had a detrimental effect on performance - the performers were hearing but not listening!

Waiting to praise

We were recently playing a fixture against another school and I observed their coach who is a genuinely lovely bloke, and who cares so much about his players improving quickly that he feels that he has to help them get to their destination ahead of time. During the match, their goalkeeper had the ball at his feet and tried to select a pass to one of his teams mates feet. On two or three occasions, we managed to intercept the ball and have an opportunity to score. In the lead up to these mistakes (learning opportunities), the coach told the goalkeeper to pass and unfortunately, the player failed to execute. The coach was exacerbated and the child felt exposed - after the seventh time of trying, the goalkeeper did play an excellent raking pass to one of his teammates who then went on to create a goal. This was the highlight of my afternoon and I was excited to hear the positive feedback from the coach. Instead the coach queried ‘Why couldn’t you do that the last six times”. My heart sank and it further reinforced that what we are doing is the right thing for the young players in our care.

My father has often said to me “there is a reason you have two ears, two eyes and only one mouth”. This is something I have passed onto our coaches.

In speaking with Mr Mills around this topic he offered this quote by Robert Tew - “You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel” and we collectively urge our wonderful parent community to look and listen before offering anything other than positive feedback.