06: Grow Coach Newsletter

Soccer Coaching: Leadership

Feb 01, 2024

A warm welcome from JustCoachMD. We are happy you have landed here. We hope you enjoy our content.

Here is what to expect:

What is leadership plus tips on how to develop it?
Coaching tips and action steps to develop leadership skills in your players.
Session Share: Play Out vs Press Practice.
Problem/Fix: Identify and fix a common error young players make.
Spotlight: How to coach wall passing.
Coach Project: Complete the three tasks to improve the leadership skills of your players.

‘‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader’’

(Adams, JQ)

What is leadership?

Is leadership something people are born with or is it something you develop?

Leadership is a complex concept that involves influencing, guiding, and motivating others towards a common goal or purpose. It involves various components, each contributing to effective leadership.

Leadership skills can be developed.

Here are some components of leadership:

Vision: A leader possesses a clear vision, outlining the desired future state or goal. This vision serves as a guiding principle, inspiring and aligning the team's efforts.

Influence: Leadership involves the ability to influence others positively. Effective leaders can shape opinions, inspire confidence, and encourage individuals to work towards shared objectives.

Communication: Clear and effective communication is crucial for leadership. Leaders articulate their vision, provide guidance, and ensure that information flows smoothly within the team.

Decision-Making: Leaders are responsible for making informed decisions. Analyzing situations, weighing options, and making timely decisions is essential for guiding the team toward success.

Motivation: Leaders inspire and motivate others to achieve their best. This involves understanding individual and team needs, providing encouragement, and recognizing achievements.

Adaptability: Successful leaders are adaptable and can navigate through change and uncertainty. Flexibility and the ability to adjust strategies in response to evolving circumstances are vital.

Integrity: Trust is a fundamental component of leadership, and integrity is key to building that trust. Leaders act with honesty, transparency, and consistency, establishing a foundation of credibility.

Empathy: Leaders understand and empathize with the feelings and perspectives of team members. This emotional intelligence fosters strong interpersonal relationships and a supportive team culture.

Accountability: Leaders take responsibility for their decisions and actions. They hold themselves and others accountable, fostering a culture of reliability and commitment within the team.

Team Building: Building a cohesive and collaborative team is a central aspect of leadership. Leaders create an environment where each team member feels valued, and diverse skills are leveraged for collective success.

Strategic Thinking: Leaders possess strategic thinking skills, enabling them to anticipate challenges, identify opportunities, and formulate effective plans to achieve targets.

Resilience: Leadership involves navigating challenges and setbacks. Resilient leaders bounce back from adversity, learn from experiences, and inspire their team to persevere.

Delegation: Effective leaders delegate responsibilities based on individual strengths and skills. This empowers team members and ensures that tasks are handled by those best equipped to address them.

Courage: Leadership often requires courage to take risks, confront difficult situations, and make tough decisions. Leaders inspire confidence by demonstrating bravery in the face of challenges.

Continuous Learning: Successful leaders are committed to ongoing personal and professional development. They encourage a culture of learning within the team, fostering adaptability and innovation.

As coaches, it is vital to build, develop, and evolve in each of these areas. Rank yourself in each of these areas. Then get to work on your top 3.

Leadership in Soccer

Leadership is dynamic and context-dependent, with effective leaders leveraging a combination of the components below to guide teams toward success.

It is a blend of innate traits the players show, and cultivated skills that the coach helps to develop. Effective coaching can mold and refine these attributes for a winning team.

The following traits are things to look out for in your players. Encouraging the player to keep demonstrating them when you see them is vital. Try not to force it on people, observe and reinforce them.

Player Inclination: Some athletes show a natural inclination towards leadership on the field, displaying initiative, tactical insight, and effective communication from an early stage.

Emotional Intelligence: Players with high emotional intelligence can better understand teammates' needs and dynamics, fostering better communication and team cohesion.

Resilience: Certain individuals naturally possess resilience, a key quality for returning from match setbacks and motivating the team to persevere.

The next set of ideas presents a variety of ways to cultivate leadership behaviors. Coaches should actively encourage, implement, and utilize the following:

Coaching Communication: Coaches play a pivotal role in developing players' communication skills, emphasizing effective on-field communication (time, turn, unlucky) and player input into discussions (what is the player finding hard about the game?).

Decision-Making Drills: Structuring training sessions with decision-making drills helps players refine their on-the-spot decision-making skills crucial for leadership on the field.

Adaptability: Coaches can expose players to various game scenarios and strategies, This helps the players to take ownership of performance and respond positively to changing game dynamics.

On-Field Experiences: Providing players with on-field leadership roles, such as captaincy or leading, team talks, or drills. This allows them to gain hands-on experience and build confidence.

Mentorship Programs: Coaches can implement mentorship programs within the team, pairing experienced players with younger ones to guide them in leadership development.

Performance Feedback: Regularly offering constructive feedback on players' leadership efforts during training and matches helps them understand strengths and areas for improvement.

In essence, soccer coaches play a pivotal role in shaping leaders on the field by recognizing and promoting leadership qualities. They can use their coaching expertise to provide skill development opportunities for players. Leadership in soccer is a dynamic process that evolves with coaching guidance and player experiences.

How to Incorporate Leadership?

Empowering Players:

Autonomy: Pick different team captains each game and allow those captains to make decisions about warm-up routines or pre-match rituals (group huddles, lead an aspect of the warm-up), this can empower the player and influence team dynamics.

Leadership Roles: Rotate the responsibility of leading specific aspects of training sessions (a technical activity, 1v1, setting up an area to work in), and give different players a chance to guide and inspire their teammates.

Self-Discovery Through Training:

Strengths Assessment: Get players to reflect on their strengths and how these can contribute to team success. This exercise encourages self-awareness. As part of this activity get the players to identify where and when they can use their strengths.

Setting Challenges:

Leadership Challenges: Challenge players to set personal leadership goals for a training week. This could be giving positive reinforcement to teammates, or spotting opportunities to praise a player who is having a tough time. Maybe it is taking charge in a specific drill, the challenges should be coach-driven.

Team Challenges: Introduce a challenge where the team must collaboratively solve a tactical problem during a game. The challenge should require effective communication and shared decision-making. The coach should facilitate this by providing options and ideas.

Creating Feedback Loops:

Regular Feedback Sessions: After each match or training session, schedule brief feedback sessions where players share their observations on leadership moments. Coaches and peers can provide constructive feedback. This could be done in the dressing room or at the pitchside.

Video Analysis: Use video clips to review instances where a player demonstrated strong leadership, offering praise and identifying opportunities and areas for improvement.

Leadership Reflection Journal:

Implement a Leadership Reflection Journal: Coaches should note the feedback session responses. They can use the journal to remind players about specific leadership situations. The reminders could be things that have worked well, or what could be improved. Coaches can review these journals periodically and pick out the best bits.

Peer Feedback:

Peer Evaluation: Implement a system where players provide anonymous feedback to their peers on leadership behaviors. This promotes honesty and constructive criticism. I like it when… I'm not too fond of when. This could be provided to the coach to select the information to share with the players.

Celebrate Leadership Moments:

Recognition: Acknowledge and celebrate instances of effective leadership during team meetings or through social media. This positive reinforcement encourages a culture of leadership excellence. The leadership journal can help the coach to track this. Each game the coach could share a favorite leadership moment with the players.

Final Thoughts:

Leadership is a complex concept that involves influencing, guiding, and motivating others towards a common goal or purpose. Its components include influence, motivation, decision-making, and communication.

Leadership is a blend of traits the players show, a job of the coach is to help develop or evolve these skills. For example, some players show natural leadership qualities and help the player build on these attributes.

By incorporating these examples into the training and games programme. Coaches can contribute to the development of effective leaders.

‘A leader knows the ways, goes the way, and shows the way’

Application for Soccer Coaching: 6 Leadership Styles

Commanding: Demands the performer to comply and do what the coach tells them to do. They have a strong drive to achieve and can work well during high-pressure situations where performers need immediate guidance.
Visionary: Wants to take the performer on a journey towards success. They use a come-with-me approach and demonstrate high levels of self-confidence. These types of leaders are effective when change is required.
Affiliative: This style puts the performers first. This leadership style is great for building relationships and works well when there are divides in a camp. They have good communication skills and show empathy towards others.
Democratic: Likes to get input from others before they take action. They use a shared approach. This style is good for developing buy-in or using the performer’s opinions to shape the setup.
Pacesetting: Sets high standards of performance then expects others to raise their levels to them. They use a ‘do as I do now’ approach to move performers through the levels of commitment they require. This style can be used to get quick results from an already motivated team.
Coaching: A longer-term approach to development. It aims to develop leaders of the future. This style encourages the performer to become more self-aware of their actions and behaviors and how they affect others.

A Final Note

COACHES, it would help if you become aware of how you are currently leading your players. There are times when each style may be required. Coaches need to be able to shift between styles when they feel that is needed.

It’s important to know the leadership style in which you operate most. If the style you use is predominately negative, then it may be time to take some action to move toward a more positive approach.

Challenge your player’s negative leadership responses and help them to respond in a controlled helpful way that supports the team.

‘‘THE BEST LEADERS ARE HUMBLE ENOUGH TO REALISE THEIR VICTORIES RELY UPON THEIR PEOPLE’’
(Maxwell. C)

Session Share: Play Out vs Press

Aim:

A back four and a GK practice playing out, against a pressing front three.

Set-Up:

Pitch Space: Extend the 18-yard box by around 10 yards and place a 4-yard zone that extends the sides of the 18-yard box. Section off the side zone so it funnels toward the mini goals (See animation for clarity of pitch setup).
1 x larger goal with a GK (Green) at one end and 2 x mini goals on the top line placed centrally opposite the larger goal.
Blacks have 2 players fixed in the central area in the box and 1 x fullback on each side who operates down the side of the box. The fullbacks are fixed behind the dashed lines that funnel toward the mini-goals.

How to Play:

Green (Gk) Starts the attack and plays out to one of the two central defenders. The Black’s fullbacks are also involved. The Red’s front three start to press the ball. This creates a 5v3 in favor of the Blacks towards the mini-goals.
As soon as the first ball is complete the GK (Green) serves in another ball, but the front three of the Reds rotate along with 2 players from the Blacks.
If the defending team, the Reds wins the ball they try to score on the large goal.

Problem: Releasing the ball too soon!!!

Are your players constantly releasing the ball too soon?

Your team has good possession of the ball and there is no real pressure on the ball carrier. Suddenly, the ball carrier passes the ball toward a teammate either off one touch or releases the ball to a player who is under more pressure than the current carrier of the ball.

This action performed regularly puts your team under pressure and causes rushed and uncontrolled possession. The lack of composure by the ball carrier to stay on the ball causes the next receiver of the ball to be under lots of pressure and this sequence snowballs until possession is lost.

There is a simple fix to this. Scan and plan, stay on the ball, then share it.

Look out for this next time you are coaching.

Fix: Scan - Stay on Ball - Share It

If this is something you see, the solution is encouraging the players to position themselves so they can take at least one touch and draw in some pressure. Coaches need to observe the receiver and challenge them to find a space that allows them to show composure. The coach must observe the players, spot the details the players need then share with them any parts that are missing.

These fixes are a great way to tidy up a team’s ability to retain possession because the receiver plays a game of cat and mouse with the defender who is closing them down.

Scan: The receiver of the ball needs to look before the ball for a space that will allow them to take a touch and cause a defender a problem (get tight or hold position). The receiver should move into this position when the ball carrier is ready to pass.

Stay on the Ball: Encourage the receiver to stay on the ball, take a touch, and draw in the pressing player as close as possible before releasing it to the next receiver. This helps the player to develop composure and is a mini-game within the real game.

Share: Once the player on the ball has drawn in some pressure and attracted the defenders. The attacker should look to share it with a support player who has positioned themselves to help.

Note: Keep encouraging the possession team to go through the steps above where applicable. There might be a time when a first-time pass is needed however the aim is to position themselves where a touch is available and some defensive pressure can be drawn in.

Topic: Wall Passing!!

Why is it important:

Quick Movements: Allow for quick ball circulations that are hard to defend against.
Keep Possession: They help a team control the game tempo and tease opponents (should they press or stay with the receiver).
Teamwork: They develop player relationships between the passer and receiver. Alternatively, support players can be used as decoys for the ball carrier to dribble forward instead of passing.
Eliminate Defenders: The wall pass is a great way to eliminate defenders. They are tough moves to defend against because they happen so fast.

How to coach it:

Stay On Ball: It starts with drawing in pressure, this creates the space for the attack to move into once the wall pass has been played.
Share: Use quick footwork and pass the ball either with the front foot or inside of the foot beyond the reach of the defender
Support: Get beyond the defender quickly using a change of speed and show feet to the receiver of the original pass.
NB: The timing of the wall pass is essential. Players need to be in sync with each other and the ball carrier needs to plan ahead of the ball, so they know the wall pass is available.

Coach Project

Leadership Empowerment Plan:

Objective: Develop your leadership empowerment plan and begin to implement it into your current coaching practice.

Task: Use the following image to help list your leadership challenges. Share these challenges with the players you coach.

Summary

Start thinking about the players. Who do you have? What do they need? And how can you give them it? The answers to these questions should help you to develop a list of opportunities you can easily implement with the players you coach.

Do not implement too much too soon. Start small, maybe you just choose one player who you feel demonstrates leadership qualities and would benefit from your help. Start here and build up. Progress as you go and refer to your plan to lead when you are ready to implement more challenges.

Please feel free to get in touch or share your ideas, actions, and interventions. We would love to hear from you. If you have any questions, post them here; we will do our best to answer them.