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Teaching from the Sideline
Teaching positively, encouragingly, enthusiastically and loudly from the sidelines is an essential and vital component of the Legends philosophy.
In games I raise my voice to the degree necessary to be heard by the player I’m trying to help. My tone is unfailingly positive, instructional and encouraging.
In Daniel Coyle’s great book “The Talent Code” he says, “A few years ago a group of American and Norwegian researchers did a study to see what made babies improve at walking. They discovered that the key factor wasn’t height or weight, or age, or brain development or any other innate trait, but rather, (surprise!), the amount of time they spent firing their circuits, trying to walk.”
The Legends have applied these findings to games. This will come as no surprise…when soccer players attempt lots of very difficult dribbling fakes during matches they learn quicker. When our Legends coaches are quiet on the sidelines the number of creative, deceptive dribbling attempts drops significantly. If, at the coachable moment, we demand that our players attempt a brave, creative solution to every possession, we see a massive increase in “skilled” efforts, and gutsy, risky, out of the box solutions. We’ve tried silence and vocal encouragement. When we don’t shout “skill” our players use very little creativity, when do shout “skill” we get an abundance of creativity. However, despite using the same word, i.e. “skill”, each player’s skilful attempt is different in significant, or subtle, ways.
In all learning the key is the moment of process. I call the moment a player receives the ball, the “Moment of Truth”. Learning occurs in all moments. If the “Moment of Truth” is wasted in fear induced kick ball, the child learns to fear and react negatively. If the “Moment of Truth” is answered with a pass to a teammate, the child learns to use an average skill to give the responsibility to someone else. However, if the “Moment of Truth” is challenged with a brave, creative, skilful move, followed by a penetrating pass or shot, the child learns to take the full responsibility to lead the team using the most difficult skills. This child is accepting the most frightening of responsibilities, in the most publicly criticized forum for children…youth sports!
If at “The Moment of Truth” a child is left to choose either: 1) kick ball, 2) an easy pass play, or 3) a very difficult skill option, which do you think will be chosen most often? If you answered “1)” you are correct. Even when we continuously ask our players to play skillfully, many possessions are kicked away with no attempt at skilful brave, creative, leadership.
When I go silent the number and the degree of difficulty of “Moment of Truth” attempts plummets drastically. If my players are to achieve greatness I have to encourage big plays, praise gutsy attempts, enthuse about effort, cheer when an honest mistake is made, boost confidence, escalate expectation, stretch limiting visions and expand horizons.
When I stay silent the polar opposite usually occurs. Most kids will choose the easy play, chicken out, give less effort, avoid risk, stay in their comfort zone, set easy goals and fail to see the big picture. But, when we raise our voices with positive encouragement, and expectation of a skilful play, kids flourish. They become braver, more creative leaders. They know that if they pick the gutsiest possible option and lay it all on the line, in our eyes they can’t fail. Over time this approach turns introverts into extroverts and shy kids into kids who love center stage. Once a kid has enjoyed center stage success, in the highly criticized and frightening arena that Legends soccer provides, he or she will find other life leadership challenges much easier.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his great book “Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” says, “A good creative person is well trained. So he has, first of all, an enormous amount of knowledge in that field. Secondly, he tries to combine ideas because he has the judgment to say, “This is good, I’ll pursue this further.”
When Legends coaches demand “skill” from the sidelines we do not remove meaningful choice. We only remove negative choice e.g. kick ball or simple, comfort zone plays. As Mihaly says a “creative person is well trained”.
Anders Ericsson has done extensive work on, “Skilled Memory and Expertise”. He confronts the paradox of expertise and claims that people not only acquire content knowledge as they practice cognitive skills, they also develop mechanisms that enable them to use a large and familiar knowledge base efficiently.
Legends players transition their deceptive dribbling and finishing skills into the live game quicker than any soccer program I have yet seen. We make this quick transition by first insisting that our novice players attempt a brave, creative deceptive dribbling play, followed by a penetrating pass or shot, on every possession. Once our players have learned the most difficult option well we give them the option to choose the simpler route to goal. We first teach players to do the most difficult, (e.g. shooting), with a certain knowledge that the easier tasks, (e.g. passing), will be learned simultaneously.
We have been accused of encouraging kids to make mistakes all of the time. This could not be further from the truth.
Mistakes are not OK all the time!
For example: In the Legends club the mistake of not giving 100% is educated out of the player. We educate players to give continuous 100% effort by asking them to gauge and publicly vocalize their effort at regular intervals in practice. We teach them what 100% looks like so that they understand how to give it and assess it.
Kick Ball is not OK. That mistake is a cardinal sin. We don’t shout clear it, (to clear it is to fear it!). We don’t shout, “Get It Out”. We encourage our players to make mistakes with the right attitude.
Only by making brave, creative leadership mistakes will each child become a talented brave, creative leader.
Richard Branson made a successful business career based on risk, mistakes and having another go. He’s wealthy but he doesn’t make money the first priority. He’s taken some of the most daunting personal risks, (One of the books I would recommend to anybody is “Losing My Virginity”), but he’s had one heck of a ride and provided many thousands of people with meaningful daily passion, vision and mission opportunities.
He’s now spearheading the private enterprise “Race to Space”. I love the long-term “go for it” example the guy sets to those poor souls who seek short-term instant gratification in life.
If the process is good and right, mistakes are a key component of optimal growth. Mistakes usually occur at the ragged edge of further skill and character acquisition. It is these mistakes that the Legends club encourages vocally, enthusiastically & frenetically.
We push the, “Edge of Chaos”, because only then do our kids learn to conquer chaos and take life to a whole new level.
In our society sporting leadership is revered. Legends players quickly become soccer leaders. Their exceptional soccer ability builds peer respect and self-belief. In this way Legends players develop the character and desire to be brave, creative, lifelong leaders in society.
If we constantly and vocally encourage this “try something difficult that you’ve never tried before” attitude from the sideline, every child will quickly learn to be a team leader.
In our society sporting leadership is revered. Legends players quickly become soccer leaders. Their exceptional soccer ability builds peer respect and self-belief. In this way Legends players develop the character and desire to be brave, creative, lifelong leaders in society.
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