Soccer Edition 66

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter.  Today’s subject will deal with how to be an assistant coach and also how to use an assistant coach (in other words, if you are a soccer player, you will find this quite boring so delete and move on).

This is a subject that I have rarely seen addressed but which I also consider to be of extreme importance.  Many teams have either assistant coaches or co-coaches and at best, the assistant coach ends up being a cone picker upper. Or, even worse, the assistant coach merely stands around and has no input at all.  This is just an incredible waste of an opportunity for the players to learn from different perspectives.  Even at the higher levels (which for now I will consider to be college soccer), from what I can see, most assistant coaches end up being gophers and yes men (or women).  For whatever reason, many assistant coaches think the head coach wants to hear affirmations about their decision making rather then really getting an honest opinion.  Even worse are the head coaches who really don’t want to here another opinion and instead will get mad if there is ever disagreement.  By stifling any type of true exchange of ideas, the head coach loses out, the assistant coach loses out and even worse, the team loses out.

How can this be avoided?  The first thing to do is create an environment of open communication.  Without this, nothing else will work.  I strongly recommend a head coach and assistant coach meet before every training session to discuss what will take place during the training session (note, I did not say the head coach tells the assistant coach what is planned, rather this should be done together). By doing this, and actually taking both peoples views into consideration, the assistant coach will feel some ownership of the practice.  This also will allow either coach to be able to run a drill or set up for the next drill.  Without this important step, I have a hard time believing that any two coaches can successfully coexist.

Most of the time I see a head coach and an assistant coach stand together through most of a training session, it’s a pretty good indicator that one of them is not really being utilized properly.  One of the advantages of having two coaches is that can the team should have two sets of eyes instead of just one.  However, this is somewhat negated if they are watching from the same angle.  The director of one of the largest camps in the country talks about the grenade theory.  Simply explained, coaches should be spread out so that if a grenade were to land, it would only knock off one coach.  When the coaches do have to speak, they should get together, speak and then separate again.  If the coaches have met beforehand and discussed the training session, they should be able to get by with very little communication that will distract them from the players.

In order for coaches to work together, there must be truly open communication.  Too often, I have spoken to two coaches who coach together and one thinks there is excellent communication and the other thinks it doesn’t exist at all. How can this be?  Sometimes it’s because the head coach really doesn’t want to hear different opinions so the assistant coach says only what he thinks the head coach wants to hear.  Other times, it’s because the assistant coach THINKS the head coach just wants affirmations while in reality the head coach wants an honest opinion.  Most of the time, it’s the head coach’s responsibility to create an environment for open communication.  However, this isn’t always easy to do.  If the coaches can’t be honest with them selves and communicate openly, how can they expect the players to communicate with the coaches?  One of the most asked questions I get via email is from coaches asking how they can get their players to communicate better?  Is it surprising that players can’t communicate effectively, when in reality, many coaches can’t communicate properly?

During games, assistant coaches do need to take on a bit more of a subservient role.  It doesn’t help if the head coach is saying one thing and the assistant coach is saying something different.  During games, there should be two sets of eyes but only one mouth.  It’s important that the players only hear one voice.  At halftime, the coaches should get together and discuss any things that need to be brought to the attention of the players and then one of them (usually the head coach) should then do the speaking to the team.  Again, the emphasis is on one voice but two sets of eyes.

If coaches were to spend more time working on being able to coach together, they would find themselves much more effective in the long run.  If you coach with someone else (either as a head coach, assistant coach or co-coach, how much time have you really given to creating a better coaching environment?

Questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to comments@finesoccer.com or posted at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm

If you haven’t already, please take the survey that was posted last week.  It can be found at http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm

Have a great day!

Lawrence