| Creating Competitors (January 2009) |
Thoughts on how to develop the competitive fire in players
By Jay Martin
The Center Circle from the November-December issue struck a chord with some of you. In fact, I received more responses from that essay than any other I have ever done. There were well over 200 responses!
A few of the responses wanted to know when technique training ends and “competitive training” begins. These responses were mostly from youth coaches who confused competing with the prevailing “win at all costs” mentality. And there is a difference.
Only two of the responses thought the article missed the point. These two coaches felt there is enough competition and that U.S. players need more technique/skill.
However, the vast majority agreed with the premise that our soccer playing kids must learn how to compete! And most of you wanted answers. Most of you wanted to know what to do in training to encourage competition. Here are a few ideas.
The Competitive Cauldron: Anson Dorrance identified the “competitive problem” years ago with his North Carolina women’s teams. He decided the answer was to introduce competition into every phase of his training. He hired managers to chart each and every activity during training. If there was, for example, a shooting drill it was always blue against white with the losing team having a “consequence.” Here are Anson’s words from the Olympic Coaching e-zine:
“There are some aspects of coaching leadership that are expressed in more concrete terms. They are connected to the nature of our sport. For one thing, soccer is not a sport like tennis; soccer has a very large physical contact component. However, there are certain general truths to all sports, and competition is one. What probably defines our program above all else is our belief that despite the enormous gains in women’s athletics, there still exists a deeply entrenched sociological drawback. It is women’s lack of support to wholeheartedly compete. And competition is at the heart of the game (and, many would argue, in life).
“While men have been schooled to ‘beat each other up’ in the spirit of the game (or in life), women have not completely embraced it yet. They can do it under conditions – against an opponent, for example. But in our experience, until that intense, no holds barred level of competition is a total part of their being, they will always be holding something back, especially in practice against teammates and friends. “Early in my career, I was inspired by the legendary UNC basketball coach Dean Smith. He used to let me come to watch his practices. They were a marvel of organization, efficiency and accountability. His assistant managers scattered around the floor, recording statistics—such as who hit or missed a shot, and whether a team won or lost a scrimmage. Statistics were tabulated, and players were ranked.
“We adopted this method for our program, ‘soccerized’ it and took it to a new level. We call it the competitive cauldron. It’s a system in which we track, record and post everything. The competitive environment we foster is our attempt to inculcate it, to make female players understand that competing against each other should not jeopardize friendships. Trust me, if you want your players to get the most out of themselves, they must be re-socialized in an environment that totally supports, even more, rewards, this intense competition.”
Champions League: This is something we do every Monday during the season at Ohio Wesleyan University. It was introduced to the program by Nick Theslof (now an assistant at Bayern Munich) when he was an assistant coach at OWU . He stole the idea from Sigi Schmid when he was at UCLA. Nick was the captain of the 1997 National Championship team at UCLA. Mike Jacobs uses a similar game at the University of Evansville. The idea is to play the game each week. By the end of the season you will be able to identify the most competitive/toughest players on the team.
At OWU we set up two small-sided fields and create five teams. The teams will play 5 v 5 with a keeper. One field is designated the “championship field”. There are always four teams playing and one sitting out. When the game ends, the winners on the championship field stay on that field; the winners from the other field move onto the championship field; the losers from the championship field move down to the other field to play the team that was sitting out. If you lose on the first field you sit out a game.
Each game is five or seven minutes long. We play seven games each Monday. Each player earns his own points and they accumulate for the whole season. Each Monday the teams are different so the players play with every teammate over the course of a season. Points are earned by:
• A win or a tie
• The number of goals that are scored
• A shutout
The players really get into this game and it is extremely competitive. We give a trophy each year for the Champions League Champ!
The NHL: The Columbus Blue Jackets (and other NHL teams) have also attempted to address this problem. They worked with a youth psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn to develop a program to increase player’s confidence. They feel a confident player will compete at a higher level. A confident player will be able to focus on competing and eliminate distractions. The seven steps are:
• Let go of fear: Worrying about poor results can lead to fear. The player should focus on the effort and process.
• Play freely instead of holding back: Don’t let the players get caught up in the “paralysis by analysis” syndrome during games. This may prevent the players from competing while they continually analyze their technique.
• Focus on yourself, not others – make no comparisons: When you focus on others, it can intimidate you. Most intimidation in sports is self-induced. Intimidation often leads to tentative play. which interferes with the players’ ability to compete.
• Play for yourself and not others: Stop worrying about what others think. Play hard for yourself.
Compete. Fight in training and in games. Don’t let the influence of others slow you down.
• Play functionally without trying to be perfect: Don’t play to control the game, let it happen. “Compete ugly” and use whatever works to succeed.
• Be confident: Confidence allows players to play hard, work hard and compete. Doubt will cause players to play tentatively and not compete.
• Focus on the process and not the results: This could be the key to the problem. Focus on working hard and effort will allow the players to compete freely.
So that’s a start. Popular demand suggests that we continue to explore this subject. I invite all of you to send me ideas to help players learn to compete in training. These could be activities that you created or maybe activities that you stole from another coach (“All coaches are thieves” – Fabio Cappello). It is my intent to publish the results of this study in an upcoming Soccer Journal. I look forward to your ideas.
You can send your ideas via e-mail to: jamartin@owu.edu.
Happy New Year!
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