This needs time, should be individualised and shouldn’t be rushed.
This unnamed player is now a full international.
But his development at an early age did not always follow a smooth path.
According to one of his ex-coaches at foundation phase level, he once behaved so badly had the situation not been resolved in a correct manner, he would not have been able to play for his team again.
Aged 11, the player is said to have reacted very strongly and negatively to an occurrence during a game.
He was extremely upset providing his coaches with a huge challenge: how to help the player review the situation, show a positive response and learn his lesson.
PROJECT
“We chose to give him a three-week break from matches, but he continued training”, one of the coaches, George Lappas, told Breakthrough.
“We allowed him to come to watch the matches and support his teammates if he chose to, which he did.
“We also set him a project.
“In the first week, we asked him to go away and bring back a piece of work of his choice – picture, written, verbal, whatever he was comfortable with – describing the attributes of the ‘perfect’ player. He drew a picture and explained to us all the labels and diagrams.
“We spoke about his work and, and for the second week of his homework, asked him to go away and further develop the attributes of his ‘perfect’ player adding in extra detail.
“For his final week of homework, we asked him to rank himself against the attributes of the ‘perfect’ player with a score out of 10. For example, if the perfect player had a perfect score of 10 out of 10 for ‘Focus’, he would then give himself a score out of 10 for the same attribute. He did this for all the attributes.”
The plan worked wonders.
Once he returned from his enforced ‘break’, he was a completely different player.
“What this exercise showed him was where his strengths and weaknesses lay and where he needed to do most of his improvement”, Lappas explained.
“We discussed the scores he gave himself and spoke about them in detail. We explained how his ‘weakest’ areas held him back and what it would cost him if he persisted with those behaviours.
“We asked him to describe what he would feel like if he was able to turn those ‘weak’ areas of his game into genuine strengths. We put a plan in place to improve those ‘weak’ areas and reviewed them regularly.”
TECHNICAL TOOLS
George Lappas, who currently works as opposition analyst and first-team scout at Millwall, has spent 20 years of his career coaching at all levels of the foundation phase of player development.
“The priority is on the players’ technical development at this stage”, he believes.
“This is to provide the players with the tools they will require to undertake more complex tasks in the next phase.
“At the younger ages this would be with players working on individual skills.
“At the later stages of this phase you would be looking at combinations and overloads in pairs and maybe 3-4 players.
“Technicality, however, isn’t learned in isolation, and within the foundation stage the areas of tactical, physical and psychological must also develop.
“The individual action is the most important, taking guts and encouragement, but should be guided to become efficient for the team.”
ACCELERATED LEARNING
However – and similar to Roy Thomas – Lappas also highlights another aspect of player development.
“One area I think that is often omitted, or at least underappreciated, is the importance of developing the mindset necessary to improve most effectively.
“The process of review is passed over all too quickly.
“Communication, and appreciation of the meaning of successes and failures, are vital. What went well. What didn’t go well. What needs to change.
“This needs time, should be individualised and shouldn’t be rushed.
“This is accelerated learning. In a way it is slower, but actually learning takes place faster overall as it is deeper and self-guided.”
The project the now international player undertook at the tender age of 11 is perhaps the ‘perfect’ example of an attempt at developing the required mindset.
It took time.
It was individualised.
It was not rushed.
It also got deeper and was certainly self-guided.
Finally, and above all, it proved successful, too. Short- and long-term.
George shares his knowledge via his ‘Golden Game Soccer’ project. You can join it here
BREAKTHROUGH 