Thursday 10 October 2013

Is being less competitive going to make the England football team more competitive?

Is being less competitive going to make the England football team more competitive?

As a PE teacher of 6 years I have seen football players of all different abilities some that are now professional, some play local league and some will never kick a ball again. The one thing that they all have in common is that even in core PE lessons they would be desperate to win their game of football no matter how small or insignificant it was.

Why? What is it that is making them feel like this? Who has installed that winning every game is so important?

It isn’t the school as the pupils arrive to us already in this winning at all cost mode, it isn’t me as I am actively enhancing playing without scoring, it has to be something that youngsters pick up from everything they see around them. With this in mind I made notes of everything I saw around me over the next few days.

Firstly my own experience of playing Sunday football where my team I play for produced an excellent performance of passing football form back to front created 10-15 chances but somehow lost the game 1-2. After the match a heated discussion broke out, and very nearly a fight over why the game was lost between some of the players. Standing back I was delighted with how well we had played, how many times I had touched the football and how we worked so well to create chances.

But others saw the whole performance as a failure, blamed decisions made by the manager, and swore to never play again. Had we won 3-2 with 2 horrific goals from long throws that argument wouldn’t have taken place and those player would have left happy. They wouldn’t have been better players they wouldn’t be more likely to win their next game but they feel happier!! Ok so a Sunday league football players kick off after a defeat is hardly ground breaking stuff, but it got me thinking. Just 24 hours later my year 10 football would be playing a game against a team from Bournemouth in a ESFA 2nd cup game.

My team have some good player’s one extremely talented player whose touch and vision is an extremely high level. We are playing a big physical team but one who we are evenly matched with, their manager is also the manager of the Dorset school u15’s so I am expecting them to be well coached and to show a good knowledge of the game. After my team took an early lead it become clear their manager had no idea how to change the course of the game so took his frustration out on me as the referee at every available opportunity. Shouting, swearing, encroaching on the pitch as if it was the world cup final.

The game was stopped and the Manager was warned about his behaviour by me but still he continued, to the point where I felt every decision I made was the wrong one and slowly but surely more decisions were going to them. Firstly a penalty to make it 1-1 and then when they took the lead with 7 minutes I blew the final whistle their players erupted delighted with how they turned the game round and my players sunk to their knees.

Why did I stop the game early? Because the manager then got what he wanted; his team into the next round at all cost, they haven’t learnt how to turn a game round when you’re losing, they haven’t developed a great fighting spirit they had an old style manager who has shouted dare I say forced his way to victory. Will they win the competition? No chance! Could we of won the competition? No chance. But the key difference is that team left cheering without a word from the coach other than the ‘well done’ ‘well played’ generic stuff.

My team sat down and I offered them the chance to explain how we let a 1 goal lead slip. ‘We didn’t keep possession well sir’ ‘we had no attacking shape sir’ ‘we just panicked instead of passing the ball’ All good explanations I confirmed this and suggested going for a second goal would have of taken pressure off of our defence and killed the game off.

Despite the defeat the boys first questions were ‘when is the next game?’ not one asked ‘why did you give a penalty?’ ‘was there no time for us to even get a chance to get back in the game?’ What I have tried to install is their love for the game is greater than the need to win the game. They asked about our next opponents and were determined to go out and put into practice what they have learnt today.

The next day the boys informed me they have a Twitter page for the team where they all add comments, when we win I’ll normally place a match report up for the whole school to read. I assumed this defeat wouldn’t make great reading and when it wasn’t there the next morning players asked me why? I had no answer so quickly headed back to my laptop to start typing and get the report up before the end of day.

Defeat had not dampened their enthusiasm for the game, if anything it had enhanced it. They played a game and enjoyed it, learnt valuable lessons that will make them better players, and want to play even more. I like to think I have created a situation where I have developed this in the boys where there is no pressure on them to win only improve with each game and enjoy each other’s company.

Yes I had to swallow my pride and shake the hand of the other manager and say well done your team deserved it, and let him think he is a better coach, that he knows more about football than me, that his coaching is better than mine. But deep down I am doing the right thing for these boys, I am improving their knowledge of the game, making them think, making themselves set their own goals and challenges whilst keeping their love of the game as strong as ever.

If more managers/coaches/teachers could do this we would develop our youngsters better. With this in mind and having the luxury of teaching pupils every day I set out to experiment with pupils and their desire to win.

The next 3 PE lessons I had using football, and basketball, I offered the pupils the chance to play a whole game for the lesson but only after I had explained the scoring system I had produced, they all agreed.

After organising the teams I explained that the maximum points any team could win for the game was 30, 10 points available for each of the following categories - Goal orientated performance -Style performance -Ethics and values Very simply as the referee I said you would receive a score out of 10 for how effectively you scored points up to a maximum of 10 so if you scored 20 baskets your maximum points were still only 10. Style performance marks were awarded how well you passed the ball, how well you used the correct techniques and well you used all your team members again to a maximum of 10. The final category was ethics and values which included how well you kept your foul count down, showed sportsmanship in the game, and generally conducted yourself in the lesson e.g. challenging teacher decisions.

To my amazement the pupils completely understood the concept and after 2-3 minutes of the games, players were helping me as the referee ‘I touched that last sir, it’s their ball’ when they scored goals or baskets congratulating them on their good shot.

I was aware it was still completely an attempt to win the game but it was creating positive values in the pupils. With two minutes to go in the basketball match the score was 12-12 but the pupils were completely unaware of this and those players who were sub or just off at that time we screaming ‘get your style point up you haven’t passed to Josh much’ the other determined to foul so to keep the their ethics points high. We are into the last 30 seconds the tension is even higher than a normal game, the excitement double what it normally is.

There is was sign of the frantic over arm launching that is often seen at this point or fouling/cheating/doing what ever it takes to win. Pupils were thinking, using their brain to work out how best to score well, developing ways and learning from their mistakes. The final whistle goes pupils start shaking hands like James Corden at the Brits pretending to be everyone’s best friend in one last attempt to gain ethics points. After the game the pupils sat around and listened to my every word as I gave the points out for each of the categories. Never have pupils listened so intently, I asked them who they think won the goal orientated section only 3 pupils offered a score the others had no idea.

I gave out the scores and as per usual pupils erupted when finding out they had won in the overall scores. The difference was incredible, conversation broke out ‘we should of passed the ball more’ ‘ we gave away too many fouls’ all the reasons were correct and probably would have been the same things that would of let them down in a normal style game.

The main differences were that (1) They had passed the ball very well in the game but still felt they need to improve (2) They had clearly identified what they need to do next time (3) no blame was attached to any specific individuals and in one case an apology to a weaker player for not passing to him more.

Pupils that were bigger had to change their game to get style points this improving their game play, lesser players got more touches, pupils thought through the whole game and lastly the game was played in an excellent spirit. I am not claiming to have the answer and the thought of a Sunday league referee awarding style points to hangover men in their 40’s is unlikely.

But in schools and at junior level something has to change, we can’t have managers/coaches/parent slating the referee in an attempt to the win the game. The emphasis would change to being nice to referee and bring his or her attention to the excellent 8 pass move where the player’s team has kept possession.

I agree with those who say this will make football too subjective and give the referee too much power but anything has to be better than giving the parents/managers power. As a country we are producing less and lesser players to the required level where Spain and Belgium who have different systems in place have talent pools we could only dream off. The FA will say they have introduced smaller side games and smaller balls with more friendlies, but this is what other European countries were doing 10 years ago we are simply following others which never leads to success we have to take a risk and start something new.

Elliot Wheeler (Stoke) Nick Grosvenor (Aldershot) Anton Rodgers (Brighton) Grant Smith (Brighton) Jamal Branker (Southampton) Jason McCarthy (Southampton) are all in the pro game with many others playing at a good semi pro level and have all being taught by me and played for my school teams. It would be a bit far-fetched for me to take credit for their success and but am I starting to think that I might be doing something right, encouraging them to think more than others, promoting player development and not just team success.

That list of players spans over 6 years of teaching and the only year group I have had where I haven’t had a player who didn’t go on to becoming a pro was my New Forrest League and Hampshire Cup double winning team of 2 years ago. I put my own personal success and ego at the front of the queue not player development.

We played some horrible football, got bodies behind the ball and hit teams on the break 2-1, 1-0, were our common scores. The boys had fun don’t get me wrong and will always remember their school team that won and will have trophies but none of them reached their potential because I thought I was the José Mourinho of Totton and made them play in a way that was percentage football.

It was Wessex league football in an u15 league and stifled their ability to pass, think and develop.If you’re reading this lads I apologise I hope it’s not too late for you to make some money out of the game.

If you are a teacher, a coach, a parent, anyone involved in football just think about how things are being run at your club and ask yourself ‘is it promoting everything that is going to make my son/daughter a better player and better person?’