SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Claudio Reyna: 'Coaches should sit down'

Again--and I may not have emphasized this enough--I don't think we can just look at the title literally and grasp the entire message. "Coaches should sit down" is simplistic, and I'm not sure it was ever intended to be taken in its most literal interpretation; I think what Coach Reyna meant was more like "Coaches should step back"--in the sense that we have to give our players enough freedom of creativity to see what THEY can make happen on the field, rather than the coach trying to make it all happen, step by step, from the sideline. There are certain skills every player needs to be taught, and there are certain mistakes every player needs to be taught to avoid, but within all of that is a world of possibility that gives players the freedom of movement to be their own player and to find their own groove to mesh with their teams.

There's no way a single coach can ever manage every decision in a soccer match; part of what makes the game beautiful is that it is every bit as much art as it is science--constantly changing by the second as the players create it as they go. The best players will be the ones who can make those decisions on the field, without hesitating for instructions or second-guessing themselves at every step; "stepping back" and giving them the opportunity to learn that confidence is what I think (at least I hope) Coach Reyna means by "sit down."

I think Will's right. Yes, I have printed and digested much of the curriculum. There's some useful things in there, though its akin to most coaching manuals, to be fair. It's also geared toward squads with high levels, and consitent ranges, of ability, and not necessarily for squads for various abilities that run the gammut. That's often the situation I face. You won't fine much out there on that.

And by the way, the link to the curriculum is just to the introduction. You have to dig around to find the actual, quite large, document.

I wonder if Irmo uses this method? Every time I've watched them, they have the whole team practically on the field and about 10 coaches running up and down the sidelines.

Again, I think it depends on the level and needs of the team and/or the individual players in question as to how much input a coach should have in the game. Players need room to be creative, to make mistakes, and to figure out how to get things right on their own. Sometimes, though, players get frustrated when they (or their teammates) are making mistakes that cost the team in a game and aren't figuring out on their own how to change it. Does the coach simply sit and watch costly mistakes happen until everyone is frustrated and the game is out of reach?

As for recreating situations, yes, that is what we do, but it's only meaningful if the players realize the situation that is being recreated. You can't always expect to "fix" a problem on the field during a game, but you can CONNECT what is happening on the field to what happens in practice. Addressing it briefly at the moment it happens can either point out the relevance of what has already been practiced ("pressure/cover--this is what we worked on yesterday") or "bookmark" it in their memory to work on in the future ("you're getting drawn out--be aware--we'll work on fixing that"). Tends to help with their recall better than waiting till the next day and saying "hey, remember when you got pulled out of position right before their second and fourth goals and allowed the back-post runner in?" "Um, sure, Coach, I remember."

Sometimes, when things are going wrong, it helps ease frustration when they know someone sees the problem and knows it's fixable.

Foremost, though, should be situational awareness...if someone wants to impress me with their views about "best coaching practices," then talk to me about reading and adjusting to the situation at hand. Learning how to read players and determine, as a coach, whether what you're doing on the sideline is helping and reassuring, or stifling and frustrating, your particular players at that particular moment is a much higher-order skill, in my opinion, than saying "you should always" or "you should never."

"During games, Reyna observed that 'at the best places the youth coaches are sitting down. And if they get up to give instructions, they sit right back down again.'"

Kids have enough on their plate when they are on the field (meeting their internal expectations - the pressure of performing in front of friends and family - letting their teammates down - etc...).

I think a much more useful teaching moment during games is to talk with the players on the bench. Make observations, ask for observations, ask the players how they can improve the teams performance when they enter the game, and so on...

With free substitutions you can manage the urge to correct/connect what you see on the field and the necessity of the players to feel free on the field. And you can do it in a way that does not intimidate or add unnecessary pressure to what is already a very stressful situation.

I agree about using the teachable moments with the players on the bench--valuable time with them indeed, especially since they want to be the ones on the field doing it well. They often have some very good observations about what's going on and can see a lot from that perspective.

Unlimited substitutions are also a great way to pull players aside one or a few at a time and make adjustments--great for a developing team.

Also note--Reyna doesn't say coaches don't give instructions while the players are on the field. He says that coaches aren't constantly giving "joystick" instructions--if they have to make corrections, they do it and then let the players get back to playing the game. I don't think he is suggesting that if things are going badly in the game, the coach isn't supposed to make any corrections because it is "their time." There are ways to make the connections on the field without putting undue pressure--and this can sometimes be reassuring rather than intimidating--depends on HOW you address things, and, again, the ability to interpret when, if, and in what way it would be positive rather than negative.

As for sitting down no matter what, I remember a few years ago I was coaching a club match in Columbia; we were up 3-0, and the opposing coach was taking the approach of sitting down and not having any input into the game despite her team's struggle to hold the line.

Some of my players subbing off the field came over and very pointedly asked me, "Exactly what is she getting paid to do right now?"

If a coach really wants to know what players expect, resent, appreciate, or stress over, I'd say listen to the players--every player, every season, and don't assume all of them have the same ideas about what works and doesn't work for them.