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Coaching Philosophies in Football

In this article, I decided to take a look at the term “Football Coaching Philosophy”, a topic that has fascinated me and was the main focus of my master’s thesis in Sports Performance.

Part A will look at the difference between a general coaching philosophy and a football coaching philosophy. Part B will look at specific values and beliefs of football coaching philosophies, including examples at professional level and how lower level coaches can create their own.

Part A – Coaching Philosophy or Football Coaching Philosophy?

There have been recent developments in coach education, predominantly from the Football Association (FA) for football coaches to develop a framework or a coaching philosophy to guide their practice and subsequently produce a more efficient output in how they work.

But what is the terminology of a coaching philosophy? Multiple leading academics (Nash et al. 2008; Carless & Douglas 2009; Cushion & Partington 2014) have stated that a coaching philosophy is a set of “values and beliefs” that are considered important to the coach.

The values and beliefs then guide the coaches’ behaviour and subsequently, their physical coaching practice. In other words, having a coaching philosophy is important because it provides consistency to one’s practice, promoting a more efficient approach as a result.

This creates a more optimal training environment due to better language, organisation and less contradiction from the coach’s perspective.

In my personal research however, I ultimately wanted to take this research a step further. The terminology of coaching philosophy seems clear enough, but I believe it lacked specificity.

In other words, is a coaching philosophy a set of values and beliefs important to the coach regardless of the sport? Or should an efficient coaching philosophy contain a set of values and beliefs specific to the sport? If we analysed the former, then we are more or less promoting a set of values and beliefs with an ignorance on the sports’ requirements.

We haven’t considered the fundamental aspects of football. If we chose the latter, then having a set of values and beliefs specific to the sport of football may promote that efficiency to create a better training environment. In other words, my master’s research titled “Values and Beliefs of Football Coaches’ Football Coaching Philosophy” gained some traction, with my conclusions stating that football coaches’ shouldn’t have a coaching philosophy.

They need a set of values and beliefs highly specific to the sporting context of football. This is when I advocated the term “football coaching philosophy”. This is what football coaches should possess.

Part B – Values and Beliefs of Football Coaches

There has now hopefully been some clarification of the general construct of a football coaching philosophy, a set of football-specific values and beliefs important to the coach to guide their practice. But what are the values and beliefs? What are the examples?

  • The Professional Level

In more professional settings, Felix Magath, the former Fulham and Bayern Munich manager placed a value and belief in having strong discipline and thorough training.

This produced a rather transactional behaviour because of his structural beliefs and an emphasis on laying down the ground rules. It can be argued that former Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio was a little similar, as he was rumoured to have banned ketchup from the canteen at the club’s training ground.

In retrospect, legendary manager Brian Clough also placed a value and belief in strong discipline, even going far enough to challenge club directors if his satisfactions weren’t met. An extreme example of staying close to your values and beliefs at the professional level.

If we look on the flip side, looking at revered Dutch duo Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff, their values and beliefs or “football coaching philosophy” was centered on their players using their brain to improve their decision making.

Their justification was that a quicker brain was better than a quicker player. Whilst “Total Football” was originated by former Ajax manager Jack Reynolds in the 1940’s, this football coaching philosophy was strengthened in the 1970’s under Michels and Cruyff.

This placed a reliance on players constantly switching positions and an emphasis on spatial awareness. Whilst their more specific values and beliefs on how to produce this philosophy remains rather complex, it’s an example of how adherence to what we value and believe as coaches can produce the playing output of our players.

It’s the responsibility of the coach/manager to produce that appropriate guiding framework for players. We can’t coach every little detail of the game, but we can train players to be better conditioned to deal with problems and find a solution. This was a central component of the football coaching philosophy of Total Football.

Total Football was actually believed to the pioneering philosophy that actually got the better of another well-known football coaching philosophy, Catenaccio. This was a pioneering set of values and beliefs of the football coaching philosophy of Austrian coach, Karl Rappan.

Nereo Rocco adopted these values and beliefs to adapt catenaccio to create a defensive first approach within his tactics. Helenio Herrera subsequently adopted the well-known catenaccio style which created the almost impenetrable Interazionale defence of the 1960’s.

The tactics included a five man defence with a four man man-marking system and a defensive sweeper to act as the defensive cover. Therefore, his values and beliefs likely created training sessions with a heavy emphasis on these tactics, providing that consistency important for a coach.

Another argument for it’s success (this can be said for a number of successful coaches) was that the constant devotion to this football coaching philosophy created a common language between coach and player.

This builds the foundation for better understanding from the players’ perspective, allowing them to experience situations and solve problems more efficiently.

  • Below the Professional Level – What are the constructs of a football coaching philosophy?

Coaches at the lower level aren’t exempt from creating their own “football coaching philosophy”. If anything, a set of values and beliefs at the lower levels are ideal because it provides a reference from which to work from, so long as this reference is a sensible one and isn’t ego-oriented.

In other words, a football coaching philosophy should contain values and beliefs that are player-centered and not centered around playing good football for the sake of good football.

Examples of values and beliefs at the lower level from personal interaction with coaches from multiple continents surprisingly vary.

Some coaches place an importance on game-realistic practices, others on working in training blocks (for fitness and certain football principles) and establishing individual coach-player relationships.

Tactically, there does have to be an emphasis on this because we want to win games (depending what level and age group we are at), but a football coaching philosophy isn’t just tactics.

It’s how you deal with the players, how you organise and structure your sessions, how you deal with situations in training and how you are motivated to keep on improving. These are the fundamental aspects of constructing a football coaching philosophy.

In other words, I would always recommend that coaches in a lower level (grassroots or youth player) to consider these aspects first and not tactical terminologies.

This promotes a better reflection of yourself as a coach and lays down the foundations of how you coach the players. This ultimately redefines the conceptualisation and terminology of football coaching philosophy as elaborated by Cushion and Partington’s (2019) study.

  • What motivates the coach
  • How do they behave in their sessions
  • What practices would you normally adopt
  • How they deal with situations
  • How do you get your players to learn

If a reader analyses and reflects upon these areas about their work, then this will translate to your values and beliefs and therefore, be able to define your “football coaching philosophy”.

The advantages of this is that a better self-awareness is created. This provides clarity and consistency to your coaching practice and further allows the foundation for constructive self-criticism. Analysing the good and the bad of your work ultimately strengthens this.

References

Carless, D. and Douglas, K., 2011. Stories as Personal Coaching Philosophy. International Journal of Sport Science & Coaching [online], 6 (1), 1-12.

Cushion, C. and Partington, M., 2014. A critical analysis of the conceptualization of “coaching philosophy”. Sports, Education and Society [online], 21 (6), 851-867.

Nash, C., Sproule, J. and Horton, P., 2008. Sports coaches’ perceived role frames and philosophies. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching [online], 3 (4), 539-555.

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