4 Way’s to Develop the Perfect Football Coaching Philosophy!

I believe that every football coach should have a solid coaching philosophy. Your coaching philosophy is one of the most important attributes you can have, as it forms the foundations for everything that you do. Your philosophy will help create your training sessions, it also dictates how you coach the team in terms of what you say to them and how you handle the players.

Your philosophy will guide you with every decision you make throughout your coaching career, which is why it is imperative you take the necessary steps to develop the right coaching philosophy. In this article I will mention the key things you must do to help develop your own coaching philosophy.

What is a coaching philosophy?

A coaching philosophy is the blue print for every coach to follow. It is your vision, values and principles that form the base of your philosophy, this will decide what you do, why you do and how you behave as a coach. Many coaches especially at grassroots level focus on short-term goals instead of long-term goals. All coaches should have a long-term plan that you should stick to throughout. This may alter slightly as you progress because you never stop learning as a coach, you must always be ready to add to your philosophy as methods never stay the same and every player learns differently.

Having an idea of how your team will play from the beginning, will help you develop the training sessions that will produce your style of play. Not having a coaching philosophy is like setting off on a long distance journey without planning how you will get there.

Every session I develop will always relate to my coaching philosophy, without it I wouldn’t achieve my end goal, to develop player’s who are comfortable with the ball in every position. I want my players to play with expression and be creative on the field, whilst still having sound tactical awareness. My players must have a strong work ethic, willing to learn and most importantly enjoy my coaching sessions.

It is important that you have a player centered approach with your philosophy because ultimately the players development is priority. How many medals you can achieve or matches you win come second to the progress of your players, so insure you find a way to build your approach towards those goals.

What if my club doesn’t have a philosophy?

“Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi.

It’s quite simple, if your team doesn’t have a clear coaching philosophy then you should do your utmost to change that. You cannot expect every player to progress the same way if all your coaches are following a different plan or even worse no plan at all. The club’s philosophy should be the first thing that is mentioned when a coach or player are brought into the team. If a club has a philosophy and stands by it, then the coaches will benefit from this.

Having a clear philosophy at your club, will make sure that there is a clear pathway for the players starting from the youngest right through to the seniors at the club. Often coaches are not given a clear idea of what’s expected when they join a club, especially at grassroots level. This leaves many coaches unsure of how to gradually progress the players each year, resulting in the players development suffering. Without guidance your coaches cannot achieve consistent results, meaning you won’t consistently produce top players at your club.

If you want the best coaches for your club then you will need to have a strong philosophy in place. If you were to look at the clubs who have a certain structure in place you will see that they tend to attract the best players and coaches. Others start to notice and your club will start to develop a reputation for the philosophy that they use, thus attracting others who share the same ideas.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Henry Ford.

How to develop your coaching philosophy!

Developing your coaching philosophy isn’t a quick process. In fact throughout your coaching career you will always be adding to your coaching philosophy, improving it throughout. There are many way’s you can develop your coaching philosophy and I highly recommend you try the following ways:

• Find a mentor! – If you spoke to all the great coaches around the world you would usually find that at some point in their career they had a mentor. You can take many coaching courses but they won’t compare to the guidance an experience coach can give you.

• Read books by great coaches! – Many good coaches have written very informative books and blogs to help others learn from them. I have listed some books that I recommend in one of my earlier posts how to become a top youth football coach: a guide for parents and coaches, all books will help develop your philosophy.

• Watch others coach! – I really encourage that you watch other good coaches at work. Watching coaches on a regular basis will give you lot’s of idea’s which you can then bring into your own coaching methods. Ensure that who ever you decide to see has a similar philosophy to you. You don’t want to see a coach who has a completely different take on how you want to play the game.

• Develop a Style of play! – At some point you will need to develop a system that will connect all your new ideas from the training ground to the real game. A style of play is your teams identity, Do you like to build possession through the thirds? or do you prefer to attack teams quickly with fast flowing football?. It could easily be a mixture of the two but you need to have a clear idea of how want to play the game. This will help you construct the sessions you need to achieve this.

• Take Action! – Once you learn something useful go out and give it a try. You will never succeed at anything unless you step outside your comfort zone. The best coaches are the creative one’s, who are not afraid to try something that no one else is trying.

Learn from Failure!

It is important that you take every failure or defeat as a lesson in itself. To fail is not a bad thing, in fact I have probably learnt a lot more from the failures in my time then the successes. What you choose to do after each failure will define you as a coach, this is why it is very important to have your philosophy in place.

If you continue with no guidance then you will probably just think “I need to change my formation” or “my team are not fit enough, they need to run more laps”. As a coach this dated way of thinking will not help, you need to be better then that and stick to your coaching philosophy. Instead of going away from your principles for a quick fix, think how can you stick to your philosophy but do it better. Think how can you structure each session better, so the players can learn your style of play? or what can you do to further motivate the players?.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy          

Conclusion

If you do not have a clear coaching philosophy then you should begin to put one together. It will definitely help throughout your coaching career and give you guidance when there are difficult decisions to be made.

It is no coincidence that every top coach you read about today, will talk about how important their coaching philosophy is and that they will always stick to it even if things are not going well.

Remember if things are not working it is important not to give up on your philosophy and learn from your failures. Always think how can you continue what you’re doing but do it better.

Let’s Play the Game Ltd. is a provider of excellent personal and team football coaching in Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, and Solihull. For those who would like to try our services don’t hesitate to contact us. Don’t forget to subscribe below to never miss any of our posts. You can also like our Facebook page or subscribe to our You Tube channel for more football coaching tips.