Coaching philosophy
It's not about how good you are today.
It's about how good you can be tomorrow.
Unknown
I am not sure who said the above quote. But I know that when I first read it in my late thirties, it made 100% sense. It is how I see training, but even more so how I see life. As a youngster, however, I was exactly the opposite. I did the bare minimum to succeed in school and tried to enjoy life as much as possible with my friends. And while this is a total normal attitude for a teenager, it also made sure I never really excelled at anything either. I was average at best at everything I did. And I had no clue at what made me tick and what I was passionate about.
It took me another ten to fifteen years to fully understand how important it really is to find passion on a personal and professional level. It made me realize that if I would somehow have found it earlier, I could have been a lot better player. At the same time, this regret has fuelled a desire to be the best version of me that I can be. It drove me on to go back to school and redirect my career. Even today, it pushes me to keep investing in myself, as I am not yet the best I can be. Maybe I never will be, but I have progressed as a coach and as a person. And I am a better coach today then I was yesterday because of it. It is this same drive for improvement I want to pass on to the people I work with and the people I coach. My hope is that they will find the same passion and drive to keep working towards constant growth and accept new challenges.
Funnily enough, this core believe also means that I would never be able to work with the teenage version of myself.
The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.
Bill Shankly
While I have always enjoyed a variation of sports such as swimming, badminton, tennis and more recently fitness nothing matches the joy of playing football. Being part of a team, where a group of individuals work towards a common goal is an essential part of how I want to experience sport. I am better when I am part of a team, both as a player in the past and these days as a coach.
I have experienced on several occasions – both positively and negatively - the importance of working as a unit and how significant it is to maximize the different strengths of every individual within the coaching staff. I have been a head coach myself in the past, but it wasn’t until I became an S&C coach as part of a larger group of coaches that I came into my own. At the same time, like everybody else, it is essential for me that I receive the trust and the freedom to deliver my work from the coaching staff around me. Similarly, I enjoy supporting other coaches when they are better suited to develop and improve players. Coaches within a staff should complement each other. Equally, I believe it is only human to be recognized for hard work and the small contribution it made to the success of the team.
For the same reason, I find it difficult to work with players who feel they can put themselves above the team. Who believe they are more talented or better and as such don’t need to work as much as other team members. Players who somehow feel they earn more of the rewards at the final whistle than their teammates. In my view, this attitude has never led to long term high performance. It is not something I can support as a coach. I trust that when every player in the team gets a share of recognition for their hard work, this steers the team to a culture of high performance.
Practice what you preach
Unknown
You could say that this principle is all about connection with my players and as such, is two folded.
On the one hand this is all about the behaviour that I want my athletes to display. I believe in good communication, in honesty and in hard work. But I can only demand this of my players, if they see this same behaviour from me. They can expect open and honest communication from me, even if it sometimes is a less pleasant message. And in return they can tell me what they need for me to coach them to the best of my ability. This doesn’t mean that they need to be ready to pour their very soul out to me. But players should know that I will never hold a grudge against somebody just because I didn’t like what they had to say. Equally, players need to know and feel that I will work hard. I work as hard for them as I ask them to work for me.
On the other hand, it is all about competence. I am a firm believer that you should never expose players to practices and exercises you don’t sufficiently understand or master yourself. I support the idea that if I am not the most suited person to help my player, I should refer him to someone who is more suited. If I lack the knowledge or experience to help my athlete, it is my duty as a coach to help him or her get the right help. It is for this reason that I value my UEFA A coaching badge. Not because I necessarily want to be a head coach. But because even as an S&C coach, I am still a football coach with a good understanding of the game. This understanding helps me to translate my S&C sessions in football-specific exercises (especially on the pitch). Likewise, I will never ask players to perform exercises that I cannot myself demonstrate to them. Why? If I don’t have the competence to execute an exercise then how will I teach, coach and correct it with my players? I sometimes even train alongside them and perform the same program just so they can see that I have sufficient technical competence in the things I ask of them. This creates buy-in and installs confidence of the players in me as a practitioner.