TRANSFORM PASSION INTO EXPERTISE: Four Essential Skills For Your Coaching Journey
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THE START OF YOUR COACHING JOURNEY
You love the game. Perhaps you played a little bit growing up, maybe you even played at a decent level—whatever that means. And although your legs can’t play like they used to, the love for the game has never dimmed. You wonder how you could still partake…
You see, the game needs people like you. It needs passionate folks who will usher in the incoming class of football grads, the youngsters who will carry on football’s legacy. You and I need to pass on our passion for the game to the next generation.
So one day, maybe in your car—probably driving past a football ground where you see those youngsters playing the game that you once called yours—you think to yourself, “it’s time. I want to be a coach.” You don’t know what this decision means, but it’s decided.
The decision is simply an intention. Nothing more. You don’t know where to start. Who do you talk to? A friend you know who’s been coaching for a few years? Maybe it’s a cold call to the local club? Whatever it is, it marks the beginning of your coaching journey.
We all have a coaching journey, and although yours and mine will most likely differ in circumstances, the starting point of passion is common to all of us. We all embark on the journey with the love for the game in our sails.
As you start your journey, I want to provide you with some skills that will help you along the way. These are not routinely discussed in what a coach—no matter what level—needs to be able to do. They are tools to help you deepen the understanding you already have about the game.
Mastering Observation
As a whole, it all starts by deepening your ability to watch the game. This means any game, any level, any age. To be able to gather as much insight from each game. To go beyond the surface level clichés you have heard your whole life. This is the objective.
You have to become a master observer by paying attention to the right things in football. When a novice watches the game, they often will pay attention solely to the ball. Sure, it’s important but it will give a tiny percentage of information about the game.
So what else is there to watch besides the ball? Obviously there’s other off-ball players, both defensive and attacking. But we could take our observations further and distinguish between near and far off-ball players. From here it’s infinite, it’s all the motion within football.
Describing What You See
The next skill is being able to describe what you see extremely well. This goes hand in hand with observing because only when you observe well can you describe well. However, there are some that might see things well but have relied on jargon to describe, which dilutes their work.
When you use jargon to describe what you are seeing, you are polluting your point of view with the words others use. Often, jargon fails to clearly and concretely describe what you see. Rather, you need to use language that can communicate the images you’re seeing more accurately.
This is the starting point to good coaching. As a coach, you will have to communicate with players, and if you cannot describe the game well enough, your coaching will be stunted—completely halted by poor language. Your ceiling is your words.
This is especially true for young players who have not yet been corrupted by football jargon. Young players will look at you with confusion when you speak to them in clichés and jargon. Being able to actually speak to them in clear language is absolutely vital.
Identifying Patterns
The next foundational skill you must master as a coach is being able to identify patterns in what you are observing. This means when you are watching any football being played, you are able to confidently guess what might happen next—it’s using the past to predict the future.
Being able to do this is going to help you as a coach in multiple facets. For example, noticing how an individual player behaves can guide your interactions with that player, helping you determine if your approach is effective.
This can also occur at a macro level during in-game coaching. For example, as you are watching the game unfold, you will gather information about how and where the opposition defends. Being able to effectively communicate these patterns might help your team in the match.
Identifying patterns is not a guessing game. It’s about grouping the actions and behaviors you observe into common trends or similarities—such as consistent movement patterns, preferred spaces, or recurring moments of action. Doing this well will help you more effectively guide players when needed.
Thinking From First Principles
The final skill that I believe is necessary to become a self-regulating, creative coach is to think from first principles. This means that you don’t stop at the tactics and “how-to’s” that have been regurgitated at you in the traditional coaching journey checkpoints.
It means being able to continuously ask ‘why’, ‘why’, ‘why’ so that eventually you find yourself hitting the first principles of football—the deep truths about the strategy of the game—because in doing so you are more likely to allow new expressions to emerge.
First principles thinking requires you to question what is, but most importantly, what you think. If you can think deeper than just what you see and observe, you’re on your way to thinking from first principles. It all starts with effective and consistent questions.
Transforming Knowledge into Action
The only way to develop these skills is to experience them—by watching, analyzing, describing, and questioning the game consistently. But how do you sharpen these abilities effectively?
That’s why I created The Football Analysis Course—an interactive, four-week online course designed to challenge the way you see and think about football.
Each week, we’ll analyze different moments of the game, uncovering deeper insights and exploring multiple perspectives. By the end of the course, you’ll be asking better questions, seeing the game more clearly, and coaching with greater precision.
Course Details:
Dates: March 4th – March 28th
Sessions: Choose between Tuesday or Friday meetings
Spots Available: 28 remaining
Registration Deadline: February 28th (or until spots run out)
Coaches who have completed this course describe it as perspective-shifting. If you’re ready to elevate your coaching, learn more and secure your spot.
