THE PLAYER’S PERSPECTIVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE

In last week’s newsletter, I described a situation where there was a sense of momentum and energy during a match. After some reflection and watching back the video of the match, I realized that the momentum and energy the players and I felt was reflected in the players’ ability to pressure the opposition immediately upon losing possession.

If you haven’t already, please read that newsletter here.

It would have been very easy for me to assume the reason for the players not pressing in the final minutes of the game like they had previously. For example, maybe they were tired. This would have been a logical conclusion.

However, without asking them their perspective I would have entirely taken them out of the development process. And this would have been illogical, because at the end of the day, it is THEIR development. The players’ perspective is the most important one because they are the protagonists of this game.

Monday afternoon I had a short virtual meeting. I came prepared with clips of pressing actions throughout the game and clips of them not pressing in the last ten minutes.

WE WATCHED THE VIDEOS AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THEM TO SHARE THEIR PERSPECTIVE.

“You noticed in the first set of clips we pressed them every time we lost the ball and in the second set of clips we were retreating when we lost the ball. Why did we stop pressing them after they scored their second goal?”

After some prodding and poking their answers to encourage deeper reflection, they came to the conclusion that there was a fear of losing. They felt there wasn’t much time left and they didn’t want to get scored on again so they wanted to protect our goal. They also told me that they could hear the parents and the other coach yelling more after they scored the second goal.

THIS MADE ME REFLECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT I HAD CREATED.

It made me reflect on the language that I use regarding competition. It made me think about where I needed to direct their attention in moments like this one.

The answer was simple; at that moment when the opposition scored their second goal, they had shifted to result oriented instead of process oriented. Their focus had gone to the outcome of the game instead of all the things they did well to get to that point.

Next week’s newsletter will discuss the steps I took to recalibrate the environment to help players keep their attention on the process no matter what.