"Tips, Themes & Things" Coaching Essays

We all know that there is more to coaching than just running great practices. So, to help you develop your own strategies for successful soccer, SoccerROM posts an in-depth essay on a new topic each month. These articles are provided by the SoccerROM staff and a number of other prominent coaches from around the US and the world, and will discuss everything from technical teaching points to team tactics.

We invite you to read this month's featured article, and then subscribe to get access to the rest of SoccerROM's "Tips, Themes & Things" archives!

Coaching Creativity

by Robert Parr

Creativity emerges in response to stimulus. Thus, you become more likely to inspire creative responses when you vary the stimulus for your players. In the near term, we need to engage our players in variable practice by relying on dynamic activities and games (and avoiding scripted "drills") throughout each practice. At the macro level, players need variety throughout the year--this helps to maintain their interest at a high level, and provides ongoing exposure to different ideas over the long-term.

Creativity is a high-risk endeavor. Failure from any single effort is far more likely than success. The most famous inventors throughout history are famed for the seemingly countless failures that preceded their greatest accomplishments. Thomas Edison engaged in thousands of failed experiments before he succeeded in creating the first commercially-viable incandescent light bulb. The Wright brothers achieved controlled fixed-wing flight only after studying the countless failures of others, and engaging in years of design prototyping and testing. Dean Kamen and his team of engineers persevered through years of failure before they finally succeeded in creating the Segway.

With this in mind, players need a nurturing environment in which to engage in creative practice. By definition, failure will be the dominant result of experimentation, so we must encourage our players to continue with their exploration when success does not come right away. In addition, players need to understand the basic concepts of risk and reward and their application to the game. Risk-taking is appropriate in the attacking third of the field, but the defensive third is generally not the place for risky play! Having a proper understanding of the time and place for risk-taking will go far in sustaining a positive, nurturing environment for our players.

A coach who is willing to be creative (and risk public failure himself) will encourage creative risk-taking among his players. To lead by example, test out new methods and new activities in your practices on a regular basis. Let your players know when you are experimenting, as this will help them understand that they are your "partners" in the experiment, and it will also encourage them to delay judgment until your experiment has had time to succeed. However, you will want to have a proven "backup plan" to turn to just in case your new activity doesn't work the way you want!

Business professionals rely on "brainstorming" to help them identify and refine new ideas. This process uses a single facilitator to lead (and sometimes referee) the brainstorming session. All participants are encouraged to suggest ideas and to build on each other's ideas, which are recorded by the facilitator without judgment or criticism. The facilitator does not allow the group to evaluate the quality of each idea until after the group has generated a healthy list of possibilities.

We can adapt this technique for soccer, with the coach serving as the facilitator. Create a challenge for your players, and give them a few minutes to experiment with ways to solve the problem. This can be an individual challenge ("How many different moves can you use to beat a defender 1v1?"), or a collective one ("Can you and your partner bring the ball back to me using exactly five touches?"). After a few minutes of rehearsal, ask your players to demonstrate their "best" solutions, and allow the players to vote on which ideas they like best. Activities like this are ideal for the early segments of your practice, when you typically work at the individual or small-group level on fundamental ball skills. When you emphasize improvisation early in the practice, players will be more likely to sustain their creative expression as you increase the pressure and complexity of your activities later in the session.

The key rule in this process is "don't judge early". All ideas must be seen as good ones initially, provided they are different from what has already been suggested or demonstrated. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible, and then we can filter down to the best ones at the final stage of the process.

Competition can also serve as fuel for your players' creative fire. Working cooperatively, they can compete to meet a brainstorming target that the coach has established for them ("Can you show me ten different ways to turn with the ball?"). Working separately, players will often be highly motivated to "one up" each other when given a challenge to devise new moves or tricks with the ball.

Creativity tends to be evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. It builds on existing abilities and ideas, but combines them in new and unexpected ways. The best ideas often emerge when we modify or extend upon other, less-appealing ones. Because of this, another method that works well to train creative players is the "embrace and extend" approach. This method starts with mimicry; have your players watch more proficient players, and then challenge them to copy (and master) the techniques they see from their role models on the higher-level teams. Once each player has acquired a reasonable repertoire of ability, you can challenge them to adapt, combine, or otherwise modify these skills to come up with new skills that they can "make their own".

Finally, remember that it isn't creative to do what someone else has told you to do! Coaches must allow players to come up with their own ideas, even at the risk of failing in the process. When you sense that your players have "run out of ideas", then you can use guided discovery techniques to lead them in the right direction, but ultimately you must let them "solve the problem" if you want to keep the creative spirit alive in your team.

About the Author The co-creator of SoccerROM, Robert Parr holds a USSF 'A' license, NSCAA Premier Diploma, and a USSF National Youth Coaching license. He is currently the Director of Coaching for the Arkansas State Soccer Association. Previously, he served as the Director of Coaching and WPSL Head Coach for the Puerto Rico Capitals FC, the first international franchise to compete in the Women's Premier Soccer League. From 2003-2008, he was the Head Women's Soccer Coach at Georgia College & State University and also coached for the Georgia State Soccer Association Olympic Development Program. From 1995-2002, Robert was the Director of Training for the American Soccer Club "Eagles" youth program in Austin, Texas (now known as Lonestar SC). He also served as the South Texas Men's State Team Coach from 1996-1998, and a South Texas YSA State Staff Coach for both the Olympic Development Program (1991-1999) and the Coaching Education Program (1991-2002). From 1989 until 1995, Robert was the Head Coach of the University of Texas Men's Soccer Team, where he led the program to a National Collegiate Club Championship in 1990, three other National Tournament appearances, and an overall record of 80-25-16. You can reach Robert at robert@soccerrom.com.