Filed under: John Grisby, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: Amercian Football, Coach Roger Barta, coaching, football player
It makes no difference if you do not understand the mechanics of American football, the scoring system, time keeping, or
players’ positions. In this specific case, these things are irrelevant to understanding the scope of the coaching achievement.
Over 30 seasons coach Roger Barta has won 273 games, lost 58 and guided his team to six state American football championship titles. His Smith Centre High School team from Kansas are currently on a four-year winning streak. During 2007-2008 they have won 54 games in a row and outscored opponents 844 to 20. They broke a national record set in 1925 by scoring 72 points in the first quarter of a game, and despite replacing the entire senior team before halftime with first year freshmen, they went on to win that game 83-0.
Barta’s approach could not contrast more starkly with the way most coaches push their players in competitive sports. For this team, playing football is almost the last thing on their mind. In fact they are not really bothered about winning games. The “how”, “who”, “what” and “why” of what they do goes far beyond the pitch and gives an entirely different meaning to the word “winning”.
Coach Barta possesses years of technical, tactical and strategic expertise. He still enjoys writing his scouting reports and running the same offensive and defensive formations season after season. Yet there is something very different about how under him, each individual as a member of the team approaches every practice, game and championship title.
What emerges is a picture of how he uses his qualities as a coach, both as a leader and a human being, combined with his football expertise, to make an impact.
That impact starts in the first year a player steps on the field right through to their senior year, and, one would imagine, continues throughout their lives.
Ask any Smith Center player what makes him perform so well and it is probable that he will not mention football but rather the qualities of the coach. Here are some examples:
Purpose – “He puts special things into winning. Small things like silence on the bus and holding hands before taking the field”.
Challenge and enjoyment in the process – “We like to set different goals every game like only allowing ourselves a certain number of yards each time we have the ball”.
Leadership – “As good a coach he is, he’s a better guy. He treats everybody like gold”.
Mentoring and Being – “He speaks with us about how to be men, things like respect – then shows us”.
Responsibility and awareness – “Each player signs a contract to be drug, alcohol and tobacco-free – for ourselves and the team”.
The qualities Barta demonstrates are especially powerful in the critical years when young talent needs to be nurtured in order to flourish. According to the players, the result is a transformational experience for each player.
Coach Barta’s success shows at the very least the enormous potential for a professional development club or youth academy to adopt this approach. If you can develop coaches who have a personal signature powerful enough to inspire people and an entire system, it usually delivers huge returns to the club, to the coaches, and most important of all, to the players.
About the author: John Grisby is a Performance Coach at DNA Performance which helps individuals and teams become aware of their potential www.dnaperformance.co.uk
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Team Management | Tags: better soccer coaching, England manager Fabio Capello, grassroots coaches, grassroots soccer, soccer games, TV programme Soccer AM
Whichever way I turned this week someone was having a go at grassroots coaches. First when Ashley Cole refused to look
at the referee who was booking him for a bad foul, somehow the discussions managed to blame the behaviour of players in grassroots soccer and the coaches that patrol it.
Then watching the TV programme Soccer AM on Saturday morning, Trevor Brooking took the cameras on a tour of the Football Association HQ, where we saw the England manager Fabio Capello in his office and various secretaries who looked after this and that. Then Trevor burst into a meeting where the Chief Executive of the FA Brian Barwick was talking to his team. “We are discussing the behavioural problems of the coaches in grassroots soccer,” said Brian.
Trevor furrowed his brow as if to say Yes that is a problem.
Then in the Liverpool – Manchester United game Javier Mascherano was sent off causing another full scale debate over behaviour by players towards referees. And yet again grassroots soccer was at the heart of the debate
I expected to see the offices of Better Soccer Coaching surrounded by people calling for our heads this morning.
So I put “dangerous cult” into Google and what pops up? No not grassroots coaches but the Church of Scientology. I’m beginning to wonder what these commentators on Sky and BBC really do think grassroots soccer is about. Have they ever been to a game at a weekend with young enthusiastic players and enthusiastic coaches and parents who sometimes get overexcited by what they see their kids doing?
The only time I have had a problem with my players is when they have been watching hightlights of the English Premier League before they come and play a match. Then they copy the swearing and challenging of the referee because that is what the players at the top do, the players that drive the Aston Martins and spend their lives on soccer pitches and get paid the astronomical sums we hear about.
Here at Better Soccer Coaching we are well aware of all the initiatives that are going on to try and stop abuse at youth soccer games and I think they are beginning to have a positive effect. The only negativity now comes from the people who run soccer.
Abuse of referees and linesmen has been cut down, but that is what I see each week. Maybe you see something different. Let us know by commenting below.
David Clarke, editor, Better Soccer Coaching
