Coaching Culture And Philosophy

I feel this is an area often neglected when we start to get involved with coaching. By ‘philosophy’, I mean how we manage players as athletes AND as people. Sociologically, how can we as hockey coaches adapt our approaches to different groups; how do we best articulate ourselves to persuade players to buy into the team’s tactics; and particularly relevant in the case of junior coaching, how can we set a good example for character development? Teams being composed of people with a wide array of skills, habits and traits, I believe that a ‘standardised’ coaching style is redundant.

I will begin first with some recommendations for reading up on philosophy in hockey coaching before going onto some observations of my own for managing players. I recommend the following:

‘World’s Best’ by Ric Charlesworth

This is an autobiography on Charlesworth’s career as Head Coach of the Kookaburras, the Australian national men’s team. Under his coaching between 2008 and 2014, the men played in 21 finals or semi-finals between the Olympic Games, World Cup or Champions Trophies, winning 20 of those encounters.[1] On one hand, the book focusses on his career more than sport specifics like session planning, exercises etc; naturally, not all of this is relevant to the day-to-day of coaching. But the chapters on creating a culture of ‘excellence’ within teams, myths in coaching and how to get the best out of different players offer useful suggestions.

‘Hockey: A Philosophical Game’ by Andreu Enrich

This is a much less autobiographical book by Andreu Enrich - the hockey coach and ex-national player from Terrassa, Spain, who is now a prolific writer as well. He looks in detail at the idea of mechanisms and principles that we coach such as the infamous ‘give and go’ without always considering why; the importance of adding transitions to exercises so that it’s game realistic, for example in an attacking exercise the defenders must have a concrete objective for countering if they gain possession; and much more on how we can get the most out of players who we coach. I would recommend this most out of his other works.

‘Lucha-playing the impossible’

There are endless Netflix documentaries on American and European football but there is also one on hockey, still available on YouTube! ‘Lucha’ focusses on the story behind the incredible Luciana Aymar, the only FIH player to win the Player of the Year Award 8 times as a hockey international. Her development as an athlete, the build up across various Olympics and how the ‘leonas’ have become a formidable team in women’s hockey are all part of this documentary. It reinforces some excellent ethics which we should want to encourage amongst players as coaches.

This is available on YouTube but no longer on Netflix.

My Philosophical Recommendations

It is critical for a good coach to remember they are dealing with PEOPLE. With hockey in mind, these people include players, their families, fellow-coaches and interlocking communities. When managing these different groups, you need to be clear in your head how you intend to be an example, offer support and how you will get the best out of them.

Obviously, when dealing with different age groups, ladies and men’s teams you must nuance your approach. But there are general guidelines which I always recommend following to some degree.

1.) Don’t let your ego take control:

As a coach, naturally you are in a position of power but not OVER other players. Rather, you want to persuade your team to buy into your tactical and technical mindset but still retain the independence to make decisions for themselves in games. It sounds obvious but if you act like you know more than they do and should have the executive decision in every aspect of THEIR hockey, they will stop engaging and even resent you

2.) Don’t talk too much:

Richard Saul Wurman, founder of TED talks, set the limit of these fascinating speeches by scientists, writers and entrepreneurs all over the world to 18 minutes.[2] The principle behind this is that the language and approach to teaching - as it is for coaching - is essential for conveying the actual material, regardless of how interesting you may find it personally.

This is particularly relevant to junior coaching at any level. With the volume of information readily available via social media and the internet, teenagers are more selective about what they pay attention to. You have to A) learn the interests and traits of your group which you can call upon to sharpen their focus and B) be concise when reviewing exercises or giving instructions.

Obviously, if you talked at players for 18 minutes, that may be about a 1/6 of the session gone and a whole lot of very bored souls! So, when reviewing or speaking to a team as a group, I recommend sticking to 2-3 minutes between exercises and being clinical with what you say. Don’t ramble and stray from clear, session-specific objectives you have thought out beforehand!

3.) Engage players in their own sessions:

There are a variety of ways to engage players in the running of their own session:

1.     Asking open ended questions: If you only give players the option to merely answer yes or no, A) you limit their chance to express an opinion and B) it’s often not a good indicator of whether they have understood an exercise.

For example, “What passing options should a player running on the right baseline have in the opposing team’s circle?” is better than just asking “Do we understand what passing options a player running on the baseline should have?”

2.     Choosing captains amongst players for small-sided games to manage teams, discuss the constraints of the game and figure out how to achieve success. These players can feedback for their groups and develop through this position of responsibility. Whoever the captain is can be rotated to avoid the appearance of favouritism!

4.) Organise non-hockey activities:

The idea of ‘team building’ can be very daunting in sport setting for new or socially awkward players. However, it is very important to organise regular social activities to develop and push teams. Playing hockey can be – in the same way as any team sport - a fantastic way of socialising but parallel to this, socialising constructively can improve the performance of any team.

Diverging briefly away from hockey, there are numerous studies which demonstrate emphatically the individual and sociological benefits of sport, team-based or otherwise. Rupprecht and Matkin’s fascinating study on female marathon runners highlights several key aspects of being part of a sporting community: struggle, emotion, pride, intimate connections, preparation, and inspiration. Running a gruelling 26.2 miles tests everyone differently but across all the interviews in this article, it’s clear that the athletes felt strengthened and part of a running community. In one interview, a runner is quoted as saying “everyone’s got their energy and it’s almost palpable, you can feel it.”[3] I completely agree with this feeling of group fulfilment from sport and would recommend reading this study!

Another interesting example of community feeling within sport has been exemplified by Claudio Ranieri, manager for Leicester FC in the 2015-2016 season. Coming into the season determined to avoid relegation, they had one particularly challenging game against Crystal Palace. Claudio told the team that if they kept a clean sheet, he would buy them all pizzas after the game.

Having won 1:0, he took them all out afterwards to a pizzeria. But, instead of simply ordering, he told them that they had to make their own pizzas each before they could eat.[4]

This team went on to defy all odds and win the Premier League. Obviously, a lot of factors contributed but Ranieri remained convinced in interviews that the team mentality benefitted significantly from light hearted team building - that through this attitude, the team ended up having ‘twenty-six different brains. But one heart.’[5]

In the context of hockey, if one weekly training lasts an hour and a half plus a game at the weekend, that’s not a lot of time to get to know each other. You want players to be interested, aware and supportive of one another; this will come about through time spent constructively together.

I want to put especial emphasis on socials being constructive and NOT counterproductive. On one hand, particularly for university sides and adult teams, having a beer after a weekend match or going to the pub in of itself can be a good opportunity to build friendships in the team.

On the other hand, this is often taken too far. Getting very drunk and enforcing humiliating challenges for team members to be seen as integrated is not a good foundation for any team. Coaches should be actively discouraging this. As an example of constructive team building, when I was coaching abroad last season for the junior section of a club, one weekend we involved all the juniors in a renovation of the clubhouse including cleaning, painting and decoration.

This is the atmosphere you want where supporting and encouraging a conscientious attitude in fellow players is key.

Conclusion

I hope this article has at the very least given you an idea on where to look for ideas on developing your coaching philosophy. It won’t be a lineal journey, there will be good days and bad days. But there is never one answer or one way of getting the best out of players, so never stop learning or reflecting!

If you want to get involved and share some thoughts about hockey just send us your blog post on info@lmhockey.co.uk and we will publish it. Here is a little incentive to get involved. For the 1st article we publish you will get a discount of 30%, for the 2nd 35% and for the 3rd you get 40% off your next purchase with LMHockey.

Written By Barnaby | LMHockey

References:

1.     Charlesworth, Ric, World’s Best (RC Sports WA 2016)

2.     Enrich, Andreu, Hockey: A Philosophical Game (Andreu Enrich Femenias 2020)

3.     Ranieri, Claudio, ‘We do not dream’ (Players Tribune, 06 April 2016), https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/claudio-ranieri-leicester-city-premier-league, accessed 28/10/2024

4.     Guay, Matthew, ‘How Ted Talks became 18 minutes long’, (Techinch blog, 24 February 2023), https://techinch.com/blog/ted-talk-18-minute-time-limit-history#:~:text=TED's%2018%2Dminute%20speech%20limit,Wurman's%20original%20intuition%20was%20correct, accessed 20/11/2024

5.     Rupprecht P and Matkin G, ‘Exploring the Meaning of Marathons for Women Who Run Multiple Races’ (2012), Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 44, no. 3

[1] Charlesworth, Ric, World’s Best, RC Sports (WA), 2016, p323.

[2]  Guay, Matthew, “How Ted Talks became 18 minutes long”, Techinch blog, (24 February 2023), https://techinch.com/blog/ted-talk-18-minute-time-limit-history#:~:text=TED's%2018%2Dminute%20speech%20limit,Wurman's%20original%20intuition%20was%20correct, accessed 20/11/2024

[3] Peggy Rupprecht and Gina Matkin, ‘Exploring the Meaning of Marathons for Women Who Run Multiple Races’ Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 44, no. 3, 2012, p316

[4] Claudio Ranieri, “We do not dream”, Players Tribune, (06 April 2016), https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/claudio-ranieri-leicester-city-premier-league, accessed 28/10/2024

[5] Ranieri, “We do not dream”, Players Tribune.