Player Development Project Lead Researcher, James Vaughan recently attended the third annual International Congress for Psychology Applied to Football. He shares his notes from this prestigious event where some of the best thinkers in player development shared their ideas on the state of the game. An Introduction The AIPAF is partnership between academics and professionals who are dedicated to improving player development. By combining the stories and experiences of forward-thinking compassionate coaches, clubs and psychologists, AIPAF aims to forge a new path for player development…
Culture & Leadership
A topic at the heart of PDP content. The culture of our team or club can shape the development of our players.
To set the scene for the following discussion on socio-cultural constraints, we start with Ruben Jongkind’s comments made during May 2016’s NextGen Talks. Ruben is the former Head of Talent Development at Ajax Amsterdam, and after working with Johan Cruyff on ‘Plan Cruyff’ he is regarded as a leading authority on Johan’s philosophy. Ruben Jongkind’s comments give a clear example of how socio-cultural (macro) factors influence player development within academies. While most of us are well aware of the problems with a ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality, Ruben’s…
Co-founder of Myfastestmile & regular PDP contributor, Mark Upton discusses learning dynamics and the challenges of making change within any existing system citing examples from performance sport. I was recently asked for a reflection on my experiences in performance sport. After some pondering what came to mind was how learning (for all involved, not just players) needs to be a constant given that there will never be a blueprint/recipe/formula that can be settled upon with any permanency. Over time this becomes easier said than done,…
Learning and hunger for knowledge is an essential ingredient to good coaching and personal development. Founder of Football For Good Academy in Uganda, Adrian Bradbury discusses the value in always learning, talent development and the challenges of football in East Africa. Full disclosure, I’m a Canadian (a country sitting uncomfortably in 100th position in the FIFA rankings), who didn’t play high-level football, but instead ‘clutched and grabbed’ my way through a very modest university basketball career. Imagine Rick Carlisle, without the height or ability. So, the irony is not lost…
Alfonso Montuori The Big Idea While summarising Montuori’s paper may well bring it home to the reader, there is an even better way to see the Big Idea. For a wonderful and current example of this big idea in action, just follow the United States Presidential election process for the duration of the summer and fall of 2016. In it you will see exactly what an anti-pluralist, totalitarian mind-set is in the so-called campaign of the Republican candidate for President. We are not trying to…
How do we manage our own bias in coaching and player development? Founder of Fit Across Cultures, Susan Salzbrenner discusses this difficult topic that is inherently part of human nature but manageable if you invest time with learning to understand your players. Every coach has a favorite player. Although most of them would never admit that. Giving all players a fair chance to prove their worth is a quality many coaches pride themselves with. But is there really such a thing as being a fair…
Dr. John Alder is the Head of Performance Pathways at English Institute of Sport & was previously the Coaching Manager for Sports Coach UK and the High Performance Development Lead for the New Zealand Rugby League for 3 years where he consulted for the Kiwis team on a number of high profile campaigns including the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. John holds a Masters in Sports Coaching & a PhD in High Performance Sport Management which focuses on leadership and Change Culture. In this video…
Euro 2016 provided a fascinating insight into the relationship between football, player development and culture. PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan looks at the importance of culture and how its influences can be traced in different development environments across the world. The way we play football is a reflection of culture. Playing styles (team and individual) mirror the social values and cultural practises within socio-cultural contexts. Contexts like the schools, clubs, or groups we’ve belonged to. Growing up in England I tackled hard, avoided making mistakes and played it safe, especially under…
Alfonso Montuori and Ronald E. Purser The Big Idea The topic is creativity. The problem is the stubborn persistence in popular culture of believing creative artists of all sorts—musicians, scientists, inventors, athletes, writers—are lone geniuses. These authors ask the question: Just how autonomous is the creative individual? They answer: Not very. Takeaways This paper exhibits what it explains: that creative ideas (in this case on the subject of creativity itself) depend heavily on social contexts, dimensions, and histories. The authors attempt to demystify the idea…
Regular PDP contributor and Talent ID Manager at The FA, Nick Levett, gives us his views on the cultural challenges that are intertwined in English football by examining expectation culture and reflecting on how other European nations view their own football teams. The pattern comes around every two years for most people who follow the England national team and, of recent years, it has followed a similar theme: breeze through the qualification structures, soundly beating nations that we can soundly beat and then enter the…
With England recently crashing out of the Euro 2016 tournament against Iceland in one of the biggest upsets in football history, Dave Wright attempts to take an objective look at just where it went wrong and how now is a time for reflection, not revolution. National Disaster Iceland 2 – England 1: It was a result that sent Twitter into meltdown. Social media memes emerged within minutes mocking the English football team. The nation, (already in turmoil after a weekend of political conflict) needed…
Steve Lawrence is a consultant to Cruyff Football and Ajax in the Netherlands. With a Masters in International Sports Management, Steve founded the Football Analytics Lab and is at the forefront of research into the topic of Relative Age Effects. In this article, Steve looks at the age profiles of the teams involved in Euro 2016 and how these may have impacted the competition. In Issue #10 of Player Development Project Magazine I wrote an article on Relative Age Effect, which introduced the idea…
Regular PDP contributor, Dan Wright gives us an excellent insight into his 3 month journey from the comforts of West London to the challenges of coaching in Africa. In this insightful article, Dan outlines the value of people in any organisation. Driven kids, challenging facilities and some surprising results. This blog examines the Football For Good Academy, Uganda’s only full time football program achieving results against the odds. For the past 3 months I have been coaching in Gulu, Northern Uganda. There have been many new experiences…
PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan examines the influence of corporations on football. Highlighting the danger of economic incentives he looks at how Leicester City’s story could be catalyst for a revolution in the global football story. Where do you think future of the game (football) is going? Question posed by Eduardo Rubio (Head of Academy Coach Development at MK Dons, England) at a panel discussion entitled “Building a learning culture in a football club” at the 2016 AIPAF: III International congress of Applied Psychology in…
Chelladurai and S. D. Saleh The Big Idea Leadership is a popular topic. In fact, if one Googles “leadership” you come in with 751,000,000 results. Not impressed? Well, think of it this way: “leadership” is only 180,000,000 behind the Google results for “sex.” So at least by this metric the general topic of this paper is remarkably popular indeed. Of course, when you gradually narrow down the specific concerns this research study addresses, it does take a bit of a drop—“leadership in sports” comes in…
Why do we coach? Why do we lead? What inspires us to take on the challenge of being the talisman of any group? Dave Wright determines what it means to be a leader by examining the 2016 LMA and Premier League Manager of the Year, Claudio Ranieri. Whatever your context, whether it’s in the office, on the training pitch, leading a group of U8s or taking your Leicester City team on a magical mystery tour to Premier League glory, leadership is an art form that…
Spanish football is constantly seen as a model for success in player development. Regular PDP Contributor & Founder of TOVO Institute, Todd Beane examines what elements of Spanish culture and football contribute to their consistent success in developing top players. Why Spain? “The ball is an essential part of the game.” – Johan Cruijff Take this quiz. Why does Spain produce such skillful footballers? A. They watch quality football every weekend.B. Club loyalty is a family tradition.C. Children are comfortable on the ball.D. All of…
What value do stories play in sport? Making sense of the sporting narrative and being able to translate and challenge these ideas in our coaching is a critical part of player development. Tradition plays a huge part in the systems with which we operate as coaches. Breaking the norm and creating a new narrative can be a catalyst for change. Joining us for this intriguing conversation will be Al Smith, Co-founder of myfastestmile on how the narratives around you can influence your coaching behaviour, performance and…