This question comes from Spence via Twitter: “Am I wrong for benching my best player?” Additional Content The Shadow of Team Culture, John Alder Leadership & Culture in Coaching, John Alder Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions,…
leadership
The question this week comes from Liam, via the PDP Facebook Page: “I’m working with players around the age of 14. What are your thoughts on having a group of 2-3 players replace the coach and lead one training session per week?“ Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP…
The question this week comes from Stuart via Facebook: “If I have a few players who I think have the right qualities to be the team’s captain, what coaching can I give them to help them be a good captain?“ Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can…
Margaret Wheatley with Debbie Frieze The Big Idea Get ready for a wake-up call to the common among us—which is to say a call to all of us. In this short paper published in Resurgence Magazine (Winter 2011) Margaret Wheatley takes a unique position regarding leadership. She will argue that the place to look for true leadership in an age of complexity is inward, and not outward to the time-worn desire for heroes to come to our rescue. Early on, Wheatley refers to the opening line of the…
The question this week comes from Barry: “I want to be a better leader and control my sessions. I work with an U12 team who I am struggling to get to focus and I want to improve my control over sessions. I also work with an U17 team and I feel like I need to communicate my ideas to the players more effectively.” Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to…
Freedom, what does it mean in a performance or player development environment and can it overwhelm or confuse your players? Co-founder of myfastestmile and top PDP contributor, Mark Upton shares his excellent blog post on managing this cultural and environmental shift. “You can’t get sustained exceptional performance from a controlling environment – push autonomy down the hierarchy” I’ve recently spent some time on performance cultures and environments, fortunate to be able to share experiences with a handful of exceptional people working in a range of…
Masculinity: what is the dominant narrative around it and how does it effect the way we coach, educate and behave? PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan confronts this challenging topic all in the name of a good cause. PDP will be raising money & awareness for this campaign in October. Are you a polished man? Over the last 18 months I’ve written (and talked – probably too much) about the influence of: Social norms Cultural assumptions Expectations Values The language we use Dominant narratives Especially in…
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…
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…
Tony Readings is an International Coach who has attended two Olympics and three FIFA Women’s World Cups with the New Zealand Women’s team. He is the holder of the AFC Pro License and the UEFA A license and has been coaching at international level for almost a decade. Tony joins us for an in-depth discussion, covering the following topics: Join PDP Editor & UEFA A licensed coach, Dave Wright & PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan as they discuss these topics and a whole lot more….
PDP Video Session Plans are adaptable sessions designed by academy coach, Dave Wright. All sessions show key focus points, set up, and progressions so you can use them in your next practice.
Talent ID is a topic that polarises opinion. In recent years, professional clubs have begun their search for ‘talent’ at a younger and younger age. Mark O’Sullivan examines the talent identification landscape and questions whether the process is merely a survival of the fittest. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, organisms which are better adapted to their environment tend to survive longer. Does the environment we create influence the selection process and favour those that possess attributes that give them a temporary advantage while at…
Why, in arguably the most informed, analysed and qualification-driven era in football coaching history, are players still being made to learn in a culture of fear? PDP Editor, Dave Wright discusses how coaches can facilitate and environment built on trust. The role of a football coach should be to facilitate the development and growth of the players under his or her tutelage, in an individual and collective manner. Most importantly, a coach should be a leader, a figurehead who is coaching purely for his or…
Founder of Changing the Game Project, John O’Sullivan discusses the attributes of great teams, building culture and the importance of service an accountability. “Coach, can I talk to you?” “Sure,” I said. “What’s on your mind today Michael?” “Well, I just want to know what I can do so I get to start more games and get more playing time as a center midfielder. I don’t think I am showing my best as a winger, and my parents tell me I am not going to…