In this blog, Ellie Tanser, U17 coach at Malet Lambert YC Girls & Ladies, discusses how she works with coaches, players, and parents to positively influence her team. The subject of working with others will feature on the grassroots delivery team’s CPD menu next year, so we thought we would start the conversation now. 

There are lots of people that can have an impact on your players, and lots of people you can utilise when you are coaching. Starting my coaching journey at 17/18 years old, its only in more recent years I have begun to utilise others when coaching. These people include coaches, players, and parents.  

Coaches 

A second coach can be a huge help when coaching and I am lucky enough to have a second coach with me when coaching my U16s. We will often each coach a team when delivering game-based sessions in training, this is great for the motivation of players, and it can make it easier to ensure you get what you want from the sessions. For example, If I’m delivering a session with a focus on a high press, my second coach can ensure the topic comes out of the session by setting the defensive team targets, such as if they make 5 passes in their defensive 3rd they get a point. Ensuring all players have a target, not just the team I am working with, in my experience, always increases the motivation of the players. 

Players 

I have had a particularly large squad this season which has meant that sometimes there has been 4 or 5 substitutes at games, which can be difficult to manage, and even more difficult to keep everyone happy! But one thing that worked well for me is to give them a task while they are on the bench. At the beginning of the season we were trying to walk the ball into the back of the net and players were not taking the opportunity to shoot when in and around the penalty area. In a bid to help combat this, I gave my substitutes a pen and paper and asked them to note down every shot we had. We did this at every game for about 6 weeks and by the end of it our shot tally had dramatically increased, and what was great about it was that the substitutes were still engaged in the game, began to see these opportunities for themselves and started to actively encourage their teammates to shoot. 

I often get the girls to take a lead on warm up games and organising teams too. I think it’s great to give the girls some responsibility and gives them chance to develop their social, communication and leadership skills. Over the many years I have been at this club, several of the girls I have coached have come back themselves to coach a team and have become role models to the younger girls. 

Parents 

Parents can and do have a huge role to play. I have had issues in the past with parents giving out conflicting instructions to the girls, which can be really frustrating not only for me as a coach but for the players, because they don’t want to let anyone down. Ensuring you have the support of the parents and letting them know how you want the team to play and asking them to encourage the team to play in this way, can only help the team and the players.  
Being a grassroots coach is really rewarding but it is also a tough role at times and can be very time-consuming, so it really helps and makes my role as the coach easier, if I utilise everyone around me. This ensures I can spend more time focusing on the team.  

Hopefully reading about Ellie’s experiences will encourage you to engage with other coaches, your players and parents. You may do this already. Either way we would love to hear if you do and have tips for other members or if you have any questions about how to start building these relationships. Please comment below.