Behaviour - Disruptive players

I coach an under-8 team.

They are all nice lads but the behaviour of a few is majorly disruptive to the sessions. When I tell other coaches of the same age group about some of the issues they can relate but they acknowledge my lads seem especially problematic.

I think they've all developed in the time we've had them but I do feel if they were more focused they would have made greater strides by now because we give so many goals to the opposition and they don't seem to be that bothered - I suppose they seem to be enjoying themselves which is the main thing!

The poor behaviour manifests itself in different ways according to the child but the common themes are:

- Running off to parents during warm-ups or when they are substituted knowing they will come back on 

- Talking over me when me and my assistant are trying to coach them - often singing or talking gibberish about something unrelated to what we are doing

- giving silly answers every time we quiz them or ask them a question related to the exercise.

- saying immediately before kick-off they need the toilet (despite being asked earlier if they need to go)

- straying from what we asked them to do in a training drill e.g. if we're passing, they might kick the ball away into a goal we're not using.

- when off the pitch as subs, climbing on fences, play-fighting, playing on swings if in close proximity

It's a case of one bad apple as well, so when one misbehaves, it's like a green light for the other usual culprits to mess.

Tactics we've introduced:

- 2 min sin-bin, which increases to 5 mins if repeat offence

- threatening less game time on a match day

(the lads who mess don't seem bothered by these sanctions although I've not actually had to cut players game time yet but maybe that's because we tolerate too much bad behaviour in training)

Based on approaches I've researched and read on here, I am busy producing a document of Expectations which I intend to share with parents so letting them know the standards we expect and how we need their support. I will introduce 4 key behaviours which we will regularly remind the boys of:

- Be Safe

- Have Fun

- Be Ready to Learn – open-mindedness – willing to try other positions, listen to coaches recommendations knowing we have their interest at heart

- Be Respectful

Since the beginning of last season, in training sessions we provide a certificate to the best behaved/most focussed as well.

If I take stock of how far we've come, to be fair we've made lots of progress (but we did have two players with learning difficulties who have now left) but we still appear far behind other teams we come across as I observe other teams' behaviour.

If my players were good players and in love with the game then we would tolerate poor behaviour less but because I can tell a few of them enjoy football but don't 'love it' I feel like being too strict with them will make them stop enjoying it and stop coming. On the flip side, that might not be a bad thing but its a shame as they have a lot of potential.

Parents
  • Hi  

    Hope you're well. Just thought I'd check in with how everything is going following your question. I have also included tw links below which may be a good read for managing difficult behavior within football

    https://learn.englandfootball.com/articles/resources/2022/How-to-improve-player-behaviour-in-training

    https://www.thefa.com/news/2017/feb/02/the-boot-room---top-10-tips-player-behaviour-030217

    Let us knw.

    Thanks, Will

  • Hi Will,

    Thank you for sending the links across. Excellent tips in those articles. Alot of which we have incorporated for a long time and some of them are reassuring as I do them anyway for the reasons explained in the articles.

    So I think me and the coaches are doing a lot right but it has to be said the behaviours haven't improved much from when I published the original post (maybe a couple have improved their behaviour slightly but because more than half are prone to messing, even the better-behaved ones can get sucked into it which I can understand why).

    At the end of the day, it is what it is and while other teams in the same age group at our club behave better (based on discussions with fellow coaches) I do believe a lot of it is pot luck and these same players would present the same issues to other coaches.

    That said, we haven't explored ALL intervention methods yet because I've still not issued the Expectations document for parents/kids I'm working on. Funnily enough I've made a lot of progress this week with it. It's taken this long because 1) I'm a busy dad with 4 kids and 2) it's grew legs and has become more than just a list of expectations.

    Whilst it included expected standards of the players it is basically a Welcome/Informational/childrens activity ebook!

    I'm currently shopping round for reasonably priced Graphic Designer to help give it some life, now that I've completed the content. If you happen to know any, let me know!? ha

    I'm quite proud of what I've produced and think it will provide clarity to parents and the kids on what the club is about and what we expect from the kids when it comes to conduct. 

    Alot of work has gone into it for just one team but I will present it to our club committee as they may want it to become a Welcome/onboarding/information ebook for players who join the club to improve the parent/player experience when they start out.

    Another thing I've done recently is sign our team up for extra coaching from qualified coaches. I'll be interested to see how the lads fare and I'm hoping they will improve their conduct in front of coaches they perceive as an authority of the game.

    Thanks for your message.

  • New depths sunk to in our latest training session sadly.

    Poor attention and behaviour from 7 out of 10 players.

    Unable to perform even the most basic of exercises, mainly due to lack of focus with player's dancing and talking gibberish for attention, and poor conduct by smacking the ball far too hard out of the circle with little care.

    Modifying their technique based on individual coaching feedback only to revert back to messing within seconds of me leaving to coach another station/pair a mere 2 metres away.

    Kids messing even with their dads telling them to stop.

    Kids playfully mauling each other or facing eachother with backs to me while giving them tips to follow (maybe my instructions went on too long but a few had started messing within 10 seconds so either way they weren't able to take on the information).

    A player retaliated after he felt like he was fouled in the match at the end.

    A separate couple of players kicked out at each other with one chasing the other to confront him with the session just finished. Brought them together to smooth things over but because the rest of the players and parents were waiting to wrap up the session, there wasn't time to address it fully even though the lads calmed down.

    During the debrief to quickly run through what we did, question what they learnt, reward those who did well etc, one of the players put his hand up only to tell everyone how one of the other players didn't want to be his friend on Roblox.

    One other child raised their hand only to ask a a daft/nonsensical question unrelated to football to get a laugh. At this point in the post-training chat they were all super hyper and being silly.

    *sighs*

    It's a shame because there's a few lads who have a good attitude as they put effort into the exercises and listen mostly well, as well as having a laugh and joke at appropriate times.

  • Hi Paul,

    Well done for continuing to persist with this ongoing challenge and to continue to try to confront this behaviour head on through a number of methods. Your approach to improving the situation has been excellent and will take a lot of trial and error until you find what ticks for your players.

    Once the guides are shared with players/families hopefully there will be clarity around player expectations and what the club looks for on its players and learning environment.

    In terms of your sessions and behaviour on the night, something that has worked before is using visuals to show your players what they will be missing out on. Something I have regularly done in the past is write ‘30’ on a whiteboard. This indicates how many minutes of game time the players get, every time someone misbehaves they lose a minute. They can earn minutes back however it is key to stick to your principles and what you believe to be acceptable behaviour. In terms of unacceptable behaviour I wouldn’t hesitate to speak to parents after sessions and include the players either privately or collectively and explain what is acceptable/unacceptable if you are volunteering your time players need to learn to be respectful of that.   

    This can be adapted to suit your group and players and what they enjoy most. 

    Keep us posted with the guides and how you get on.

    Thanks, Will.

Reply
  • Hi Paul,

    Well done for continuing to persist with this ongoing challenge and to continue to try to confront this behaviour head on through a number of methods. Your approach to improving the situation has been excellent and will take a lot of trial and error until you find what ticks for your players.

    Once the guides are shared with players/families hopefully there will be clarity around player expectations and what the club looks for on its players and learning environment.

    In terms of your sessions and behaviour on the night, something that has worked before is using visuals to show your players what they will be missing out on. Something I have regularly done in the past is write ‘30’ on a whiteboard. This indicates how many minutes of game time the players get, every time someone misbehaves they lose a minute. They can earn minutes back however it is key to stick to your principles and what you believe to be acceptable behaviour. In terms of unacceptable behaviour I wouldn’t hesitate to speak to parents after sessions and include the players either privately or collectively and explain what is acceptable/unacceptable if you are volunteering your time players need to learn to be respectful of that.   

    This can be adapted to suit your group and players and what they enjoy most. 

    Keep us posted with the guides and how you get on.

    Thanks, Will.

Children
No Data