Please Note: The transcript is automatically generated by Supertranslate.beta in case you come across any typos or misquotes during your reading.     

[Jamie]

Hello and welcome to Coachcast by England Football Learning, the coaching podcast that brings you insight from people across the game. As always, we're Jamie and Louise and today we're joined by James Riches, who's coming back to the show to talk about managing training and making sessions fun.

[Jamie]

Well, hi James, welcome back to the show. How are you?

[James]

Good, thank you. How are you?

[Louise]

All good, thanks. Really good and really nice to see you again and have you back on. For anybody that hasn't listened to an episode that you've been on before, can you tell us a little bit about your role and what it is that you do for the FA?

[James]

So I think since the last time I was on, I've now shifted to the Grassroots Division and I'm part of the Grassroots Coach Development Team. My title is Regional Manager for education and school sports workforce. So we still have the same remit of trying to support teachers, trainee teachers and coaches in the education space but I guess we're trying to develop a workforce that can do that for us on our behalf. So just a slight shift in not me directly doing it.

[Jamie]

Fantastic. Well, just before we dive into the show, as you know, because this is a coaching podcast, we like to start the show with some good top tips.

[Louise]

We're going to give you 30 seconds and we're going to ask you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in those 30 seconds. Are you up for that?

[James]

Yeah, definitely. Okay, so I think knowing, getting to know your players is a big one. I've probably said this before on previous podcasts, but get to know your players and where they're at, understand their needs, and don't forget their age. I think sometimes there's a rush to make it look more like an adult session or adult-like. Don't forget their needs. They want to play and not necessarily listen. Don't forget that either.

[Louise]

Fantastic. Thank you. Perfectly done.

[Jamie]

As I say, you've been on the podcast before, James, but it has been a little while since you last joined us. I think it was actually back in Series 3. So what have you been up to since you were last here?

[James]

I guess from a grassroots perspective, my grassroots team have probably now progressed to 11v11, which is a great new experience. I think it's been nice to see the confidence grow in the boys. I always say development takes time and in the 9v9 season it was tough going for them, but they've grown and just seeing them now compete in the 11v11 game is fantastic to see. And probably something else that's happened over the last couple of years, me and the family have now been fostering for about two years, which kind of resonates with some of the top tips I mentioned there around getting to know your players. Fostering has really opened my eyes to getting to know individuals and seeing things from their perspective and what they're going through. Because I think if we can understand that we can really be helpful and supportive. It's a very rewarding experience but like I said it just really puts it into perspective around understanding where they're at and understanding individuals. If you can get that right, you can be really, really supportive.

[Louise]

Yeah, and it's really nice to see that the connect, like both things are helping each other, I guess, your coaching as well as fostering.

[Jamie]

Absolutely, and what such an amazing thing to do as well. I'm glad we asked that question for that update. How do you think that's helped you grow as a person and potentially as a coach and teacher as well?

[James]

I guess it's not been testing, but it's made me realise my own behaviours. And I think the way I treat my own children, I think it's made me realise that actually I need to be a bit more reflective on how I interact with people. And like I said, trying to put myself in their shoes and not reacting before thinking and going, hang on a minute, there's a reason behind why they're doing this. Is me contributing now going to help? Do I do something different? Do I change my behaviour to maybe get a better outcome.

[Jamie]

Now, in this episode we're talking about managing sessions but making it fun, particularly as we're approaching the end of the season now. So what big piece of advice can you give to help grassroots coaches to achieve this?

[James]

Well I guess it would be linking back to what we just said that being aware of what's going on in their lives. There's going to be many things that are happening that potentially we're not aware of depending on the age of the child. There's exam pressures, there's homework pressures, there's physical and mental fatigue going on, there's things going on at home that you will definitely not know about. Depending on again where they're at, there could be performance pressures in the league if they're fighting for relegation or a promotion if they're at the older age groups. That could be causing some issues. Friendship groups at school change regularly. So it's, if we start to see shifts in behaviour, particularly towards mid, towards the end of the season, we have to try and figure out why those changes are happening. It might not mean you can do anything directly about it. It might mean you can, and it's like, we won't get there if we don't know. So you have to become more aware of what's going on.

[Louise]

If we were to view it from a teaching perspective, say it's coming to the end of term and the kids are breaking up for summer, would that advice still stay the same?

[James]

I think it would stay the same but I think from a teaching perspective, they are probably more aware just because of the contact time. They will see children on a regular basis and they will be liaising with either other teachers around how the children are. They'll probably have more contact time with parents because I know like if there was an issue with my child, I'd probably be raising that with school. So the advice stays the same, but I think they are already more aware of it. Maybe not in all cases, but they should be. And then they should be more ready to adopt their teaching approach, their teaching style to cope with those changes. So yeah, I do think it's the same.

[Louise]

In your opinion, what mistakes could coaches or teachers make when they're planning sort of end of term or end of season sessions?

[James]

I think you could look at it from two perspectives, not being prepared to adapt or willing to adapt. So it's kind of like if things are starting to happen, if behaviours are changing, am I prepared and willing to change my style? Am I prepared to adapt the structure? Am I prepared to reflect upon my own behaviours? We've got to remember it's mid-season, end-season for coaches as well. And you've also got the pressure of work, you're volunteering. So you might be physically, mentally tired. So you've got to say, am I willing and prepared to adapt? Because that might be the thing that needs to change. And then on top of that, are you ready to plan to adapt? So, okay, I'm prepared to change, but have I considered then, all right, I might get changes in numbers, I'm going to get changes in behaviour, can I use something like the STEP framework to quickly modify an activity? Can I realign the structure quickly? Can I ditch a game and go to a new game? I'm prepared but also I've planned to do it. I think those would be the mistakes. If you're not doing that, you're going to end up with potential challenges.

[Jamie]

Does it depend on like the players or obviously the kids that you're teaching, like the age that they're at in terms of what you're thinking of potentially changing at this time of a season or term?

[James]

I think you're gonna get different challenges with different age groups potentially I think particularly when you start to work at the older age with the teenagers that they might have more emotional outbursts and obviously they're physically growing in stature which can lead to other kind of risks, for example, going into a tackle a little bit more heavy. You do get different challenges that can be managed. Younger children, it might be easier to reinforce expectations just because of their age and their kind of their willingness to kind of listen to you, but with older ones it might be a bit more of a challenge. So yeah, you do get it across the age groups.

[Louise]

What questions should coaches be asking themselves when planning sessions, do you think?

[James]

What are the needs? I think it can be sometimes quite easy to focus on the game and the mistakes and errors that are happening within the game but actually going what are their needs now. So if we're getting to that mid-season end-season point and there is physical and mental fatigue happening do we need to maybe shift the focus? Does it need to be on the mistakes and the things that need to be corrected within game or is there a time now for maybe a psych social theme, maybe an opportunity to connect as teammates? So that would be a question I'd be asking myself. Is this meeting their needs now? Going back to, okay, have I planned to adapt? Does my session plan, does it work if two players drop out? Does it work if they turn up? They're maybe lacking a little bit of energy. How do I raise the challenge? How do I drop the challenge? So yeah, those would probably be the questions I'd ask myself if I was, you know, going to support the players at this point of the season.

[Jamie]

Do you ever find like towards the end of the season the players actually drop off a little bit or are they just excited to play no matter, you know, because we're thinking it's a long season, it's the end of the season, does that actually come into players' minds from your experience or is that more from our minds as coaches that we're thinking that that might happen?

[James]

I think every player is different, you see, and it's their motivations as to why they're playing in the first place. Some of them will want to be there all the time, but it's not necessarily because of the football, it's because they're with their friends. So if that's happening, then it's okay. And they probably persist. Some of them are there purely for the football. So likewise, they'll probably continue, but some maybe have friendship groups that they want to explore. So they maybe want to step back. They want to go and maybe do something different so they can be with different friendship groups or try some different activities, different sport. As we approach summer, cricket's starting to come back in and I've got a lot of boys that you know want to play cricket. So we start to see you know they maybe drift away from training. So having that break you know it might be important for some and not all. And I guess we've also got to consider like the formal informal nature of training in games. Like when you come to training is often like formal and there's explicit learning going on and we're highlighting themes that we want to get better at and coaching points. And sometimes kids just want to play. So if they want to just play sometimes that leads them to go, actually, if I take a break from training, I can play much more informally with my friends. And there's more of that fun enjoyment element. I'm not saying training isn't fun and enjoyable, but it just might be what they need in that psychological state of that break. And like I said, us having moments to step back might do us as coaches a bit of a favour, give us a time to just refresh and reflect. I know the club I'm at, they have a break, just one session, just one week, they give everyone a break and the feedback from the parents is often great. Thank God training's not on, it's just a nice time to have a bit of a break, but we're back next week. And then during the summer period, we have a couple of weeks, but then they set up like a, almost like an informal training session where the boys can come down, it's at a different venue and they can play. There's a bit of a coaching structure, but yeah, they can just play and the coaches that do that are brilliant and I think it just gives that variety for the players which is probably what they need if they've had a tough season.

[Jamie]

Yeah and I think sometimes it's important isn't it like from one from a mental health and well-being perspective, two to have a little bit of a rest, but then you mentioned the word reflection there, being able to step back and maybe reflect. So kind of leads into the next question is, is the value in reflecting on the sessions you've delivered during the season to figure out what to do or what worked well and what didn't maybe to plan your sessions going forward?

[James]

Reflection is always valuable. You're not going to make change if you don't actually reflect upon what's happened. The big thing for me with reflection, I guess, is us as coaches taking more responsibility. I think it's easy at times to go, well, it didn't happen because they weren't that good, or it didn't happen because they misbehaved, or they were tired or whatever reasons. But actually if we really want to see changes it might go okay how did I contribute to that situation. I know full well when I've got towards the back end of a season and I'm tired and I'm feeling it that my body language, my coaching behavior changes. I might be a little bit more direct. It could come across as a little bit more negative. So I need to be aware and reflect upon me and my contributions to it. So yes, look at what's going on, but ask the question, what's my part in that? That way I think you can make some true change.

[Jamie]

Yeah. We started off the podcast by talking about making training fun. What does fun actually mean in the context of coaching?

[James]

I like to try and distinguish between fun and enjoyment. They're very closely linked and often overlap and often it interchanges. But fun for me is more in the moment, probably heightened emotions of excitement and, you know, often characterized by kind of like sometimes silly behaviour. You hear laughter, talking, but it's quite intense emotions. Whereas enjoyment is more associated with progression, achievement, getting better. And so you can see they overlap a lot of the time. And the best way to describe it is like I can do a really high intense session with some players and you can look at it and you can say, there's no smiles there. They're working hard, they're on task and it doesn't look fun, but they come away going, I enjoyed that because of what they were working towards and what they got out of it. So I think it's important to make that distinction between fun and enjoyment because I don't want coaches to be thinking, oh, they didn't like that. They weren't laughing. They, you know, they weren't talking and they looked a bit upset. It doesn't mean they weren't enjoying the session. It might not have been a fun, fun session, but it doesn't mean they weren't enjoying it. So don't get yourself caught up in the trap of if you don't see that happening, it's not a bad thing. I like that kind of distinction there between the two and kind of also you know yourself if you're doing something and you're really concentrating on it, you're not necessarily making loads of excitable noise about it, but you're kind of engaged and... No one likes going to the gym. Yeah. Yeah. It's not fun. But sometimes you come away and you go, that was worth it. Yeah. That was enjoyable. I'm happy with that session. So yeah.

[Louise]

What would you say the hallmarks of James Rich's session are that when you're showing fun I guess?

[James]

I guess I look at all the games that kids have played in the past that seem to be timeless. What makes those games fun and enjoyable? And I look at things like does the game have a goal? Kids want a goal to strive towards or competition. Competition doesn't just have to be against others, it can be against yourself as well. So are there aspects of a goal to strive towards or an element of competition coupled with that challenge. I think if there's no challenge, it becomes boring and kids move on quickly or start to mess around. If it's too difficult, if there's too much of a challenge, they drop out, they give up. So is there an element of challenge and how do we help them get success because they want success and that's quite a motivating factor. So do these elements consist in my sessions? Is there like a safe space? Are there rules and boundaries for them to explore within? And do they have a bit of control and autonomy of that because they want to make the decisions and is there opportunity for them to connect with their peers and with us. Think if you have those characteristics then you're on to a fun and enjoyable session And I guess then that would lead into, how would I structure a session? So I might think to myself, okay, maybe if I'm leaning towards that more fun element, do I have some quick starter activities as they arrive? There's no explicit learning. There might be implicit learning, but there's no explicit, right? This, today's the theme of this. It's actually get into this game, guys. Go and play, chat with your friends, catch up, de-stress from school, just play. And then that might lead into, ideally if that links to the theme of the session, great, because then you can lead into your session and as long as you have those characteristics I talked about, you then go into, okay, this is the theme, this is what we're going to work towards. Again, we might have shifted the focus from tech-tech or physical to maybe a psychosocial theme instead if that's a need. But Yeah, that's, that's I guess what I would want from my sessions.

[Jamie]

In terms of like feedback, we touched on it a little bit before where maybe it's not always laughter, but if there are smiles, there's laughter or that players maybe coming away just going, actually, they enjoyed that session. I suppose they're the hallmarks of actually you've succeeded there.

[James]

Yeah. Or Players on task is what I look at. Are they all active? Are they all engaged? And I'm watching behaviour in terms of that boredom level, challenge level. So are they getting too frustrated? Are they getting bored, which might lead to some messing about? And then like with the drinks breaks I watch, or I'll say right, 30 second drink break, off you go, and I'm watching to see how quick they come back. These are just little, little player behaviors I'm looking for to decide, is my session on point? And there's nothing wrong with actually just asking your players, what do you think? How are we doing? They'll tell you. They're very honest. So yeah, and that goes back to being prepared to adapt. It doesn't mean you have to drop everything because it just, you know, some players don't necessarily like everything you do. But yeah, talk to them.

[Jamie]

So those players who maybe do switch off, whether that's through motivation, through the winding down, or maybe they're not on task, what is the biggest top tip to help coaches and teachers re-engage those players?

[James]

Talk to them, engage with them to find out, because again if we go back to the start, there are things that are potentially going on with them that we don't know about. So talk to them and try and find out about them a bit more. And I remember reading an article about a study done in schools where they work with the most disengaged students. The researchers did an intervention where they asked the teachers to spend two minutes talking about their lives with them. Do not make it about school, do not make it about education, talk to them, find out about them. And then they said the improvements of those disengaged students changed dramatically over that period of time. And when they were asked the kids what was it about it, the kids responded with because I feel like they care. So first my biggest tip for disengaged children is talk to them. Find out what's going on and then you can start to think about okay are my practices giving them a chance to get success? Are my activities giving them chance to connect with their peers and with me? Do they have some control over this? Because it might be that they're tired of being told what to do and they want to maybe explore a bit. So it's that's how I would probably look to support someone that's disengaged.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's absolutely massive in terms of like showing that they care and then getting their opinions on things really.

[James]

Yeah, yeah. And we can do that at different points of the season and we can do it at the start of the season, getting players input around how they felt last season went and what would they like to see this season. And if you're showing that you're actually trying to integrate stuff in there, then you're highlighting that you've listened to them. That's going to serve to motivate them.

[Louise]

Yeah. Everybody wants to feel like they're part of something, don't they? Rather than kind of just there. Nobody's really engaged with them.

[James]

Yeah, definitely.

[Louise]

Can competition be used positively when motivation is dipping? And if so, how?

[James]

Yes, it can. Maybe we have to just be aware of competition in different forms. So we can compete against others, which is often great and can be a good motivator. We can compete against ourselves. So there's plenty of kind of games where you can set personal challenges and targets so it takes the focus away from what others are doing and what I'm doing. And I've also done like competition against fictitious teams. So like it's, I did this session last week guys, they scored six goals from volleys, can we beat it? So it gives the team a focus to go, yeah, we can, we can beat this other team. So competition can definitely be used to increase motivation. I think we've just got to be mindful of it. Again, we need to know where the kids are at emotionally, socially, physically, because if you get the competition level wrong, intensity challenge level wrong, it could break the session. If they're not seeing success, if the challenge has been pitched too high, then they could just get very frustrated. So it doesn't help. So you've just got to just be mindful of it and that goes hand in hand with knowing your players and being prepared to adapt.

[Jamie]

And as you're talking about like managing that challenge, do you have any top tips to help coaches when they've got a bit of a mixed ability in the group for staying on top of getting the challenge actually right for everybody?

[James]

I think when you start to go into larger activities where everyone's doing the same thing, it's hard to adapt because when you adapt it affects everybody. So I like practices that are like in smaller formats. So it doesn't have to be necessarily a match of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3s. It might be because let's be honest that most kids that come to football sessions want to play football. But it could be like mini games of tag, mini games for example Bulldog parallel pitches where I can go in I can either allocate groupings strategically if I want to or not because there's sometimes nothing wrong with playing against someone that's better than you but then I can make adaptations without affecting everybody else. So I can go over to a group here and go right we're going to add a new challenge, a new rule or we're going to change the space to support you or to challenge you further and not affect everybody else because not everybody else needs it. There's nothing worse I think when you ask players what do you not like it's like the coach stopping and talking all the time and I've been guilty of that. So if I can get my session structure with smaller games I can do that without affecting everybody. They could potentially be playing minus drinks breaks for the entire hour and all I'm doing is making tweaks to different things as and when we go. So I think that would be the best way to manage the mix stability. I appreciate it might not always be possible with space restrictions and stuff but yeah that's something to consider.

[Jamie]

Yeah no absolutely. Just thinking about on our website, we have a lot of like six week session programs. The final week in some of them are usually called like a festival week or a games week. Is that something you'd recommend coaches doing to achieve the right blend of fun, development and competition?

[James]

The question is probably asked why do kids like the festival week, the tournament week? My son has just done one now, they had a like a tournament and they rotated around and I asked him well why did you like that? What is it about it? And he said we get to play and we know we're just going to play. We know the coach isn't going to stop us and talk to us. We know we're not going to have to go into an activity that we may or may not like. We just get to play. And that's what happens in the festival weeks. Sometimes those festival weeks have themes and challenges, which is great because it links learning together. But ultimately, what is it they like? Well, they like playing not listening. They like the choice and control of being able to do some stuff. So take the messages from that and integrate them into your practices throughout. And if they do like these tournament weeks, then actually Why is it just at the end? If we've got six weeks, could we start with it halfway through and then at the end as well? Maybe. It could be part of the variety that you're offering the players. And it doesn't have to be every six weeks, but there's something in it, so use it.

[Louise]

Right, now we've got some quickfire questions we want to throw at you. So the first one is, what's one thing you'd like coaches or teachers to stop doing at the end of the season or end of term?

[James]

Probably ramping up the pressure or thinking that they have to maybe be a bit more direct or forceful when in fact it might have to completely shift the other way just because of the headspace that we and the players are in.

[Jamie]

What's one thing you'd like them to start doing?

[James]

Actually just take a moment for yourself and go, how am I doing? How are my behaviours contributing to the session and the players behaviours. Brilliant.

[Louise]

And what's the best way to make sessions fun for your players?

[James]

One, get the challenge point right. Two, allow opportunities to connect. And three, give them some choice.

[Jamie]

Fantastic. Well, looking back at everything we've discussed today, James, can you summarise the key top tips you would like coaches and teachers to take away from this episode?

[James]

Be aware of what's going on with your players. I think we've talked about that a lot. So understand where they're at. Be prepared to adapt and be willing to adapt within your sessions and then ultimately look at your sessions, ask, would I like that game? If I was playing in that game, if I was a child, if you can put yourself back then, would I like that? Would that be motivating? And if the answer is no, maybe refer back to some of the characteristics I talked about earlier and say, can I integrate some of them into my activities?

[Jamie]

Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

[Louise]

And just to set a bit of a coaching challenge to coaches and teachers, what would be the first thing you'd suggest that they try out after listening to this episode?

[James]

I would like them to go away and find out something new about each of their players. Start that ball rolling on getting to know them and maybe what's going on.

[Louise]

Yeah, good one. Right, fantastic.

[Jamie]

Well, we are coming up to the end of the show now, James, but that does mean it is time for our swift session feature.

[Louise]

Yep, so another 30 second challenge for you, but this time we're going to ask you to explain a session idea to us in those 30 seconds. Are you up for that?

[James]

Yeah, definitely.

[Louise]

Okay, once again, I'll show you the timer. Once it starts, you can begin.

[James]

This session is Bibb Steal. Many games like it, but this one for me is a little 1v1 battle. So you get your bib, you tuck it in to the right, to the left of your hip. And then you encourage the kids to go up, shake hands to agree that they're going to play. You then high five to start the game off. You then challenge each other to try and steal each other's bibs. Whoever wins, you don't throw the bibs around, you don't rub it in their face, give it back nicely, fist bump to say thank you, go and find the next person to play against.

[Louise]

Perfectly done.

[Jamie]

Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. And what sort of things do players get returns out of that game?

[James]

You can, depending on how you want to focus on things, for example, fair play and respect following rules, so the handshakes, the high fives, the fist bumps, are often quite nice to emphasise. But then from a football perspective, you get the body shape, the sidearm, protecting the bib. And you can do it with footballs as well. The increased stance for stability, lowering the knees for reaction. So it's quite a good little football shielding game. But on the flip side you can focus on that, like fair play, respect with your teammates. So yeah, it's good. It's a good little enjoyable game. And because they're all working in 1v1s, you can adapt it. So you can suddenly change it to a 2v2 or a 2v1 if you wanted to. Some can play with bibs, some can play with balls. It's, It's yeah, small group work.

[Jamie]

Yeah. I love it. Love it. Well, thank you very much for that, James. And thank you very much for joining us today in the studio again and for putting up with there's a little bit of renovation going on here. So if anybody heard any noises there, but yeah, hopefully you've enjoyed being back with us again James. Right. Well, that is all we do have time for today, but don't forget to check out the description for the transcription of this episode and for all the links to our platforms. As always, you can head to the England Football Community to post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or you can drop them in the comments section below.

[Louise]

Yep, we'd love to help you out so please do send your questions in. We'll be back soon with another episode so if you haven't already, hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss it. From all of us at England Football Learning, Thanks for listening.