What Adam Smith can tell us about developing sporting
talent?
Adam Smith had an idea, and that idea was to be the
forerunner to the industrial revolution in Britain....efficiency. The pursuit of efficiency led industry to
adopt the production line approach to manufacturing where each employee had a
specific job to do, which, when summed together resulted in the end product. The ‘production line’ analogy has been used
to describe the development of young athletes in a number of sports with
academies being developed to nurture this talent during its formative years. This is a laudable approach and one that if
we look closely has yielded many success stories in a number of sports. What effect however does this approach have
on the coaches who guide the development of these young athletes?
When individuals have a specific role on the production line
research has shown that they can become disenfranchised with the task. This is as a result of them being unable to
see the impact their role has on the finished product. Again we can draw parallels with soccer
academies; how do we ensure that a coach who works with a player for one season
feels part of the long term process of player development and success if and
when that player represents the club at first team level? Below are some suggestions regarding how we
can optimise engagement amongst coaches, especially those who are part time,
within soccer academies.
A clear vision
Many large organisations invest time and money in developing
a vision and clear set of aims and objectives to assist in achieving this goal. The intended impact of such practices is to
develop a clear purpose amongst the workforce and the feeling that everyone is
contributing to the success of the company.
The same benefits can be recognised in sport. Providing a clear vision on how clubs want
their teams to play (formation, style) and what attributes they would like
their players to display (physical, technical, social) gives all coaches within
the organisation a clear objective to work towards. It also allows coaches to identify with and
enjoy the later successes of players they coached earlier on in their playing career. This of course is easier said than done,
especially in a game like soccer where differing opinions predominate. Including coaching staff from all levels
within the process of designing that vision however may alleviate some of these
problems and provide the catalyst for synergy and co-cooperation throughout the
club’s structure.
Acknowledgement
We all like to feel valued in our jobs. Alex Ferguson famously stated that there are
no words we enjoy hearing more than ‘well done’, a statement with which it is
hard to argue. Research within the area
of behavioural science has reinforced this observation. Experiments have shown that when we receive positive
feedback following the completion of a task we are much more likely to continue
than when negative or no feedback is given.
In fact, the persistence with positive feedback has been shown to continue
despite reductions in financial reward. Providing positive feedback to part time
coaches therefore is absolutely essential in ensuring that futility does not
creep into their work. The impact of
this acknowledgement may be enhanced if it is provided by a senior coach and
especially when it is linked to the success of the first team squad. This could provide an opportunity to remind
coaches of their contribution to the overall successes of the club through
their work with younger age groups whilst increasing their sense of
meaningfulness and value both ‘on the production line’ and to the club overall.
Transitions
It is unrealistic to expect coaches within team sports to
follow the same squad of players throughout their development journey, such as
we see in athletics (see example above).
There are clearly skill sets which are more suited to working with
younger children, as opposed to older adolescent players, which should be
identified and apportioned accordingly.
What clubs may consider is moving coaches between age groups at various
intervals throughout the season. For example,
one week each month coaches may swap squads and work with a group of players at
an age grade and standard that they are not ordinarily familiar with. Not only will this enhance the coaching skill
set, it will enhance a feeling of collective responsibility for the club’s
success. This is often what happens with
support staff, such as physiotherapists and sport scientists, who work with a
number of different age groups. In my
experience of supervising young practitioners this approach aids in the
understanding of developmental changes that occur in young athletes, enhancing
their motivation to contribute to the success of the club, rather than a
specific team.
Whilst the production line approach undoubtedly enhances
efficiency, we must ensure that we do not remove the meaningfulness of work undertaken
by each individual. Especially in a
setting where opinion predominates, such as soccer, there is a need for a clear
vision to unify staff and bring them together in pursuit of a shared goal. In doing this we can go some way to making
sure that each coach within the academy understands the contribution they are
making to the overall success of the club.
There are undoubtedly many more strategies which clubs can employ in addition
to and besides those listed above; however the challenge is to implement them
within the applied environment. Within
sport we have an obligation to develop the athletes in our care however we
should also feel an obligation to develop the coaches with whom we entrust
their care.
