The production line in sport

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.