Every Player Is Important

One of the fundamental philosophies I have as a coach is the simple fact that every player is important. Whether it’s your best player or your worst, it’s critical that every player feels important not only to you the coach, but also to their teammates. Every player brings something different to the team regardless of physical ability. Your job as a coach is to find that special talent or gift that each player brings to the team, and bring out the best in them and their talent or gift. This is not always easy, especially on teams where there is a large gap in skill level between your best and worst players. However, there are many strategies that you can use to deal with this situation.

Probably the most important thing you can do as a coach is make sure that none of the players feel like or are treated like outcasts or second class citizens. This is especially important for your non-starting players. Probably the first place that this can happen is the gap between your starters and non-starters. You, as the coach, have a responsibility to make sure that each player treats each teammate with the dignity and respect they deserve, regardless of their position or role on the team. Quite often, a coach can cause outcasts to develop on a team by coaching decisions that seem insignificant at the time.

I have seen coaches that focus too much attention on the star players or starting players, and give the rest of the team less time and effort. This is an easy trap to fall into especially in competitive situations where there is more pressure to win games. The easiest choice for a coach is to focus on the starting players knowing that they don’t have to play non-starters during a game. Generally speaking, non-starting players aren’t quite as skilled as starting players, and require more time and attention on things that starting players are more competent at. It can be difficult, as a coach, to put together practice plans that help advance all members of the team when all are not at the same skill level.

Focusing on starting or star players causes two problems. First, the star or starting players develop a mentality that they are “special”, and come to expect “special” treatment from the coach. Second, the players that are not star or starting players start to feel ignored and unimportant. If allowed to continue, this can cause a problem that festers until it becomes out of control over the season. The non-star or non-starting players feel like second class citizens, and the rest of team treats them that way. Because they are second class citizens, they get less time and attention from the coach. Over time, your star or starting players get better while the non-star or non-starting players do not. This evolves into an increasing talent gap on the team, and makes it more difficult for non-star or non-starting players to better their abilities and earn playing time.

The best way to counter this problem is to divide your players by talent, but in a different way than you might think. Most coaches will divide players by talent grouping better players together and less talented players together. What I like to do is to get a good mix of talent working together. Quite often, I will pair up my best player with my worst when they are working in groups of two. I do this on a case by case basis as each skill that you work on has a different best and worst player. I will also divide the team into groups mixing talented players with less talented players. This makes it really difficult for the players to perceive and develop a team hierarchy or ranking of players based on talent. More importantly, it helps the kids that need more work to step up their game to try to be as good as the more talented players, and it causes the more talented players learn how to have more patience and help their less talented teammates become better. This is something you always have to keep a close eye on for each and every practice and game. It’s very easy to divide the team based on talent, and takes a lot of patience and awareness to not do that.

You will always have situations where you do have to focus on the group of starting players. That situation is unavoidable. In competitive sports there will always be starters and non-starters, and that situation will never change. However, you also have to put your non-starters in a position to be successful so that they are prepared to play as well. Regardless of how you look at it, it’s a difficult situation that has to be carefully managed.

Along with focusing on how you pair players during drills, you should mix the combinations of players that you put on the field together whether it is in practice or games. Too often, I see a coach start their best players, and then substitute in the non-starters as one group. What generally happens is that there is a letdown by the team during the game. The coach’s first reaction, which is natural, is to substitute the starters back into the game to increase the level of play. For the game, this works, but over the long haul of the season, it puts the non-starters in a larger deficit from the starters each time this happens.

When the non-starters are playing with each other, they don’t get a chance to develop and improve with the starting players. It also draws a mental line between the starters and non-starters not only for the players, but also for the coaches and parents. The gap becomes more noticeable over time. What I like to do is not put all of my best players on the field at the same time. I will mix and match what would traditionally be defined as starters versus non-starters. It gives kids that are traditionally non-starters the chance to play with the starters, which means that when a non-starter makes a mistake, there is a better chance that it will not lead to a negative outcome. They get the support they need to develop their confidence and abilities without feeling like they let the team down when they came into the game.

Additionally, and even more difficult to manage, I use this strategy regardless of the importance of the game. In my view, the worst thing I can do is win a championship, and have non-starting players that have never played in the game. They all come to practice and work at their game, and they all deserve to play in every game regardless of importance. Many coaches will claim that they don’t want to risk losing an important game. I counter with the fact that a good coach has the ability to get every player on the field, and still win important games and championships. In the last five years of my coaching career, I have won the president’s cup in Oregon three times, and finished in the semi-finals once. This is a tournament for lower level competitive soccer teams, and I have been able to do this with every player playing almost half of each game. It’s not easy to do, but every player deserves to feel that they contributed to the success of the team regardless of their role on the team.

Finally, I like to find a talent that each player has on the team, and put them in a position to feel good about that talent. In soccer, there are many different aspects to the game. Some players are good with footwork and ball skills, others have tremendous power when they kick the ball, others have the ability to make a good pass every time, and still others are good at the non-technical aspects of soccer like running and fitness. It is rare that one player will be good at all of those areas, but you can be assured that across your team, you will have players that are good at different areas.

What I like to do is to recognize a player for their talent in front of the rest of the team. If I have a player that has good footwork, I will have them demonstrate a new move I am trying to teach the team. If I have a player that kicks the ball with great power, I will have them demonstrate their kicking technique. Even if I have a player that is good at fitness and can run long distances at a high rate of speed, I will have them lead the team in a conditioning session. Every player has a talent on the team. Your job as the coach is to find that talent, exploit the talent in the player, and make sure that their teammates are aware of each player’s talent. Every player should be in a position of one of their teammates to tell them “Hey, you’re really good at dribbling” as an example.