Ask your self…
Do you praise for effort or success
When coaching do you praise when a player tries or when they succeed. Now be honest, do you praise the goal scorer when it goes right and he scores, or do you praise the creative player when he tries and fails? Think about the implications of those two, and the message it sends. A player being encouraged when he achieves that learning focus of a practice quickly might think when he doesn’t achieve it quickly he has failed and is not talented. In contrast a player who is encouraged for effort will try more, and practice is something every coach should promote. Creating players that believe they have talent, rather than the ability to build skill can be dangerous. This is what Matthew Syed, author of BOUNCE describes as the “talent myth”, a book recommended to me by FA tutor Ben Bartlett.
“ If you believe excellence is all about effort wont that make you want to strive to reach that excellence? Wont it orient your mind in the direction of perseverance? Wont it make you think of failure as merely a temporary impediment that can be overcome? And, if you are right about the importance of effort, won’t it also mean that come what may, you will eventually excel?
But now consider what happens to a youngster which subscribes to the talent myth – someone who believes that it is talent, not practice that determines whether you will get to the top. This is a belief that will also have subliminal consequences of a very different kind. After all, if talent is so important, why bother to train hard? If innate skill is everything it is cracked up to be, surely you can simply drift to the top? And, moreover, any time you fail, it surely means you have insufficient talent, and you should therefore give up”.
Often when you hear or read about players’ background or rise to fame you hear the success. How many goals? At what age? You don’t always hear about the thousands of hours of purposeful practice and dedication which created that player. Players who make it to the top level, are determined, focused and have that intrinsic motivation to master the game but overall work hard. Messi said “with hard work, anything is possible” and Beckham “My secret is practice. I have always believed that if you want to achieve anything special in life you have to work, work and then work some more.” I would suggest that most football environments praise success – top goals corer, goal of the season..etc rather than effort or most improved perhaps. We need to think about the message this sends to the players. If we encourage and praise players for effort, we will create more players with the “growth mindset” this is described by Syed. You also hear stories of players who had “natural ability” but never had the drive to make it. Why does this happen?
“A coach who consistently eulogises hard work will not only entrench the growth mindset in his hard-working players , but will slowly alter his default settings of his lazy players. After a time, with consistent emphasis on hard work, the culture will begin to change. Laziness will be seen as an unworthy trait. Hard work will be admired”.
This “growth mindset” will propel the players in every aspect of their football life. If hard work, effort and practice are encouraged this can only help create better footballers.
Now taking this in to consideration, think about your last session. Did you praise for effort or success? Did you praise the “elite” member of the group who scored again or the creative thinker who tried something new?
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