Empowerment

by Ian Mulliner, IYSA Director of Coaching

More than just another buzzword for the New Millennium.  It could be a coach’s most valuable tool in helping to create soccer players and not little automatons.  By empowering our youth soccer players we are giving the game back to the children to let them take responsibility for their own actions, decision-making and therefore problem solving, during practices and games, an invaluable experience for the children.

So how do we use this incredible tool?  Quite simply by asking questions that evoke practical responses.  Here are a couple of examples: (Example 1 is a way of empowering your players and Example 2 is taking away empowerment)

1. During the course of a practice passing activity a player makes a bad pass.  Instead of asking, “What did you do that for?” ask “What do you think you could have done to make that work better?”  If the player is unsure of a response, ask the surrounding players to offer a few suggestions.  Try to avoid saying no to any responses if the answer doesn’t fit the situation and try to lead them with questions.  Once they begin to see that they can find solutions for themselves they have begun to process of empowerment.

2. A coach on the sidelines who is constantly giving instructions or worse berating the players for every bad decision or technical breakdown is not only taking away empowerment, but is surely stripping away every shred of self-confidence and self-esteem, to the point of that player being unable to function on the field even under even low pressure situations for fear of failure.  You can easily tell when this environment exists because the players are consistently looking to the sidelines for either approval or instruction.

Empowerment removes the fear of failure by allowing players to learn both from their mistakes and those of their peers.  It also brings out leaders who can lead by example and encouragement.  It has long been a favorite expression of mine that “Practice is the place to fail”.  Take away the fear and you will empower your players.  Let them play coach; it’s up to you!