The 5C’s Programme: Psychological Skills Coaching in Football

How many 'superstars' in sport would you say are mentally weak? No, I can't think of any either. Anyone who consistently achieves success, from Ryan Giggs to Muhammad Ali, has strong self-belief, shows focus, emotional control, and is driven forward by high levels of commitment. And regardless of how far a player goes in the game, developing these key mental skills should be an integral feature of training programmes if we want to develop resilient people who can deal with the many challenges they will face in sport and life.

Previous research has shown that coaches not only have a vital role to play in developing mental skills in players, but that they can achieve this by incorporating some simple and effective strategies within their normal coaching sessions (see Harwood, 2008 for a full case study). In this article, we report on how coaches can do this by exploring a programme focused on the practical application within coaching sessions of 5 psychological skills – the 5 C’s:

• Commitment,

• Communication,

• Concentration,

• Control

• Confidence

The aim was improve the mental skills use and knowledge of players in an Academy squad. To assess the effectiveness of the learning, the players completed questionnaires on their 5Cs use. To validate the findings, the players’ parents and the coach also completed the questionnaire. Following on from this, players, parents and coaches were interviewed on their experiences.

 

Developing the 5Cs Player:

 

Commitment

Commitment coaching aimed at creating a learning environment that fostered self-esteem, persistence and skill development. The focus was on effort, self-improvement and intrinsic motivation to create a task-orientated, or mastery-climate. This aimed at developing players who showed a strong work ethic, persisted in the face of failure/disappointment and built the time and effort necessary to become self-motivated.

The coach looked to promote commitment through creating an environment that focused on personal improvement and avoiding negative comparison between players. Sessions were used that allowed the players to set individual targets for improvement (e.g. performing

successful dribbles in a small-sided game, in a given period, and then trying to beat it). Specific feedback was given and personalised recognition (e.g. “Tom, great first touch!”), as well as having a review section allowing the players to comment on their effort in the session, and identify areas they wanted to work on in future sessions. Coaching commitment in players can also buffer against the potential negative effects of youth football, such as feeling excessive pressure to win or low self-esteem.

 

From the Field:

“You could tell straight away, when the coach set the player’s a challenge, they were motivated to achieve it. I’d say their commitment increased dramatically!”

Parent of Player

When coaching ‘commitment’, your aim is to encourage and value the following behaviours in players:

Summary

• High consistent effort levels; eagerness to be involved; interest in the drills and games

• Persistence in the face of mistakes/errors

• Desire to reach a personal goal

• Take on challenges without a fear of failure

 

Communication

Communication coaching aimed at developing the players’ interpersonal skills. This was achieved by teaching verbal and non-verbal skills, giving and receiving feedback, and listening and ‘digesting’ information, underpinned by unconditional peer and coach support.

Specifically, each player was taught to give and receive positive messages: Help, Encourage, Listen, Praise and Acknowledge each other (or, be a HELPA). Small-sided games that focused on silent vs. vibrant football, or practices where only a certain number of players could speak, were used. Through this a ‘team language’ was established whereby the players created trigger words to help them perform defensive and attacking actions successfully.

Players were also selected to monitor quality of communication, then feedback to the squad their observations. The coach supplemented this process with open ended questions to allow the players to self reflect on their communication in the last drill/ training session.

 

From the Field:

“I used to get told to communicate more, but I never knew what to say. Now I do! I even got into competitions with [another player] to see who

could be the loudest and most helpful during trainings and matches to help us do better.”

Player Two

“The monitors were good because they made us not drop how well we were doing, or do better when we weren’t training well. Everyone got a go as well, which was good.”

Player Four

When working as a coach, think about what can be taught to young players to optimise positive communication and minimise negative or irrelevant communication:

Summary

• Verbal: specific feedback, praise, encouragement or instruction to teammates or questions to the coach

• Non-verbal: physical responses (e.g. reactions to mistake from self or others)

• An action/ decision that reflects what one person thinks/feels about another (e.g. not passing the ball to teammate)

• Communication is made up of sending information and receiving information. Is the player a good receiver?

 

Control

Coaching ‘control skills’ centred on the players’ ability to manage their emotions. This allowed them firstly to achieve a desired state of alertness (either by activating or relaxing), and secondly, to “bounce back” after adversity to mistakes/errors that occur during the game.

The coach taught control by initially focusing on the thoughts and feelings are best for the player’s performance by playing a game with both positive and negative emotional states (e.g. bad calls, free kick for negative body language). From this the coach began to teach more complex skills such as self-talk (e.g. “I’ll get the next one” after missing a shot) and basic relaxation skills.

For example the coach introduced basic breathing techniques before a game.

 

From the Field:

“Every time they made a mistake, their response was to say “I’m Back!” or show a thumbs up.”

Coach

When coaching a player about self-control, consider the strategies that you can include in a normal practice that will train positive responses to themselves and to teammates:

Summary

• Recover quickly after

• Preparation and readiness

• Emotional intelligence also

• Positive body language, mistakes/poor decisions (anger/anxiety management behaviours to control arousal and mindset pre-game and at key times (e.g. set piece) includes understanding teammates emotions and helping them detach from anger, anxiety… positive internal and external comments to self and others, ability to focus/refocus on task at hand

 

Concentration

Concentration coaching focused on the player’s ability to concentrate on the right things at the right time, and in the right place while blocking out of the distractions that can harm performance. Through this the players became more skilled at scanning the pitch and focusing on task-relevant cues.

The coach initially developed the idea of concentration by stopping the game and asking certain players what they were thinking/what they were focusing on at that moment. From this the coach would guide the players towards the relevant cues within that situation. Games with specified time limits were also used, where one team would be winning and had to remain focused and hold on to their lead. Extra time was added for goals conceded, or extra players added on the opposition team to further test and develop the player’s concentration.

Another technique used to improve the players concentration was the use of distractions. Through a process of identifying and training with distractions, the players were taught how to “block out” these unnecessary cues and focus on the task at hand.

 

From the Field:

“I froze the game and asked them to shut their eyes. Where is your attention? Where are your teammates? Are you talking to a teammate, ball watching, running into space etc?”

Coach

Consider how you might include a concentration and distraction element to your practices and praise players for positive responses to such exercises Summary

• An ability to sustain attention for a defined period of time (e.g. 20 minutes drill or 90 match)

• Focus on the right thing at the right time – ability to scan quickly and show good vision and spatial awareness. Attention is governed by where a player is looking, who they are listening to, what they are saying/thinking, what they are feeling/touching (i.e. body awareness)

 

Confidence

As the final ‘C’, confidence isn’t a mental skill like the other Cs. It is essentially a state of mind linked to the beliefs that a player has at executing a skill to a desired level, or achieving a specific outcome. Confidence can frequently fluctuate if it is not built on 3 solid foundations: developing a positive attitude; banking, or building up accomplishments; and positive support by creating a ‘no fear of failure’ ‘express yourself’ environment.

The coach began by structuring coaching sessions so that gradual accomplishments were achieved throughout the session, in order to build confidence. This was on the basis that every success matters and should be built upon. One such way the coach achieved this was by setting up practices that used goal-setting, or a target number of successful attempts at a skill, and then giving time for players to accomplish the task, before setting new goals/targets to increase the difficulty.

The players also discussed what a confident player looks like, how they act, how they feel and what they say to themselves, and were encouraged to copy it during the training session. These were then reinforced with specific praise from the coach and teammates, for those players who showed and acted confidently and creatively.

 

From the Field:

“My coach wanted me to dribble a lot more, but I didn’t want to get tackled and give the ball away. I now feel confident that I can dribble past people and not get tackled.”

Player Three

A confident player tends to emerge from sessions that allow and promote the following elements. Consider how as a coach, you can create that climate and structure in a training session:

Summary.

• Forward moving belief without a fear of failure. Wanting the ball.

• A positive attitude to the session/drill – a belief about what is possible and can be achieved.

• Progressive accomplishments made throughout the session

• Positive social support from the coach and teammates

 

Developing a 5Cs Session:

In order to use all the time available to teach the 5Cs, without cutting back the valuable time needed to improve the players technical and tactical skills, the sessions were split into three phases. Prior to training sessions starting, the players engaged in a “pre-session” which introduced, or ‘set-up’ the C for that session. This was achieved through, for example, interactive games, DVDs or discussions.

The next phase was the actual training session itself. Of importance here was the continued promotion and reinforcement of the ‘C’, on the basis that every practice can have a mental skills outcome. Finally it was important to review the ‘C’ at the end of the session through careful use of questioning to gauge understanding, and involve the players in setting targets for the next session.

 

From the Field:

“The games before training were really fun. We always wanted to make sure we there on time. They were a fun way to learn about the C we were doing...I really enjoyed them.”

Player Five

“It gave me a chance to start the next session at the end of current one by asking questions on what we should improve and work on in the next session. I could also recap the session to see what the players had understood.”

 

Closing Thoughts

For players to reach their full potential and cope with the challenges they will face in the modern game, they require all of the 5Cs. Coaches who focus only on the technical or tactical skills of the young player miss the opportunity to develop the key mental skills that help long-term development and also life-skills.

By carefully tailoring the practices and coaching behaviours, the 5Cs programme has been shown to work with players from U8 upwards. By promoting the developmental-psychological role of the coach and their practices, a wider psychological skill climate is ultimately encouraged.