Over the past couple of months we have had several buzz words or phrases to discuss in sport. Or, if you prefer, a bandwagon for us all to jump on.
We’ve had ‘philosophy’, we’ve had teams looking to play a ‘positive brand’ of their chosen sport, we’ve had ‘momentum’ (although a bandwagon with momentum should by its very nature be difficult to jump on). And now we have ‘leadership’.
Whether it has been Alastair Cook’s captaincy, John Terry’s demise, the lack of a leader at Arsenal or Chris Robshaw and England’s defeat to Wales, it is the current buzzword. So, at the risk of sounding like Alan Partridge, this week let’s jump aboard the leadership bandwagon.
The fact that leadership is being discussed in relation to Robshaw and England can in one way be viewed as ironic. Robshaw’s decision to go for the try in the dying minutes to attempt to win the game and spurn the chance to kick a difficult penalty for a draw has to be seen as strong leadership. Forget the rights and wrongs of the actual decision, he, as England captain, had to make one and make one he did.
Questions have subsequently been raised about the kind of atmosphere the England players are working in. The accusations are that Stuart Lancaster runs the national side in a schoolmasterly way. Accusations refuted by Lancaster’s coaching staff.
And yet I was told on Monday night that if a tactical change was needed during a game, a member of the coaching team would run on with water for the team while getting a note to the players telling them what to change. If, in any sport, you know as a player that things aren’t working in a certain area of the game, do you take the initiative and take it upon yourself to do something differently or do you wait for instructions? If you are always waiting for instructions, are you in effect on auto pilot?
The former England Rugby Union head coach, Brian Ashton has written a brilliant column in today’s Independent and I want to include a bit here, and not because it will help me reach my word count. He writes…
“I have written more than once down the years of the importance of Game Understanding. Crucial to this are coaching sessions that put players in a problem-solving environment – where questioning is the means of communication, not telling. And I’m not just talking about dealing with the grown-ups here. This must be introduced at an early age.”
We live in a sporting age where the majority are being told and not questioned. Only a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the pamphlet, iPad coaching mentality on the touchline in the Manchester United v Liverpool game.
On Sunday I was sitting behind the dugout at Vicarage Road for Watford against Crystal Palace. While Wilfried Zaha waited to come on, he was subjected to a five minute ‘pamphlet debrief’ from a member of the Palace coaching staff. I am assuming this involved where to stand and who to mark on defensive set pieces and where to stand and the various signals for attacking set pieces.
But what if Watford had changed a couple of things themselves? Would Zaha and his teammates been able to adapt for themselves or would they have needed the equivalent of an England rugby union water carrier? Going back to that game at Old Trafford, every ex-pro I’ve spoken to has told me they could see the Daley Blind finish from the free kick routine coming a mile off and yet every Liverpool player seemed so intent on following an instruction that they didn’t adapt to the situation.
So on this current bandwagon, when we talk leadership we aren’t talking about someone’s ability to roll up their sleeves, shout at everybody and command a team huddle – we are actually talking about initiative, flexibility and bravery.
Bravery in the way that Robshaw went for the try, bravery perhaps in the way Wayne Rooney went to Louis Van Gaal to talk about the Manchester United’s squad’s unhappiness with training (and if you don’t think that’s brave, you try confronting LVG). Bravery maybe from an Arsenal team to not continually play the same way in a match if it obviously isn’t working, bravery from a manager or coach in allowing freedom of thought.
Over the I summer I watched an U13 Cup cricket match. During the 2nd innings run chase I was standing with the coach of the fielding team. As the runs piled up and we headed for an exciting finish, he just stood and watched.
During the course of the final few overs – and the game went down to the final one – the fielding side got their fielding positions all wrong, tried to get one batsman on strike but never successfully and changed their normal ‘death’ bowlers. Not once did the coach intervene. They were going out of the Cup but all he kept saying to me was ‘they have to learn.’ Brian Ashton would have been proud.
By the time you get to professional sport there isn’t the time and there is too much money to allow people ‘to learn’ but if we can do it more and more in youth sport with enlightened coaches who don’t have the win at all cost mentality we may end up with some cracking leaders in the future.
