Developing life skills through football

Former FA Coach Mentor, Ceri Bowley, looks at how coaches can use football to equip young people with skills and techniques that are valuable far beyond the pitch.

Sport has long been associated with developing skills and behaviours that allow young people to become competent athletes and people. Researchers have acknowledged that participation in sports may have the potential to enhance personal development and improve skills such as communication and leadership.

Indeed, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said: “the world of sport is not separate from the rest of the world. Sport breaks down barriers, promotes self-esteem and can teach life skills and healthy behaviour.”

Positive youth development has been described as lifespan development because adolescents are being taught skills, values and virtues that help them during adolescence, which will also help them thrive throughout life.

Life skillsFocusing on the skills that individuals develop for the benefit of everyday life, the World Health Organisation defined life skills as ‘the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life’.

A study conducted with the players, parents, and coaches in grassroots football found that life skills were important for young people to learn. More specifically, social skills, discipline, respect, personal control, organisation and leadership were highlighted as life skills themes that could be developed through football. Under each of these themes a number of individual life skills were identified.

Life skills developed through footballSocial skills

• Ability to communicate verbally
• Making friends
• Ability to work with others
• Communicating non-verbally
• Ability to listen to others' instructions and views
  

Discipline

• Behaving appropriately in different environments
• Demonstrating good sportsmanship
• Being determined to achieve
• Being committed
• Working hard

Respect

• Showing respect towards others
• Showing respect towards peers
• Showing respect towards coaches .
• Showing respect towards opponents
• Showing respect towards officials
• Showing respect towards parents
• Respecting your club

Personal control

• The ability to make decisions
• The ability to manage distractions
• The ability to cope with winning and losing
• The ability to cope with challenges
• The ability to solve problems
• The ability to cope with pressure
• The ability to control emotions
• Being confident

Organisation

• Time keeping
• Preparing properly

Leadership

• Supporting less able/younger players
• Taking responsibility in a group

Player and parent expectations

56 players, representing a cross-section of the game*, were asked what motivated them to play football and what they expected to learn, whilst their parents were asked what they expected their child to learn from training sessions.

Interestingly, more players expect to learn social skills than football skills. To put this into context: consider the average squad of 16 players – if the focus of the session was upon developing social skills the coach would fulfill the expectation of 10 players compared to less than four players if the focus was solely on developing football skills. This is not to say that as coaches we should only focus on developing social skills. An integrated approach is needed. However, it is worth considering whether the role of the coach should focus on developing good people before players.

Coaching life skills

Whilst football has been shown to be a powerful tool in providing opportunity for young players to develop their life skills, there is nothing magical about football and simply participating will not automatically result in players developing their life skills. Instead, life skills are ‘taught not caught’. Therefore, the coach plays a significant role in developing practices and reinforcing messages in order to both promote life skill development and facilitate player learning.

Consider The FA 4 Corner Model for long-term player development How often do coaches set specific objectives in the technical corner and expect the psychological and social corners to develop naturally as a result of the session?

How often do you plan sessions where you set out to coach skills in the psychological and social corners?
Everyone thinks they develop life skills. The truth is they don’t and life skills can’t be learned in one setting. One key consideration about life skills development that is often misunderstood is that in order for any skill to be classified as a life skill the learner must be able to demonstrate competence in transferring learning from one environment to another. This means a skill learned in football, such as communication, may be used at school when talking to the teacher.

Until they are transferred to other environments these skills are simply skills learned in football. The importance of transfer cannot be stressed enough, as without transfer life skills aren’t developed.

As a result we can never be sure that players fully understand the importance of what they have learned.

A three-step process can be used by coaches to teach life skills to their players1. Message

Players need to know what they are learning. Without this they cannot be expected to understand, develop, and transfer their skills. The message is the learning focus for the session. The coach communicates the message at the start of the session before questioning players about their understanding. For example: why do you think leadership is important in football? What does a good leader look like?

This is a good time to initiate thoughts around the transfer of the life skill to other environments. You may ask: where is leadership important outside of football?

2. Reinforce

The key messages can be reinforced through the use of various intervention strategies. Whilst not an exhaustive list, the following have been shown to be effective in reinforcing life skills:

• Technical and tactical messages through an integrated approach. Reinforcing messages with the whole group
• Reinforcing the message based upon observation of successful use by one of the players
• Reinforcing the message with individuals
• Group work
• The use of video to model good practice – this is particularly powerful when players see themselves performing

3. Transfer

This process has already started during the message phase but now learning is consolidated and plans made for transferring life skills to other environments. This phase, at the end of a session, involves a period of reflection for players: individually, in pairs, or small groups. Reflection is focused upon what the players have learned during the session and helps the players make sense of the learning for themselves leading to better understanding.

Once the players understand what they have learnt they can then plan where and how they will use the life skill away from football, such as at school, at home or with friends. At the start of the following session players are given the opportunity to share their experiences of transferring life skills with their coach and peers.

Obviously the coach cannot be with their players at all times, and unless it’s their own child will only very rarely see their players in other environments outside of football. Therefore it is crucial that a collaborative approach to life skills development is adopted.

The role of the coach here is to facilitate the process through engaging with parents, guardians, and extended family. Explaining your approach to coaching and your philosophy from the outset will help this. If parents know what you are trying to achieve, they will be better prepared to support their children in transferring life skills. Involving parents in the transfer phase of a session will help them become more aware of how their children intend to transfer the life skill and thus enable them to support their child in doing so.

Summary Players expect to be taught social skills and if we are to fully motivate young players to become the best they can be it is important that we understand how we can give them what they want. Life skills do not automatically develop through playing football, instead they must be taught by the coach. Using the three-step process life skills development can be integrated within football sessions. When planning sessions, consider where what you are teaching fits to their wider development as people and help them make the links between football and other environments to enhance transfer of learning.


Ceri Bowley is a Football Coaching lecturer at the University of South Wales.