Improving the S&C coach and sports coach relationship when working in football
Dispelling Myths and Educating Coaches
The strength and conditioning (S&C) industry has gained popularity and an increased understanding of football in particular over the last 10 to 20 years. Most football clubs will now employ a number of S&C coaches to work within the academy and first team infrastructure. Some sport coaches however, still lack a basic understanding of S&C and its benefits for youth athletes. Hence, some S&C staff and sport coach’s relationship will take time to develop due to conflicting beliefs. Some coaches deem lifting weights with younger athletes to be dangerous and that weight training will make you ‘big and slow you down’ or ‘stunt growth’. In fact strength training with children is safe and appropriate as long as in supervision with a qualified professional (Lloyd, Oliver, Meyers, Moody & Stone, 2012) and there is no current evidence to prove strength training impacts growth during adolescence (Falk & Eliakim, 2003). In fact, strength training has been shown to improve aspects of performance and reduce injury risk in youth athletes (Faigenbaum et al., 2009; Lloyd, Radnor, De Ste Croix, Cronin, & Oliver, 2016; Myer et al., 2011). Therefore, the S&C coach may need to educate the sports coach around these concepts and dispel the myths surrounding strength training to improve their working relationship.
The fact that some sport coaches are taking an interest in S&C is good, however, these comments are not only unproved but also send conflicting messages to other staff and players. Younger athletes that S&C staff are encouraging to take part in gym sessions could be made harder by throw away comments from the coach. S&C staff would not comment on coach’s session content and criticise their practice, therefore, the same respect should be shown towards S&C sessions. S&C professionals have been brought in due to their expertise and experience, and therefore should be trusted to perform their role. Hence, some S&C staff may need to educate and develop their relationships with coaches to ensure messages to players are consistent.
The S&C coach and sports coach relationship
From my experiences working in football with sport coaches, some coaches do not like athletes spending more time on physical aspects instead of technical training. For example, if the coach believes the athlete should be spending more time developing their weaker foot passing and they see the athlete doing upper body sessions after training they struggle to understand why the player is committing extra hours physically as opposed to technically. This can cause disagreements between the coach, player and S&C staff. This is because the coach will say the player should not be doing upper body sessions as opposed to football. Therefore, I’m encouraging the athlete to train upper body more to improve upper body strength and the player is being told by the head coach to stop doing these gym sessions. As an S&C coach I may have to find another time for these sessions that the coach and player agree can be completed in the week. This keeps both player and staff on side and I can still get the training session in.
Sport coaches do undertake some knowledge of sport science and S&C through the FA coaching courses and now the FA have some physical performance workshops. However, more of an effort should be made in academies for career professional development (CPD) within house with the sport science team. If coaches can understand the methods behind S&C then it will benefit the S&C staff and coaching relationship. For example, I have delivered S&C workshops as part of the coaches CPD schedule. This is aimed at showcasing movements and skills that players are learning from S&C sessions on field and in the gym and their transfer to sporting performance.
It has to be said however, that some coaches are interested in S&C and have good knowledge making it easier to implement S&C practice. They understand the importance of having stronger and fitter players due to the ever-changing demands of the game. Some coaches are interested in the testing data and like to see the relationships with performance. The S&C coaches have to ensure this is appropriately reported back to coaches so that the data shown is understood. For example, I tend to present testing data with the age groups tests put in player rank order and an overall total athleticism score for all tests. Therefore, the coach can easily see where the players are positioned and what areas players may need to work upon. In contrast, few sport coaches ask to see athlete’s gym programmes and progress or the effects of gym on testing and injury data. Therefore, I feel S&C coaches have to make coaches aware of the benefits of S&C and its importance in an academy or first team environment.
Providing coaches with testing data showing the best movers and strongest athletes and their relationship with performance and injury occurrences could be a good place to start to help coaches understand its importance. For example, this may be a quarterly injury report for the age groups coaches addressing injury rates and gym attendance and the effect this has on player’s availability to train and play matches. Results may also show stronger individuals to decrease total days lost through injury and that the stronger players have the fastest 10m acceleration, change of direction speed and the highest jumps. This will then create a positive attitude around S&C and its role in an athletes overall athletic development. Moreover, if the S&C team can reduce player’s injuries and total days missed then the coaches will have more increased exposure with players for development which all coach’s want. From my experiences these are powerful resources that S&C coaches should use to show the success of the programme and ultimately get buy in from coaches and players.
Overall, I feel the S&C and sport coach’s relationship is important and the more this can improve will see athletes overall development improving. This may be due to periodisation and recovery strategies being implemented and S&C gym sessions occurring throughout childhood. This may lead to less injuries and better movers throughout the academy, highlighting to the sports coach the value of S&C. Lastly, S&C coaches need to recognise the type of coach they are working with and their beliefs or knowledge around sport science and S&C. From first impressions and continued discussions there may a chance to work together and improve the programme. However, it may highlight that the coach has an ‘old school’ approach towards S&C and they may not being interested in new methodologies. Hence, S&C staff will need to be clever about their programming to ensure they can still have a positive effect on athlete’s performance and injuries.
References
Faigenbaum, A. D., Kraemer, W. J., Blimkie, C. J., Jeffreys, I., Micheli, L. J., Nitka, M., & Rowland, T. W. (2009). Youth resistance training: updated position statement paper from the national strength and conditioning association. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 23, S60-S79.
Falk, B., & Eliakim, A. (2003). Resistance training, skeletal muscle and growth. Pediatric endocrinology reviews: PER, 1(2), 120-127.
Lloyd, R. S., Oliver, J. L., Meyers, R. W., Moody, J. A., & Stone, M. H. (2012). Long-term athletic development and its application to youth weightlifting. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 34, 55-66.
Myer, G. D., Faigenbaum, A.D., Chu, D., Falkel, J., Ford, K. & Best, T. (2011). Integrative training for children and adolescents: techniques and practices for reducing sports related injuries and enhancing athletic performance. The Physician and Sports medicine, 39, 74-84.
