Dealing with player misconceptions

Matt Roberts is the Head Coach of Colchester Gladiators, Defensive line coach of Essex Blades and 2009 BAFCA Coach Of The Year (Adult Contact)

Coach Roberts

Challenging players misconceptions about Football can be a tricky, and for a lot of coaches a daunting task, no matter how confident we all want to appear, and in fact may well be, football will throw up situations which really challenge that confidence. As a young head Coach (25 when I took over with the Colchester Gladiators) how do you coach a player who’s been playing for 25 years, who in 1991 won a national title (I was 9) and can talk about games that were played before you had even left Primary School.

In the following “essay” I’m going to outline how specifically I dealt with a player who, despite achieving good numbers and the praise of the team, wasn’t doing his job as a DT correctly; and in a wider sense to how to challenge and deal with players and ensure that they are all on board with what you want them to be doing. American Football is a fantastic team sport, but as a result freelance players are more harmful than they are helpful, so as coaches we often have to challenge ingrained, poor behaviour.