The McGrath and Solskjaer doctrine: Treat them as people first, players second
At the GAA coaching conference in Croke Park a couple of weeks ago, a full house was in attendance to listen and learn from the great and the good of the coaching world, writes
There were some fascinating presentations and plenty of take-home messages from the day. It was also the first real opportunity I had to listen to former Waterford hurling manager Derek McGrath speak outside of the snippets of interviews we get on TV.
He had the crowd hanging on his every word with what was an incredibly honest and revealing 40-minute keynote address. He didn’t talk about the importance of drills or games, not tactical nuances or disciplinary hard lines. Instead, he talked about people. He spoke in detail about the strength and depth of the relationships he forged with his players and how seemingly effective that was towards developing something very special during his time in Waterford.
He came across as one of those rare people who are as honest and genuine as they seem at first sight. With the permission of his former players, he showed the assembled crowd some of the motivational videos that he himself produced for their bus journeys to big championship matches, and everything had a very personal touch.
It struck me during his talk just how captivated everybody in the room seemed to be. You couldn’t help but feel hugely motivated by the sincerity of the guy. It was obvious that all he wanted was to bring success to those players to reflect the enormous effort they were putting into the whole thing. Unfortunately, sport rarely goes the way of the storybook ending, and McGrath stepped away without ever claiming hurling’s ultimate team prize.
The idea of coaching in every sport is starting to significantly shift away from the idea of winning being the only barometer through which you measure development or success. In the evidence-based world of sports and coaching science, coaching is being more readily identified as a social interaction between coach and player more so than anything else.
The books talk about developing relationships and improving players with the opportunities to be more involved in what they are doing. I’ve written on these pages previously about the importance of cultivating a coaching environment capable of giving opportunities to players to become more autonomous and enable them to take greater ownership of the whole process.
It leads to greater investment of effort from players, significantly increases quality of their motivation to work at their craft and generally is something coaches should aspire to create within their own club or county context.
It didn’t sound to me that Derek McGrath had done any major study in the whole area of empowering players, and maybe I’m doing him a disservice, it just seemed that this was his way. Coming from a teaching background, his method was to instill belief, trust, and love into his group of players, and they responded in kind.
Every coach and manager is looking for whatever angle may give them any slight edge over the competition. The focus for too many is still invariably on strength and conditioning and the tactical side of things, even at club level, but there is much more to it than just that.
Take a different sport from a different country; Manchester United were an ailing group of underachieving players, going through the motions under a manager for whom they apparently had no love for. At least outwardly, it appeared that the feeling was mutual. And of course, when dealing with players who are making the kind of obscene money on offer in the Premier League it must be a constant managerial balance between stroking individual egos and maintaining some level of collective unity.
Without knowing the intricacies of what went on day to day, it’s obvious that the temporary United manager; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has provided a very different type of environment, and one which has players who appeared almost disinterested a month ago, looking completely revitalised under his stewardship.
Is it that the former striker has brought a completely different game plan or tactical set-up? The players haven’t got stronger or fitter since he took over, surely? He hasn’t made any signings.
So what has changed? Why have United won eight straight games under Solskjaer when they looked so decidedly hopeless under Jose Mourinho a short time ago?
One hypothesis garnered from listening to interviews from the players and manager may be that the squad have found their very own Derek McGrath. Maybe they stumbled upon somebody who started to believe in them as footballers again and more importantly got them to believe in themselves. The environment around this new United is one that has instilled both a work ethic and a confidence that hasn’t been seen in quite a while.
That’s a change not borne out of tactical adjustments or hitting the gym — it’s one that can be created when coaches construct the type of environment that allows players to feel like active participants in what they are doing.
Money is an extrinsic form of motivation, meaning it is something external to you and is far less effective than the intrinsic variety that only comes when players are provided with choice, proper rationale, opportunities to work independently among other practical implications.
As the new GAA season gets underway at all levels, it would be powerful for coaches to go and watch the full 36 minutes of Derek McGrath’s coaching conference presentation on YouTube, and apply the lessons he speaks about to your own context.
Everybody wants be a Jose Mourinho, a ‘tactical genius’ who has seemingly come to view players as little more than chess pieces on a board. Given a choice, players will take a Solsjaer or a Derek McGrath every time if they truly believe they care about them for more than just what they can deliver on the pitch.
Success in coaching at any level is as much about the environment you create than the complicated systems of play you employ.
Treat them as people first, players second.
