Have you ever played that game with your friends where you have to name the best 11 players of all time? I find it almost impossible to name just eleven players – I start by naming Messi, Maradona, Pele, Zidane, George Best, both Ronaldo’s, Roberto Carlos, Gazza, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Marcel Desailly, Ronaldinho, Ruud Gullit, Johan Cruyff, Zlatan, Dennis Bergkamp, Xavi, Iniesta, Marco Van Basten, Pirlo, Zico, Socrates, Eusebio, Puskas, Figo, Scholes, and so many more. But you know what’s missing when we play the “name the starting eleven game?” Almost nobody names anyone from today’s game. Listen, every weekend I watch the English Premier League, and yes, there are some top players, organized tactical teams, athletic and fast guys, but I don’t see those super special moments and absurdly special players who make you say, “Did he just do that”. Don’t get me wrong, Erling Haaland is a fantastic striker, Palmer has a bright future and a bunch of others I really like, but something is different. If we look at the endless streams of data, the sprinting speeds and distances covered are at all-time highs, the counter-attacks are getting faster, defensive pressing is efficient and well drilled, there are set-piece coaches, throw-in coaches, substitution coaches, as teams employee 5–10 full time video analysists. It’s not uncommon for an EPL match to feature coaches who are both disciples of Pep Guardiola, they know everything about each other, leading to a match where the solutions are almost pre-programmed. Do you see what I am getting at? Soccer is now like a Fortune 500 company, everything must be efficient, cost-effective, expectations must be met, and all while limiting risk. Soccer is a business, now more than ever, complete with shareholders, international buyers, and hostile takeovers. The team on the field is the currency, and the results determine the club’s valuation. In such a pressure-packed environment, is there room anymore for a player to stray outside of a system designed for results while managing risk? Are there coaches who have the backing, knowledge, and guts to implement a game model that allows players to operate with flexibility and creativity? What I am talking about doesn’t just exist at the pro level, it goes to the very roots of youth soccer.
Youth soccer is starting to look like a mini-version of pro soccer. Results often take precedence over development because of pressure from clubs, parents, and at times the coach’s own ego. The mandated coaching licensing programs by the federation are flawed, both in methodology and coaching assessment. Are these mandated licenses encouraging creative innovative coaching or do they require obedience and compliance in order to pass the course? The answer is very clear to me. Are we creating robot coaches across the country because the licenses hold the key to higher pay and promotions? The NFL is known for looking for top coaching talent across all levels of the game each year. It is a search based upon coaches who are doing smart interesting things, it is not based upon expensive license obedience. The NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB do not even have licenses for coaches. There is no “Pay to Coach” model in those sports. Think about that for a second. Soccer complains non-stop about the “Pay to Play” model, but at almost every level of the game, we mandate a “Pay to Coach” model. Besides the coaching conspiracy, don’t get me started on the number of leagues, burdens of travel, and perceived status of clubs. It makes zero sense that we have kids traveling 3+ hours to play maybe half a game. In the New York City area, we have something like twice the population of Croatia. Why would any team close to NYC have to drive to Canada or Syracuse to play a league game? That is beyond a tragedy. I think Croatia has done pretty well for a small country, the Netherlands is pretty good, and how about Uruguay? The larger point is this, are the coaching and leagues serving to develop special players and special coaches? What needs to change, and is it even possible to change it? We also forget that soccer is meant to serve all players and levels, not just the high-level players. What are we doing to make great experiences for players who just want to enjoy the game?
The answer to creating special players and special coaches comes down to one thing, environments. The first environment for player development is street soccer. If a child has the opportunity to play thousands of hours of street soccer without formal coaching, against good players, they have a chance to become special. Other environments like futsal, beach soccer, and playing on rough surfaces can further add to development. It’s not uncommon for a 14-year-old in Brazil to have already played 14,000 hours of street soccer. There is no formal coaching that can ever replace those 14k hours. If a player does not have access to street soccer, they can work with the ball for 20+ hours a week outside of club soccer, this can develop special abilities. A younger player might join an adult league to develop. Every place in the world is different, but to become highly skilled you must put in the time in a way that fits your environment. In the coaching profession, I would warn against the influence of standardized coaching licenses. I would encourage you to go outside of the voices that guide you to pass obedience-centered coaching tests. It may sound a bit radical, but just like players who become special, special coaches think for themselves. They are not prisoners of this license or that license.
Focusing too much on knowing about coaching can limit your knowledge of coaching. Learning to pay attention to what is emerging in front of you, and not overplanning your session, might seem unnatural, but it is critical in terms of creating great learning environments. Direct Perception, refers to what is happening in front of you in real time, do not let direct perception be influenced by pre-planned coaching points or some lesson plan that you feel you must stick to. This is where “knowledge about coaching” can hold back your effectiveness. If you are trying to carry a formal coaching method from a course, it can often lead you away from creating optimal environments and effective coaching.
In terms of my own coaching journey, there have been many coaches who have influenced me, but I will always follow my own path. Creativity can be stolen from you by following structured coaching dogmas too closely. Below are some of the world’s best artists, musicians, and inventors who were all self-taught. I equate self-taught with the special players who played street ball. I equate creative coaches with the ones who left the safety of the licensing methodologies. Whether it’s an artist, soccer player, inventor, musician, or soccer coach, there is something that ties all the special ones together. For me, it comes down to environment, non-conformity, passion, immersion, self-teaching, and lots of hard work.
Thornton Dial
Born in 1928, the heir to impoverished black sharecroppers in Alabama. He had no proper school until 13 years old, and even then, he was embarrassed to be placed at the second-grade level. Large for his age and conditioned to hard physical labor, Dial began skipping school to work and make money. In his adult life, he worked in a factory making railroad cars until it closed in 1981, at which point he began making art as a hobby. This early experience in manual labor formed a basis for Dial’s self-education in materials and techniques, which he deployed in semi-figurative, semi-abstract work that would later evolve into large, often-monumental assemblages, which can be considered of a piece with the Southern bricolage tradition. “My art is the evidence of my freedom,” Dial said in an interview in the mid-1990s. “When I start any piece of art I can pick up anything I want to pick up. I start with whatever fits with my idea, things I will find anywhere.”
Anna Mary Robertson
Discovered at the age of 78, Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses made art throughout her life, though she received no formal education. A small-town housekeeper-turned-homemaker, she was, according to her New York Times obituary from 1961, “a self-taught ‘primitive,’ who in childhood began painting what she called ‘lambscapes’ by squeezing out grape juice or lemon juice to get colors.” By the time of her death in 1961, she had become the self-taught grandmother of American folk art and was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees, including (ironically enough) one from a college of art and design.
Taylor
Forced into retirement by rheumatoid arthritis, Traylor wound up homeless and sleeping in the back room of a funeral parlor by the 1930s. Lacking the means to support himself, he began creating small drawings and paintings with whatever materials he was able to scrounge. When a young artist named Charles Shannon came upon Traylor’s work by chance in 1939, he supplied him with fresh materials, appreciation, and encouragement—fuel for Traylor, who became incredibly prolific, filling image after image with simplified figures of people, places, and other symbols connected to his personal experiences. The body of work he would create in a limited time with extremely limited means is celebrated for its innovative, untutored aesthetic, as well as the artistic window it created into the strictures of black life in the South during the Reconstruction era.
B.B. King
Born the son of sharecroppers, B.B. King was a titan of American-blues music. Though he came from incredibly humble origins, his records would go on to inspire almost every blues musician that followed him. The legacy of extreme kindness and generosity in addition to excellent body of work he’s left behind will ensure that he’s never forgotten. He was self-taught.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
In guitar playing circles there’s no musician more respected than Stevie Ray Vaughan. A veteran player by the time he reached his late teens, Vaughan quickly went on to become a blues-rock phenomenon. He took a music theory course in high school but flunked out, so aside from whatever small amount of information he managed to gain from that he was self-taught.
David Bowie
David Bowie was one of the most versatile and talented musicians of the 20th century. Bowie learned to play piano, guitar, harmonica, bass, percussion, and even koto on his own.
Kurt Cobain
Despite the fact that Cobain’s major talent was in songwriting, he taught himself how to play the guitar in order to be a more well-rounded musician.
Dave Grohl
The multi-talented Grohl only took a single drum lesson before realizing he could do better on his own. Two bands and several platinum records later, it looks like he was right.
Prince
Prince could be on this list twice, as he taught himself to play piano at age 7, before learning the guitar at 13 and the drums at 14! By 20, he was signed with Warner Bros.
Leonardo da Vinci the Renaissance artist, inventor, and scientist was not formally educated in a school or university, but instead learned through observation, experimentation, and his own studies. He is widely regarded as a self-taught genius and is known for his incredible achievements in art, engineering, and science.
Benjamin Franklin He was a polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Despite not having a formal education, he became a successful printer, writer, inventor, scientist, and politician. He is credited with discovering electricity and creating the first library system in America.
Steve Jobs The co-founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs dropped out of college after just one semester. He was largely self-taught, reading books and taking courses that interested him. His passion for design and technology helped him revolutionize the computer industry and become one of the most influential entrepreneurs of his time.
Maya Angelou is another example of a self-taught individual who achieved great success. She dropped out of school at the age of 14 and was largely self-taught, reading extensively in literature and poetry. She went on to become an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Her most famous work, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” is an autobiography that explores themes of racism, identity, and self-discovery.