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Part 1: what is "success"?
In this article, I suggest how we can cater for children of widely differing abilities and why we need to make sure that all our players, not just the better ones, come away from our coaching sessions with the feeling they have achieved something.
But before considering how we can differentiate our sessions we need to understand how our players define "success".
Definition: Differentiation is how we adapt experiences and activities to meet the developmental needs of individuals or groups of children.
For young children up to age of about 10, it is simple. Effort equals success, regardless of the end result. That is called being "task orientated".
From the age of 11 or 12, children understand effort will only help them up to a certain point. A 12 year old, for example, may believe that no matter how hard they try they will not be as good at, say, shooting as the team's star attacker.
This new knowledge forces them to choose to either continue to be task orientated ("if I try hard I will be successful") or to redefine success in a more adult way where success means being the best. This is called being "ego orientated".
What does this mean for us as youth soccer coaches?
How your players measure their own success and whether they are ego or task orientated is very important.
A task-orientated striker, for example, will always work hard, running into spaces and trying to reach crosses even if they are not scoring goals.
On the other hand, an ego-orientated striker who hits a dry spell will stop trying in order to protect their view of themselves as successful. They may also blame their team mates for not providing them with chances to score or drop into midfield and say they want to "build up from the back".
Clearly, most youth soccer coaches would like a team full of task-orientated players. I know I would!
We can manage the way our players define success (and if they work hard or not, even when they are not achieving good results) by being careful about the messages we send out to them about success, hard work and winning.
If we focus on the importance of winning matches, design training sessions that do not cater for players of differing abilities, if we congratulate our players when they win regardless of how hard they had to work to do it... we are encouraging them to be ego orientated.
If, on the other hand, we design practice sessions that allow all our players to experience success, applaud effort rather than achievement and react to winning and losing matches in the same, calm way, we will are telling our players that we value hard work and effort more than being the best.
This will encourage them to move away from ego orientation ("I am only successful if I'm the best!") to the more useful task orientation.
PS. A coach who values effort and doesn't compare players in terms of ability will also encourage the less able players to stay in the game for longer and for many coaches and clubs, player retention is a key indicator of how well they are doing.
Part 2: how to differentiate your coaching sessions
1. A quick tweak works wonders!
Most coaching games can be adjusted to allow players of all abilities to be challenged and experience success.
Three Team Attack, for example, involves three unequal teams who defend three goals. One team can have a goalkeeper and one defender, another can have a goalkeeper and two defenders and the third can have no goalkeeper and four outfield players. The variations are almost endless.
Each team attacks the two other goals and the first to X number of goals wins. Or the first team which loses X number of lives is out.
To allow all your players a chance of being on the winning team, put the weaker ones in the larger teams or with the stronger players.
A popular Small-sided game involves having two teams play with a neutral player on each touch line who either receives a pass and passes back to the team that passed to them or crosses the ball into the goalmouth.
I tell my players that the side player can't be tackled and they must use the side player at least once in each move before they can shoot.
To make this game suitable for all abilities, offset the goals so one is, say, 30 yards from the touch line and the other is 15 yards away. Better players work on the long side and the others play on the short side.
If you play games that involve tackling, you can have "safe" zones or allow players to go outside the playing area to avoid being tackled. This will allow the weaker players to hold on to the ball for longer.
2. Give players individual objectives.
While a game or activity is going on, have a quiet word with individuals and ask them to do something more challenging than the others.
You could, for example, ask the players who find it easy to juggle the ball (keepie uppies) to catch a ball or clap while they do them. They could also try ball juggling while sitting down (you try it... it's not easy!).
If you are playing a game of keepaway (or any other small-sided game) ask your most skilled players to move to one or two touch if they can.
Just remember to do it sensitively and whatever you do, don't tell the player(s) in question that you're asking them to do something harder than the others because they are more skilled.
3. Separate them.
Separating children into groups of ability groups and giving them different tasks to do is the traditional and easiest way of differentiating.
It is, however, also a quick and easy way to stigmatise the weaker of your players and reinforce the ego orientation of the more skilled.
So try to avoid separating your children in this way and use mutli-layered games or give individual objectives as described above.
To sum up, it's important to cater for children of differing abilities in your coaching sessions if you are to avoid having a lot of ego-orientated players who are easily discouraged if they make mistakes or fail to score.
Successful differentiation will also keep your team together for longer and help you become what you want to be – a successful coach!