Critical Thinking

No matter what level you’re at, critical thinking is a key skill. But what is it and how can you think critically as a football coach? Let’s explore.

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Critical thinking is the ability to make effective decisions based on information from different sources. It’s being able to challenge your own thinking and find other opinions. That way you’re more informed. You can then use your findings to get clarity on a topic – and judge what’s the best course of action to take.

Thinking critically gives you a better chance to be more precise in your decision-making. And that helps with planning. It means you’re more likely to meet specific outcomes and player needs – at training or on matchday. And that’s what coaching is all about. Catering for your players.

Critical thinking also matters because it helps coaches recognise personal biases. It makes you more open to diverse opinions. And it means you’re challenging your assumptions. This enhances your coaching approach and prevents narrow-mindedness. For instance, making players run laps around the pitch because that’s the way you were coached as a kid is a personal bias. But asking your team how they feel about laps can open your mind to new ways of doing things. For instance, giving them a ball each and getting them to dribble inside a small area is a different approach. This still warms them up as it gets them moving. But they also get to work on their ball control as they look to avoid colliding with others.

If you don’t think critically, you’re at risk of making uninformed decisions. It can lead to ineffective coaching practices, poor feedback and it can limit your ability to problem-solve during a game. This can impact your players’ development.

It might sound complicated, but critical thinking is an everyday skill. If you’ve asked for someone’s opinion and considered it before reaching a decision, you’ve thought critically. It doesn’t mean you have to go with whatever someone else says. It’s about considering other viewpoints, sifting through the information available to you and deciding the best way forward.

It’s the same in coaching. Whether it’s finding insight on our platforms or talking to players, parents or coaches – listening to different perspectives can improve your judgement. A quick chat with a co-coach on matchday can help you make an in the moment decision, for instance.

Check out the video below to see what critical thinking looks like in football.

Here are a few tips to help you think critically as a Coach.

1. Keep your team in mind

Get to know your team. Critical thinking begins with a deep understanding of your players’ needs and the types of practices that would be most beneficial for them. Don’t just adopt practices you’ve seen online. What works for one group may not work for another. So, always consider your players and your environment. What could you change to make it better for your team? How can the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002) help? What do they need to work on and how can the practice help them to develop? Then once you try something, see how it goes and observe what impact the change has made. Asking yourself these questions and then reviewing outcomes means you’re starting to think critically.

2. Work with others

Working with others is key to critical thinking. It gives you access to a variety of opinions. If you can, try getting some interested parents involved with the team. Assign them some observational responsibilities on matchday. You could ask them to look for the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses. Or to count how many times your team have displayed what they’ve worked on in training. You can do this with your substitutes, too. Then ask them for their thoughts. What have they discovered? Do they think something needs to change? To think critically, consider potential counter-arguments – even if you agree with their opinion. Then use the information others share, and your own thoughts, to draw informed conclusions.

3. Focus on listening

Effective listening allows you to make sense of the opinions you gather. To improve your listening skills, consider using the acronym ‘WAIT’. This stands for ‘why am I talking’, and is a helpful way to remind yourself to let others speak. This is crucial for developing open-mindedness and improving critical thinking. It allows you to be more responsive and considerate in your interactions.

4. Use reflection

When reflecting on your coaching, think about what works, what doesn’t and the factors behind successful outcomes. Then consider how that might impact your next decision, training session or matchday. Over time, this will help you to think critically.

Being able to reflect also allows you to build up experiences that you can draw on in the future. This will help you be a more successful decision-maker under pressure.

But when coaches are pushed for time, reflection can often take a backseat. If this is you, don’t worry. Getting started can be quick – and easy. For example, try making a few short notes during training or matchday. Simply write down what’s going well and what could be better. Then next time you have something to refer back to. Do this each week and eventually you’ll have a lot of reflections to work with.

Ready to get started? Download our handy guide to take the key information away with you. Then give our top tips a try. But be patient with the process. You may not get it right every time – and that’s ok.