The Importance of Playing with Personality
The simple definition of personality is the characteristics and behaviour that make up an individual's life.
Every person has a personality on and off the field. That's what makes each of us unique. Some of my teammates at university are ruthless on the field. Nobody gets past them. They play with such ferociousness and fearlessness. They’re intense and are constantly on you if you make a mistake. Off the field is a different story. They can come across as mild-mannered and some of the nicest people. This type of personality is frequent among professional footballers. Some of the world’s best are fearless in training and matches. They have a separate mentality during the game.
Over the summer, I transitioned from a junior coach at 1UP to a paid head coach. Becoming a paid coach has allowed me to coach various sessions during a seven-day week, leading partner and small group sessions.
My most substantial observation from coaching so far has been that many players don’t play with personality. I see several players who are too quiet during their training sessions, don’t encourage their teammates, and don’t take enough risks. Some of this quietness comes with age and maturity. Most younger players are sorting themselves out physically and emotionally.
These three issues alone are what diminish some footballers’ chances of progressing. If you want to succeed in football and progress to another level, you MUST play with personality, be vocal during training sessions and games, and play with some flair if that's your game. Encourage your teammates, and don't be too afraid to take some risks.
When I think of a professional footballer who plays with personality, I think of Alejandro Garnacho, a winger for Manchester United. What makes Garnacho great is that he doesn’t seem to care if he gets the ball taken from him in a 1v1 or makes a bad pass. It doesn’t matter if 80,000 fans are yelling at him, his teammates, or his coach. Garnacho will pick the ball up from wherever he gets it and will run at the defender with even more pace because he simply doesn’t care about taking risks. He's young, ruthless and wants to start and stay on the first team. What makes this important is his coach allows him to do this. Garnacho’s coach encourages him to inflict his personality onto the team.
His job is to receive the ball on the wing and use his young, energetic pace to drive at defenders and create chances. He does it until he gets one right. He delivers his personality every time he steps onto the pitch.
I’ve played under coaches that don’t seem to enjoy character in their team. They want individuals who play the system, just go through the motions, not taking risks, doing the simple things right.
I’m not saying this is wrong, but whenever I’ve had those coaches, I found that I don’t enjoy myself and I’m not enjoying the game as much. I don’t want to give 100% every game, every training session if I'm constantly yelled at whenever I screw up. I’m just going through the motions.
Some players may flourish under that type of coach, but I've discovered that I don't particularly enjoy cringing every time the coach yells and criticizes. That's just me.
I’m not saying to go against whatever your coach teaches you. They’re a coach for an excellent reason, and there are a ton of great coaches out there. It’s up to YOU to inflict your personality, be vocal, and take risks in your training sessions and games, even if it goes wrong. Encourage your teammates, and be a leader in your squad. It's your coach's job to manage the personalities on the team and bring out the best in each player.
One of my favourite things about 1UP is that we’re different from some club coaches. We encourage personality from our players in our sessions. If a player tends to be too quiet and not showing enough energy, we let them know. Playing with liveliness is encouraged in our sessions. It’s our job as coaches to encourage mistakes and risks. Mistakes are positive. That's how we learn.
Our goal at 1UP is to have our players train with personality and flair, so they can take it back to their club and implement it in their training and games.
My challenge to any footballer reading this is to take personality into your next game or training session. Encourage your teammates and be vocal so you set an example for the rest of your teammates.
Play with personality and enjoy yourself. #EnjoyTheProcess