WHY: The most important word we can use

Hi Everyone, 

Today’s post comes from reading a book by Simon Sinek, ‘Start with WHY’.

This is a book geared towards leading and running a business but I feel the message can have a wider influence and for me has really resonated. 

I feel that especially in football we can ask ourselves ‘WHY’ in so many different occasions. 

As a coach when you design a practice or session at every point can ask yourself WHY you are doing a certain exercise and more importantly could you explain to the players WHY they are doing this, I feel this can help coaches create more realistic sessions and also relate them back to what the game looks like in a competitive scenario. 

By the way….. the WHY can be that today we are just doing this to have a laugh and have as much fun as possible, the WHY here can be social interaction and development. 

Not only as a coach but someone who Is running a company or club involved in youth football I think there can be a real power in spending more time explaining to your coaches, your parents and your players WHY you put on certain sessions, WHY you play certain matches and basically try and underpin everything you do with a WHY, a reason which underpins a philosophy or goal your club has. 

If parents and players have clarity and understanding of WHY you are making certain decisions they are more likely to come with a positive outlook and understanding of what they need to do in this scenario to fully take as much from it. 

If you cannot explain WHY you are doing a certain activity then is there any point in doing it? I would say not. 

If someone doesn’t agree with WHY you are doing something then that is no problem, they do not have to partake, I feel honesty is best in this scenario and not fooling parents or players into doing something which has no benefit to them and their aspirations. 

Linking this to my last post I would love to sit down and talk to anyone who broke lockdown restrictions to put on a session or match and ask them WHY they done this and what their reasons were behind this. 

A short post today touching on my thoughts of the power of WHY and defiantly more to come on this methodology in the future. 

Much Love 

Harry O’Riordan 

ProFormance Pathways Director