by Soccer America Youth Soccer Letter Executive Editor Dan Woog
Once upon a time, long, long ago – way back when many of today's youth soccer coaches were growing up – a coach had two ways of motivating players: yelling and yelling louder. The more mistakes a coach could point out, the better.
Today – 30 years after Title IX, at the dawn of a new century, when half of all youth soccer players are female, and the traditionally female qualities of empathy and compassion are seeping into and influencing all of youth sports – the Vince Lombardi and Bobby Knight wannabes are viewed as dinosaurs. Nowadays, youth soccer coaches should catch their players being good, not bad.
That's Tony DiCicco's philosophy and ''Catch Them Being Good'' is the title of his new book. DiCicco should know: He coached the U.S. women's national team to the gold medal in the 1996 Olympic Games and to the Women's World Cup title in 1999. The winningest national team coach in U.S. history, he has extensive youth soccer experience – much of it with his four sons.
DiCicco's co-author, Colleen Hacker, is no soccer slouch herself. The sport psychology consultant for the U.S. women's national team, she coached Pacific Lutheran University to three NAIA national women's collegiate championships (1988, 1989, 1991).
''We're seeing a new model of a champion being born,'' DiCicco says. ''Girls have brought qualities of caring into youth sports. Now it's spilling over to boys, who grow up seeing girls playing right alongside them when they're young. Coaches are realizing there's a better, more humanistic way of coaching, and that's all part of the same trend.
The traditional coaching model, DiCicco said, is ''see a mistake, stop it, correct it.'' However, he said, too often ''traditional'' coaches correct mistakes by yelling, ''What the hell is that, Johnny? I've told you 100 times not to make that pass!''
DiCicco sees the new philosophy as an enhancement of the traditional method. Coaches using the ''catch them being good'' model say instead, ''Johnny, you know that pass you made? Why not try it this way?'' The next time Johnny utilizes that suggestion, the coach says, ''Awesome, Johnny! That ball shredded the defense! If we can play that ball more often, we'll have lots of success.''
Sometimes, DiCicco noted, a coach must bite his lip and avoid harsh criticism, no matter how warranted. Ultimately, however, the positive spin pays off.
DiCicco offers solid proof in his book. In January 1998, the U.S. women won a pre-World Cup tournament in China against archrivals Norway, China and Sweden without surrendering a goal. However, DiCicco said, the Americans played poorly, and he was quite critical. After the tournament, co-captains Carla Overbeck and Julie Foudy asked him why, if this was the team he was taking to the World Cup, he was yelling so much. He realized the question was valid.
Two weeks later, at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., DiCicco vowed things would be different. He conferred with Hacker, and for the first time heard the phrase ''Catch them being good.'' He told his assistant coaches to celebrate the women's training sessions, rather than denigrate them. At the end of the week, Overbeck and Foudy congratulated DiCicco on an ''awesome week.''
''I don't know if they consciously understood the difference in coaching, but they knew something was different,'' he wrote. ''And by the way, their play was awesome that week, and I attribute it in large part to the fact that they felt so good about their game.''
DiCicco noted that the wave of girls in sports in the past 30 years has changed the coaching landscape.
''We've evolved from macho intimidation to something more humanistic, more fun,'' he says. ''It's not an abdication of coaching. It's about positive reinforcement – extracting something good and using that as an entry point for coaching critique.''
He also rebuffed the charge that an emphasis on humanistic coaching makes boys less aggressive.
''In the past, the stereotype has been that male athletes are assertive, combative and tough and females are compassionate, thoughtful and nurturing,'' he says. ''Well, someone like Julie Foudy is both. And you're seeing boys and girls who see female athletes like Julie Foudy and like what they see.
''My four sons have no negative stereotypes. They know that girls play soccer and have equal time and equal access to fields. My generation is still adapting to that. My sons value girls who play. They recently got into a very animated discussion about an incident in a girls' game. They don't think of female soccer players as 'less' anything.''
DiCicco does not believe that this happened just because he is the commissioner of the Women's United Soccer Association.
''The traditional male model of the cracking the whip, getting in your face, doesn't work for girls, and it doesn't work for boys anymore either,'' he said. ''We're seeing a new 'model of a champion' being born. Boys are showing vulnerability – they care more about injured teammates – but they're still playing hard. I haven't seen any decrease in the passion boys are showing for the game.''
Though DiCicco will be remembered for the championships he won, he realizes those are only part of a coach's accomplishments.
''Winning was incredibly important, but my greatest memories are of the six months we lived, trained and dreamed together,'' he said. ''The journey we took is much more valuable and enjoyable than the gold medal or trophy.''
During that journey, of course, he often caught his players ''being good.''
If that holds true at the ultimate level – the world stage – then it is even more important in youth sports. DiCicco has seen a trend in youth soccer where adults – parents as well as coaches – take the joy of playing out of the game. That is why he is trying to expose as many youth soccer adults as possible to the ''catch them being good'' philosophy.
''If you're competing, of course, W's and L's are a factor,'' he said. ''But with kids, that shouldn't be at the top of the list. You have to celebrate the fun of soccer and not allow winning to take all the energy from everyone. And the best way to do that is to celebrate when kids do good things.''
He is heartened by what he sees while touring the country promoting his book:
''It's fun to talk about the lessons I've learned. There are some pretty bright eyes out there. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir, and I do get depressed when I hear horror stories like kids who quit because their coaches constantly demean them, or all the talk about 'tournamentitis' and overlapping seasons. But I also see a lot of people who get it.''
DiCicco has one final message for Soccer America's Youth Soccer Letter readers, and it is the same one he wrote on his flip chart. It was the last thing his Olympic and national team players saw before they went out on the field: ''Play hard. Play to win. HAVE FUN.''
The last phrase was always in capital letters. And DiCicco said, ''If I ever took the fun out of the game, the players let me know.''
by Soccer America Youth Soccer Letter Executive Editor Dan Woog