Coaching carousel keeps turning

03 February 2015 - 02:20 By Ross Tucker
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Doctor Know: Ross Tucker
Doctor Know: Ross Tucker
Image: Times Media Group

During the course of a project I'm working on, I came across a list of all the coaches in Brazil's Premier Soccer League.

I had to laugh because 14 out of 20 teams in their league had experienced at least one coaching change during a single season. Ten teams had more than one, making for a total of 29 coaching changes in a season lasting only seven months.

On seven of the 29 occasions, a coach left for reasons of sickness or better employment. The majority of the changes, 22 in total, happened because the coach was sacked, with four teams changing coaches three times in one season.

Talk about a high-speed employment carousel. Granted, Brazil's numbers are abnormal, making England's Premiership look like a lifetime membership club with its average of eight to 13 changes per season.

But what is undeni able is that coaching is a fragile occupation burdened by high expectations, demanding boards or owners, and emotional fans. Coaching tenures are generally accepted to be sprints, not endurance tests, with fast results prioritised.

There's an inherent problem with this - team sport is about combinations and cohesion of thought and action, and so building a working system takes time and stability. Coaches shape their teams much like glassblowers manipulate molten glass - optimal heat applied in the right place at the right time, and the product is spectacular. Rush the job, or fail to plan, and the final product bears no resemblance at all to what was intended.

So, when coaching carousels spin too fast, they achieve precisely the opposite of what is desired, because they destabilise strategic and tactical "memory". Long-term commitments are critical. That's why one sympathises with coaches like David Moyes when at Manchester United. He inherited expectations created by the most successful (and longest-serving) coach in the history of that league, got a fraction of the money subsequently given to his replacement, but actually performed similarly based on points won against the same teams. He was fired within a season.

Similarly, one must commend teams who persist with coaches when the "default" option is to fire them. New Zealand sticking with Graham Henry after the 2007 World Cup is one example, as is the afore-mentioned Alex Ferguson of Manchester United. English Rugby has done the same with their current coach, Stuart Lancaster, renewing his contract until 2019 - a year before the 2015 World Cup even kicked off.

On the local front, Shakes Mashaba seems secure (for now), but will Russell Domingo and Heyneke Meyer be afforded long-term trust?

If not, they live and die by the results of tournaments held every four years, and their respective organisations might find themselves in the position of "rebuilding".

Part of the modern solution to this problem of balancing long-term consistency with short-term results has been to insert a performance director above the level of the coach. Performance directors fill many executive roles, including strategy, staffing and management of various teams (medical, officials etc), and are meant to provide some stability, not only in slowing the carousel down, but by ensuring continuity if (or rather, when) a coach departs. The director is responsible for strategy and collaborates with coaches on tactical issues, but coaches retain full control of matters pertaining to the playing field.

The problem is delineating roles and responsibilities, and avoiding situations where the coach feels undermined. We are so accustomed to seeing the coach acting as spokesman and executive on all decisions that when a backroom decision is made, it is perceived as threatening and shadowy. This is an old mindset, seen in the recent media response to Alistair Coetzee feeling "put out" and considering a move to Japan. The new reality is that sport is business, and the coach is a crucial employee, but not the CEO. That role is being moved higher up within organisations, partly to create the stability that is often absent. Someone must control the carousel, after all.

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