{"id":6410,"date":"2016-12-13T19:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playerdevelopmentproject.com\/?p=6410"},"modified":"2024-01-22T14:16:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T03:16:04","slug":"embracing-discomfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playerdevelopmentproject.com\/embracing-discomfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Discomfort"},"content":{"rendered":"

FA Lead National Goalkeeping Coach and England U21 Goalkeeping Coach, Tim Dittmer, brings a wealth of wisdom to his dual role as coach and coach developer.\u00a0 In this interview with the 32-year-old, Player Development Project finds a coach already wise well beyond his years.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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In normal lore, it is thought that we grow wiser as we grow older.\u00a0 But Dittmer has somehow figured out that wisdom isn\u2019t necessarily a result of a long life.\u00a0 Wisdom is measured by what we are willing to learn, not simply what we already know.\u00a0 And learn is what Dittmer and the players he coaches do.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at Tim Dittmer at work and play: on the game, on coaching, on the players and player development, on learning, on the unconventional, and even on inconvenient ways to grow confident and effective goalkeepers.\u00a0 Along the way you will see italicized \u201cDittmerisms\u201d found in his Twitter account over the last year or so.<\/p>\n

Like so many Liverpool area youngsters, Tim began kicking a ball around in grassroots play somewhere around age seven or eight as an outfield player on a small, local side\u2014enjoying being a footballer. In time, he moved through the Liverpool Academy as an up-and-coming goalkeeper,\u00a0played 200+ games for Vauxhall Motors among other teams in the Conference and Conference North. He then went on to Bradford City as both a coach and then player\/coach.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t just specialize in coaching \u2018keepers at Bradford; he worked with outfielders at all levels and all abilities throughout his coaching apprenticeship. Juggling full-time coaching roles at first Liverpool and latterly Bradford, It wasn\u2019t until he moved to Manchester City in 2012 that he was forced to give up his own playing career to give the necessary time to coaching.<\/p>\n

“What should mark youth sport?\u00a0 Fun, Challenging, and Games would be right up there with what young players would find most engaging I would imagine.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMaking children wait in line to use one ball is like giving a class one pen\u2026and expecting them to learn to write.\u201d \u2013<\/em>Dittmer quoting Williams, 1996<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When asked what he thought about the competitive path youngsters should take, his advice is to not specialize early: \u201cI think it is best if youngsters play other invasion games, multiple sports, movements, and disciplines.\u201d\u00a0 He thinks time spent learning to be an athlete is better in the long run at this stage than being only a footballer. For goalkeepers, Tim believes the players should take even more time, maybe only beginning to specialize around age 15 or 16.<\/p>\n

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“What should you focus on for young GKs at 9\/10 years of age?\u00a0 Spending an equal amount of time playing outfield as they do in goal.<\/em>“<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always enjoyed coaching goalkeepers,\u201d Dittmer says.\u00a0 When asked who his own mentors were, he mentioned two iconic goalkeeping coaches, Billy Stewart and Martin Thomas.\u00a0 Stewart, he recalls, coached \u201cthe whys\u201d of it all.\u00a0 Why you did what you did.\u00a0 In other words, there is more to the position than the \u201chows\u201d.\u00a0 Deeper player-intelligence roots are found in the whys, or as Tim describes it,\u00a0\u201cthe continual exposure to making footballing decisions.”<\/p>\n

“In order to be successful, you need to look for ways to get things done, NOT for reasons why things can\u2019t be done.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These \u201cwhy\u201d roots gave Dittmer the confidence to trust his own thoughts, beliefs and imagination in his specialized coaching of goalkeepers.\u00a0 He freely admits that exploring his own coaching style depends on a deep understanding of the game.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s important,\u201d he says,\u201d for goalkeeping coaches to work backwards from what the game requires, to know the game from top to bottom, not just specializing in one area.\u201d\u00a0 That and learning what the league needs and what the manager wants.\u00a0 As a specialized coach, he says he must learn and know the variety of goalkeeper roles, tactics, and the uniqueness of each opponent.<\/p>\n

“If your players appear indecisive, rigid in body and mind and quiet\u2026Have a look at YOUR session designs through the same lens.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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When Dittmer was asked about what he looks for in potential keepers, he said on the mental side, \u201creal bright learners who are proactive and forward looking.\u201d On the physical side, he looks for speed, overall athletic ability, outstanding knack to distribute the ball, a tactician of the game, and players who are effective decision makers.\u00a0Effectiveness is more important than being technically good.\u00a0 What is especially important, Dittmer says, is to find players who want to find ways to win.\u00a0 But winning, in his view, depends on players who are lifelong learners, have a strength of nerve, and who have an unwavering belief in what they are striving to do and become. There is a strong correlation between winners and players who are life long learners.<\/p>\n

Effectiveness is more important than being technically good.\u00a0 What is especially important, Dittmer says, is to find players who want to find ways to win.\u00a0 But winning, in his view, depends on players who are lifelong learners, have a strength of nerve, and who have an unwavering belief in what they are striving to do and become. Dittmer believes “there is a strong correlation between winners and those who are life long learners.”<\/p>\n

“Support our players to be decisive, positive, innovative, creative and effective in THEIR chosen actions.\u00a0 DON\u2019T prescribe rigid solutions!”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dittmer values his role as a goalkeeping coach, for sure.\u00a0 His daily enthusiasms come from finding himself in a privileged position to help coaches at all levels and in other countries, to challenge them to better themselves, to strive for continuous improvement, and to move the culture of football\u00a0forward.\u00a0 When speaking of what energizes him beyond what he has learned from his mentors, he says \u201cI have also learned a great deal from the business community, from executives and leaders in big organizations.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“To produce the type of Goalkeeper any one team, coach, or player wants, you have to work out what you want the KEY ATTRIBUTES to look like\u2026 Then design and piece together a programme of work which reflects these desired attributes, then WORK ON THEM\u2026”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While it may be too much to say Dittmer coaches chaos, it is fair to say he coaches the unconventional.\u00a0 To steal a phrase from the American philosopher John Dewey, Dittmer believes goalkeepers need \u201clions in their paths\u201d. \u00a0That\u2019s how we grow.\u00a0 By facing and facing down challenges we are diverted into thinking things through.\u00a0 Otherwise we learn helplessness, shun discovery and invention, and forever remain an average player. In Dittmer\u2019s words, \u201cI want to challenge our players to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.\u201d To do this he coaxes the players to take creative steps outside their comfort zone. \u201cThese first tentative steps,\u201d he says, \u201care very different to the strides you will eventually achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Dittmer strives to do is to magnify the number and kinds of decisions the players experience in practice sessions.\u00a0 He strongly believes in creating practices that are as realistic and game-specific as possible.\u00a0 The only way to train for intensity and commotion of game-play is to create training sessions that are intense and tumultuous. \u201cPractices must be mentally tougher than the games will be,\u201d says Dittmer.\u00a0 How else will a goalkeeper learn to focus, to know the game from top to bottom, to work backwards from what the game requires?\u201d<\/p>\n

“Many encourage to ‘Think outside the box.’ \u00a0Maybe we should more \u201cThink inside the box (the 18 yard one!) and consider what goes on in there? This should better inform your practice\/program design, assuring realism, relevance, and repetition.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Dittmer takes a turn in a coach education environment with elite coaches at St. George\u2019s Park as a coach educator, he reinforces the Four Corner Model at the National Football Centre\u2014equal focus on the technical, physical, social and psychological.\u00a0 But it is the psychological that especially attracts Dittmer\u2019s own attention.\u00a0 He believes the psychological components are typically under-taught as players move through the levels of play.\u00a0 \u201cThe kind of person you are is paramount in the kind of playing success you will have.\u201d\u00a0 This is true, Dittmer says, of any endeavour.\u00a0 Hard work, diligence, and openness to change are universal prerequisites to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe psychological corner for the goalkeeper is massively important.\u201d\u00a0 He argues that especially at the level of elite play the technical and tactical skills have been developed over time.\u00a0 But thinking though the game, learning the context, recognizing the situations, finding the opponent\u2019s tendencies, crafting the possible options\u2014all of that takes focus as well as what is sometimes referred to as coaching the players\u2019 game craft.\u00a0 For a variety of reasons, goalkeepers in particular are less likely to be challenged in these ways.<\/p>\n

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