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Troy Dombrowski
Dr. Sean Mullen
KIN 247
Leader Behavior Paper Assignment
Student, Player, Coach: The Juggling Act
It was an unseasonably warm day in the middle of October when I approached the soccer
practice of Dave, a student at University of Illinois, and the rest of his team, which consisted of
all U of I students. Dave is not only a student at the University, but he is also a player and a
coach for his soccer team. Dave said that it is normal for the soccer team to have a player-coach
because it is the only system any of them have ever known, and he explained that they elect a
new coach at the end of each season, which more times than not it will be an older player or
senior. Dave said he was elected coach by the rest of the team at the end of the past season. Dave
and I spoke prior to the practice, and we decided to not inform the rest of the players about my
presence/purpose until after the practice. This was decided based on the conclusion that we felt
results would be less bias if the players did not know I was observing his leadership style. Dave
and I discussed keeping the structure of the teams practice the same as usual, so his leadership
styles can be demonstrated in the most consistent environment. He coaches and practices with
his team three to four times during the week, and they travel on the weekends for tournaments.
Dave coaches a team of twenty-four student-players, that consists of freshmen, sophomores,
juniors, seniors, and even graduate students, which none have any financial aid as a result of
participation on the team. Since Dave is a player-coach, most of his coaching is done on the spot
in the midst of all the action of practice, which makes for a unique style of coaching.
I am going to discuss my observations of Daves leadership behavior through some
specific examples from his practice to display how his coaching style varies over the course of
practice. Dave and his team started off around five oclock in the afternoon on the dot with no
question. It was evident that there was a specific procedure that the team always follows at the

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beginning of each practice. It was also clear that Dave had the respect of the team because when
he spoke everyone listened and performed. After the team began their stretches, led by Dave,
they began to shoot-around at the goal for about fifteen minutes. Throughout the shoot-around,
Dave would select typically younger players to give back direct feedback. I recognized two
positive performances that he specifically critiqued, one was just praise and the other was praise
and instruction. The praise was directed toward a freshman on the team who had been struggling
throughout the shoot-around and made a shot from far out. Dave praised him not on the goal, but
on the freshmans strength and distance of the kick. The other positive performance that resulted
in Dave sharing praise and instruction was when one player made a nice pass across the goalie
box, which is typically known as a cross, and he exclaimed to the player who made the pass
how textbook it was, and then stopped everyone to explain that is how a good cross pass is
done. In hindsight, this was one of the few times that Dave actually stopped practice besides
water breaks in between drills. This notably made an effect on the player because his physical
spirit or moral seemed to increase following the praise.
Later during a passing drill, where the objective is to make seven consecutive passes to
your team mates without the other team interfering, and doing so gives that team one point and
the game is to three. Dave continued his positive leadership behavior by providing verbal praise
to each team that acquired one point; he did this whether or not it was his team who scored a
point because he too was participating. According to Britton W. Brewer in Handbook of Sports
Medicine and Science, Sport Psychology, people often forget how powerful praise can be in
enhancing motivation. A simple good job or way to go can go a long way to athletes feeling
better about themselves and contributions to the team. (Page 16) This was a common theme
throughout practice because Dave was highly positive towards his teams successful behavior,
which later he would state that recognition is important to him and his players need recognition

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too. However, this positivity was mainly present during the first half of the practice because as
the intensity grew in the drills they were practicing so did Daves coaching behaviors. In the last
portion of practice, Dave began setting up drills called set pieces, which are game-like
scenarios that he takes earnestly. I tallied only a couple positive performance behaviors during
these set pieces, and they were the result of a successful set piece. For example, one set piece
was a free kick on the opponents side of the field with a favorable location to make a play on the
goal. There was a red team that consisted of four attackers and there was a blue team that
consisted of three defenders and one goalie. A success for the red team is to score and for the
blue team is to clear the ball, they would switch out players upon a stoppage of play (goal or
clearing). The most prominent behavior that Dave praised during this part of practice was when
the red team was making silky smooth passes between the defenders, and just when a red team
attacker was making a play on the goal, the goalie of the blue team punched the ball to deny the
goal. Shortly after, a defender on the blue team ran to the ball and cleared it. Dave stopped
practice once again to praise the blue team on their resilience, and to reiterate to the rest of the
team that the extra effort at the end of the play is what makes the difference between allowing a
goal or not.
According to Courtney Seiter in The Art and Science of Giving and Receiving Criticism
at Work, when we look at Maslows famous hierarchy of needs, [it can] be supposed that
criticism is pretty high up on the pyramid but our brains see criticism as a primal threat. It
would appear that Dave understands how criticism could discourage his players, so he primarily
would provide constructive criticism. For example, during the beginning of practice he would
frequently comment on players shots and the success of them. One player, who had not been the
most accurate, was not leaning forward into his kicks like the equivalent of picking your head
up as you drive in golf. He pulled him aside and told him he was doing a good job, but he needs

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to remember to lean forward with his kicks, and then showed him how he does it as a reminder
of how to do it. This was a popular method for Dave when it came to undesirable behaviors for
the first portion of practice. However, when the practice transitioned into their passing drill, there
was either success or failure. As explained earlier, the drills goal was to have seven consecutive
passes among the players team. If players did not win the drill, then they had some form of
physical punishment, and for this practice it was running suicides while the other team had a
water break. The punishments vary from suicides to push-ups to planks, and it is known that
this is a result of losing the drill. The somewhat irony to it was that Daves team lost in the first
round, and so he provided both praise to the team that won, and then provided constructive
criticism to his own team while performing the punishment. He would tell them to work on their
trapping ability, which is ball control while dribbling and passing. This weakness had been
exposed when an older player on the other team attacked a sophomores lesser ability at trapping.
The most criticism that Dave gave throughout the practice is when they transitioned into the set
piece portion of practice, as explained earlier, is game-like scenarios that Dave stresses
importance on. Dave was being not as friendly towards the players with his criticism because he
wanted all of the players to have a serious mentality of being critiqued. During one of their
crossing set pieces, one player was ideally supposed to pass the ball into the center of the goal
box in attempt to make a play on goal, but he overshot the middle of the box by a large distance.
The ball sailed out the sidelines on the far side of the field, and it was not clear whether it was
deliberate or not, and so Dave yelled at him about being better than that and these drills are to be
taken seriously. This was the most upset that Dave had appeared all practice; however, the team
was becoming more rambunctious throughout practice and it appeared his patience had worn

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thin. The majority of behavior towards unsuccessful performances resulted in constructive
criticism similar to the instructional criticism I discussed earlier.
I waited for Dave after he was done with his team meeting at the end of practice. Dave
said when he told the team that I had been observing them all practice they claimed they had not
even noticed I was there, which from an observational research standpoint is a success. Dave
said no one objected to what I had done because he gave me the approval, which demonstrates
their trust in their coach. Finally, I showed Dave my tallies on his behavior: twenty-nine total
number of behaviors, eleven positive/successful, and nineteen unsuccessful/undesirable. I had
told him over the course of the practice he had shifted from mainly recognizing positive
behaviors to providing constructive criticism primarily at the end. I then explained to him the
criteria for each positive or unsuccessful behavior that he addressed throughout practice.
Successful performances were judged on praise only, instruction only, or instruction and praise.
Unsuccessful performance were judged based off of encouragement only, instruction only,
encouragement and instruction, criticism, or criticism and instruction. Daves only objection to
my observations was the high total number of unsuccessful performances, and I explained to him
he has a high tendency to use constructive criticism. He did not seemed as offended as he did
moments earlier because it had made more sense to him now that I explained it. He said he likes
to continue to encourage his players even if they make mistakes because he does not want to lose
their respect. One of the tips he received from the previous coach, someone whom he played
under, said when you are coaching and playing with your friends, it can be tough to differentiate
being their coach and team mate/friend. Therefore, he said he styles his coaching more along the
lines of encouragement, but only because everyone maintains a level of mutual respect for each
other. He said he does not typically criticize anyone beyond constructive criticism because he is a
player too, and he needs to receive feedback on his play; therefore, there is a general guideline

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on the team to try and only provide constructive criticism. As for his successful performances,
Dave was fairly straight forward in the fact that he likes to recognize when someone performs
well because as I previously stated he too enjoys recognition. He likes to emphasize that during
practice, but not too much because then each player might become overconfident.