The importance of a 'family' environment

Having previously spent time coaching at QPR and Aldershot Town, Ross White is now lead professional development-phase coach at English fourth-tier club Sutton United.

The Sutton academy - where White leads the under-18s squad, the final step before the senior team - recently attained Category 3 status, the third level for UK academies.

Uefa A-licensed coach White describes the past 12 months at the club as "exciting times" and is now looking to develop what he calls a ‘championship mentality’ among his squad.

SCW caught up with White to talk about what that is, how he is going about developing it, and why getting to know your players is vitally important…

SCW: What is a ’championship mentality’?

RW: “Me and the guy I work with, Ian Palmer, looked at what we can do off the pitch and how it relates to on-the-pitch.

"We put a presentation together about building a ’championship culture’. I think everyone has different opinions on this and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way. But we came up with what we think are the attributes to build that culture. 

“Before going into the presentation, we gave the scholar boys a couple of days to think about a few questions. They came back to us and spent a couple of minutes speaking in front of the group about them. 

"Some of the questions were: ’What does it mean to play for Sutton United at the level we’re at?’, ’What does it mean to be successful?’, ’What does success look like?’, ’What is your motivation?’. That started off the thinking for the players.

“Some boys were a little closed off, some boys really opened up. As a coach, I got to really know a bit more detail around the person, instead of the player.

“I think as soon as you’re interested in a person, the relationship starts to build between coach and player.

"We are with these boys every day. I probably see these players more than I see my family at the moment.

"To create that family culture around the U18s has been brilliant in terms of what goes onto the pitch.

"I think it needs to be backed up with what you’re doing day-in, day-out and the process of how you’re doing things.

"We are with these boys every day. I see these players more than I see my family..."

"That can be done in different ways, but I think it needs to be consistent. That eventually builds a culture.

"In six months’ time, I’d like to think we’re getting successes in the U18s. I would like to think that building this and being consistent with this will show us we’ve gone the right way with it.”

SCW: As the coach, how important is it to role model your values for the players to see?

RW: "It doesn’t work if you don’t live by them. There are three non-negotiables that we’ve asked as coaching staff.

"Firstly, relentless effort. Whatever we’re doing, we’ll go as hard as we can - we’ll train as hard as we can and leave everything out there. I want them to be okay with that.

"The second one we’ve got is competitive excellence. I’ve asked my boys to be the hardest-working team in our league, on and off the ball.

"If we didn’t get the result we wanted, if I can come off and say ’you outworked them’, I can take that. Again, I think that works off the pitch, as well. 

“The last one is the power of the unit. If you’re on the pitch, you’re backing your teammates up, you’re working for each other.

"If a teammate is down because he made a mistake, build him back up. It’s creating that championship culture.

“They’re the three non-negotiables I ask the players to stick with. It’s not going to come after three weeks of pre-season. It’s for me and my coaches to make sure we’re consistent with the messages in training, in games and off the pitch.

"We created a leadership team led by our skipper, who put together their non-negotiables from what the players thought was the right thing to do.

"I think as soon as you do that, it’s their rules - they’re more likely to focus on staying within the boundaries or rules. 

“We’ve got it on a template now. They’ve got ten, we’ve got three. I think if we can go by that consistently, day-by-day, we will be successful.

"Giving them responsibility and management of their rules works a lot better than me micromanaging it and saying these are the rules, stick to it.”