Dr. Matt Pain: how an observational framework can help identify and improve your players’ psychological skills

Coach | Approach | Peter Glynn | 21.04.22

Coaches at all levels of the game can use a simple observational framework to help identify and improve young players’ psychological skills, says former FA psychology manager, Dr Matt Pain. 5Cs image courtesy of Dr.Matt Pain

Learning: 

-       How to develop an observational framework to profile players’ psychological skills

-       How psychological skills determine what a player can produce technically and physically

-       How the 5Cs model was introduced to the England youth teams

Coaches at all levels of the game can use a simple observational framework to help identify and improve young players’ psychological skills, says former FA psychology manager, Dr Matt Pain.

“The key thing is to have a framework to support your observation,” says Pain, who works as a sports psychologist across a number of sports as well as an individual technical coach in football.

“If you don’t have a framework and you just think, 'oh, I'm going to watch a player and see what their psychological responses are, the risk is that you get dragged back into just looking at them technically because that's your skillset.”

Pain, who worked at the English Football Association for 15 years, believes the ‘5Cs’ psychological model, which he helped implement into the English FA’s education pathway and with the England youth teams, can be utilised by coaches at all levels of the game.