The first ten months set the tone, Shane explains, with almost as much time spent in the classroom as on the pitch because the players could already play. Sessions focused on building trust, making honest feedback normal, and treating Belgium’s mix of French and Dutch speaking cultures as a strength rather than a divide. The result was a squad of genuinely close friends rather than teammates who merely knew each other. Watch the full masterclass: Ask Me Anything with Shane McLeod.
Twenty years of experience made Commens a different coach, and his job as performance director is compressing that into three or four years for the coaches he works with. The catch is openness: a coach who argues every point is not ready, so he simply waits until they are. He also separates professional development, the courses and tactics, from personal development, understanding why you believe what you believe. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
With Belgium’s youth teams the values are team, you, passion and excellence, each with defined behaviours underneath, and Commens shows how they can carry a whole match briefing. Tactics get trained earlier in the week; the briefing then frames the game through the values, from pressing as one unit to individual preparation and quality in every action. At half time, whichever value is slipping is the one you lean on. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
Embedding values takes time, and Commens says you know it has worked when players start using the language back to you and between each other. That only happens if the coach uses it first; he recalls a mentor pushing him to tie a technical point about first touch to the value of being skilful. The hardest moment is under scoreboard pressure, which is exactly when the coach must show the result matters less than the behaviour. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
Values based coaching is not a replacement for tactics, Commens explains. You still run your press and your structures; what changes is how you deliver the message and influence behaviour. He warns against values that sit as words on a wall with nothing underneath, and shows how language shapes belief: a coach who answers a bold target by asking whether the team should be more realistic is signalling doubt. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
For a recreational youth side, Commens says enjoyment is the value that matters most. Players want time on the pitch, not five minutes each half, even in a win, and they want to feel valued by teammates and coach. He still builds in basic skill work, because nobody enjoys missing every ball, and asks the players afterwards what they liked and what they did not. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
Are you autocratic, laissez faire or democratic? Result orientated or process orientated? Commens works through the questions he uses to help coaches figure out what they stand for, and shares his own fix from early in his career, when frustration kept spilling onto his players: a written reminder at the top of his notebook asking whether he was actually helping the situation. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.
Commens argues that at international level every coach has enough technical and tactical expertise, so strategy alone rarely decides anything. What separates the consistently successful ones is getting players to produce their personal best in the moments that count. He points to the Red Lions, where he can barely name a player who underperformed at a major tournament, and says that pattern is no coincidence. Watch the full masterclass: Values based coaching.