Can see why there's trouble

In life everyone has a personality and a personality is formed based on many different influences and factors that add to a genetic baseline. When we go into a walking football session this wide range of personalities becomes all too evident. To keep this simple I'm going to pick some easy and commonplace examples by considering the loud ones, the quiet ones, the complaining ones and the supportive ones.

Loud

One of the things I often hear while playing is that we need to talk more or that the team is too quiet. So there is a general encouragement to shout and communicate while playing, but what I' writing about here, with being loud, is that one single voice that you constantly hear above all others. Frequently the voice is yelling at you what you should be doing, how you should be doing it, while not actually following the same rules themselves. This could be a midfield player telling all others to track back while casually wandering back into the defensive half, or the goalkeeper who will regularly distribute the ball to the opposing team telling the defender how to defend and pass.

Quiet

These are the players that move into a good position to receive the ball but never let a team mate know they've done it. With no noise and no shouts, it becomes the job of the ball carrying player to recognise they're there and to then pass the ball.

Complaining

This is often a by-product of the loud one and is the remonstration to a team mate, opponent, or referee whenever it's considered the slightest thing is wrong. Complaining about a team mate's play is totally non-supportive and often has a major negative impact as it can annoy, aggravate, reduce confidence and frustrate. Even if what is said could be seen as correct, it is rarely a winning approach. The same could be said of the complaints about referees and decisions. It makes no difference if you consider it wrong, the decision's been made so get on with the game. A pet frustration of mine is when all you hear is constant appeals for decisions and constant back-chat against what decisions have been made.

Supportive

These are the voices you want to hear. They are sympathetic and instructive and it's like being hugged. They don't judge but rather praise the good things that happen and help to improve what goes wrong. The supportive voices are often the better players, who not only help the less proficient, but demonstrate through actions the better things to do. I've met some great supportive voices, respond much better to their cadence than those that shout, and also feel they are intrinsic towards building a great team.