Modern Soccer Coach Podcast

Building an Effective Youth Curriculum with Temisan Williams

This week on the MSC Podcast, Gary is joined by Temisan Williams to discuss youth curriculums and academy methodologies. Temisan has coached professionally at 3 Premier League Academies (including Arsenal FC, Tottenham FC. Fulham FC) and also is the founder of the Excellence Academy.

In this interview, Temisan discusses the effectiveness of a curriculum, how it can be shaped to suit the demands of the modern game, and what coaches can do to help facilitate the process.

Read more about Temisan below: https://www.linkedin.com/in/temisan-williams-msc-bsc-83a40931

Duration:: 45m
Broadcast on:: 24 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

and they can get so bogged down into the session itself and you actually miss what coaching is about which is connecting with those who are coming. You want the players when they come to have a fantastic experience. Just like how they go to Disneyland, oh wow mum, dad, please we need to go back, they need to come back with them. And I always like to at times use music in my sessions and I think music helps give a different type of flow and interaction. He knew the names of, you know, the underlines. Hello, welcome back to Modern Soccer Coach podcast. This week we are joined by Thomas on Williams. He's worked at three Premier League academies, Arsenal, Tottenham, Fulham. He's also founder of the Excellence Academy. Please check out his work on the link below. Today we're talking about youth curriculums, how much they benefit young players, how they need to be modified to suit the modern game and how to go about building one. As always, please like, please subscribe. Thank you so much for the support. Please check out the work of Modern Soccer Coach.com. New content coming all the time free for coaches. Thanks so much for your support. Here is Amazon, enjoy. Amazon, thank you so much for joining me today on the Modern Soccer Coach podcast. Really, really excited to chat. Good to be able to speak with all your, you know, your listeners who are, I'm so tuned in from different parts of the world. Yeah, it'd be great. It's a topic that I wanted to jump on and talk about with you because with your experience, especially at the academy level, growing the game versus improving the game and growing the game is mass participation, which we, I don't think we've got an issue with in this country. I think we're doing that really well. Organizational structure is, as you see, is pretty strong. Our numbers are really, really good. Now, are we getting quality from that? That's what I want to, that's what I want to talk about today. Maybe there's things we could do better. I definitely think there is. Yeah, so it's interesting, you said, about actually improving. And I think that's what's really, really key, especially if, if you want to continue having the interest of young girls, young boys who want to play the game, it's important to make sure that you are equipping them for the future game. And I think curriculums are definitely key to that, and we need to make sure that it's being appropriately challenged and are the young people, especially when they're entering into football or soccer, if you like, for the first time, then how we making sure that we're having a clear pathway for them to be able to develop themselves, to be able to thrive, to be able to, when they need to strive at times, or even at times survive, because if you're in the academy system, there are times where as players, you're going to have to survive, because it's becoming a little bit more challenging, a little bit more difficult, and making sure that they have the basics, and they have the core fundamentals early enough, gives them the best possible chance. All right, so let's start at the beginning for, you know, six, seven, eight, which is what I would say is the beginning, where they're coming a bit more aware of, you know, probably falling over the game, but then, you know, having a couple of years to play it in the backyard, and then all of a sudden you're entering an environment. What is the role of a club? What is the role of a culture director to put in place to have programming, per se, when that player enters at that age group? What should it look like? Yeah, so I think the first thing definitely is that you want the players when they come to have a fantastic experience, just like how they go to Disneyland, and they go there and, oh, wow, mom, dad, please, we need to go back, they need to come back with it, and they need to have a positive affinity with the club in that way. Unfortunately, I have had stories of seven-year-olds as an example, so now I don't want to go back because of the way that either it'd been set up, or potentially the way the coaches were, and that's a failure of seven years of age, you know, kids can say that because they just want to play. I think definitely using games to spark their imagination, so something that's easy for them to understand, very simple, can get them playing as much as possible, have to have a ball each, that's absolutely critical, making sure that they're able to explore at their own pace, and then just making sure there's some clear rules for them to understand how to navigate themselves in this new space, and ultimately, you've got to bring a lot of energy. As a coach, the more energy you bring, it's going, and the enthusiasm that you bring as a coach, the players, they're going to feed off it, the young kids, they're going to feed off it, and I always like to, at times, use music in my sessions, but I think music helps give a different type of flow and interaction, and it's actually quite interesting because I've coached, I've written, actually, if you fight five to seven-year-olds, and after a while, it says to me, "Oh, don't have my music. Oh, where's the music? Can you put it on, please?" I love the music, and it's something that just, again, gives them an interaction, helps their imagination. It's something that they're familiar with from school, and so it's important to try to just utilise these things, I think, as coaches, especially in their initial introductory to the environment. The piece that you said there on the fun and enjoyment, and the kids not wanting to go back, I'm guessing that there's an element of pre-professionalism in that there, where it becomes ultra-serious too soon, and I think a lot of things I want to talk about today is trying to get the balance right with, "Okay, well, how do you get the balance right between you as a coach, usually at that age group, the coach has got the passion for it, but that can ultimately be sometimes swayed a little bit, maybe, in ultra-organisation? Do you see that?" It can be because, and I do understand, as coaches, individually, personally, they may have a desire to work at a certain level in terms of going to first-team, whatever it might be, and so for them, they have that in the back of their mind, and they can get so bogged down into the session itself, they miss the the kids who are actually there, and you actually miss what coaching is about, which is connecting with those who are coming, and it's not about, "Okay, have I put on a session that I could say is a top session or someone looking at my session? It looks like a top session. No, have you connected with the kids?" I was actually talking with a coach yesterday who now works in Academy, and he said something really important, actually, a mentor he had when he first started in grassroots, and the mentor said to him afterwards, "How many names do you remember?" Maybe five, six, he said, "Okay, next week I'm going to remember more." That was not 20 kids or so. He said, "Next week, okay, yeah, I'm in about 10." He said, "Look, you need to remember the kids' names. That's not good enough. You have to know who they are." And I think that's really the epitome of it. They've got to know who is coming through that door, what is with it, little Melissa or Charlie, Ethan, do you know what they really love, what they enjoy, do you know something about them? I think that's where it really starts. The personality has to match for the coach? It definitely does. I think you need to know that as a coach. It's interesting because when I started off grassroots as well, I remember I coached this session. They were 17, three-year-olds and maybe six of them wanted to play the game. Two were picking up flowers. Two or three of them were holding onto me and I had to be doing the incredible sounds and all that type of stuff. You know, you think yourself, I'm like, is this coaching football, but it is. It is because that's how they interact with the game at those young younger ages. But it's interesting because it got to a point where gradually the more and more I had experience in the academy football, the more and more I realized, actually, I wasn't that. I was no longer the best person for grassroots because I've been so long outside of grassroots football. I think it would actually be the expectations were then different, which I was used to. And so when you talk about that awareness of self as a coach, you do need to reflect to know, okay, am I the best person now to be able to give these young people what they need at this stage? Or how do I become that person? 100%. 100%. Sometimes we look at coaches from being a tier level grow. We think from a knowledge base and as your knowledge base gets bigger, you get better as a coach. Not really taking into account that as your knowledge base gets bigger, your personality evolves and your age bracket changes and all these things go around it where sometimes I think today when I look at coaches, sometimes I think it's not bad. But you're in the that's the wrong audience for you sometimes. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think as you rightly said with it with the knowledge as a knowledge comes as experience comes, I think as a coach as well, you start to have an understanding of, okay, where do I enjoy or feel like my skill sets like the most? So we've spoken about it. There are coaches who actually their skill sets, they feel is more so towards a foundation phase, which is nine to 11. And actually they've spent 10 years there and they are the experts in foundation phase as opposed to someone who's just been through the academy system as a coach over 10 years and coach different age groups. They've spent 10 years with that age group. So they have that level of detail. And I think it's important to recognize that as a coach, you go through your journey. And I remember when I decided to settle more so with the 15, 16, 16 age group, because I feel actually that's where I feel like I have the best impact in. I enjoy, I actually enjoy that transition when it's almost your last, your last year of academy football. And how do I positively impact the young people where potentially they could be exiting the academy system? Moving on to a technical base. We've had this for a long, long time. The technical base is important. And obviously it's going to lead into it. But with technical base, your mind ultimately goes again, back to all soccer schools, where it's morning is right foot after noon's left foot. And all, you know, it becomes quite monotonous. Have we moved from there? Have we expanded technical base? Where are you in England with that? So looking at the pre-academies, I'll give you some experiences that I've had seen. There would definitely have fine skills for the young people to learn. So whether it might be returns, L-turns, query, step overs. But that's not, you know, an hour, half an hour, that's what you're doing. It might be short-sharp, okay, one minute, two minutes, three minutes, and then you're going into 1v1s. And then you're going into 2v2s. So you're starting to utilise these skills that you're learning inside a type of game scenario, if you like. Because ultimately, the kids want to score goals. That's what we come with. They want to kick the ball down and score goals. And it's trying to help them to be able to do that, but giving them some sort of ways of manoeuvring with the ball. So that is something that is there and making sure that they are comfortable with the ball as much as possible. Interestingly, I actually had a really good conversation with Mark Rivers, who leads Arsenal's pre-academy. And I mean, it was a fascinating stat, which I didn't know myself. But he said they see about 7,000 kids in their pre-academy each year. And how much was it? 0.1% or 0.1% actually go into the academy from those 7,000. Wow. So, but it just goes to show one, how many kids obviously are playing within these pre-academies. And it's so important, the curriculum that they're given so that they are able to, because ultimately they do want to, you know, the kids want to, they're playing there, they love, they enjoy, you know, playing at that particular club. Maybe they're a fan of a club. And it's something that they would like to like to do. And you want to give them the best chance of being able to do so. But if not, they still have a fantastic experience, and then they can either go to another club, or you know, it's a main re-enter at 10 years of age, potentially to come back into the club if there's an opportunity. But it definitely is a core curriculum around particular turns, and then linking into 1v1, 2v2, and potentially 3v3 games scenarios. But not more than that, because ultimately at those younger ages, you want to give them as much time on the ball as possible. So, there are times when I've seen, you know, grassroots coaches do as best as they can, but there are times where I've seen it's at 7v7, 5, you know, 5-year-olds. How many touches are they going to get off the ball? You can see after one minute, one or two of them are just talking in the corner, or looking at the side, because they're not engaged, and so it's important to make sure that they're continually engaged. So, you're saying there that in the technical component of those V-turns, those L-turns, and all those components, one, it's not for an hour long, it's pretty short, maybe an activation exercise to get them going. Yeah, short shot, no longer than 45 seconds. Oh, wow, wow. So then the second question... Yeah, very quick. So, actually answers my second question, which is, there wouldn't be a ton there, because I'm guessing that, again, a coach who has 20 kids, and he's a curriculum with L and the V, and all these is going to say, "Well, all right, then Johnny, wrong, stand like this." And of course, the coach maybe not skilled enough, perhaps, or experienced enough to manage the time with it. Next thing, you know, it's 45 minutes, and they've spent all of it chatting. So, in terms of the technical correction there, there's not a lot of it. So, with the technical correction, it depends, obviously, how many coaches are there. I think numbers, they look at usually having no more than probably 10, 12 per coach, so potentially some kids. And, you know, you do have kids who come up to and say, "Look, I'm struggling with this," and kids are quite open at that age in that regard. But they would try and have smaller numbers so that if there is a kid who might need a bit of support in that way, and of course, that is also a role of the coach to be able to break down whether it be a technique, skill, etc. to help, then there is that opportunity. But it's more case of, it's not necessarily, okay, line, line, line, line, you know, here, actually, I've seen it where it's more integrated. So, actually, you're doing the skill in and amongst your friends, everyone's got a ball, it's not as, it's a loose area, it's not necessarily a particular, right, you go from this line to this line, this line to this line. You have to start here, "Oh, go back, go back," and you spend two minutes trying to arrange it before they've actually done anything. Hello, coaches. We'll take a quick break here. As always, thank you so much for the support with modern soccer coach. The YouTube channel is up to almost 44,000 subscribers. Thank you so much for all your support. Please continue to subscribe to the work. Please continue to like and share the work. It really, really means a lot. We have a few exciting things coming up. We've got the webinar, free webinar on midfield rotations, how to coach rotations. We've got that coming on Friday. Please check out that. I'll put the link below. Every coach whose registers will get a free copy of it emailed to them. We've also got new content every week on the modern soccer coach website. Please check that out too. And our online analysis course is in full flow at the minute. Please check out that modern soccer coach.com/analysis. Thank you so much for all the support with all the resources. We will continue to build it out, and we hope you continue to enjoy it. Thank you. Back to Tim as well. In that environment then, in that programming, there's a staying on that there. One of my friends who when I was in Louisville, I took my kids to a pre-academy program. I got a lot of med to deal with my kids for two hours a night, three days a week. But something I had, which I thought was really cool, was there was a lot of field space and you would drop. Can I take your kids in? And then all of a sudden it would stop. Parents stay here. Kids are going there. And you might think that's normal, but that's very much American thing where you bring your latte and your chair over and watch your 10 yards from your kid all the time. I saw that, I saw that. Like on a Saturday morning, I've been there myself and I don't mind it. I don't mind watching my kid and doing that there. But on the Tuesday, Thursday nights, I actually thought, thank you. Thank you for taking this away from me, where I'm now at a distance and you kind of pull yourself away a little bit for a reason to do it. What is the parent at the clubs? What is the parent role during the week? So I do think that it should be firstly seen as a bonding time, that it's something where the parent can talk with a child. My daughter's not there yet, but I'd love to think that wherever she wants to go into. Okay, how was it? What did you enjoy? What did you try? Who did you talk to? So it's more of a bonding time with the parent, especially because when they get into potentially, again, to academies, after going to spend all that time at school, they can end up spending 20%, even 30 years at the academy. And in one week, you might see them more than a parent, see them. And so it's really important that for parents, they are bonding and using it as a bonding time with their child. And of course, if it's something that they are passionate about, it's making sure they're not putting on that pressure. And I know there are a lot of parents out there that don't and just want them to enjoy themselves. But I think more and more nowadays, and especially because what's been seen in social media, it's almost like, okay, a child could be a ticket to start them to big financial payouts, especially because by the time they're 17, 16, they could be getting considerable amounts of money depending on where they are. So it's also important for parents just to recognize that, this is an enjoyable journey, let them enjoy it, whatever, wherever it will take them, and to recognize that it's only 0.000001%, you actually make it as professional football players. So it's okay if they just enjoy it for 10 years, 20 years, and that's as far as it goes. Yeah, it's very, very interesting. I'm experiencing more different sports because of just the way my kids are, they pick a different one every month, so off we go. And the most interesting one was Taekwondo, where if it's indoors, I love it because you get to sit in the air condition and watch the different type code. But at the end of it, they brought the parents up to do party exercises, and I hated it. I just told them that. How high did you get your foot? I would love that. I mean, I did karate when I was younger, and yeah, I think it'd be great. I'd love to be part of that. Yeah, I mean, going back to what you're saying on a serious note, the expectations, which I see it in England, I see it. But over here, we've got a little bit different where I don't think they're dropping them off thinking this can pay for a college scholarship or this can make me money. I think there's a, I think there's a lot of prestige attached to being good at sport and telling people that you're good at sport and almost, I almost see a pass down the pass and down the information that you had when you played sport when really won it was a different sport, two, it was 30 years ago, three kids not less than the anyway. Like, I just wonder if there's a way of even let's go Saturday, Saturday morning, so is there, you know, how does a, I'd imagine if a kid is playing for a London club, it's a Premier League Academy. I imagine the parents are, are pretty going to get pretty emotionally engaged in that there. How do they manage that? Yeah, I've seen some things, definitely. But it's not every parent, you know, I've been privileged actually with the parents who I've engaged with. I mean, lovely, lovely parents. One actually I've really, really interested in one of the most recent who I saw, his son actually made it, made his debut the other day just king for Fulham. And I saw his dad just randomly a year and a half ago and he was just really good to catch up with him. It's just like seeing a mate out. So it was, you know, a lot of parents actually, they just want to see the child doing well. But it's also important just to manage those expectations and having those boundaries. When I was at one club, what they, what they, a presentation they did do, which I thought was really interesting. They brought a company in and it was how do, how do I as a parent, parent, a talented child when I haven't been talented in that way? Oh, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. I thought I was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I don't know the, because I was coaching at the time, I don't know the specificities of the, of the presentation. But I thought, yeah, to do something, you're doing something really important here. Yeah, that's why I think that, that there's a lot, a lot of, there's a lot now of progress in this area, especially in the U.S. with the parent education and Oskai Eddy Bruce at soccer parenting does a brilliant job. I almost think that we need to be more specific with topics like that would definitely help. I mean, that's got, because what that does is that makes you think that maybe, again, I was a quarterback for my high school team, but a little Stevie is a goalkeeper. You know, there are two different contexts. You stand behind the goal is not any given someday. It's not the same thing. And I think that, again, I don't like using the word ego, but I think just the novelty of having a talented kid, kind of takes you down a path that, yes, it's, it's, it's tough, because especially when you get to that 15s, 16s age group, where really now, contracts are just on the cusp. And first team could be a year and a half away, two years away, even if not even before that. It can get very, very catchy for, for some, for some parents, if they feel as though, is my kid going to be released, are they going to, are they going to make it here? And obviously, hearing and being aware of the, the, the, the financial implications and the opportunities that can be afforded, of course, for their, for their child, but, you know, also as well, thinking about family wise, it can be difficult. It can be difficult. And I think that doesn't need to be managed very carefully. And I think clubs try to do it best as possible to keep parents informed, but also not give them too much information in the sense that then I'll turn that information, you know, back on you, because ultimately, you know, there's so much involved in it. It's not just one person's decision in regards to players. It's a multiplicity of coaches plus the, you know, academy manager, head of coaching and sports scientists involved as well as the psychologist. So, and the analyst producing clips. So there's, there's a multiplicity of people involved nowadays to make, you know, one, one, one decision. When does a curriculum start moving from that technical base to more team concepts? So I think it's really important to remember within, especially that age bracket of six to six to eight that their peripheral vision isn't developed to a point whereby they can necessarily see those passes and, and combine with, you know, another player. So it's really important to, for the curriculum also to reflect where they are as a child in relation to what actually they can do, you know, so for example, here in six or seven, possible, possible, possible, well, actually, perishable, it hasn't, they're still a very centralized vision. So it's still, it's very difficult for them to try to see what's on the periphery to make that pass. So it's important that it reflects that. But as they then go into the under 12, you know, back in under the 11s, under 12s, that's where you really start seeing a bit more around, okay, team expectations, team shape, what's your responsibility in your position, but then in relation to, okay, the person next to you and maybe person in front of you. So now you're starting to understand relationships early within that age group and then progressing forwards. But it's also important for kids to have experiences of different pitch geography. So as an example, you know, I've had kids come to me and say, okay, 11, oh, I'm a cam. Okay. To something you heard from FIFA, you know, I've never heard that. I've never heard that. So a cam is, you know, it's essential attacking me. Yeah, sorry. You know, you, you, you, you think to yourself, you know, probably heard it was on where played it on FIFA, but what do you understand by, by that? And it's in in entirety and obviously then whatever shape you play, etc. So it's really important to make sure that I think for players, especially that they understand, okay, you're not, especially when they're younger, you're not fixed in a certain position. You're going to be experiencing different positions across the pitch for you to get a good appreciation of what it means to play the left side, right side centrally, at the top of the pitch, bottom of the pitch, so that they have a better, if you like, football in education as they now progress, as they now progress through the age groups. And then, and it's very interesting because if you look at a lot of players, when they actually make their debuts nowadays, it's, it's not the position that they played in when they were going through the academy. So typically, you know, Saka, you know, he, he played left, left the win quite long, the academy made his, you know, May's debut, left back, and you've got other players similarly. And so it's important to make sure that they have those experiences. So that actually, if they do go all the way through, they've had all those years of, of, of, of growing and understanding, improving, now understanding on different, of different positions. So when it does come to firstly, where it really matters, okay, yes, I have a familiarity of playing this position. So look, I'm going to, I'm going to do, I'm going to join myself and I know what I can do. As the model starts moving towards team concepts, you're saying again, the player moving in different experiences of the game, when do you think that maybe, maybe consciously or subconsciously coaches start to work on strengths rather than this all rounder concept that you probably start the technical base with, like, you got to do ABC, D and E, but then again, as the player becomes, maybe it's Saka and they're, they're an exceptional dribbler at 14. I think, well, we might need to double down on this here. Does that happen? So good, good question. I think the all, the all rounder piece, I think it's making sure that they, of course, have the core basic skills. So the passing receiving, playing off both feet, defending individually. But the strengths, I think the strengths are always emerging. And so just as an example, if at age 11, 12, 10, you're the quickest in the team, it's probably likely that you'll continue to have that speed. And it's now, how do you test that strength? So for example, it might be as they now get to under 14s under 15s. Okay, you'll play up a few times. Now that's, now that isn't necessarily a strength because they're players who are just as quick of you, because you're playing in the old age group. Now you've got to now develop this into a case of my, the timing of when I move, because that's now what's going to make the difference. And so I think it's a case of how do we stress test those strengths as they are, as they're progressing. It is definitely linked in with the individual development plans. So as players, it's important for them to be aware of what they're good at because that gives them confidence so that when they go onto the pitch, I know I can do this consistently at a good level, and I can have this impact on the, on the pitch or having that self-awareness. But I think it does need to be tested. And it's something that I actually learned from Neil Barthey was obviously Chelsea's previous academy manager as a conference. And he mentioned the team with Mason Mount and Reuben-Lossett's chief, sorry, um, Reese James and Tammy Abraham. And so they just kept winning. They just kept, kept winning as a, as a team. So that's not reality. And so he had to put roadblocks in their way so that they would experience, oh, actually, this strength of mine, it's being tested. And now I need to find another way or how do I enhance it. And so I think that's definitely important for, um, for players when you identify the strength, how do you test it? Because it's easy to say, oh, so he or she, oh, they're so quick. Oh, they've got such a, no, got such a great shot. Okay, but what happens when they up against a defender who doesn't give them that space? What do they have to do now? And I think it's important, otherwise, we're not, we're not, we're not giving them the opportunity to, um, to, to, to, to make the mistakes to, to fail forward and then to be able to improve ultimately as a, as a young player, which is what the process is. It's about development and improving continuously on that journey. I went to Liverpool a few years ago and I think of Steve Highway had this quote, I don't know if it was on the wall, but I remember hearing it, that making sure your strengths are good enough to get into the first team and making sure your weaknesses aren't big enough to get you out of its journey. And I thought, it's a, isn't that just to be like, okay, you know, minimize these parts of it, but maximize these parts of it just challenges you're thinking a bit more. Definitely. And it's actually, it reminds me a little bit of, um, Albert Capaeus, um, when he's at Barcelona and I remember being on a course and he was speaking and he said, we were told our role when Messi, Iniesta and Chavi came to us on the 14 was to not make them worse. And that stuck with me, that stuck with me because as a coach is a case of saying, okay, these are, these are their strengths. I need to nurture them to make sure I do not take it, take that strength out of them. So obviously we know Messi is, you know, and has been the best dribbler in the world for a decade plus. And it's easy, it would have been easier as a coach to say possible, possible, possible, possible, and we would never would have seen that type of Messi potentially at this, at this level, um, or even the Iniesta's of this world. And so it's important for us to recognize as coaches, when actually we just need to be quiet, we just need to be quiet and just observe and have that art of noticing. And I think there's not enough of that, which is let me actually, even if it means I'm going to not say anything for four minutes, five and four minutes can seem like a long time to a coach to not say anything. But actually, I'm just going to observe and notice. 30 seconds could seem like a long time not, not been funny for a, for a coach. It's true. It's true. It's true. I give reference a few different academy managers that you work for in talking leadership in this age group and, you know, managing people underneath if it's parent coaches or grassroots coaches or full-time coaches. What do you think of the hallmarks of that leadership, that great leader, who's overseeing this? Without a shadow of a doubt, it's approachable. That's the first thing, approachable. So I've had the, the, the privilege of, um, being on, uh, John McDermott, uh, Tottenham, Hugh Jennings at Fulham, um, Ricky Duncan at South End in Permets like a Arsenal. And every single one of them were approachable. No matter when we're inviting into their office, um, spend time with you. And those two minutes, even two minutes that they spent with you felt like an hour because they were so engaged. And because they were so approachable, you could see even the way that parents were with them. They remembered everyone's name. I think it, it, it did shock, and it shouldn't have surprised me. It did surprise me when I, Permets like, uh, he knew the names of, you know, the undernines. And I thought, I mean, you, you just, you know them just like that. And it did stick with me because to actually if someone at his level knows each and every one of these kids names, I've got no excuse. I have to know the name. I have to be approachable in that way. And in addition to approachable, of course, they keep, they keep the standards, the sound standards that are just non-negotiable. We're in an environment of developing talent, you know, to developing talent to get to elite level. And so it's critical that as coaches, we espouse a certain level of, of standards. Um, and we keep, and we keep to that, you know, there are times it might be eight o'clock at night is cold. You've got to put the goals back in the position. There's supposed to be, you know, it might be four, five, six goals. You've got, they've got to be back in the positions that they should be. Little things like that. Um, you know, that many people may not see or just, you know, overlook by making sure that you're keeping to those, keeping to those standards. Um, I'm both on the, on the pitch as well. So making sure that the players know, okay, you're, you're here for, for a reason. Yes, you do. You're within this talent pathway, but you also have to maintain certain standards to be able to continue to, to progress. Um, and making sure that the players understand that, and that we're helping them to do that as best as, as best as possible. Talked earlier about, you know, the self awareness piece and understanding your strengths and different personalities and evolving as a coach and, and obviously how this conversation started with us a few weeks ago was, was you reaching out about the community that you're doing and, can you touch upon that there as the, I'm always interested in, in, in people that are trying to bring coaches together and support and challenge and all that great work. Talked about, about, about the, about the work you're doing in this area and what brought you to it. So if I'm honest, Gary, it's really a full circle moment for me because I, I'd always dreamed of, okay, getting to the place where I'm an a licensed coach, where I work at a professional academy and getting there and reflecting back now and talking to coaches, I realized there are so many coaches that are frustrated. They don't know how to get there, um, and I've had friends along the way and colleagues, um, courses just give, just save, look, I'm, I'm not going to continue anymore. I'm, I'm fed up. And so for me, I realized I was in, um, a unique position, um, to be able to support coaches to understand, okay, what it takes to be able to work at a professional academy. And so that's why I created the coach accelerator community for coaches who are looking to, um, really focus on what, what are the steps I need to take to get there. It's not going to be easy and I don't sugarcoat it, but there are steps that you can take. And after speaking with many academy coaches and seeing their journeys, there are clear steps to take to be able to, um, work, work with, um, with talent in academies. Except to see that pathway of, let's just say it's a coach that feels stuck and a coach that's working at the youth level and they've been doing it for, you know, 10 years, 15 years, and they feel about this illusion because it can grind you down with the noise, you know, I, I empathize with coaches today. Where would you start with our culture? How do you, how do you use your program? Can it work that out with them? So the first thing I always start with is, do you have a plan? And I've been very, very surprised over the last year that I've been speaking with coaches, um, intentionally every single, every single week. Um, there's only been one coach that said, yes, I have this loose plan. But to not have a plan, it's, it's, for me, it's tantamount to, you're, you're going to end up frustrated because you have no clear direction of where you're going to go. You have no clear accountability for yourself. And I, I do think that I don't want to go too far outside the conversation, but I do think on reflection, when you have gone through the schooling system for the best part of 16 years, you come out, you've been, there's been a plan every single year. Okay, you'll go this stage next, you're going to do GCSEs next, go to A loves next, go to university next, you come out, you're on your own. No one's setting you any plan of what you need to do. And so that's why for me, it's the first thing that needs to be done. You need to understand what your plan is. And when you do that, we can work backwards. And then we can start building the blocks for where you want to get to. But until you have that, it's going to be very difficult. Yeah, yeah, I can say a hundred percent. I'd also add that what makes it individually a lot more challenging is that you're, as you start to produce our create that plan in football terms, your control in a lot of context lowers. So insecurities and vulnerabilities increase. So it's, it's so important. And I think we overuse the word mentor as coaches. And we underuse the word support and, and, and being more deliberate because a mentor can be someone who like someone you pick up the phone with and you chat about, you chat about the weather or you chat about man United on Saturday. But I think the coaching is going to go where people want to be a bit more deliberate with their time. I'm certainly finding that in, in a lot of people are getting and they're not saying it in, in my experience where they're actually, they actually have someone they're using, they're using. And, you know, it's not something they're shooting from the rooftops, why would they? But it's, it makes a massive, massive difference, not only in your professional life, but in, in the head as well. Completely agree. And I think the way, you know, now what's happened with, you know, mental health and, and sharing what's happening personally with you is really, it's, it's so, it's so important and crucial because sometimes I think that coaches are looked, looked at, okay, yes, I'm just gonna, you know, yes, you come and coach, coach the players, you should be constantly on it, ready to go. But you may have had a really terrible week or something's happened and, um, personally, you're just not feeling up to it. And I think for me, one of the, one of the most powerful times I had was a coach at Academy said, look, Tim, this has happened, I'm just not, can you just take the, can you just take the warm up, warm up? So yeah, sure, no worries. You know, because you, I could tell that, you know, something was when, when heavy, heavy on them. Um, and it's, it's, it's, it's those things that probably parents don't see, the players don't see, but those conversations that, you know, that, that's probably, and I hope it's, it's happened more for coaches to be able to lean upon one, one another. And just lastly, I think something that's unspoken about, um, but needs to be addressed is the financial element, the financial element, especially in the UK, there is now a, an increase in challenge whereby there are more and more coaches, obviously they're doing their one-to-one sessions or private sessions and they're looking at it from a financial perspective and saying, how much should I, you know, continue down this route for how long? Because I'm earning triple, triple times more than money here than I'm here. And that's a, that's something that needs to be considered by, by clubs. Well, that's episode two. I'll do that. But honestly, that's a whole, Gary, that's a whole, I think more than two, three, four episodes. Actually did a, a tweet around it and a coach I knew used that tweet to show his academy, um, head of coaching, and then, right, this is, you know, I was telling, I've been telling you about it. It's like, wow, okay. So, uh, a father will be trusted. I'm going to, uh, I'll put all your information in, uh, in the link below and the comments below are for coaches to reach out. You may not, I think you would be daft not to, not to give you a shout. I'm not looking for any commission, but I would definitely recommend it for coaches to do it. Um, listen, thank you very much, Thomas. And seriously, we need to do this again. This has been fantastic. And I think, um, I think it's a landscape that, that I would like to do a little bit more in in terms of supporting coaches around the youth game. And yeah, we could make this a regular thing. I would love to do that, love to do that. Gary, really appreciate it. (dramatic music)