An interview with him, it seems if you become a member of his site, there could be some offerings for coaches.
InterviewwithJedDaviesonYouth
Development
Published on August 22nd, 2013
Written by: Arnar Steinsson
Interview by Arnar Steinsson.
What started as a series of tweets from Chris
Steel about concern over the development of
youth football in England has resulted in three
articles on TTT, interviews with several
coaches working in different countries and
even continents. There are many challenges
involved, as the interviews and reactions in the
comments section have shown, and what we
would like to do is reduce the challenges bit by
bit.
One of the ways to do that is to continue
interviewing coaches. By asking for advice,
ideas and solutions, in time we will start to see
a bigger picture and the way forward will start
to be clearer.
I am very happy to introduce Jed Davies to
TTT. Davies is a coach with some extremely
exciting ideas and I´m fascinated by his writing
on football. He´s the assistant manager and
head of analysis for Oxford University FC
Centaurs for the 2013/14 season, working
under former Reading FC technical skills coach
Jon Collins.
Arnar: What do you think are the biggest
challenges facing England in order to improve
the youth development and what steps would
you like to see in order to improve it?
Jed Davies: For me and what I have seen, youth
football on a whole is riddled with coaches
(sometimes qualified) who are coaching for the
wrong reasons and either choosing to ignore
the good pieces of information available on a
basic level 2 qualification or are unaware of
some of the fundamentals for coaching youth
players.
Take this example: a club (unnamed) in the
south west of England that has facilities that
many would dream of, a near full-size indoor
facility, a 4th generation turfed pitch and a
waiting list to join the club so long they could
create 3-4 teams in each age group, recently
ran an U11 training session and I happened to
be watching the progress of one particular
youth player. The lead coach, blessed with
these facilities, had clearly planned the session
– he laid out hurdles, gates and bibs, before the
players had arrived which is fantastic as some
coaches don’t even do this. However, what
followed was almost half an hour – in the
blistering heat – with no water break, of
impossible fitness regimes that included
jumping over hurdles, press ups and short
sprints – and not one touch of the ball during
that time. The players were then taken inside to
the indoor facility (which was comparatively a
lot cooler) and then they went straight into a
non-themed game in which both coaches
joined in on the session. The lead coach’s
presence was uncomfortable to watch, he
would call for the ball quite often and would
always receive the ball, furthermore he would
never be marked and would overpower the
quieter coach during the half time talk, which
essentially was ‘to pass the ball sideways more
often’. The lead coach would then receive the
ball and ‘dummy kick’ the ball at 11 year old
players before slowly dribbling the ball past
players as they turned away in fear of a ball
being hit hard at them. The player I had come
to watch then performed an excellent roulette
on the quieter coach and got through on goal
with only the keeper to beat, only for the lead
coach to be screaming at him to square the
ball to him to tap the ball into the net. The
young lad didn’t even get acknowledged for his
excellent roulette on a man 30 years his senior.
Now I’m not saying all clubs are run like this –but this particular club was in a position of
having the best facilities within a hundred
miles. I later discovered that the club’s part
time secretary was a young UEFA B licensed
coach and he is often pushed aside and
instructed to continue with admin as the clubs
elder staff (like the lead coach we spoke about)
took training sessions instead. I have since
overheard the lead coach in conversation with
a parent who was boasting that his own son
(who played for the u11 team) was approached
by a Birmingham City scout along with two
other players in the team; the lead coach went
on to say he refused the scout permission to
speak with the parents of the players (without
revealing he was one of the parents) because
he didn’t trust the academy’s ability to look
after players and that they couldn’t offer
anything more than his team already could.
There are a serious number of problems
coming to the surface here that are widespread
in my opinion at grassroots levels.
While there were many examples of poor
practice in the example given above, the one
that strikes me most is the arrogance and ego-centered manner that this lead coach has
conducted his training session and has chosen
to manage his club.
Coaches need to be coaching for the right
reasons. Many coaches are looking to re-live
their playing days or are interested in coaching
as they only trust themselves with their son’s
quest to become a professional footballer.
Neither of these are the bottom line however; it
is instead the lack of interest that these
coaches have in the field of coaching itself. The
belief is that they know everything there is to
know about coaching and overlook the fact
that even Mourinho is still learning about the
game every day. Child development expertise,
tactical theory understanding/application and
a motivation to want to become a scholar of
football are all basic fundamentals in my
opinion to become a successful football coach.
Many of these aspects are actually covered in
the Level 1, Level 2, Uefa B and youth module
courses run by the FA: the principles of play,
the appropriate environment conducive to child
development, technical and skill aspects of
training etc. However, like our friend who ran
the training session I observed (who I have
since been informed has a level 2 qualification)
the coaches really need to buy into these
aspects of coaching education. You don’t have
to agree with everything the FA teach you, but
you certainly need to understand why the FA
has chosen to teach you certain fundamental
components of being a coach. It’s much like
passing your driving test, there is a certain
degree of ownership afterwards that forms
your driving style – many pass their driving
test and then slip into many bad habits. Style is
fine for me, as long as you have made informed
decisions about why you may be choosing to
ignore something the FA have taught you and
that is certainly the case for many great
coaches in the industry – they do things a little
different from what the FA have taught them,
but they have certainly made informed
decisions based on their academic research or
experiences, not for reasons of ignorance.
Away from the grassroots game, it’s easy to
analyse the elite levels of football and conclude
that we are lacking players with the correct
technique, positional flexibility, level of
creativity or even an understanding of a central
philosophy. However, for me it is more
important to start with really getting the right
people involved in coaching and providing
opportunities for those that want to succeed
(like our admin UEFA B coach who is forced to
watch from the sidelines with me).
In my upcoming book I have intentionally
included a whole first part about development
theory: development for youth players and
football clubs. I am hoping that a coach that
may buy my book for the purposes of learning
about ‘tiki-taka’ tactical components or to view
training session recordings of Barcelona or
Liverpool will also buy into the complexities of
what makes a great coach. For me a great
coach will always look to educate players each
week, a great coach will always look to
continue his own development as a footballing
scholar by listening to others (regardless of
age or qualification; Louis Lancaster is a great
example of someone who has the HIGHEST
qualification possible and yet still rings other
coaches to listen to their ideas without even
asking what their qualifications are) and a
great coach will question the smallest of
details. I would go as far as saying that the
coach that ran the session I observed had
considered none of the above in his life time
and instead feels that he knows all there is to
know about football and coaching – which is a
shame, because there is a world of layered
information on every aspect of football: habit
formation, tactical understanding (the four
basic moments of the game), appropriate
communication (psychology), systems and
many other aspects of football that can
uncover areas that would take a lifetime of
study to master.
So for me and in my own experiences, youth
football isn’t flawed because of the FA’s
teaching methods but in those who are in
football for the wrong reasons. How to fix this?
I’m not sure. But we certainly need to start
breaking down barriers of the ‘old boys
network’ we hear about a lot, to give talented
and enthusiastic coaches (who are in coaching
for the right reasons) the opportunity to tell us
about their ideas because right now, children
aren’t being given a fair opportunity to be
represented by the right people at the earliest
ages. In every league in this country, a good
coach will exist but at the same time three or
four coaches who have no interest in becoming
great coaches are ruining the opportunity for
young players to (a) enjoy the game and (b)
enjoy learning something new in every training
session.
I later congratulated the young player who
performed the roulette and asked him why he
didn’t perform this skill to beat players of his
own age in 1v1 scenarios. The eleven year old
turned around to me and said: “because I get
told off by the coach for doing it if I lose the
ball”. Heartbreaking isn’t it?
Now, not all teams are run like this that much is
for certain. Bristol Inner City Advanced
Development Centre (@Bristolicafc) – a club
ran by Patrick Williams – has captured my
attention over the last year and I have been
lucky enough to have coached for them.
BICADC look to educate their players in a
pressure free environment and have as a result
gone on to win the Bolton Super Cup this last
week and have over the last two years regularly
played fixtures against top youth academies –being invited back after each game. This is in
my mind, excellent proof that there are coaches
out there that are in grassroots coaching for
the right reasons. When these people are
involved with coaching it is transparent
through the club so that your opponents can
see it.
Another great example I have heard of in recent
years is the FA chartered standard football club
from Taunton called Hamilton FC. When Karl
Lindsay, (@Karl_Lindsay) the club owner,
started the club he found little success in trying
to recruit players through schools and had to
go to the local parks to recruit players who
were having a kick around in the park – some
who could barely kick a ball. 6 years later, the
club is championed in Taunton, and I know that
Karl will find it difficult to ever leave Hamilton
FC, not because he has an ego to protect but
because Karl has created an environment
where football players join Hamilton for the
environment and coaching they can offer.
That said, for every great success story, I could
point out 3-4 clubs where the coach is
hindering development of his players for the
reasons we have spoken about in this
interview.
We need more Karl Lindsay’s and Patrick
Williams’ in football. Now if someone can set
up a coaching academy like that, that would be
a starting point!
Arnar: Thanks Jed that was very informative
and yes I agree, what you spoke of is
heartbreaking, but in equal measure
encouraging to hear about Lancaster, Williams
and Lindsay. Can you go into more detail of
their, and of course your, methods and ideas in
coaching?
Jed Davies: I am by no means on the same
level as those three mentioned in terms of
establishing a way I want to work.
I’m in a position where I am doing as much
research as possible to really understand
where I want to be and I’ve spoken to a few
people who have really influenced me in terms
of the way I will think about certain issues in
football. Through Tim Lees and Roberto
Martinez’s methods at Wigan last season, I
really bought into Martinez’s ideas that
coaching for children under the age of 11
should really focus on developing habitual
action for one vs. one scenarios. By that I am
referring to a player knowing which skill or
action to use from set cues such as the angle
and distance of the opponent he is trying to
beat.
I have just accepted the role of assistant
manager at Oxford University Centaurs to work
under Jon Collins. Collins, a coach who has
worked with a few Premier League clubs and
has also studied the Spanish model inside out.
I’m really excited to get started with Jon but
also to work with adults for the first time (with
five training sessions a week!) at a
developmental age that really does test how we
will implement our tactical ideas.
Patrick Williams is a coach I have studied for a
while and I really appreciate how Williams and
his head of coaching Chris Palmer (a coach
with 10 years of experience at Southampton
Youth) look to get their youth teams playing a
really technical game through the thirds. I’ve
seen Patrick coach with U8/9 a number of
times and I am struck with how good he is at
keeping their attention and getting key
messages across at those age groups. During
the Bolton Super Cup Patrick met former
Liverpool coach Sammy Lee and I’m told Lee
was extremely impressed with the unity of
BICADC, who went on to beat the Bolton youth
teams.
Above all else, it’s Patrick’s professional
approach to training that is keystone to how
that club works – his players often eat together
after games and fill out assessment tasks etc.
For anyone wanting to take their club to the
next level, Patrick is certainly a man with a sea
of ideas about how to portray yourself in a way
that will allow you to secure big development
fixtures and maintain a successful educational
model. Everything is planned and most training
methods directly refer back to the same
outcomes that the FA is looking to implement.
Karl Lindsay is all about enthusiasm. I haven’t
seen a coach get such a kick from training
sessions in years – there is no doubt that he
thoroughly enjoys the art of coaching a new
idea to a group of players. His enthusiasm is
contagious and he certainly isn’t afraid to risk a
new idea with either the adult team or u15 team
he coaches at the moment. I’ve seen Karl doing
demonstrations during sessions and he makes
everything seem so natural, thoroughly fun and
maintains a high level of energy throughout.
It’s really easy to see why players want to play
for him and how his personality has taken his
team from a group of kids picked from the park
to a whole club that challenges in every age
group. Taunton Town and the likes of Yeovil
men’s team really should be looking at what
they have on their door step and taking
advantage of a coach like Karl. As a young
player, I really would have loved to have played
under Karl and I would place my full trust in
Karl’s attention to each and every player to
reach their full potential.
Louis Lancaster isn’t a coach I have seen in
action as of yet. Having said that, I have
spoken with Louis and his enthusiasm for
learning and studying the game is second to
none. You only need to speak with him about
what he learnt from analysing Bayern games
last season (and probably now this season too)
to realise just how obsessive you need to be, to
become a coaching academic. I think along
with myself and Louis, Jon Collins, Tim Lees
and Liverpool’s Chris Davies you would have a
team of coaches that may arrive at similar
conclusions about how the game should be
played but you’d have five unique visions of
how players can be developed and coached.
No coach is the same and I guess that is the
point – so long as there is a level of
acceptance and understanding between
coaches, collaboration can work to benefit the
overall ideas.
With all of us, and many more in the industry,
it’s the attention to detail and the amount of
research/study taken out before concluding
ideas that sets people apart. I certainly envy
each of the coaches mentioned for different
reasons – Karl’s manner on a training field,
Patrick’s ambition and professionalism, Tim’s
tactical expertise, Louis’ studious approach to
furthering himself and Jon Collins’ ability to
portray complex ideas into simplicity. If we
were to mix these qualities together you’d be
left with a sort of ‘renaissance coach’ that even
a lifetime of study would struggle to compete
with.
If you are going to take one thing from this, the
key differences between the coach we spoke
about in question one is the will to learn more
and never settle for what you think you know
already or even what your mentor knows (for
Tim Lees that was Martinez and for Chris
Davies that is Brendan Rodgers). Not one of
these coaches does it for any other reason
other than that they love the game and that
they love what can be achieved through hard
work and believe me, there is a hell of a lot of
hard work and dedication to get even half of the
way to competing with the coaches I have
mentioned – coaching for these guys extends
beyond the hour and a half of training right
through to every minute of the day. Forget the
10,000 hour rule; becoming a great coach is a
lifetime commitment.
Arnar: One of the things I noticed is that some
coaches mentioned how hard it can be to
access quality coaching material. And at the
same time I was looking at your twitter account
and you post information like that on a regular
basis. And I thought there must be a way to
highlight a path for coaches looking for that
information. A database online where coaches
can access material in great detail in an easy
manner is surely crucial? What are your
thoughts on that and in the absence of such a
database, where would you direct coaches to
access such information without too much
trouble?
Jed: I remember Capello saying that all great
coaches are the greatest of thieves. Capello
didn’t mean that the greatest coaches should
steal session plans or tactical drawings but
instead we should look at the coaching
precedents that we admire and learn from
those by getting in the minds of the relevant
person.
I’ve been fortunate in many ways to have
collected nearly 11GB of documents (coaching
presentations, videos, session planners, club
documents, e-magazine articles etc) and have
made as much of that as possible (copyright
issues prevent me from sharing it all) available
on my website for free in the members’ area. I
uploaded this for the very reasons you are
talking about but in truth I have learnt most
through other channels.
Studying football and becoming a ‘Capello
thief’ is more than just looking through
document after document. You can analyse
football games through a new set of lenses for
example and arrive at new conclusions.
Perhaps you decide that from now on you will
make notes on the four processes or
‘moments’ of the game and ignore everything
else. These four moments are (1) in
possession, (2) out of possession, (3) the
transition of losing the ball and (4) the
transition of winning the ball. I would say that
just by focusing on the formation differentials
you’ll create an ‘ecosystem of play’ for a team
and you’ll learn a lot from this. Liverpool is a
club I did this for on a number of occasions last
season (some of the content is available to
view on
www.EPLindex.com/author/TPiMBW)
and at times it was fascinating to see how
Rodgers would look to manage the movements
of players in between the two general
formations. Teams like Liverpool that look to
have 60% possession really do think about
formations like this, you have to – you cannot
simply put players in a 4-3-2-1 formation and
let the rest fall into place. I challenge you to
pick a side and watch the games through
analytical objectives lenses – within a few
months, I can almost guarantee you’ll look
back and think ‘wow, I never looked at that
aspect of play like that before’. Start with
formation, move through to other components
such as player movement, how each area of
the field is treated and tactical variations
depending on who they may be playing –paying particular attention to zone 14, counter
attacks, crossing etc. Louis Lancaster has
done this with Bayern Munich and he’ll tell you
how much he learnt through doing this – and
he’s done every qualification you can do!
Of course games are just a small percentage of
what a coach is involved with and you can
achieve a similar model of learning through
analysing training sessions with a structured
analysis looking at aspects such as
communication, body language along with the
session plan itself.
I have learnt most from speaking with coaches
and asking the right questions to really get
inside their minds and how they view their role
as a coach and how they can implement ideas
they have.
I have also learnt much from literature that may
or may not be directly related to football
specifically: The Goldmine Effect, Bounce and
The Power of Habit are three I have had
epiphany moments during the course of the
books despite not focusing only on football
itself. Not everything in football has been
understood yet and for those reasons I feel it is
important to continually read loosely related
material. Next on my list is a book about street
football and the science behind that (A
Coaches Guide to Street Soccer by Lavey and
Hartley – recommended to me on twitter
recently by @playpanna).
Be warned though, there are hundreds of poor
books out there on football. During the writing
of my book and while furthering my own
knowledge I have spent over £1,000 on books
and only about 10% of that has been
worthwhile! Believe it or not I actually began to
learn Dutch last year for the purposes of
reading ‘devoetbal trainer’ magazine and a
number of books not yet translated into
English. I feel that learning languages will
always help you branch out your ability to
learn. Anthony Hudson, Chris Davies and Jon
Collins all speak Spanish and I know that all
three have utilised this along the way.
Finding a career in coaching is all about
networking and for those reasons I will
recommend that you get yourself on LinkedIN
and find the coaches that you admire the most,
connect with them and ask questions or for an
invite to come and watch them coach. You’d be
surprised how helpful some coaches out there
are, particularly at the youth levels – after all it
is likely that if you can convince the coach that
you share the same passion and vision he does
then he will want to help you. For me that’s the
best advice I was given: network, network and
network! In an age where it is pretty easy to get
in touch with either a person you want to meet
or someone who knows them, you’ve got no
excuses. I wrote out thousands of emails to get
to meet and speak with the people I did for my
book and that book was just as much for me
and my own learning as it will be for others. I
also used the football manager database to
find out many of the names of coaches
currently or previously employed at particular
clubs. If all else fails you can always resort to
marching up to Villas-Boas and demand to
know why your favourite Spurs player on the
bench isn’t playing – because that’s just how a
16 year old AVB found his feet in football by
questioning Sir Bobby Robson outside a
Portuguese team’s stadium, only for Robson to
invite him into training to find out for himself
why his favourite striker wasn’t playing. Of
course this plan was my last resort, so try all
other channels first!
Lastly of course, your FA courses and Coerver
coaching courses out there will always test
what knowledge you have acquired from
elsewhere. I understand that these are
expensive but I have taken courses when I
have had to look into hiring and sleeping in a
car as I couldn’t afford the hotels and/or train
costs (I was pleased to see that even David
Moyes had done this recently! So I have no
shame in admitting that anymore). If you are
serious about coaching, nothing will get in your
way.
Additionally: websites such as TED Talks offer
us with a large amount of inspirational content
about learning, development etc. Feel free to
find me on twitter for help finding a few
fantastic videos on this website that I found
interesting. Make sure that you check out the
likes of @Tad690, Nick Levett and join
@coachingfamily on twitter too – make the
best use of twitter as you can! There are
dozens of other great coaches on twitter that
share fantastic content – again please feel free
to ask for a few recommendations for who to
follow along with these guys.
Arnar: I would like to take you up on your offer
and ask you about a few recommendations of
who to follow along with these guys?
Jed Davies: I was reluctant to make a list as
such in fear of missing someone out but I
decided that if I had missed someone out then
you’d certainly discover them on the timelines
of these guys:
@tad690 (Tony Taylor) – always sharing. More
than me!
@nlevett – the national development manager
for youth football in England
@Louis Lancaster – level 5
@MichaelJolley07 – also a pro coach and level
5
@coachingfamily – goes without saying
@the_w_address (Matt Whitehouse) a little bit
like myself as he also writes about footballing
issues as well as sharing content
@steviegrieve – big name for the future. Only in
his 20′s and heading youth development in
India and author of many books
@GaryJWhiteTD – L5 and doing huge things
for the nation of Guam – he’s the first face you
see off of the planet.
The names below all share great content:
@NCHammer (Neil Cooper)
@goaliecoach00 (Rob Parker)
@soccerresource (Jamie Edwards) – huge
database of videos
@JHarvCoach (Jamie Harvey)
@FutureSoccerPro
@NeilWinskill
@Baldy1974 (Hugo Langton)
@CosmosoccerCA (Lee Merricks?)
@Markproskills (Mark Senior) former
Manchester United coach
@Hodgaa (Chris Hodgson)
@coachdanwright
@tonymee
@benbarts (Ben Bartlett)
@mworthington (matt worthington)
@_charrington_ (Craig Harrington)
@GaryCurneen
@uppy01 (Mark Upton)
I know I am missing many people from this list
but I have no doubt that through these guys
you’ll suddenly be opened up to a whole new
world of people with similar interests to
yourself. After all, they say you know everyone
in the world through six people…
Arnar: Thanks Jed that´s really helpful. I have
touched upon the benefits of small-sided
games before, but not street football and futsal
and even football tennis, could you tell me
about the benefits of all four examples, for
young players?
Jed Davies: I recently wrote an article (http://www.bettingexpert.com/blog/english-football-part-1) that had an unfortunate grandeur
heading given to it but I looked at the benefits
of Futsal as a tool for youth players.
For me the key benefits are all in the creativity
side of the game. Your brain has two sides
(hemispheres) to it – a creative side and a
more rational/disciplined side. It’s important to
know at this point that rational side is often too
slow to react to a fast moving game like
football.
We in the developed world have structured
football so much that we are now only really
exercising the rational side of our brain. In
Brazil, football is also played through various
‘pelada’ or ‘pick up’ set ups; unorganised and
free football known over here as ‘street football’
and if you couple this with Futsal (a sport with
many limitations on the player that aren’t found
in football) you have a way of exercising the
creative hemisphere that we currently do not.
This may explain why Brazilians are so often
brilliant with the ball but score lower on the
more rational aspects such as positioning and
discipline.
Put short, we need more variety in this country
and the street football schemes that are
coming to the surface every now and again,
along with the rise of Futsal can only mean
good things. I applaud the work by Simon
Clifford of Brazilian Soccer Schools over the
last decade or so – a few elite players in
England have already mentioned that BSS was
a defining tool in shaping them as football
players.
There is no doubt about it – this country is
missing a level of creativity at the elite levels of
the game. This is in part down to the types of
games played but also down to the small
number of touches that players have had over
the last decade during their youth. I remember
playing a game and I only had a few touches,
and none of them with my feet (centre-half)!
The FA have made some great strides with
introducing smaller and proportionately sided
games for younger age groups in recent years;
next season I am looking forward to seeing the
‘retreat line’ being used widespread. The
retreat line is a rule whereby the opposition
must start heading back to the half way line as
your team takes a goal kick. You don’t have to
wait for them to retreat all the way back but as
soon as the ball is played, normal play is
resumed. I favor this rule because it enables
players to take short goal kicks and begin to
play through the thirds. Right now I see too
many keepers kicking the ball as far as they
can at each goal kick and nothing good is
coming of that in youth football.
If only we had these rules as central defenders,
ten or fifteen years ago, maybe we would have
actually enjoyed playing centre half rather than
constantly requesting to move into midfield,
onto the wings and then back into defence
because you realise that all they do in midfield
was run after balls being lobbed over them (my
own personal experience!). There should be no
place for that situation in youth football in my
eyes. Fun, touches of the ball and giving
meaning to all the players on the field (not just
the goal scorer) make up much of my approach
to how I have envisaged myself as a youth
coach over the years. Winning is a by-product
of playing well, not something that dictates that
an eleven year old should fear making
mistakes, while trying to beat his man with a
skill that he has spent many hours mastering in
his back garden! Games at youth level are the
opportunities to practice these skills and grow
confident with them. If only I could perform the
roulette so brilliantly at the age of eleven, the
young lad we spoke of earlier did everything
perfectly: the correct angled approach, the
change of pace, the finesse – everything, only
he didn’t get the acknowledgement he
deserved, for something he had clearly been
practicing!