[J DParticipant]

Thank you for that Kyle!

That’s exactly what happened to me after speaking with the various named and unnamed people who helped me write that book! Up to all sorts of hours!

I’ve since found out that if you can find the right information that it’s cycle that doesn’t seem to stop! I recently became obsessed with the All Blacks training methods and team building tools. There’s a book called Legacy by James Kerr that delves into the team building and touches on other aspects – then a book called Developing Decision Makers: an Empowerment Approach that puts their training methodology in the spot light and theorises it all and then lastly a book called ‘Six Thinking Hates’ by E.d.Bono that looks at this concept of having different ways of thinking – the new zealand team talk a lot about using their ‘clue hat’ – rather than the ‘red hat’. Bono talks about the red hat being the part of your thought process that deals with emotions and loses clarity etc etc. All of that coupled with Roberto Martinez’s methods and the ‘learned helplessness video’ that driven me into a new direction as a coach in recent times and I’ve been experimenting with new coaching methods to see if I can get players to think they’ve taken ownership of the ideas that I’ve actually manipulated and shaped through the session etc. You can see from this paragraph how a few books can completely take over for a while so I can emphasise where you’re coming from!

I hope all goes well and you’ve found the videos on here in the members (and those that will come) extremely useful!

[J DParticipant]

that’s fantastic that you’ve already started to adapt and put together basic building blocks that are age and ability relevant.

Just remember that there’s certainly no right and wrong. Some believe that children at that age are naturally and biologically selfish and you shouldn’t fight against that – others will look to encourage passing. Long term goals in mind not medium/short term.

Bets of luck! Don’t envy you with those age groups! Tough work! I struggle with U8’s and realised very quickly I wasn’t a U8 coach!

[J DParticipant]

Coaching related:
Legacy by James Kerr – looks at the All Blacks (rugby) – so many great little starting points of info to lead you researching after! Great for leadership and team building issues.
The Power of Habit – you’ll start to understand automatism in football if you don’t quite get it already

Others of similar narrative covering a wide range of theories in sport:
Flow by Csikszentmihalyi (check spelling)
Bounce by Syed
Talent Code by Coyle
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman
Gladwell’s books

– they’re all highly recommended and have a similar story telling technique that keeps you interested and a lot of really great metaphors for understanding of more complex issues.

Just read two books on Athlete Centred Coaching by Lyn Kidman – very interesting for anyone who wants to fully understand how the All blacks coach and Martinez approaches coaching. Kidman has been very much involved with rugby coaching methods in NZ.

Most recent was a book called ‘learned optimism’ (Martin E. P Seligman) – well worth diving into – a little heavier than those listed at the beginning but leaves you full of ideas. Theres a great youtube video on learned pessimism/helplessness if you’re not familiar with it – not too difficult to see how this could be placed in a footballing context – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFmFOmprTt0 – I’ve actually ran a session using the Roberto Martinez condition A and B pitch with 2 stooges who would constantly use negative language/positive language to look at the impact of shots on target created/conceded during that time. You’d be very surprised with the outcome – safe to say the players understand the impact of their language on the field now – even heard one lad of a youth side I guest coached explain to his parents why he shouldn’t use negative language on the side lines like ‘don’t ‘no!’ ‘poor’ ‘bad’ etc etc. (tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I’ll understand – this is the philosophy for this sort of coaching method – running the ‘experiment’ and for players to find the conclusion – which by chance you already know as the coach designing the session!… shaping mindsets). Worth looking into Bargh’s experiment in 1996 on the affects of words on behaviour (probably more relevant to my language experiment ran on positive and negative language) – something on Bargh’s work – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI0fFEffDd8

Edward de Bono on creativity – 6 thinking hats and Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity

Current area of research: Incidental Learning – so if anyone knows anything on this that would be great! Struggling to find any books worthwhile…

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by  J D.

[J DParticipant]

Thank you very much Mark! Can’t get better feedback than that!

[J DParticipant]

Hi Christian – yep unfortunately that is me on the Podcast trying to extract all the info possible out of Gary and Brian – I wasn’t expecting it to be used like that so apologies for the lack of two way conversation etc on that! But it did the job and I could have quoted the guys over and over in my book from that interview!

I’m 100% with you on drills in books – it takes the smallest of detail watching a session to lead you off onto understanding something so simple in a new way – books don’t quite offer that to me at least anyway.

I really like the fact you’ve stayed very specific and age relevant with your influences to date – it’ll be good to see how this evolves as you go up through the age groups. I used a lot of Coerver stuff with U7/U8’s when I first started coaching back in the early 2000s. I recently went up to a premier league club for a week and spent the week with the head of U9-11’s; and was absolutely fascinated with the language they used with the 8 year olds – “look to get it on the third line”, “you rotate here and you there”, “receive on the back foot” etc etc. Most academies wouldn’t dare use language like that with those age groups! That’s not to say it’s wrong or right, but it’s proof to me that it is a way that works. Those 8 year olds actually understood it – at least I could tell from the rotation intervention and back foot reminders – the club’s coaches believe that it’s a full immersion of language at the youngest of age groups that allows them to coach in this way. I know other clubs where they’ll consider the idea of splitting the pitch up into 7 lines of play or 4 (depending on how you do it) and view this as a coaching tool only, not for the eyes of 8 year old players.

Anyway – fantastic to be involved here and look forward to a crazy number of conversations about rotation patterns etc!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by  Gary.

[J DParticipant]

thanks Christian – very much appreciate that!

[J DParticipant]

Hi – My name is Jed Davies and it goes without saying that I am a huge fan of what Gary and Brian are doing out in the States and I’d put them alongside others who have shaped my way of thinking as a coach.

Those who have shaped my way of thinking and have had a huge impact on me in different ways: Brian and Gary Kleiban, Jon Collins (Oxford Centaurs and PHD in Spanish Training Methodology), Raymond Verheijen, Tim Lees (Wigan FC), Louis Lancaster (Watford), James Nash (MK Dons) and most recently Brian Ashton (with his training method philosophy – former England Rugby Manager). I’ve been lucky enough to be in regular contact with all of the above and credit absolutely everything I know to each of them. It would be interesting to hear from all of you who your biggest influences are too. There’s only so many great and inspiring coaches out there! What better way to find them through likeminded coaches on a forum like this!

I currently work as the manager for Oxford University Development side, Assistant Head Coach for the Centaurs and Football Development Officer for Oxford University Football Association that has over 100 teams from 30+ colleges, a Women’s club and a Men’s club too. A lot of ‘work’ but treasure every moment of it! We’ve ran into implementation problem after implementation problem with the University teams – but learning every day as a result of it!

I also run a company called Inspire! Football Events Ltd with a close friend. We’re in regular contact with Raymond Verheijen and he wants the two of us to run his World Football Academy UK as the two company merge sometime next year. Just to quickly defend the man’s public perception – he’s an extremely knowledgeable man who seems to judge others how he judges himself – so when someone sets such a high standard for themselves, it’s not difficult to see where his regular twitter outbursts are stemmed from! There is no “off the record” and “on the record” chat with him, he just says it all as he sees it! I see Gary to be as fearless and honest too – a very good trait to have when you are as knowledgeable as the two of you!

Always happy to talk about my influences and cannot wait to finally start learning within a fantastically likeminded community on here too – just had a look down who has signed up and the calibre of member is already sky high! Great stuff!

 

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