[00:00:09,184] [Jamie:] Hello and welcome to CoachCast by England Football Learning, the coaching podcast that brings you insight from people across the game. Today we're chatting to the FA's Alexis Lundgad and Amanda Goodwin to find out about Discover My Talent, a programme designed to find the lionesses of the future. Well, hi both. Welcome to CoachCast. It's great to have you in the studio. How are you?
[00:00:35,451] [AJ:] Very well, thank you.
[00:00:36,796] [Alexis:] Yeah, very good, thank you.
[00:00:38,274] [Jamie:] Good, good. Just for our listeners, Amanda, you're wanting to be called AJ through this, just to identify that for our listeners. Well, thank you very much for coming onto the show. I suppose at the start we'll just find out a little bit more about you.
[00:00:50,517] [AJ:] Yeah, so I'm the talent technical coach for the North West. So alongside that role, I identify talent, work with coaches, work with key stakeholders to find the future lioness. I just find it a very rewarding job and just to work with so many incredible people in the game to help find those players and to move the game in the right direction. And alongside that role as well, I work as the under-16s assistant coach for the national team. And again, I'm very lucky and proud to kind of work with these players on a camp-by-camp basis and help develop them for, again, to achieve success and achieve to be that future senior lioness. So yeah, I'm very lucky to be in this role and I feel very fortunate to work with amazing people.
[00:01:32,809] [Louise:] Thanks for that, AJ. How about you, Alexis?
[00:01:35,168] [Alexis:] Yeah, sure. So my title is Women's Talent Pathway Operations Manager. So what that means is that I have the responsibility of almost developing a strategic program to help find talent and help make sure that our pathway is fit for purpose for our players that we're hoping to find through this program to be supported, not just in the initial stages of finding them, but also supporting them once we've found them and how we can develop them, as AJ has said, to, you know, hopefully become future lionesses for senior football in the future.
[00:02:04,285] [Jamie:] Brilliant. Thanks for that. Well, as this is a coaching podcast, listeners could be on the way to training right now. So we always think it's a good idea to give them some great advice straight away at the top of the show.
[00:02:14,496] [Louise:] Yeah, and we like to call it the arrival activity where we ask someone to give us as many top coaching tips as they can in 30 seconds. So AJ, we thought we'd come to you on this one as you work with the Under-16s Women's National Team. So are you up for that?
[00:02:31,260] [AJ:] It's a challenge, but I'll take it up.
[00:02:34,080] [Louise:] Okay. Right. We've got a little bit of music, so we'll put that under just to make it very tense and exciting. So when the music starts, you can start reeling off your tips. Okay.
[00:02:45,086] [AJ:] So the first one is to build a connection with the players, make them feel that trust as a part of the programme that you're delivering. So they trust your coaching, they trust your style of coaching. Get to know the player as well, so every player is different and every player's needs are different as well. Be engaging, make sure you're fun. I really pride myself off being energetic, being fun, being kind of connecting with those players. Make sure you've got a programme, make sure you've got a style that you want to go after.
[00:03:16,467] [Jamie:] There we go. Plenty in there. Thank you very much for that. Yeah, brilliant. Go too fast. The time goes very quickly on these, it does. Well, Alexis, to start us off, can you give us an overview of what the Women's England Talent Pathway currently looks like and what the aims and objectives of the pathway are?
[00:03:35,964] [Alexis:] Yeah, sure. So our talent pathway is kind of currently made up of two elements really. There's a club and domestic pathway, which encompasses everything from sort of the grassroots game, including our new emerging talent centres, the existing regional talent clubs, all the way through to our sort of WSL academies and then all the way through to the women's professional game, which includes the Barclays Championship and Barclays WSL. And then you have our sort of national governing body pathway. So that enables us to identify players that are in some of those programmes, also in the grassroots game, looking for talent and potential, any player from any environment. So we want to be able to promote an opportunity to access training and competition opportunities, starting with our national talent camp, which is for under 15s, under 14s age group, all the way through to our senior England team. So, you know, that's kind of two elements of our pathway, a domestic pathway and also our sort of national governing body led pathway. Both are very similar objectives, both of them to create pathways which are both more inclusive and accessible, which in turn creates more opportunities for every girl with talent and potential. And secondly, to identify and develop more and better players, which are capable of performing both on the domestic stage and the international stage as well.
[00:04:53,002] [Louise:] It's really interesting to hear about those pathways and find out a bit more about them. But could you tell us what the FA Discover My Talent programme is all about? And where does it fit into the pathway?
[00:05:05,923] [Alexis:] Sure, yeah, so Discover My Talent started really as a campaign. I was tasked with, you know, making sure that our pathway was accessible and inclusive. And I suppose historically, we've probably only looked in certain places for talent. So the challenge was, you know, how can we make sure that we're looking everywhere? Because we know talent is everywhere. So I guess, you know, it started off as a campaign, it's now turned into much more of a programme. It's growing every day, it's growing all the time. But in short, it's an opportunity for any player anywhere, at any time to be shouted about. And hopefully that's by someone who supports them in that sort of playing environment. And ultimately, you know, we want to support those players that have talent and potential to come onto our pathway, and, you know, hopefully become a future Lioness. That's kind of the ultimate aim. So we launched our first referral window back in August 2021. So just over a year ago, and in the first sort of year, we had over 1600 referrals, which I don't think any of us really appreciated that. But I suppose when you give people an opportunity that they've not had before, they take it, which is fantastic. So over the last 12 months, we've developed the programme, we've really sort of tried to accelerate opportunities for players to come and sort of take some of the opportunities that we're providing. And I guess the sort of main aim is that we want to take these opportunities to talent. So again, historically, players would have travelled, you know, the length and breadth of the country to perhaps access opportunity. Whereas now through Discover My Talent, we want to take these opportunities to them on a local level, so that they are more accessible, and hopefully, in turn, more inclusive as well.
[00:06:46,471] [Jamie:] Fantastic. Why has the programme been designed then? And how does it differ from what's been done previously?
[00:06:53,894] [Alexis:] Sure. So I think, you know, first and foremost, this programme now allows us to consider players, any player with English eligibility, regardless of their playing environment. So, you know, as I said previously, we would always probably, you know, if we hold our hands up, look in certain places and, you know, look in centres of excellence previously, or currently the regional talent clubs. But what this programme does is says, you know, talent is anywhere, it is everywhere, and we actually need to do something different if we're going to find different types of players. So through our Talent ID events, we're able to consider players that have been referred to us through the referral process. You know, we put those events on on a local level, and we invite players in that have been referred, but some of our events are also opened up to anybody. So we work with some key partners to help us deliver those events. And it's really an open access sort of opportunity to allow girls to come in and be Talent IDed and show us what they've got. So we're trying to do more of that. Like as a small team, we, you know, we can't do everything. And that's why we have to work with some of our really key partners to help us develop some of those opportunities on a local level.
[00:08:05,203] [Louise:] AJ, from your perspective, why do you think it's important for grassroots players to be given an opportunity through Discover My Talent?
[00:08:13,560] [AJ:] I think it's similar to what Alexis says, it's about giving the players the opportunity. And you can find diamonds anywhere. And I say historically, we used to be going after the same thing was we want to go a little bit different. And we can find those players from any environment at any time. And then it's up to us to help support those players. And I think grassroots coaches and grassroots players from like mixed football, anything will have now the opportunity to be seen. And I think it's an incredible strategy that we're producing here. And I think it'll only grow and only get better. And we'll see players starting to come through our pathway that have come from a grassroots setting, that's come from mixed football setting and not only a regional talent club. And I think it shouts about now that there's opportunity out there. And no matter where you are, as long as you're playing football, you can get that opportunity. And for me, that screams success. And we're only in the early stages. And I think it'll grow massively moving forward. And it's exciting to be a part of it as well.
[00:09:07,389] [Jaimie:] It certainly sounds exciting. It really does. How do you ensure that the programme is accessible and inclusive for players from all backgrounds?
[00:09:15,834] [Alexis:] Yeah, so I mean, you know, as AJ said, this programme kind of allows us to dare to be a little bit different and not do what we've always done, because we know that's crazy, right? So we're starting to identify players from lots of different environments. As AJ mentioned, some are playing mixed football, some are playing girls football, some are playing really different formats of the game. So 3v3, futsal. In some circumstances, we've found players that don't even play grassroots football, they're playing at school, they're playing with their mates on the street. And, you know, they have that raw talent and raw potential and we've managed to find them. So it's really exciting. And I think it's because of the variety of places that we're looking for players. As I said, we're not looking in the same places all the time. We're kind of trying to do things a little bit differently and, you know, go into different communities. You know, we've got a massive piece of work around the diversity of our England teams, which we know comes out in the media every time there's a tournament. We have a real opportunity to really, you know, impact that in a really positive way and give girls from lots of different communities the opportunity to come into the pathway if they want to. And that's the thing, you know, some girls want to play for fun and some girls want to play because they want to play for England and we have the responsibility to support them to do that.
[00:10:30,760] [Louise:] Yeah, and I guess it's just giving people the opportunity, like you say, to decide how they'd like to go forward. So, AJ, can you tell us a little bit more about the future Lioness characteristics and how you determine what they should be?
[00:10:44,033] [AJ:] Yeah, it's a very, very good question. So for people who are listening, the Lioness characteristics are like key qualities that we look for in a player. So they were born out of obviously lockdown. We were working from home. We came together as a technical director department, so national coaches, talent technical coaches, other workforce coaches as well, just to kind of come up with what are we looking for in these players. And I guess it's to open the door and not close the door. So if you're looking at some of our characteristics around creating excitement on the ball, how we mastered the ball, they're very simple. So any coach, any club, any environment can pick up these characteristics and kind of help support the players back in the club. And I guess we didn't want to close any door and we wanted to make sure, again, it's about opportunity. So a player doesn't have to possess all the characteristics. They could show some potential in one. So they might shine in some of the imposition characteristics around mastering the ball or staying on the ball. And again, it looks different to each player and it's about the coaches being able to identify that and for us to be able to support the coaches to identify that as well. So we run workshops around Discover My Talent and we showcase some of our characteristics on videos. We show them in some of our training sessions. We help support the coaches to try and identify some of these characteristics. And it's a real useful tool to have because it will show what we need in our pathway, but also give them that early entry level around how they identify the characteristics and then also how they support the characteristics. Because again, historically, we've never had these. So who knows what we're looking for as an England player or a player that's part of our pathway. So now we've got that kind of linear line around some of our characteristics. And then when they do move into our national teams, it's linked to our how we play. So it's all joined up now and we feel really proud of the work that's gone in in lockdown to try and help support anyone identify players but also to support players as well.
[00:12:45,390] [Jamie:] What tips can you give coaches to help them spot players who showcase these qualities then?
[00:12:50,387] [AJ:] I think don't be afraid to like make judgement because sometimes you can like there's no right or wrong answer with some of these characteristics and what you see. If you're seeing a player that's really like developing the characteristics or doing them consistently, then why not give that player the opportunity and refer that player? I think it's something that we just need to kind of identify as a coach around what are the characteristics first and foremost? What is the player showing? Because on our referral form, you have to make sure that you're clear of what characteristics that player is showing and understanding that but take a risk. Like who knows where that player is going to go? We've got no crystal ball for potential and we don't know where that player is going to end up. But you've given that player that opportunity to be seen by an FA member of staff and then obviously where that player goes is down to the player but also down to the support that we give the player and the support network around the player that gives the player that kind of platform to move forward. So I think the biggest advice I would say is just take the risk. Take the risk to refer a player because who knows where that player is going to go and where that player is going to end up and it might be that you've referred that player and they make that senior line S squad and what a proud moment that will be for the person who referred that player back in the day where they got referred. So I'd say, yeah, take a risk. Just following up from that,
[00:14:07,112] [Jamie:] How often do players need to showcase these characteristics? How often does a coach need to see that in a player to then go, you know what, I'm going to refer that individual?
[00:14:16,097] [AJ:] I think obviously the player needs to show some sort of quality in the characteristics. So obviously like I said, they don't have to show everything in all the corners that we're saying around the characteristics. So we have an in possession and an out possession characteristics alongside some physical characteristics as well. And we have a separate one for our goalkeepers as well. So I would say just again, just take a risk. If that player is showing the consistency or not even doing it every week, but they're showing some potential in that characteristics, then just refer that player because at the age and the stage that the players are, they're probably not going to be consistent. They're probably going to show peaks and troughs in their performance, but it's about like, can you see it on the eye? And this is what we're trying to educate coaches with around like understanding our characteristics and not being afraid to kind of just refer that player. And again, who knows where that player is going to go, but it's just all about giving that player that opportunity to be seen.
[00:15:11,294] [Jamie:] For listeners that are tuning in right now, is there any way that they can go to see video clips of these characteristics to really understand what the qualities are that they're looking for?
[00:15:21,908] [AJ:] Yeah, so the first thing you go on into our website is England Football and all the kind of information is on there. But for anyone who's interested, who want to kind of go and be a part of it, we do run Discover My Talent workshops in each of the region around the country and it's delivered by the local regional talent technical coach and they'll just deliver workshops around what is Discover My Talent and kind of explaining the future Lioness characteristics in a little bit more detail. And for the coaches to understand it, there's also ways of observing some of the sessions in real life so we can really showcase some of our characteristics and what it looks like to us. But what I will say is obviously these characteristics are really simple to pick up for anyone and kind of run by and it's just down to kind of interpretation and just understanding what they mean and they come out in very various different ways. So yeah, there's so many ways that the people can kind of view our characteristics.
[00:16:15,705] [Jamie:] And then we'll put a link in our episode description there to the website that you've mentioned as well to make sure that listeners can click on that and find out what the characteristics look like.
[00:16:25,230] [Louise:] So we've talked about kind of recognising them, but how can coaches support players to develop those characteristics in the first place? So within their own environment, is there ways they can do that?
[00:16:35,225] [AJ:] Yeah, I think it comes down to knowing your players first and foremost and what each player needs and kind of creating a session plan around each player and obviously just understanding that each player is different and kind of utilising various challenges, various interventions and just being really strategic about some of the various formats that you play as well. So it doesn't always have to be larger games, it can be broken down into smaller formats and really broken down for the players to understand. And I think the biggest thing is really challenging the players because I think that's where they find the most learning and making or letting players make their own decisions because in game coaches won't make the players decisions and I think that's the most important thing is allowing them to be free and knowing that failure is good because the amount of times that they do it at some point they will get it right and letting the players know that it's comfortable and it's a safe environment for players to make mistakes, but also for the coaches to intervene at the right time and help support the players in terms of some of the characteristics, but also as well some of the style of play that the teams that they're playing for and understanding various formats and how they can get out of pressure and utilising both feet and just some of the basics, brilliant basics work that allows players to develop to have the tools to play under pressure.
[00:17:52,748] [Louise:] And is there a particular way that you could build these things into a practice design to help encourage the development of those characteristics? I know you said there was like a couple of things that you can think about, but is there a practice in particular that you think of that's quite good for that?
[00:18:07,060] [AJ:] I think the biggest thing is being able to differentiate between doing it with no pressure and then doing it with pressure and I think you need to really expose the players to both environments so the learning environment to help them understand what you're asking them to do and then also the pressure environment and the challenges around this is what it takes to play under pressure and can they utilise both environments and I think the biggest thing is putting players in challenges that they know that football is tough and when you do play at the highest level it becomes more challenging so the way that you have to outwit your opponent, think quicker, utilise creative ways to play forward and I think as long as your session design matches up to some of those challenges and the age and stage that your players are at, I think you'll always get the outcomes.
[00:18:52,632] [Jamie:] So say one of our listeners has noticed that one of their players showcases these characteristics, how did it then refer them into the Discover My Talent programme?
[00:19:02,067] [Alexis:] Okay so anyone that's listening right now can go to the England Football website and refer a player right now, the window is open until the 15th of March. If you're listening to this after that time then you can come back to the website any time during the season and it will tell you when the next window is going to open and typically we have two referral windows per year generally at the start of the season and sort of the middle of the season as well so always an opportunity. But if the window isn't open then you can also keep those players in mind, keep supporting them and when it does open obviously then refer them then so the opportunity is still there. As AJ said on our England Football website we have a dedicated referral link on the England Football website pages so anyone, any coaches, anyone within football really so it isn't just coaches, it could be a teacher, it could be a volunteer, it could be a club or league official can go on and refer a player. All we ask is that parents don't unless they have a recognised role in the game because you know every parent thinks their daughter is the best of course which they usually are but we want coaches to refer or volunteers or recognise people within the game to do that. As AJ has also mentioned we ask the referrers to watch our Future Lioness characteristics videos and we have them for both outfield players and goalkeepers so regardless of what type of player you're referring obviously watch the videos because you will be asked which of the characteristics do stand out for that player and to kind of put that on the referral form. I guess once the referral's been made it's kind of a two-part process so we then email the parents so it's really important that the referrer gets the consent of the parent first before they make the referral and then we email the parents to get them to fill in a second form which just gives us a little bit more information that's aligned to the player and also allows us to then sort of make that contact with the parent moving forward for any opportunities that we want to give to that player to come you know be considered for our pathway.
[00:21:00,203] [Louise:] Can you tell us what happens once the player has been referred?
[00:21:04,241] [Alexis:] Yeah sure so once the player's been referred and we've had the completed parent form, players allocated to one of our regional talent technical coaches to be considered and we've made a commitment to consider every player that's been referred to us so as I said at the start I think we've had over 1600 referrals in year one. This first window we had nearly 700 referrals so it's a huge challenge but what we do have is many different ways that we can consider players so the first one is around gaining insight so it might be a conversation with the initial referrer to see you know where that player's at, who's she playing with, is she playing girls football, mixed football, like what does her environment look like and then secondly we have a team of talent reporters who can come out and observe players in fixtures or training so that's a really valuable tool for us to make sure that we can get out and see players in their own environments. Thirdly we have the opportunity for our own team to visit a live training or fixture opportunity again you know seeing players in their own environments is so important because that's probably when they're going to play their best because they're with their friends and they're in a comfortable environment and then I guess lastly we also have what we call our Future Lioness Talent ID events so we run those in every region, we run at least two in every region every year, sometimes we run more because the capacity and the demand and the number of players that have been referred in that region kind of warrants more players and more events so we run those events, players get invited to attend, sometimes we run them ourselves, sometimes we work with partners to also develop them so you know again it like seeing players in one way isn't just one way and it's like yes or no it's we've seen you we might want to see you again and if it is a yes great and if it's not right now then that's fine you know the I guess the great thing about Discover My Talent is that it's never a closed door it's just not right now so if a player comes to an event or gets seen by a talent reporter and we don't think she's ready now that doesn't mean to say that she can't be ready in a year's time so we do have the opportunity for players to be re-referred into the program and we can consider them again you know 12 months down the line because you know as we all know players do develop at different stages and some are you know late developers so we don't want to miss anyone that's kind of our aim really.
[00:23:23,285] [Jamie:] How do the players find out that they've been referred to the Discover My Talent program and how do coaches confirm to them what characteristics it is that they've noticed?
[00:23:33,398] [Alexis:] Yeah I think you know we would hope that a coach and a player have that relationship that they're saying to the player look you know I think you've got some of the characteristics I really want to refer you obviously there's a need to have that parental consent to do that so it kind of becomes a bit of a three-way sort of process between the coach the parent and the player obviously once the player has been referred and the parent fills in their part of the form then really I suppose the player if we go and see them in their training environment or we send a talent reporter they they don't necessarily know that that's going to happen we don't tell the players that we're coming so to speak so you know we don't want to put added pressure on and for them to think oh my goodness someone's coming to watch me we just want them to you know play their football and enjoy their game and show us what they can do you know when they're at the best kind of thing so I guess the only time that they would know that they're being talent ID'd is when they get invited into one of our events so obviously they get an invite and they get told where they need to be and when they need to come and regardless of when the players been seen we always email the parents afterwards to just confirm that we've considered the player we might not give them an outcome because we might want to follow up and see them again in a different environment but yeah we will always confirm that we've considered the player so they kind of get a bit of reassurance if you like that you know someone is there watching them and their referral has been taken seriously
[00:24:56,770] [Louise:] As they are referred in or they kind of find their way into the program how do you work with the players to develop them further?
[00:25:05,147] [AJ:] Yeah so it's very bespoke with their talent technical coach so speaking off my region within the northwest we've developed a program bi-weekly to help support the players like say whether from grassroots rather from girls academies mixed football it's our job to help support them because we've identified them first and foremost so we run a program alongside our goalkeeper high performance centre as well so all at one venue we've got our high potential goalkeepers alongside our high potential outfield players and we base our program around like brilliant basics so some of the stuff that we think that the players need to help them get better so stuff around playing under pressure small formats stuff around playing with both feet being able to out with their opponent stuff around our defending 1v1 principles and just to help support them because we don't have them for a very long time when we have them on camp so stuff that we do away from camps is important as well so alongside that program we would work with them in clubs as well so some technical coaches would go into clubs and help support the coaches supporting the players because that's the biggest one as well is that we don't have them but most of the work is done at the clubs so how the clubs can support the players but it's all around that relationships that communication the understanding what we're going after but also linking it to some of the club stuff as well because we want to make sure it's a whole collaboration piece and it's not them and us we're working together and I think that's the best part of developing a player and I think the biggest one as well is the players knowing what their strengths are and understanding their strengths but then understanding what we're going after to help support the player and be really transparent around some of the communication and some of the feedback that the player gets and then help move the play in the right direction by supporting them on the pitch but also some of the stuff that we do off the pitch as well so that's probably one of the few things that we do but there's it depends around the environment and what the regional TTC wants to do in that environment and every environment's a little bit different depending on what their players need at the right moment and the right time. {Jamie:] At the time of recording you said that the program's been going 18 months - during that time do you have any success stories to share so far?
[00:27:13,186] [Alexis:] Yeah sure I mean we have lots of data probably not very exciting for listeners but I think the exciting thing is we've probably had over 2,000 players referred into the program which if you think back at the start like we didn't know how many players were going to get referred we knew the players that were in the environments that we knew about and I guess you know 2,000 players are 2,000 players that probably wouldn't have had this opportunity had this program not existed so I think that's a success in itself. Big part of the program is making sure that it's accessible and inclusive 27% of our referrals have come from some of the most deprived areas of England which is fantastic and I think that shows the real success in taking opportunity to where we think talent and potential might be so again taking it local and making sure that it is accessible. 48% of our players that have been recommended for further monitoring have come from grassroots football which if you think back to what it historically looked like we wouldn't have seen those players so we're now able to give more players more opportunity and hopefully this isn't a quick win overnight success of seeing someone put on a senior England shirt it's going to take probably five, six, seven years for that success to materialise but I think you know the great thing about the program is that we're creating the opportunity and you know it's a huge result of grassroots football and the grassroots coaches in the game that have worked with us and have been able to kind of come on the start of this journey with us to want to learn and want to know about the characteristics and what we're looking for and you know taking the time to refer players when they see that potential because without that we don't have a program we don't have the players coming into the pathway so you know the grassroots game is really critical to this and this program really is probably the you know the bridge between the grassroots game and the talent pathway and an international game so yeah just like lots of success for me this is just the start I think Discover My Talent is it's a long-term program and you know just there's lots of opportunities to accelerate and you know create more and more different environments for players to be seen in and I think we've got lots of work still to do I think we've got lots of work to do with education and schools lots of work to do with you know educating coaches and what we're looking for you know the diversity piece we've spoken about and I think the more we can get into some of those communities and you know show that girls football is both accessible from a participation point of view but also if those girls have talent and potential then they can have the same opportunities as other players have that have you know maybe had some of that opportunity afforded to them previously and I think it's just everyone pulling together in the same direction and understanding that talent can be found anywhere we just want people to know what it is we're looking for and also how they can shout about it so yeah get onto the website refer a player and let us decide whether we think she can represent England in the future.
[00:30:15,142] [AJ:] Can I just add on to that because I think another powerful part of that is the feedback that we get from parents and players coming to our events and saying what a valuable and memorable experience and even if they don't pull on an England senior lioness shirts - just being part of the program and having the opportunity for me and I always see smiles on faces when I'm running these events because they see our lioness banners with like senior lioness on it they want pictures next to it and just to provide that opportunity for players that they probably would never get and also taking it to them as well so they don't have to travel very far but I think it's the feedback that we've had so far and the smiles on the faces and the parent feedback and just to provide the players with that memorable experience for me is is that success that's why we do what we do.
[00:31:03,245] [Louise:] Yeah definitely I think it's it's inspirational really isn't it for any kind of or aspirational as well for for all the players and and coaches all the way around.
[00:31:11,880] [Jamie:] Yeah and the numbers that you were saying is absolutely wonderful do you think that it's quite an exciting time at the moment in terms of obviously lionesses winning the euros not long ago and the world cup coming up are you expecting even more numbers to be referred during the next windows?
[00:31:28,440] [Alexis:] I would say so I think you know the local or most recent reports have you know showed the increase in in the female game across the board and cross participation so I think we can be a success of what happens in the grassroots game so more girls playing you know potentially means more talented girls playing and hopefully more players coming into our pathway in the future. I was just also going to add that you know the success of the lionesses in the summer is obviously made girls football like you know everyone wants to be part of it whether that's playing it, coaching it, mums getting involved and I've seen that personally at home as well so like I think it's really important that we have really visible role models as well and you know using current players former players to really champion some of this opportunity we've done some case studies with you know some of our former players but also a couple of our younger players and they're also on our website and I think it's so important that girls can see you know see it to be it kind of thing like to see the person they perhaps want to be and being able to relate to them and their opportunity and perhaps their journey as well and you know to show that perhaps players haven't come on you know really smooth journey there's there's been ups and downs with every player so hopefully we can you know really champion some of that that work in the next few months as well.
[00:32:47,164] [Louise:] Well thank you both for coming in it's been really fantastic to hear about the program and how people can get involved. Can we just remind everybody again just one last time when are the referral windows open this year?
[00:33:00,157] [Alexis:] So the referral window opens on the 9th of January and it closes on the 15th of March
[00:33:05,064] [Jamie:] So yeah get referring. Yeah definitely get referring now. Just before we go is there any key information that you want to relay just before we finish the show?
[00:33:14,438] [AJ:] I think just one from me is just take a risk, refer players, don't hang on a player if you think that that player's got something about them because the opportunity is there for them and like I say historically we've never had this I'd have loved to have this when I was back as a young kid so the opportunity now is exciting and this will only grow and get better so say for any coach out there like give that player the opportunity sometimes and we say like someone just needs them to be referred so just give that player the opportunity to be referred and I guess then see where that player goes so yeah. Brilliant thank you very much.
[00:33:51,096] [Jamie:] Well that wraps up a slightly different episode for CoachCast today but we just felt like it was important to bring this program to your attention and really taking away that talent can be found everywhere.
[00:34:02,137] [Louise:] Yeah and it was really good to hear that they don't have to be showing all the characteristics all the time like so I think it's just if you notice something why not refer them give it a go.
[00:34:13,340] [Jamie:] Yeah they don't always have to be consistent either in those characteristics just if you think that they've got potential and then refer them and you never know what journey that your players might end up going on. Right well that is all we have time for today but don't forget to check out the episode description for all the links to our platforms there you will be able to click through to the England football community this is where you can post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or just simply to connect with loads of wonderful coaches.