[Jamie] 00:00:09.280
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 Chris Day, an assistant coach for the England women's deaf team to discover his journey so far, his advice for those coaching players with disabilities and to get his insight into the para and disability football formats. Well, hi Chris, welcome to Coach Cast, welcome to the show, how are you?
[Chris Day] 00:00:33.960
I'm very good, thank you. I've heard both of your dulcet tones on several other episodes, so looking forward to chatting.
[Louise] 00:00:39.820
Thank you very much. Very nice to hear someone's listening. And thank you for joining us. Can we make a start by finding out a little bit about your role and just kind of paint a picture of what it is that you do?
[Chris Day] 00:00:52.540
Of course, Louise. So I have many hats, like lots of football coaches. So I work for the FA, same as yourselves. Basically, main job is assistant coach for the England women's team that you'll be interested in today. So on the deaf side, so on the power pathway. Also work as a talent ID specialist, so supporting players with disabilities on the power pathway coming up, identifying players, seeing the playing environments that they're in, where they are, if it's the correct environment. Also run a post-education program at Hayward Seaf, which is near Brighton, so post-16 foot salon football program. Also work with FA Education on designing a course that's coming out on coaching disabled footballers, and also run a grassroots team as well.
[Jamie] 00:01:31.640
Very busy. Very very busy. Well fantastic thank you very much for that Chris and but just before we kind of discover more about yourself and those experiences as this is a coaching podcast coaches could be on the way to training while tuning into this So we always like to give them a bit of good advice at the top of the show really. Yeah we like to call this the arrival activity
[Louise] 00:01:52.880
just to warm you up. So we're gonna give you 30 seconds and we'd like you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in those 30 seconds. Are you up for the challenge?
[Chris Day] 00:02:02.280
Well up for it.
[Louise] 00:02:03.280
Okay, I've got a bit of music to go with it, so when that music starts you can begin.
[Chris Day] 00:02:09.020
So number one for me, same as several of our other guests have said, is enjoy it. Listen and observe in your sessions. Be inclusive, which I think I can talk about a bit later. Use the step method, which Paul Holder mentioned on one of your podcasts. Expect mistakes, yours and the players as well. Use visual tools where possible. Matching bib colours to magnet colours, for example, as well. Watch other sports and formats of the game. Be a lifelong learner and have other interests outside football as well was always a very good tip.
[Jamie] 00:02:38.360
Wow. Brilliant.
[Louise] 00:02:40.800
He was listening when he told us he was listening, he has been listening and also really good tips there.
[Jamie] 00:02:46.400
I absolutely love that. Yeah, thanks for the plugs for the other episode as well. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah, brilliant top tips. Well, we'll start off, as you all know, with we always tend to ask our guests first off, was kind of like, what was your first experience of football like?
[Chris Day] 00:03:01.680
So I grew up in Leeds which is a bit of a football mad city and I'm still a Leeds fan as well so my first experiences were playing football at school. I was a pretty good player even though I say so myself I'm sure everybody does but lots of street football which I think is a big thing that's maybe missing nowadays. Lots of tennis ball at school. We weren't allowed a football so we took a tennis ball in and that allowed us to play small-sided games, learn lots of skills and stuff. So went into playing for the school team, lots of local teams as well. Did okay but kind of dropped away from football probably in my 20s I think and then didn't start playing football again until in my 30s and I started playing small sided football so a little bit of futsal, lots of sort of power league things so six a side, five a side, seven a side and then back to a little bit 11 a side in my 40s unbelievably and played until I was 48 when I ruptured my ACL. So, I entered a not very illustrious career as many would say.
[Louise] 00:03:54.440
Very busy and very varied.
[Chris Day] 00:03:55.920
It was definitely varied and I think that's one thing that I take into my coaching nowadays is have variety of formats and numbers and experiences and that's where the learning and the magic takes place I think as we all know.
[Jamie] 00:04:06.820
You mentioned your coaching there and taking some of that experience that you had of playing into your coaching. Can you tell us when your interest in coaching actually started and how did you get involved?
[Chris Day] 00:04:16.240
Yeah very much so and hopefully like a lot of your listeners it was through grassroots football So my journey started coaching my eldest daughter when she was around five. So 19 years ago, my coaching career, if you want to call it that, started running a grassroots girls team for maybe four or five years, which is a real eye-opener. I didn't know much about coaching, I'm not gonna lie, and gradually kind of seeped my way into coaching courses, a level one, and then the ones that opened my eyes the most were the youth modules. I think a lot of people mentioned that on various podcasts and things that that was inspirational to have a look at how environment and players' maturation age and things like that would impact their ability. That wasn't really something I'd ever thought about. Then I dropped into doing my son's team, which I still run now. I've run them since they were under six school team and they're now under 16 and alongside that kind of fell into coaching as a career, so working in community scheme at Brighton for seven years and then working with the FA on disability talent pathways and various other roles. So yeah it was not something I ever expected to happen but I think the good thing is for your listeners is that you know this could be a career or pathway into something.
[Louise] 00:05:21.200
Taking you back to kind of when you did first start coaching you mentioned that you you didn't know that much about it what was your first experience of coaching like?
[Chris Day] 00:05:29.260
It was a bag of balls on a muddy field in Brighton which might still happen occasionally but yeah it was in at the deep end and I had no idea how young players learn, how they behave, what their objectives were to come to the session. So it was very much, I used to laugh when I heard that there was something where results didn't count because you didn't use to record results. That was before I started coaching. I thought what a ridiculous idea and gradually the penny dropped. Oh, okay, I see why. It's actually about development in the long term. So for myself, I always say to coaches, be a lifelong learner and I'm still learning today and we always get things wrong but that for me was a real pivotal moment around actually the players are going to develop at different rates, different ages, you know different heights they are, you know how they their ability on the ball is going to be different based on those things and how that changes over time. And that's something as coaches, I think we need to be really conscious of. I know a lot of the people on your podcast have said about, you know, be aware of the player and the individual. It really is a key thing. So if you know that player's journey, whereabouts they are, where they're heading possibly, although we can never have a full understanding of that, but whereabouts they are in their journey at the moment will really determine what you do with the session and particularly on the disability side, being aware of what a player can do as well is really key.
[Jamie] 00:06:42.380
Looking back at your coaching experiences, What would you say you enjoy most about it?
[Chris Day] 00:06:47.800
Long-term development. So I've worked in academies as well. I used to work in the girls' academy at Brighton and really enjoyed it developing players, but I always felt a little bit sad that you only had those players for one, possibly two years with a two-year RTC programme. With the Power Pathway, I found that we can have players we can find them 10, 11 you could be still involved in their journey at senior level 10 years later and that's a real gift I think you know as a coach to be able to be that involved with somebody's development.
[Louise] 00:07:12.840
Yeah definitely and must be really just nice to kind of see the development happen in front of your eyes and kind of how it affects people and their path.
[Chris Day] 00:07:21.760
Yeah, incredible story is that one of the players currently in the England Women's Deaf team, I've coached at every level. I actually found her playing in a school hall when she was 11 in Burgess Hill near Brighton and Talent Idida was a deaf player, got in touch with the school, so our journeys in many ways have been quite parallel. So I coached a talent hub, then a regional centre, then a national centre and now you know I'm involved in the senior team as is she, so there's moments like that I don't think that would normally happen in a mainstream talent environment. So it's been incredible and with other players as well seeing how their journey's been affected in a really positive way by discovering that there is an alternative pathway out for them.
[Louise] 00:07:57.320
Sounds amazing that kind of the rewarding side of that must be lovely. Can you think of what key attributes and skills you think make a transformational coach?
[Chris Day] 00:08:08.640
Yeah I think there's lots of different things I think patience and understanding it's really good I think you know whether you're working in grassroots football you're still going to be a transformational coach. The best thing for me, and I say this all the time because I get asked quite a lot, you know, it must be amazing working with these players at international level, and it is, but the best thing for me is when I bump into someone in Brighton who I coached 10 or 15 years ago and they come and say hello and it's like a, oh, you know, I used to remember when you did this and it was lovely. If they cross the road, it wouldn't be great. But the fact that they come and say hello, that's what you want. That's transformational coaching, that you can have an effect on someone's life in a positive way. And there's a really interesting story that my son's a keen basketball player as well as being a keen footballer. And his basketball coach a couple of years ago was a lad that I coached football from when he was five and he can I sort of recognized him he came over and said hello and it was like I know really used to love it you know when you coach it didn't you know go down a football pathway but for him basketball pathway and he's now coaching so even just as you know maybe give some messages or some kind of knowledge along the way is fantastic for me to be able to see that?
[Louise] 00:09:07.440
What attributes do you think that you kind of showed to create those bonds and that interest that people have had?
[Chris Day] 00:09:14.580
I think it's actually showing an interest in the individual and that can be in terms of you know how's your day been, you know what football team do you support, or the kind of classic ones aren't they showing interest to players but also being interested in their development so whether that's academically you know how's school going but particularly if you're in a sports environment how do we want to help you here, what do you need and when can I give it to you and one of the key things for coaches when you move up the pathway if you are looking at elite level is to be honest with players if you show that buy-in that I'm really interested in your development when you do need to have a tough conversation with them which does have to happen sometimes at elite level, around performance level, it makes things a lot easier and it's that honesty I think that's really key to good coaching right throughout the levels?
[Jamie] 00:09:55.080
That's really great, really great insight there for everybody listening. It's got the key things that impact players as well. Taking in everything you've learned so far, what advice would you give to your younger self then to prepare them for stepping into the world of coaching for the first time?
[Chris Day] 00:10:12.800
I think just go and explore other sports, watch and learn and that lifelong learn I think again it's something that we ask our players to be isn't it that to invest in their development to go and try things so I think if you're a young coach now the best thing to do is go and try lots of different formats of the game coach male players coach female players coach small-sided coach 11 v 11 go and watch basketball and hockey now what are the returns some of them won't be obvious but some of them might be those little key bits of golden nuggets that we're looking for in our coaching and really enjoy it as well. So show that passion for your development that you're going to show for your players development as well.
[Jamie] 00:10:49.700
Can you give us a little bit, you kind of touched on it a little bit at the intro, but can you give us now a little bit of an insight into your journey from starting out to the role that you've got now, Chris?
[Chris Day] 00:10:59.680
Yeah, sure. So I worked at Brighton. So my first role in football was at Brighton as a development officer in disability. I'd found that disability sport and football was something I was really passionate about. I found that maybe my personality I could affect people but also that buy-in of that long-term development worked for me as well. So It's always a two-way process with your coaching. Do you enjoy it and get as much out of it? So I started volunteering, doing football coaching at a day center just around the corner from where we live. Saw the guys, and it was a pan-disability environment, so it was a mixed disability group. There were some players with Down syndrome, some of him were deaf, some had autism. And I remember my first session just thinking, wow, there's a lot to take on here. But gradually, it was, oh, OK, this might work for this player. This player might need something else. This player is a visual learner. They're going to have to get the whiteboard out and play with the magnets and actually see and be tactile with it. And this player wants to be refereeing, which is fine as well. So you're a juggler, I think, as a coach. You've got lots of things going on. And I found that from a challenge point of view, working in disability sport was really challenging in a good way. It worked for me. So I then went to Brighton and did development sessions and stuff and got involved with running a talent hub there. So on their pathway, so within the Power Pathway, the talent hubs are kind of like a local level. So it's a contact base where local clubs run for players who are on the pathway to come in to a couple of times a month and see. So I ran that for a while and the FA sort of said, oh, you know, that one's really successful. Would you like to come in, get involved in our regional program? So I started coaching there and that was, seemed to go very well. Got invited up to the national program and then on that to work with development squads and then I've been with the senior squad since the end of last year. So it's not a journey I ever ever saw myself undertaking. It's you know it's not a happy accident either. I've worked hard to do that but at the same time you know I'm aware that there's always things that I can learn. So put myself in situations where I have to go and coach in front of people who are better than me and say what have I got right here, how can you help me? So you know it's even from a grassroots point of view it's still that thing there's always people who will be able to deliver that session a bit better so go and find that person. I think there's a saying that if you're the cleverest person in the room you're in the wrong room, which I really like, so that's always been my ethos There's another room somewhere I've got to get in it.
[Jamie] 00:13:03.700
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to follow a similar journey to what you've had? Get
[Chris Day] 00:13:08.520
involved. So within disability sport and disability football, there's always chances to volunteer some paid roles as well. County FA's are really good. There's disability leagues called Ability Counts that are run throughout the country which are once a month. There's often junior teams and adult teams where it'd be good to go and watch and see what it involves and get that challenge. How could I help here? Could it be as an assistant coach? You know, could it be as a player as well? There's lots of players out there with disabilities who maybe aren't playing and might want to coach. That might be a way into coaching for them as well. But just give it a go and go and watch and see what it looks like and see is this for me. You know we'd love to have you involved I'm sure.
[Jamie] 00:13:43.080
Now Chris when this episode initially goes out it is Disability Awareness Day. Now football is a game for all and we believe that everyone should have the choice to be able to play mainstream football wherever possible, but we do also realise that in some cases some players may be better provided for in specific formats of the game, so we're wondering could you give us an insight into the disability formats that are available, please?
[Chris Day] 00:14:07.480
Yeah, of course. No problem at all, Jamie. So yeah, I mean, I think that the message is mainstream football and grassroots football should be as accommodating as possible to players with a disability. We realise that's not always the case due to location, number of teams, the formats that are out there. So first of all, is there a grassroots team that would be suitable? If not, is there a pan-disability league locally where you can have contact time with coaches, you can go and play on a Sunday once a month as well in a competitive environment. It looks like football, it is football, it's the same. And then also alongside that you could still play what we call impairment specific football. So a few examples might be there's a partially sighted league nationally, there's cerebral palsy league, there's power chair football, there's all sorts of different formats, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, deaf football as well. All these kind of games where there's slight adaptations, the formats are maybe a bit different. So blind football as well, some people may have seen in the Paralympics previously which is a version of Futsal almost so the 5v5 games, 7v7 with CP, 4v4 with powerchair. Hopefully there's something for everyone but the key thing is go and find that opportunity so County FA is always a really good starting point to find what's available locally.
[Louise] 00:15:16.020
And how would you say is the best way for players and coaches to get involved with disability football?
[Chris Day] 00:15:21.840
Yeah, I think that the County FA, Root Louise, always seems to be the best way. They'll have a list of all the local leagues, the local affiliated teams, whether they're grassroots and they have a disability section or whether they're a pan-disability team as well. The FA main website has a lot of information on there as well so that's always the start point and if you have a look on Twitter, Facebook support groups as well, so impairment specific support groups for parents often have details of sessions so and from a coaching point of view, speak to your local coaches, is there any teams locally here that I could get involved with? Usually that's the best font of knowledge.
[Louise] 00:15:53.300
Are there any courses that you'd recommend for coaches specifically for disability football?
[Chris Day] 00:15:58.980
Yes, absolutely. So we're due to launch the brand new coaching disabled footballers course and that'll be over the summer at some point and alongside that they'll hopefully be some CPD so continual professional development for coaches to attend within their county FAs which would be a great opportunity to go along have a go at sessions see it explained how you might use the step process and mirror sessions as well, so parallel delivery for different groups and adapting what's in front of you.
[Louise] 00:16:23.360
What top tips do you have for coaches who are working or looking to work in disability football?
[Chris Day] 00:16:28.480
So I think top tips would be again that lifelong learner, I go on about this all the time so go and observe different sessions so go and find out about if you do have a player within your group who has a certain impairment find out a bit about that impairment speak to the player through the parent and the carer if you need to but find out what is their needs how can I help that player what works best for them So something we always do I think is that you know we just need to make sure we don't assume? So I don't want to assume you can't do this, I want to actually see what you can do. So if I give you a ball show me what you can do. Okay how does that work for you? So some players with cerebral palsy for instance may struggle on one side of their body to manipulate the ball but they may have found a different way of adjusting as well. But if you can adapt the session based on what you see through that series of conversations and I think I don't know who said it but it's a famous coaching quote that coaching is actually a series of conversations and that's what it is. Your technical detail is key and how you set up the session is key. But actually those conversations around that with the players, with the parent and carer are really good for you to get that knowledge. And that's how we all learn. Right. I learned that little bit. This is what Jamie likes in a session. This is what he needs. This is what Louise needs. And then I'm differentiating maybe what's in front of me.
[Louise] 00:17:35.840
Yeah that sounds like a really good way of approaching it and really interesting to think about how you could how it could expand your coaching by thinking that way.
[Jamie] 00:17:43.700
Yeah brilliant. Now We do have international sides in some formats of the game. So could you tell us a little bit more about the para formats, Chris?
[Chris Day] 00:17:51.880
Yeah, absolutely. So currently got seven para teams. So we've got blind men's with format of that is 5v5. You may have seen it with the sort of slightly heavier futsal ball. That's a sound ball played off sides. So it's played off like borders on the side. The goalkeeper fully sighted, all four outfield players blind, so with blindfolds as well. So it's very interesting. Again, if you watch on YouTube, there's loads of amazing clips of teams playing. So we've got a successful national men's side of that, brand new women's side that's just launching that hopefully be in the summary of the International Blind Games in Birmingham. They should be competing. Men's cerebral palsy team as well, deaf men's team, deaf women's team that I work with, partially sighted men's team and power chair team. Now power chair as a format is mixed So that can be for male or female players as well. The reason we don't have female formats of all those versions of the ground is just that it's so new for a lot of those formats. So hopefully over time they'll be added in. So CP women's team possibly to come as well at some point. So that'll be gradually the expansion of the para game and within that all those teams play international, so European tournaments, play World Cups as well, there's the Deaflympics for some deaf sides as well, there are Paralympics for the blind team, so incredible opportunity to go play elite international sport, maybe that some of those players never realised they would be able to do.
[Louise] 00:19:02.480
That sounds very exciting. What's the pathway like for players who would want to get involved?
[Chris Day] 00:19:07.580
So within those formats of the game we have talent hubs. I think I mentioned earlier we've got 15 of those around the country. So they are mainly for CP, deaf and partially sighted players at the moment, because blind and power chair being slightly different formats of the game, they're a bit more specialist. So if you are in one of those formats of the game and you are interested, so county FAs again would have the details for the talent hubs, go along, give it a go. Maybe the player's actually not already playing disability football and that's fine, they're playing high level mainstream, which we do have a lot of players doing as well. It's a parallel pathway, so the word para actually means parallel, which is something I think a lot of people miss, but it means an alternative pathway to run alongside. It may be that that's your individual format of choice running forward. So for instance, within the blind game, most blind players probably not going to access mainstream football, but they could be coaches. So we don't know that, so we don't want to make assumptions, but it's a parallel pathway to allow players an opportunity to play international sport, as well as play mainstream football, grassroots or pan-disability.
[Jamie] 00:20:03.280
What advice would you have for anybody who's working at the high end or almost like in your role I suppose like in the power formats?
[Chris Day] 00:20:10.760
Be open-minded, you know that's the key thing. So we had a call this morning, myself and Sammy who's the head coach, as a bit of feedback from our camp that we had at the weekend at St George's Park and ours was around communication. So the big thing working with deaf players is making sure that everything communication-wise is understood and you are doing everything you can to get that D sat across in the best way. So We have two signers with us at all times, one's working. But so even things like the height of the whiteboard is really important. So the height of the whiteboard is on a similar level to your face. So your face can be lip read at the same time as the player is watching the board or watching the signer. It's little details like that. So having the board on the floor would cause players to have to do two or three things at once, which is really difficult. So in terms of cognitive processing, what we're trying to do is the world's best. So we're trying to make sure that the delivery that we give to the players and information is key. So even during the game, the players have to take their hearing aids out. So there's no aids during the game. So the information that we give at the start of the session and during our training games, when the players can have their hearing aids in, has to be spot on. So it's almost like we talk about, you know, let's be player led. We actually really are player led during the game so we can make the substitutions, we can give little bits of information on the whiteboard when the players are off the pitch or off the futsal court but actually during the game it's down to the players and that's quite a key bit of information that we're having to make sure that it's got in, you know, that has that information got in, it's check, check for the understanding. Is it there? What do I need to do in that? Again, would echo within all the players that we work with.
[Louise] 00:21:40.920
Really interesting to hear all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. So yeah, that's really interesting. Are there any upcoming tournaments that people should be aware of?
[Chris Day] 00:21:49.120
Yeah, so the International Blind Games this summer in Birmingham, so our blind teams, the men's and women and the partially sighted team will be out there as well. I think the deaf men's have their European tournament as well coming up. Deaf women's, we've got our World Cup at the end of the year, hopefully in Brazil. So, yeah, I mean, I say this to people all the time, I say, what's your end of year plan? So I'm working towards a World Cup in Brazil and it's like, what? It's, you know, I mean, and as myself as a coach, having come through grassroots, that's a bit of a pinch me moment, you know, and it's something I never forget that, you know, I've had to work hard to get the opportunity. My players have had to work hard to get that opportunity as well. Let's make the most of it. So it's like, you know, hopefully could be talking to you maybe for catch up next year and, you know, with World Cup in our hands, who knows?
[Jamie] 00:22:30.580
Yeah, we'd love to. Absolutely hope so. And I mean, there's so much to look forward to there. And it'll be good just for everyone to kind of keep an eye out and look out for updates from so many tournaments just this year. Yeah,
[Chris Day] 00:22:42.900
and I think, you know, if people are on Twitter or Instagram, there's regular updates. So England football, England learning always put up some stuff. So we had our recent camp, we did like a warm weather camp out in Tenerife. So coaches may have seen that, may have not, but there's often a lot of stuff on the FA main account about that. So it was a week's fitness camp. All the para teams went out there, which was just incredible. And A lot of the teams haven't really worked together before. They're slightly separate from each other, but we've started coming on board. So it's like a team power concept. So where do we share learning? How do we share learning as coaches? So we had a coach development couple of days last week with the coaches from different formats. And We're talking to Colin Gordon, who's the head coach of the Powerchair team, and the learning that his team's got compared to the work that we're doing is really similar. And we talk to other coaches around how they work with their sports psychologists, their strength and conditioning coaches. So, you know, real unbelievable shared learning, so right across all the pathway at the moment is incredible.
[Jamie] 00:23:33.600
How have you found that experience? I say plenty of shared learning to take away. Always
[Chris Day] 00:23:38.260
learning, always learning Jamie. That's the thing. It's like, you know, I'm writing up some notes at the moment from last weekend around, you know, the classic, what went well, even better if So, you know, even at international level, that's what we're looking at. How did we get the message across from training? We had a fixture on the Saturday. We played Middlesbrough under 19 team, men's team, our women's played. So it was a big physical challenge. What do we do well? You know, what were the areas that we work on looking at the video clips as well. How did we do in terms of data returns as well? So there was live data came back from the players. When did we start to fade? So all those things for myself are all quite new to how I add it all in, you know, so which bits are important. And as a coach, again, a good learning message. There's always lots of information in front of you. You need to filter out the bits that are key for you and that takes time to understand that because otherwise we'll all end up with a million sessions. So in terms of your session planning as well, we can all go and watch a session, you know, another coach deliver, but is it relevant for my players? You know, what's the learning here?
[Louise] 00:24:29.160
You've said that during your career, you've had a couple of talent spotting roles. First for the England Women's Talent Pathway and now for the Para Pathway. What things are you looking out for in a player to determine if they have the potential to go onto the pathway and what skills and attributes should coaches be looking out for in their players?
[Chris Day] 00:24:49.820
Yeah, that's a great question. So yeah, I worked with the mainstream women's team doing talent ID in the youth development phase for a while, which is really interesting and amazing pathway. And I think you saw the success of the Euros in the summer, you know, that's only going to get better, hopefully more players. But I think it's always about with elite players, you're looking for that attitude. Once you get to the top level, often the physicality can be very similar because everybody's had to get that to get there. Maybe in terms of the technique, they've got high level technique. They've all had to get that to get there. But in terms of the ability to apply themselves, the sort of psych corner. So, you know, linking back to that four corner model, the psych and the social bit. I say this a lot to players and coaches when they say, you know, well, how do you pick players to go on camps and things like that. A lot of it is around how they cope in a stressful environment. So there's a saying we have comfortably uncomfortable. I don't know if anyone, has anyone done that on the podcast yet? Has that come up? I
[Jamie] 00:25:40.600
don't think so. I feel like I've heard the same before. I've heard, yeah, I've heard that saying. Yeah, I
[Louise] 00:25:43.660
don't think anybody's spoken about it. That's
[Chris Day] 00:25:45.200
all right, Just check it. I might have missed that episode if it was. But yeah, it was when you put a player in a match environment, you want them to feel that uncomfortableness that they have with competition, but you still need to support them with that. So it's making a safe place to be stressed, if that makes sense. And that's what game day looks like, doesn't it? We try and replicate training to game day. So does your training look and feel like the game day? So if you're in a grassroots environment, you've got a training session on, is there an opposition, which there'll be on a Sunday, that's probably quite a useful tip there. I know a few coaches will mention that in the podcast that you do. And is there goals and a way of scoring? Is it going to be a way of winning and losing? How do I react when I'm losing? So all those things amplify when you go to elite level because we're dealing with players who may have to come away with us for two or three weeks. How are they going to cope if they're not selected? Are they going to be amazing around camp? I remember Gareth Southgate mentioned during the Euros that his player of the tournament was Connor Cody and I often use this when I'm speaking to players and you know we'll do the question who was Gareth Southgate's player of the tournament and they'll you know they'll say oh you know was it you know Pickford no it wasn't Pickford was it Kane no it wasn't Kane it was Connor Cody and I say how many minutes did he play? Zero. And they're like, how can he play the tournament? I said, because he was there and he was ready to play at his best whenever he was needed. And he was amazing around camp. So they're all the considerations of working at elite level that you're going to need the attitude as a player to be able to be there and perform for your team when you're needed? And if you get injured and you can't go home because you're away, for instance, would you still be there and be supportive for your teammates? So I always think that attitude and also in the learning environment as well, are they willing to take on feedback and go and apply it? That always makes for an elite player. So when you're looking at talent ID, what is it that they've got? What's their super strength? Is it the technique? And sometimes that can be the super strength. Is it the physicality? But at elite level, they tend to nullify a little bit, unless you're a Messi and you have got that phenomenal, unbelievable, detailing your technical game. So then what can your super strength be? I'm going to be the best player. I'm going to be the best leader. I'm going to be the best supporter for my team. They're all real strengths alongside those other capabilities that we need. That's
[Jamie] 00:27:43.660
a really great insight. And like I say, you mentioned some of the attributes there that players need and it is a team game and it's a difficult role you mentioned Connor Cody and it's like it is difficult when the tournament's going on I imagine but to have that resilience and that strength to go and be ready and be the best version of yourself no matter what that is a strength.
[Chris Day] 00:28:02.880
Yeah and resilience is something what's really interesting is when you're looking at mainstream talent ID and developing players, grassroots or talent ID programs, resilience is something that's often looked to be developed. The one thing that we find within the power pathway is it's often already there because the players may have had quite a difficult journey. So school might not have been the easiest journey. You know, growing up may not have been the easiest journey. So sometimes dealing with failure and disappointment and that resilience that's needed may already be set in the players now can, how we develop it to actually get it on the court or the pitch to actually you know fulfill our potential and that's the difficult bit as a coach and a player isn't always fulfilling our potential.
[Jamie] 00:28:38.480
Now before the show Chris and you kind of mentioned on the show as well you're also a grassroots coach but you also mentioned to us that two players in your team are deaf. So we were wondering to support coaches who also work with deaf players in mainstream football settings, can you give us some insight into how you make sure that they're included and that their needs are met during training and match day?
[Chris Day] 00:28:59.060
Yeah, great question. The key thing is communication with the player. That's the first thing. How do they want to be communicated with? What works best for them? There's never a one size fits all with any player as you know. So with a deaf player, are they oral? So do they speak? Are they sign only? Are they a mixture of both? What do they like? What's their preference? So the number one thing is always gonna be communication for deaf players. How can you work with them to get the best out of them? So visual aids is a really good one. So if you've got that whiteboard, demo on the whiteboard, then demo on the pitch, you can demo, you can get a player to demo. So that's a visual way of learning. Again, I mentioned it earlier, this will be a big part of the Coaching Disabled Footballers course that's coming out in the summer. Match your magnets up to your bib color. It really makes things a lot easier for learning. So I'm not saying go out and buy loads of different bibs and loads of different magnets, But if you've got yellow and blue magnets, which are great for all players, because I think, I don't know if you're aware of Ryan Davis's work, he mentions about color blindness. So yellow and blue are really good colors. I'm color blind myself, as is Ryan. I heard on a podcast that he did, but yellow and blue are really good colors for anyone who's colorblind. They're also really good for anyone who has a visual impairment, but they're really good for everybody. So they work for everybody, but they may be really good for a small subset of your players. So if you can get that color match, I've got yellow and blue magnets, I've got yellow and blue bibs. Great, I get it. How many coaches do we see? And I see this at high level as well. Say you're yellow on the board, but you're going to be red over there or you're blue on the board, but we've only got white bibs in terms of cognitive processing. If you're talking about mainstream players, that's difficult. If you're talking about a player with a learning disability as ADHD or autism or a cognitive processing difficulty, that's gonna be really hard for them to understand even the simplest instruction that you've just given them to be that color over there, I'd find it difficult. So we need to make things as easy as possible. So if we can do that, again, with deaf players, there you go, there's your visual cue, These are your magnets, there's your bibs and then check understanding. Are we okay here? We've got what? Fantastic. Face well lit at all times. So wherever the direction of the sun is, have it in the coach's face. If there's lights, have them so you're well lit as well. So if the player is lit reading, which a lot of deaf players do do, then you know that's really helpful for them.
[Louise] 00:31:06.760
Some really good
[Jamie] 00:31:07.440
top tips there I think that should help coaches. Yeah, really get people thinking. Thank you for that. That was really insightful and some things that I'm sure some people might not even sort of really.
[Louise] 00:31:18.220
So to follow up from that, what advice would you give to coaches to ensure their sessions are more inclusive for players with disabilities?
[Chris Day] 00:31:25.840
I think just linking it back, Louise, a little bit about know your players. And again, I know that's been a common theme on your CoachCast. And I think, you know, if coaches are going to take some messages away from these CoachCast, that's the one thing that seems to run through. Know your players. So know what their triggers are for performing. You know, know what their triggers are for maybe drifting a little bit in the session. Mainstream players, players with a disability. So once we get that knowledge, now you could put that in your notes, right? I know that player X, this is what really helps them. Okay, so we've got that. This is what they really like, okay. This is what they might struggle with. So how can I adapt my session? So it might be the space is too big for their physical ability. So we'll just narrow the space in, but I may need to have a larger space alongside it for players who can cover that distance. So we can have two sessions running at once, parallel sessions. So everybody's needs are being met. We're not just focusing on one player. If we're dealing with a group, we're focusing on everybody's development. So know your players, get to know the detail around what helps them within the session. So it might be, for instance, top tip here coming up, a little warning. So if you've got partially sighted players, so have a consistent lighting in your environment if you can. So an indoor session is going to be amazing, but not all coaches will work indoors. So how can we be consistent? So ask the player what bib color works for you, what ball color works for you, and then have some dome cones, so large dome cones that mark out the area really easily. So Again, if you haven't got that there, then maybe, okay, if we get some club money up, we've got grassroots money coming in, can we just get some larger dome cones? Cause I think that's really gonna help Louise in her session here, or this might really help Jamie. Now I've thought about it. We still might get problems, but it hopefully won't be around that. And then we can move on to something else. But often it's just that knowledge of what's going to work for the player. Again, the step process, linking it back. How do we use the space and the task and the equipment? So now we're looking at the equipment really well. And the number of players, if that player is not getting on the ball and we're doing a 5v5, can I do a 3v3 and a 2v2 to get that player on the ball? Matched up with players who have physical literacy is the same, that's great. The players still playing a game. We're not telling the player we're doing anything here but it's just actually I want to give you some more time on the ball so I'll just adjust my session accordingly.
[Louise] 00:33:32.960
In your opinion how do we ensure that there are more people with disabilities getting involved in football?
[Chris Day] 00:33:39.000
I think knowledge, I think things like this are great to get the knowledge out there. Firstly that there's pathways for elite players but also that there are grassroots coaches and grassroots clubs out there that are willing to put that effort in. Not all grassroots environments are going to be perfect for everybody. We know that. So find the club that's right for your player, your child, or yourself. Now am I really enjoying this? Is this the best environment for me? Maybe there's another club. They might be a bit more accommodating. They might have someone else who's a bit like me. They may have a disability coach that understands or a coach with a disability who has that knowledge. So I think it's always for me about spreading the word around this. And actually what we want is football for all. That's the key tagline as we know. You know, we've seen it happen in the women's game as well, fantastically and off the back of the Euros, I think we'll see even more of a rapid expansion of the women's game. Alongside that, and I think the big push now can be on the disability side. So how do we get everybody playing? Well, it's knowledge, it's environmental knowledge, it's really being supportive and inclusive. And if you have a problem, ask. That's the key thing. Don't be afraid to ask the player or ask someone else. I'm struggling here. You know, what's the problem? Oh, okay. This might be it. Your area's too big. So the player's already fatigued after 10 minutes. Okay. So if I bring the area in, so it's just that knowledge and that ability to say, well, I might fail here, but I'll adjust my session because of it. That's my big message always to players. We're going to make mistakes. And when we make mistakes, I'm going to support you. And while we're doing that, we'll probably do a bit of learning within that as well but I'm going to make mistakes as a coach as well.
[Louise] 00:35:04.280
Yeah and I think it goes a bit like back to what you were saying about learning from other coaches and kind of you know sharing that knowledge between people and there's things like the football community that are really good for that people can go on and ask questions because there's all sorts of knowledge out there from people who are actually doing it at the moment.
[Chris Day] 00:35:20.400
Yeah definitely use everything available to you.
[Louise] 00:35:22.900
And
[Jamie] 00:35:23.040
finally before we get into the next section of the show Chris, do you believe there are more opportunities out there for young players and coaches to get involved in disability football now?
[Chris Day] 00:35:32.600
Yeah more and more And I say the ability council leagues are really successful. Most county FAs run them now, usually Sundays once a month. And you can see everyone from six years old up to, I think, you know, people in their fifties and sixties playing right across the board and they're, you know, right from inclusive, small sided games to bigger games as well. So I think as the more knowledge across the game has crept into it as coaches, I think you'll see more and more opportunities as well.
[Jamie] 00:35:57.040
Right. Well, we are coming up to the end of the show, Chris, but as I just mentioned, this is the next section of it and it means it is time for our swift session feature
[Louise] 00:36:07.040
Yep, so like at the top of the show, it's a 30-second challenge this one We're going to ask you to explain to us a session idea in those 30 seconds. You up for that challenge?
[Chris Day] 00:36:18.120
I'm well up for that, yep.
[Louise] 00:36:19.440
Okay, so 30 seconds on the clock. Time starts now.
[Chris Day] 00:36:24.160
Okay, so really simple and this links into the Coaching Disabled Footballers course as part of the CPD. We're going to have a 40 by 20 pitch alongside another 40 by 20 pitch. Both of them are going to have end zones. Couple of yards in each end zone to start off with. You can have the players driven around the centre and they can go in the end zone and perform a skill. Next adaptation is we might have a little bit of opposed and you're trying to win the ball off the players, one of the players can go in there and have it as a safe zone now. We'll then add some small goals into the end zone so we can have it as a target zone as well. And if we want, we can use the step process to turn the goals around.
[Louise] 00:36:56.320
Perfect. Just over.
[Jamie] 00:36:57.520
Just over. We'll let you have that. There's a lot of information in there. We'll let you have it. On the final whistle. On the final whistle.
[Louise] 00:37:03.480
Is there anything else that you want to add to that at all?
[Chris Day] 00:37:06.060
Yeah, so two parallel pitches. So I mentioned earlier about paralleling when you're delivering. So even leave a little space in between for equipment, maybe players' drinks, and a safe timeout zone as well. So if players feel they are struggling with the session, they can come and have a little drive by with the coach. I feel a bit overwhelmed or I'm not really getting this great. Come and have a little chat with me. We'll watch and observe and that little bit of control, self-control and mind control for the player to get them back right now. I'll go and enjoy it again. It's really easy set up and hopefully with the CDF course that we launched in the summer, you'll be able to see that live through the county FAs as well. Perfect.
[Jamie] 00:37:37.280
Brilliant. Well, thank you very much. We like that idea for your session there and it's really important, like I say, having that safe area in there. So thank you for mentioning that and thank you very much for your time Chris it's been great having you on Coach Cast and it's been brilliant listening to all of your insight and I'm hoping that people are going to be taking away so much stuff from this episode we really do appreciate your time so thank you. No
[Chris Day] 00:37:59.280
you're more than welcome and Thanks for having me guys.
[Louise] 00:38:01.240
Thank you.
[Jamie] 00:38:03.080
Oh, that was a really good chat with Chris and lots of key points to take away and particularly like to make your sessions more inclusive for your players. But what were the main highlights for you? Well,
[Louise] 00:38:14.800
there was a couple of things, but one of the main ones that stood out was being a lifelong learner as a coach. So part of that was kind of trying lots of things to develop yourself, like opening yourself up to lots of different opportunities and things like coaching in front of people who are better than you in a way to help your development so you can kind of learn from them as well.
[Jamie] 00:38:34.540
Yeah for me as well as that and I think I say it on every episode there's so many things to take away from these but for me it was kind of a mixture of the importance of showing interest in your players to get to know them, it might just be starting off as finding out how they are and developing that connection there but then going into finding out and really understanding your players in terms of what helps them and how you can adapt your kind of mentioned a quote earlier on in the show that coaching is a series of conversations and I really like that so that's something that I'm gonna take away. Right well that is all we have time for today but don't forget to check out the episode description for the transcription of this episode and 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. Yep,
[Louise] 00:39:28.660
we'd love to help you out with your coaching questions so please do go and check it out. We'll be back soon with another episode of CoachCast So if you haven’t already, hit subscribe to make sure you don’t miss an episode. From all of us at England Football Learning – thanks for listening!