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[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 Sharon Muxworthy-McIvor, an FA Coach Development Officer, to talk about her journey so far, the importance of having more women in the game and to get her advice for those looking to start coaching. Hi Sharon, welcome very much to the show, thanks for joining us.
[Sharon]
Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
[Louise]
Really lovely to have you with us. Can we make a start by finding out a little bit about your role, if you can explain it to us?
[Sharon]
Yes, of course. I'm the regional coach development officer with targeted support for women and girls to try and get more female coaches to step over the sidelines or even if they're already over the sidelines to continue their ensuring to take those opportunities we have to help them in learning more about the game, learning more about themselves as coaches and obviously trying to help that overarching aim of developing more skilful players.
[Louise]
Fantastic.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. Well, thank you very much for that. But just before we do dive in to hear all about you and your 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 some good advice at the top of the show.
[Louise]
Yep so we call this your arrival activity so we give you 30 seconds and we ask you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in those 30 seconds. Are you up for the challenge?
[Sharon]
Yeah I love a challenge.
[Louise]
Good, perfect that's what we like to hear.
[Jamie]
It is.
[Louise]
We've got some music so when that begins that's when your 30 seconds starts.
[Sharon]
Okay then, so just remember that you don't know what's happened to your players that day so when you get there be warm, be caring, have a big smile and really inject some energy in the fact to the fact that you're really happy to have them at your session and then get them playing straight away. Give them a ball between two, get them doing some duels against each other because at the end of the day, they come in there to play football, so can we get that straight away? Whilst they're doing that, can you set up the next activity so it's ready to go and it's maximum activity.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, yeah, thank you very much for those top tips, really appreciate that. Yeah, so we kind of dive in now to find out all about you Sharon and we always start with asking what was your first experience of football like?
[Sharon]
Yeah, so I'm in my 50s and when I played football it was at primary school with my friends in the playground. I wasn't allowed to actually play football then or be a member of the team because we hadn't made those advancements in equal access to football in schools. So most of the time it was quite sort of recreationally, but that doesn't mean it wasn't taken serious in that park or on that playground and yeah I would say that's when I fell in love with the game because it enabled me to have fun, play with my friends who were predominantly boys but they were really athletic and that really drove me to want to beat them in those duels.
[Louise]
Such a shame really when you think back of that, that was not an opportunity that you could have.
[Sharon]
Yeah, it is a shame but it's also most probably been that inner passion for me to ensure that everyone now does have that opportunity to access football, whoever they are, wherever they are. Yeah, that's most probably sort of inspired me to do the many things I've done and given me that sort of motivation to ensure I do it.
[Louise]
Yeah, a great way to look at things and kind of spin things around. When did your interest in coaching start and how did you get involved?
[Sharon]
Yeah, I think the first time I got sort of involved in coaches was when I went to university. I wanted to be originally a probation officer and I started to do some placements in youth centres around Plymouth, which is where I was. And it sort of came to me then that, you know, when the youth did sort of drop into the youth centre, they wanted to play football. And it was the one sort of sport that I felt I could still play quite well recreationally and felt I knew enough about and had enough skills to allow those young people to engage with me and then from that it gave me opportunity sometimes we'd play other youth centres so we started teams and things like that and that enabled me to grow my understanding in the game and then at university I enjoyed it so much I decided then to sort of volunteer and take on summertime jobs that enabled me to run activities. It wasn't just football, it was a range of sports, it was multi sports but I felt there's a lot of transferable skills that from those other activities enabled me to sort of put them all together to develop my coaching ability.
[Jamie]
What was that first experience of coaching like for you?
[Sharon]
When I first started I didn't really have any fear. I didn't have that much knowledge, but I knew how to play. So it was like my way or the highway when I first started coaching. We're going to dribble like this, we're going to pass like this, we're going to play like this. And then as I evolved into my coaching journey, I found out a lot more about the different methods and styles of delivering coaching sessions that actually you don't have to just hear the coach's voice every two minutes. And then that sort of allowed me to sort of explore and trial and error and develop my craft in coaching. But I used to think it was all about how much I knew about football. You know, in hindsight now, it's how much you can connect and know about the people you're with. And I think that's what enabled me to have positive experiences at the start of my journey, even though maybe my football knowledge was quite limited at the start.
[Louise]
Yeah that's a really good point to make and really important for people to hear as well that maybe thinking about getting into coaching that it's not all about the knowledge that you have in the first place.
[Sharon]
Yeah no it's true I mean knowledge can be on a little piece of white paper, but how can you connect with your players to enable them to understand what it is you want them to do? And how can you connect to those players that they want to do what you're offering to them? So yeah, I definitely think it's all about effective relationships and how you create that safe environment for everyone to flourish and learn.
[Louise]
Yeah, so you mentioned you were doing multi-sports but also just your playing experiences. How have they influenced your coaching approach do you think? Have the multi-sports impacted it in any other ways?
[Sharon]
The multi-sports really help sometimes because, for example, I've coached maybe netball, hockey and cricket as well. And sometimes, for example, netball is all about passing. You can't run with a ball. So like a lot of those practices sometimes that I've learned from the game of netball. I've been able to use as maybe some conditions of a game so that I get players thinking about passing. Also in basketball, there's a lot of transition when you're coaching basketball. And so a lot of the games I come up with sometimes I might have stolen from from a basketball court and then applied them because it's an invasion game, it's directional, it's territorial and it's high intensity and that usually means it's a lot of fun.
[Jamie]
What is the thing you most enjoy about coaching?
[Sharon]
I think it's that when you see your players smile or get something for the first time or when you see their work or something they've been working on and really trying to develop come to fruition and they look over at you. It's that sense of achievement and accomplishment. There's also the fact that confidence, when all of a sudden I see someone who comes to my first session who maybe has got a bad stomach because they're a bit nervous, don't really want to engage, 10 weeks later, communicating with their teammates of where they need to be on the on the pitch. I think it's unmeasurable the amount of confidence being part of a team and the thing with football, you know, you can be the match winner because the ball hit you and went in. It's a wonderful game for that, for having those heroes just sort of cascaded forward by an event in a game.
[Jamie]
Taking everything in that you have learnt from your coaching experiences so far, whether that be football or other sports, What advice would you give to your younger self to prepare them for stepping into the world of coaching for the first time?
[Sharon]
Be a sponge. Don't be afraid to try something new. You know, if it doesn't work the first time, you know, it doesn't mean it was a bad session or that you didn't plan it right. It may be that you didn't have the right space. It might be that the players weren't in the mood for it that day. When I was a teacher, when it was a windy day, you knew whatever you planned wasn't going to work because there's something that young children and the wind and windy days just has them running around wild. So you just have to let them run around wild in a sort of safe area. I think it's about when I was young, there weren't so many opportunities to engage with other coaches who could support you on your journey. And now we have like the digital first, We have England Football Learning, we can find sessions that talk you through what to do. There's also opportunities to engage with your local county FA and we have female coach development groups in every county now. So if you're a young female looking to gain more experience and knowledge, then just contact your county FA or one of your regional coach development officers and we'll make sure that, you know, we can link you up in a nice community of practice where you can ask questions, discuss ideas and get the support maybe from a mentor or from myself or from other coaches within your club to help you on that journey. Yeah I think there's so much more available now.
[Jamie]
That's brilliant, that's a real great summary of the help that's there. If we flip that a little bit, so you've given advice there, What's the best piece of advice that you've received yourself?
[Sharon]
Oh, I've had a lot of advice because I'm, as you know, in my 50s now. So be authentic and be yourself. If you want to connect with your players, you need to be yourself because you need to show them the real you. It's too hard to always pretend to be something you're not. So be yourself, be respectful, and engage with your players. It doesn't have to be one way. Ask for their feedback. They can help you. How did you find that practice? Was it fun? Did you feel it challenged you in maybe the area you're trying to help them develop? And if they say no, then say well, what could I have done to help challenge you more? Because you know the coach and the player and the team, it's a relationship where you all have to communicate with each other to get the best advice because the coach isn't on the pitch at the end of the day so if they don't feel they have that freedom to try new things and understand what you're trying to coach them then it's really important that you you give them that belief so yeah I think that's the key thing for me is that effective connection with your players and connection before correction maybe as well.
[Louise]
That's a good one. Can you tell us what your journey was like from when you first started out? We've heard little bits about what you've kind of done and been involved in. So from the beginning to where you are now?
[Sharon]
Yeah, so first of all I did some sessional coaching with holiday camps, clubs, youth centres. Then I did my first qualification which enabled me to get a role to go over to America to coach girls teams over there and they call them Olympic development squads over there so it sounded quite grand. But it was literally you'd go over there you get a girls team for a week and you'd run their coaching sessions for that week as part of their preseason for the when they returned to school. That was huge, big learning curve for me because I'd never coached to that level for that length of time with a team I'd only just met. But again, I got to work with over a hundred, there was a hundred of us over there. So I got to learn a little bit from every single coach I would deliver a session with. So that was probably one of my biggest learning experiences because I was in a country I'd never been to before and I was there for six weeks. You had to develop friendships quite quickly. And then it was all about how can you provide the best experience for those players? And I was one of three female coaches at the time as well. So I was also a role model. And that was a big key point for those football camps that if a female team could have a female coach, then they really wanted you to be there. And you didn't want to let down the females, you know, you wanted to be the best coach on that camp that week because you wanted other girls to aspire and maybe go into those positions, you know, alongside their playing careers because it wasn't as professional at the time. I would definitely say that. And then when I came back, that was during the summer holidays, at the meantime I was also training to be a PE teacher. So I got my first role as a PE teacher and obviously as soon as I got that role I started girls football in the school because that was my passion. And from that I then supported Dorset schools and I ran their girls team and we used to play some fixtures against Hampshire who were pretty strong in those days and DeSue Lopez and then I went back to school mostly through teams I suppose. Teams in schools that's where I grew the girls game. I was in Bournemouth so I started tournaments there so that girls could play each other. Then I moved to Sussex and in Sussex I moved to the independent sector and there was no girls football so then I worked with ISFA to develop a girls pathway and now we have under 18, under 16 rep teams there which I support and a lot of independent schools are now offering that pathway of female football alongside their state counterparts which is brilliant.
[Louise]
Really fantastic and the amount of opportunities you've given girls to kind of play, which must be a lot when you think back about the amount of people you've given that opportunity.
[Sharon]
Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. And I think the one thing I felt lucky as a teacher is that the girls have to come to school so there's an opportunity to really engage them whereas when I was working in a youth centre I had to wait for them to drop in so that's one of the reasons why I decided you know not to go down that way actually I want to get those girls before they drop out. So it's been really good to see the great work that the FA has done with the girls football partnerships as well in growing the game in schools and giving opportunities for more girls to play and also all the CPD that the PE team at the FA pulled together in ensuring that female teachers have the resources to give them the confidence to deliver girls football on the curriculum as well as after school clubs.
[Louise]
Yeah it's kind of all areas isn't it, kind of making sure that nobody falls through the net I guess and there's lots of opportunities.
[Sharon]
Yeah that's what we hope and you know especially now where we're trying to get more sort of the Wildcats programme, 10 minutes walking distance from a primary school. It's easier to fall into football, I hope, now than fall out. So, yeah, fingers crossed.
[Louise]
For your role at the FA, you're tasked to recruit, support and develop female coaches. Can you tell us how important it is to have more women involved in the game? And secondly, how we can all work together to make the game more inclusive? So you've done a lot, but is there anything we can all do?
[Sharon]
The first thing is to, yeah, invite people. I think it's really important for females to have, actually not just females, but also young boys, to have female coaches to show them how empowering a female role model can be. And it just helps the environment be a better place when there's a female there, in addition to a male or, you know, two females there. They have so many transformative qualities and attributes they can bring to the environment with their empathy, their noticing, the art of noticing that as a mother and an older sister sometimes you get when you're used to looking after siblings whilst trying to have your own life at the same time with your own mates. So yeah, I think it's really, really important that we open the doors, open our grassroots club gates and make sure that we allow women to feel they belong in the game. And I think we're doing that. I think, you know, there's been a vast surge of growth. I know this year, over the last couple of years, I've most probably engaged with over 500 female coaches in the Southeast region, which is where I work. And we're still growing. And now people are starting to contact me. Whereas initially I was having to find out where everyone was hanging out so I could contact them and have that informal chat. But if you have a thought of coaching and an easy thing is to ask, ask women at your club when they're on the sidelines, maybe set up some opportunities, either, you know, as a club yourself, inviting all the mums of all the players to come to an evening, tell them about the club, tell them about your values as a club and say how you'd like to have every team with a female coach as well and that how you're going to provide that support and training ensuring that every coach or every male coach is trained and upskilled on how to be an effective male ally, ensuring that the language is appropriate, making sure that the behaviours are one that show that we're teamwork and it's not about, you know, one coach leading the whole session and the other one just dealing if there's a problem. Try and share that, take it in turns. One week you do the warm up, following week, you know, why don't you lead the warm up? You saw me deliver last week. So just trying to be a real positive ally to allow everyone to feel they belong, to be honest, at football. But obviously my targeted support is to grow women but yeah I think that's the thing for me is just making sure that your club starts to actually ask the women would they like to be a part of it that's a good simple simple start.
[Jamie]
A simple but very important step to take that's brilliant really great insight for how we can all work together to make the game more inclusive. Thinking of the positive impact the Lionesses have having and have had over the past few years, is it also important to have more female coaches to be able to further inspire the next generation?
[Sharon]
Yes, definitely. And I think we're really lucky at the moment, aren't we, because we have Serena as our coach. So as well as having lionesses to inspire, we have Serena inspiring many females to now feel, yes, we have those positive attributes and that we can give them that psychological safety to flourish under our care by being a female coach. That maybe sometimes it's harder for a male coach to fully understand because, you know, they can put themselves in the shoes of players, but they can't put themselves in the actual shoes of what it feels like to feel and be a female. So you know I always think a multi-disciplinary team if you're in the academy or the coaches at the grassroots club if you've got a female in that mix, how much more powerful are you going to be in being able to understand the needs and wants of your players, whether it's technically, socially, psychologically and socially. So, yeah, female role models is so important because it will then create a sense of belonging to other females who maybe haven't had the confidence to step over the sidelines yet. I also think it's important for female role models to not be afraid to demonstrate behaviours because sometimes they feel to be a successful female coach you have to copy certain behaviours that maybe they've experienced. Quite command, quite directional, but actually females are really good at asking good questions and having a pause and maybe not shouting out what they want their players to do, but maybe understanding the dynamics of their players in their team so that they know how to get the best out of each group of players by different forms of communication techniques. Does it need, I really like the way you did that? And then rather than say, I now need you to do this, do you think you could build on that and try this as well when you feel confident enough? So it's just that reframing of language. And I'm not saying male coaches don't do that because I've had lots of positive male allies who have learnt from their female allies on how to get the best out of female players. But yeah, I think that's the big thing for me about females and role models, because every female coach I've had the opportunity to work with, I've never been coached by a female, I've only ever been coached by males, but female coaches I've worked with have always like shown me such great communication ways to show the players that they're on their side and they're there to develop them and I've seen them develop them and challenge them in a way that's bespoke to that player's needs, which yeah I think that's a really positive thing about females and that's why we need more of them coaching so that we all learn from them.
[Jamie]
We touched on it a little bit earlier a few questions ago but just to clarify how can we create the right environment to encourage more women to take up coaching?
[Sharon]
Yeah, so obviously you want it to be a safe and friendly environment and it's about ensuring that the facilities at the club are... When are you training for example? Because if you want females to come to a club, you want it to be well lit and things like that. So it's making sure that the time and the location of their training session isn't like the last thought of the club. Can we put it front and centre to think, how can we make sure that females are going to love coming to coach at this club and train at this club. So yeah, I think that that was probably really key. And also maybe having as many females training, all your team, all your pathway on the same night initially. So then it feels a very female environment. And then gradually bringing that sort of intersectionality, bringing those teams together across the youth, the male and the female pathway. As well, you know, just having some visuals and recognition within the club of the great female coaching staff you have. Maybe having opportunities to just host events where it's all about supporting and developing your female coaches. I've been lucky enough in many other counties where certain clubs have offered to host events where I can invite lots of female coaches to and then I'll work with their teams. But it's really nice that we have that nice environment in the club that's all females coaches discussing things together and then providing the role models for each other by being with each other rather than aspirational role models all the time such as Serena. Role models they can actually ring and say how did you do that again? Yeah I'd love to do that so yeah I think that's what I'd look at.
[Jamie]
You mentioned Serena and rightfully so being such an important role model. Why is she, in your opinion, a role model to yourself?
[Sharon]
I think it's her attention to detail and her planning, like how she tries to ensure that her team are planned for, are ready for everything that could happen on the pitch in those big games for me, that attention to detail. I think the fact that she recognised the importance of connection and the culture of the team. I believe that developing culture is really key in getting the best out of your players. It's very good having the values of your club as being be brave and so forth. But what does that mean to an under 12? What does that mean to an under nine? And, you know, it could be being brave means don't be afraid to try and beat a player 1v1. And every time you try it, we're going to applaud that effort rather than shout at you for not passing, you know, all those sorts of things. I think her humility as well is something I appreciate whenever she's applauded for the great things she's, you know, managed to do with the team and it's always about the team behind the team and I think that's the same in grassroots, you know, football it's the team behind the team which actually can mean the parents sometimes. How do you engage with your parents to ensure that they can support you in making sure that the matches and the training is always got that psychological safety for young players, youth players to thrive and flourish.
[Jamie]
So, I'd like to explain what you mean by psychological safety.
[Sharon]
Yeah, so it's having an environment where your players feel they can effectively ask questions, make mistakes, not be put under so much pressure that they feel anxious, that maybe you've sort of planned your session in a way that there's loads of layers to it, so every child can access the layer that's right for them at the appropriate time of confidence. And how you talk and communicate with your players, how you manage to create an environment where it's constantly giving them that positive reinforcement and that every young player, every old player, they want to have fun. So let's make sure the focus of the session is fun. That should be on your board. Tonight we're going to have fun. That's the learning outcome. Everything else is a bonus. And then they'll come back every week because they'll feel safe to express themselves.
[Jamie]
Love that, that's absolutely true, definitely. Just whatever happens, got to make sure that we're having fun. I love that. Thinking back to the environments that you've been in during your journey, what were they like and did you have supportive allies on your journey or did you have to change perceptions?
[Sharon]
Yeah, I think I've been quite lucky in that I have had a lot of supportive allies in my journey in football. I mean it all started in school if I'm being honest to begin with And I said I wanted to start a girls football team. And they were like, yeah, go for it. And they gave me all the support. And luckily, there was another teacher who started the same time as me. And his name was Andy. And he was a football player as well. And we were both from Wales, both from Swansea, and both starting at a school in Dorset at the same time. And I remember one day we were starting a tournament and I was having a bit of a meltdown because none of the goalposts had been delivered for my tournament to the school that we were borrowing from another sports centre. But Andy was like, not a problem. We got the minibus and he just drove and we together we just picked them up ourselves. But he doesn't know, but that enabled me then to run a successful tournament. And then I just grew in confidence with regards to how I can make an impact in allowing more girls to access football and then inadvertently grow in the game in Dorset and for that school. Also when I was out in America Every single coach I worked with was male. There were no other female coaches. So all of those coaches I learned so much from. They gave me ideas for practices. They gave me the support when I thought, oh, I didn't deliver something as well as I wanted to. They sort of helped me evaluate it with applying that plan, do review process. Okay, didn't work this time. What can we do next time? And yeah, I think that's been the key thing for me is having those effective male allies on that journey because in the world of football, up until about 10 years ago, I only really had male allies, if I'm being honest, when I was coaching. Yeah, so I suppose some male allies as well allowed me to feel a bit uncomfortable sometimes. But because I'd built the relationship with that coach, I didn't mind because I knew they were making me feel a bit uncomfortable for my own learning. It wasn't uncomfortable to the point that they were undermining me or they were trying to get me to deliver something that I wasn't quite ready for. It's like building that trust, mentors, yeah and that's why the role of mentors is so key now. Having a mentor there, you've built a trust, you've built a rapport, you trust them to know that wherever they ask you to do, you're capable of doing, otherwise they wouldn't ask you to do it. And B, they're there to support you if you do have a wobble. And there's a lot. Since I've worked for the FA in the coach development team, I have hundreds of male allies who are constantly supporting and encouraging me and giving me extra confidence to extend myself a little bit more so that I can create even better learning experiences for my players. And I'm also surrounded by brilliant, brilliant female coaches who, you know, I wish I'd had them earlier in my journey, but I think they were all in primary school at that age. Because I'm so old. But yeah.
[Louise]
How can coaches recognise if someone needs some encouragement or support to get into coaching?
[Sharon]
I always use the analogy of when I was a PE teacher and girls used to come to me at secondary school saying they didn't like PE and I used to have to try and get them to do six weeks of a sport. And I always used to say to them, okay, that was in your last school, you know, you don't like PE, but how about just come and try this with me for a couple of weeks. And if you don't like it, that's fine. We'll find something else for you to do. But just give me a chance to show you that you can fall in love with it. And they ended up doing P for all their life and playing for all the teams. Once they came to that, it did have a little bit more pressure on me because I had to make sure they had fun and enjoyed every session. But when you think about it, isn't that the pressure for every coach? You want them to have fun and learn every session. So Yeah, I think that's sort of my approach, and that's why Stepping Over the Sidelines, the workshop we have, it's about giving confidence. And the good thing about the Stepping Over the Programmes workshop that we sort of deliver nationally is that it's even bespoke to who I'm delivering it to. It can be to a room full of 25 people, or it could be just me and you, Lou, having a little chat about how we're gonna get you into coaching.
[Louise]
I feel like this is gonna happen.
[Sharon]
I mean, for example, one thing I could do with a group of women who haven't really engaged in much physical activity for a long time, didn't really like pee at school, but because of that are really passionate that their children and their daughters fall in love with PE because they don't want them to have the negative experience they had. So one of my first sessions might be just talking about the attributes that they have as mums. So we'll share that. So I'll put what are the attributes of a mum on one piece of paper and then we'll say, right, what does a coach need to be able to do? And they then realise they're the same, you know, they're all about understanding, empathy, organisation, like skills. Have you ever had to teach your child a new skill? Clean their teeth, do their laces up, help them with their, you know, how to dress, how to put their coats on and do their buttons up. They do all those things and then it's about from that transitioning into right. So we all agree we do have those skills, yeah, but we know nothing about football. Okay, okay, And you know I'm not very athletic. So then we go and do some, just try and get them to fall in love with movement and just say, if I ask you to teach that skill, you teach me how to do it. You don't have to demonstrate it. Is there someone in the room you think could demonstrate it for you and the mums or the siblings, you know, the sisters or the aunts will go, oh yeah can you demonstrate that and show everyone what I want them to do? I said yeah I can do that. God that's coaching isn't it? Because you can get your players to do that for you And then that's how then eventually they go, oh yeah, this is okay. And they said, oh, but I can't commit 52 weeks a year. And you're like, I know we want you to be committed to the club, but you can have the occasional week off to go to a parents evening, to go to a wedding. All we need in the grassroots game is for the coaches to communicate with each other so that they know when they're not going to be there. And I think that's sometimes a big obstacle for a lot of the the women I'm often talking to. I don't think, you know, I haven't got time and I don't think I could commit that much. Do you know what, if you could commit once every two weeks that is going to be a major, major impact on the quality of that coaching session because they have a female role model there with someone with the behaviours and attributes you can bring.
[Louise]
Yeah. Like you say, it's just like breaking down all of those little barriers, I guess, one at a time. It feels like it's something you can do.
[Jamie]
I was going to bring it up a little bit later to be fair, but you've mentioned it a few times, which is stepping over the sidelines. Do you want to explain to the listeners what that is?
[Sharon]
Yeah, so, right, stepping over the sidelines, it can be a one-hour workshop or two-hour workshop. Sometimes you do a one-hour workshop where you might do a sort of session where you can come and find out about what is coaching, what would it look like for you at your local club. You can do it with your county FA, it could be a guides group, it could be a brownies group, you know if you're thinking of running a girls football session then yeah come and join a Stepping Over the Sidelines workshop. The Stepping Over the Sidelines workshops, there's over, I think, over 51 female community champions now in every county across England, where if you want as a club or as a group to run one of these sessions, they will come and deliver it and get, sort of inform the mums you've got there, the sisters and the other females of what stepping over the sidelines and becoming a coach could be and feel like. And then the second part of that workshop is then when we step onto the grass. So then they'll show you some arrival activities, warm-up activities you can do, and take you through some sort of basic games that could allow you to facilitate a session for some youth players or some adult recreation women as well sessions that we've looked at and then as part of that once you've had that experience if you've really enjoyed it there's an opportunity then for your club and you and the other females to be supported by a community champion as you sort of transition into an assistant role within your club at running maybe a new team that's going to be formed so it may be that some of your girls from Wildcats you think oh we're ready for an under-nine team now and it may be that you'll bring it, one of the mums can come and help run that with you.
[Jamie]
And how can anybody who's listening get involved in stepping over the sidelines?
[Sharon]
Yeah, contact your county FA and then they can introduce you to your community champion. Or even if you go onto the England Football Learning website again and just click on the county and send them an email, they'll get back to you.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, thank you for that.
[Louise]
And how do you encourage and support female coaches in your role?
[Sharon]
Yeah, so there's a range of ways because as you know many coaches are time poor, we're always juggling lots of plates but initially for me it's always about building rapport with the coaches and trying to at least have some face-to-face contact with them even though you know there's only one of me and there's a lot of female coaches now, I'm glad to say, wanting to learn and engage with the opportunities we've got out there. So one of the things I will do initially is sort of guide them to the England Football Learning Channel and so I encourage them to follow me on Twitter so that they can access when I see a session that's coming up I'll share it with them and ask them to have a try at that in training, ask them what they thought of it, did it go well, and then sort of have some conversations around that. In addition, every county FA in the south now we now have a female coach development group where we try to meet at least four times a year face to face where we share good practice and we'll do something around observation skills and we'll look at how we can plan sessions together and just basically improve our confidence in the sort of football side of the game, the technical side of the game, because what I usually find, their communication skills, and it's more I learn from them just as much as they learn from me of the way they've managed to capture the attention and the motivations of some of their players sometimes. And I think that's what's really nice about the role I have now. It's allowing so many female coaches to come together and share their successes, the obstacles they're facing. But now it's not just you with that obstacle. There's loads of women, other women, other female coaches and really good male allies, along with our mentors who can support you in that journey.
[Louise]
And I think you're all, I guess you're all learning from each other.
[Sharon]
Always, yeah always. And what would you say the skills that
[Louise]
you're looking for or looking to develop in people?
[Sharon]
Well, we want them to be a positive role model. That's really important. So, you know, that sort of professionalism. You want to get the best out of your players. You want them to turn up and give them your best. So what are you doing to ensure that the environment is the best it can be for them. So if you can set up early, not always the case, do it and then maybe take cones away rather than have to set up cones halfway through a session. So try and plan with the end in mind, I think is a good way of saying it. Maybe, I know everybody uses a whiteboard to show some tactical or movement sometimes, which is really good aid, but it's also good sometimes to also have a board there with what you're doing in tonight's session, because that can take away a lot of anxiety for some players who like to see exactly what it is they're doing. And by doing that then you have your players focusing on you and what you're helping them with rather than worrying what's coming next. And I suppose for me it's about trying to help them to encourage more player input and not taking it as a criticism but taking it as feedback. So how can you get player input to make the learning experience better for everyone there? A, for you as a coach, because how they say it will let you know if they understand the intentions of the practice but B they're the ones who are going to have to communicate with each other on the pitch on match day so yeah making sure really that's what you've sort of planned for when you deliver.
[Jamie]
Say one of our listeners right now thinks that a family member, a friend or as you pointed out one of the players mums could make a positive impact by getting involved in coaching, how could they support them and what could they say to encourage them to think about giving it a go?
[Sharon]
Well if they are coaching, take them along, say could you help me out? Because most people when you ask for help don't usually say no. So rather than say I want you to be a coach, here's your new kit, come with me, Could you come and help me out tonight? Could really do with some help. I've got one or two players who sometimes become distracted. It'd be really great if I could have an extra pair of hands. I always find that sort of works. To get that initial step over and then just hope the weather's good. Because if the weather's good, they'll enjoy it. And yeah, and every now and again, just think as they're helping you, giving them just like your players, those big thumbs up, those big smiles, just saying, oh, you know, you've been a lifesaver tonight. That's the best session I've ever delivered because you were here do you think is there an opportunity you could come again? Yeah.
[Jamie]
And kind of following on from that again what would you kind of say to anyone listening right now who is looking to get involved in coaching for the very first time what advice can you give them to help with that role?
[Sharon]
Well, England Football Learning has an amazing course, it's free to everyone, it's called the EE Playmaker and you can just log on for free, you can dip in and dip out as many times as you like and it's still there when you go back and it'll give you a sort of little crash course on the sort of things you need to consider around safeguarding, first aid and how to plan a session and I think it's three hours but you can do it as and when you have the time, maybe when you're commuting to work, if you're not driving obviously, if you're on the train.
[Jamie]
That's a really good signpost, fantastic. Do you have any top coaching tips coaches could take away now to help them with their first experience of coaching as well.
[Sharon]
Get to know your players, let them get to know you, make your session fun and the best way, the easiest way for them to have fun is let them play the game as realistic to the game as possible. Fantastic.
[Louise]
In your opinion, what do coaches need to do to have a positive impact?
[Sharon]
What do they need to do? They need to plan their sessions, but plan it for the group they have. So, again, it goes back to, do you know your players? Once you know your players, you know what activities will work with them. So it may be for one group, you might want to sort of implement a whole part, whole approach to delivering, which means you start with the game. Then after 20 minutes of them getting the fun of playing the game out you can then go to a part practice where you during that first 20 minutes it can allow you to observe And that is most probably what coaching is. A lot of people think it's telling, but it's actually observing. And observe what your players are doing well, and maybe what they could improve on. And then think, right, what practice can I do that can help them have a high repetition of the thing they need to improve on? And then stop the game, let them do that for 10 minutes and then say, right, I now want to see that back in the game. And maybe every time I see it, if you score a goal following it, it's worth double. So yeah, make, I think that's most probably, to have a positive impact, don't forget your players, your children, your players, your adult players, they're coming there to play with their friends and play the game they love. Or your role may be to actually get them to fall in love with the game. So the only way you're going to get them to fall in love with the game is by playing it.
[Jamie]
Well reflecting on everything that you said, you've given some great top tips and some fantastic signposts to resources that people can use. Reflecting on your whole journey and particularly your time at the FA so far, do you feel there are more female coaches in the game now compared to when you started?
[Sharon]
Yes, definitely. Yeah, there's so many more female coaches and so many more female teams as well, which is why we need even more female coaches. But what I've also noticed since coming into this role, which I was most probably unaware of when I was working in teaching, is how many females and how pivotal these female coaches are in the youth boys game as well. Like there are so many mums who are running and coaching their sons teams. It's not just, you know, the the daughters teams that need these positive female role models. But yeah, there's so many great coaches now. And we also have aspirational coaches to gain additional advice from. And they're getting more coverage. We've got players now in the media who, yes, they're on the media but they're all qualified coaches. They all have their A licenses, they all have their, you know, and their various coaching qualifications And yeah, it's so powerful having them do, people like Karen Carney doing the tactical analysis with Kelly Smith and Farrah Williams and Alex Scott. You know, it's just those names would not have rolled off my tongue 30 years ago as people who were knowledgeable of the game. So yeah, there's so much more but we need more still. It's not to stop. We've started the wheel turning and it's important now that we continue to keep that momentum. So don't think, alright we've got more female coaches, I still want more. Being greedy.
[Jamie]
Absolutely, yes we need more female coaches in the game, absolutely. Looking back at everything we've discussed today, can you summarise the key top tips that you want our listeners to take away from this episode?
[Sharon]
Yeah, if you're a female and you're not coaching and helping our young players see how empowering female role models can be in those positions, have a look at the EE Playmaker online, contact your county FA or your club if you have a child at a club, and just say you're interested in knowing more about coaching and hopefully they'll send you some information, give you a call and pass your name on to me or one of my contemporaries across the country and we can get you involved because you know football is a place where you all belong and I think it's really important we continue to spread that message, football is for everyone.
[Louise]
Fantastic and we might follow this on into this bit but we we're asking for challenges so our guests to give a challenge to our listeners and then they can potentially go and discuss it on the community and kind of see what went well and what didn't go well and they can kind of all chat between themselves. Is there a challenge that you'd like to put to our listeners based on what we've spoken about today?
[Sharon]
Yeah, I suppose it's, can they encourage a female friend to go along to one of their coaching sessions and support them and then encourage them to sign up for the EE Playmaker? That's the challenge and I want to know who's, I'd be looking on that community to see who's done it.
[Louise]
And it'd be really good to hear the feedback that people, like the experience that they're getting from that.
[Sharon]
Definitely, definitely and also about how, reflecting on the experience, how they can maybe get some advice before they take that friend from others on the community of where it's worked and how they've made that new female coach feel comfortable and confident where they're taking them.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, thank you. Right, well we are coming up to the end of the show now but that means it is time for our Swift Session feature.
[Louise]
Yes, so it's our second but final challenge of the episode. So this one, we're giving you 30 seconds again but we're asking you to explain a session idea to us in those 30 seconds. Are you up for the challenge again? I am, I am. Okay so I'm going to set the timer up and when the music starts you can begin.
[Sharon]
Okay so this is called Empty the Net and it's a practice to develop movement with the ball. You need two teams with two goals. It can be 1v1 or up to 6v6. You put one more ball in each goal or target zone if you haven't got a goal and each team has to take the ball from their target zone or goal and get it into the others and it's the first team that empties their area that wins.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. I didn't even need to wait for that to end. That's brilliant.
[Louise]
We normally have a whistle at the end.
[Jamie]
We do, we do, it's brilliant. There you go, we didn't need it.
[Sharon]
Okay.
[Louise]
Thank you very much.
[Jamie]
Yeah, that was a really good idea, fantastic. Please do try that out, listeners, that was a really great idea. Well, Sharon, thank you very much for your time today. There's been so much great insight and thank you very much for sharing your journey as well. Hopefully you've enjoyed it. We've loved having you on today.
[Sharon]
Yeah, no, it's been lovely. Thank you.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, thank you very much.
[Louise]
Well, that was a really
[Jamie]
good chat with Sharon Louise. What would be the key point that you'd take away from that chat?
[Louise]
I think a really useful thing to take away is how to build a good environment for female coaches and new people that you're bringing in. Making sure the place is well lit and bringing in all the women in the community of that football club so that they've got a good place to meet people and know who they can go to.
[Jamie]
Yeah, really, really good point to take away from the show. For me, it was the fact that everybody's got so much to bring to the role if they give coaching a try. It doesn't matter if you don't have the football knowledge. That can come later. It's like you've got so many skills that you can bring and everybody can have such a positive impact on players so just give it a try, you know, please do give it a try. Right, well that's 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'll 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.
[Louise]
Yep, we'd love to help you out with your coaching questions, so please do check it out. We'll be back soon with another episode of CoachCasts, so if you haven't already, hit subscribe to make sure You