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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 Ryan Davies, an FA Physical Education Officer, part of the coach development team, to discover his journey so far and to learn about colour blindness and how everyone can make their coaching more inclusive by understanding more about it. Well, hi Ryan, welcome to the show. How are you?
[Ryan]
Really well, thank you, Jamie. I've been an avid listener to the podcast for the last couple of years. It's brilliant to be here, so thank you very much for having me on.
[Jamie]
Ah, that's good.
[Louise]
Yeah, it's nice to hear and really nice to have you with us. Can you start us off by telling us a bit about your role and kind of paint a picture of what it is that you do.
[Ryan]
Yeah, so as a physical education officer, I'm part of the wider coach development team here at England Football. So day to day I work with teachers, trainee teachers and the coaches from the community arms of the professional football clubs to support them in their delivery of high quality PE. And then alongside the work within education, we also work with the wider coaching and coach development workforce, delivering CPD and qualifications to hopefully help them to give them the best possible experiences to the players and the coaches that they're working with.
[Jamie]
Oh, brilliant. Thank you very much for that. Well, we look forward to kind of diving into more of your journey and learning a bit more about you shortly, Ryan. But first, just before we kind of do that, as this is a coaching podcast, coaches could be on the way to training while they're tuning into this. So we always like to give them some great advice at the top of the show.
[Louise]
Yep, and we call it your arrival activity. So for that, we'd like to ask you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in 30 seconds. Are you up for the challenge?
[Ryan]
Absolutely, I will do my best, Louise.
[Louise]
Okay, well, we'll put 30 seconds on the clock and when you hear the music you can begin.
[Ryan]
Okay, first and foremost I think whoever you are coaching make sure that they go away excited to come back and the better you know your players the easier it will be to make it fun and engaging for them. Always have a clear focus for both you and the players so everyone knows exactly what it is that you're going after over a period of time. Try to seek feedback from the players about what you were doing to help you to improve as a coach and ensure you're giving them the best possible experience. And probably finally, just make sure what you were delivering is age and stage appropriate and remember that football doesn't always have to look like it does on match of the day to have a positive impact.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, brilliant lovely message to end with as well. Well delivered as well.
[Ryan]
Just into injury time.
[Jamie]
Lovely, right thanks for that Ryan and we'll jump into the main section now and we always start this bit off by asking a guest, what was your first experience of football like?
[Ryan]
I think Jamie I was really lucky that my mum and dad are very sporty. So I grew up being very active and getting lots of opportunities to just play, whether that was just in the garden or local clubs. My dad would come into my primary school and coach the football team. My mum would come in and do cross country club, which she's still actually doing. At the same primary school I went to 30 years later. So that shows how sporty she is. So they gave me like lots of really positive sporting experiences. Some of my favourite early memories were going to watch my dad play on a Sunday morning and all the children of the players would play a game of about 20 a side on the pitch next to it. Unfortunately, my two younger brothers weren't quite as into football as me, so sometimes I'd have to use to give them a little bit of my pocket money to get them to stand in goal while I took some free kicks and pretended I was Gazza or John Barnes and showing my age, speaking of Gazza, but Italia 90 was also a defining moment in my life. It was the first football I remember watching on TV and it made me fall in love with England and I just became obsessed with the three lines and all I wanted for every birthday and Christmas after that was an England shirt. I remember my 10th birthday, my dad took me to Wembley to see England play, which is looking back still one of the best days of my life. You know, a really happy memory. And then I suppose another significant memory is my first grassroots match when I was seven, which again, show my age, but it was 11 v 11 on a full-size pitch with full-size goals. But I just remember being in the changing rooms. I can still remember it to this day, you know, before the game, just being so excited that I was going to play in a proper football match with a real referee. And it was just so exciting. So I think, you know, all those things are my first real football memories and played a part in me falling in love with the game and shaping who I am today, I think.
[Louise]
You can really tell by your voice and also just seeing you that it's how passionate you are about it and I think it really shows that those early years are really fundamental in cementing something. When did your interest in coaching start and how did you get involved?
[Ryan]
Something that has always driven me is my desire to provide opportunities for people to fall in love with play, with movement, with physical activity and have experiences through sport that I was really fortunate to have when I was young. And again going back to my mum, she heavily influenced that because whenever she used to drop me off at football when I was little, she always used to say, oh I wish I'd had the chance to play football when I was little. But you know, because she was a girl at that time, she didn't get those opportunities. So that's always been a drive to try and make sure that everyone gets those experiences and the amazing feelings that PE, sport, and football can provide. So that was always something that really underpinned what I wanted to do And essentially led me to deciding to go to university to become a teacher, which is where things really started. And then that later led me to becoming a coach and a coach developer.
[Jamie]
What was that first coaching experience like for you then?
[Ryan]
Daunting. I'll definitely say that. I'm sure a lot of the coaches listening can appreciate that memory of the first experience. I think one that stands out, the first kind of real experience, was when I was at university. And I remember at the end of the lecture one day, our tutor just said at the end that his wife worked at a local primary school, and there were lots of children who wanted to play football at the school, but there wasn't anybody there who had any interest in it. So, as he had a group of trainee PE teachers in front of him, he asked him if anyone would like to volunteer and deliver a football club one afternoon for an hour a week after school. So, there were about 80 of us on our course sitting in there in the lecture theatre. And I remember I was sitting on the front row and I thought, why not? And put my hand up. And then I turned around and I realised that I was the only one who had, so he didn't have a choice but to give me the job. So looking back, going into that primary school, I dread to think what some of those sessions might have looked like, but I do remember that feeling of, you know, 30 children at the start of that first session looking up to me, full of expectation and being quite daunted, realising that, right, well, actually I'm in charge of them and they're here to learn something from me. But I think probably a word I'd use to describe those first few sessions are quite experimental. I was probably quite lucky in a way that I didn't have anybody there to tell me what to do or what not to do. So I just tried to play some fun games that I'd enjoyed when I was little and hopefully they enjoyed it. One thing that does stand out, I remember being so tired after the end of that first hour and having a newfound appreciation for coaches and teachers. But I think, you know, one thing that did stand out through those first coaching moments is the experience which helps you to develop as a coach and a teacher. And obviously there are lots of resources out there to really help which are really beneficial but you can't really put a price on actually being out there and delivering to shape you as a practitioner.
[Louise]
Yeah I guess that's how you learn isn't it by doing and like figuring out what went well and what didn't and adapting as you go.
[Ryan]
Yeah absolutely, absolutely it's a great learning experience.
[Louise]
And what do you enjoy most about coaching, would you say?
[Ryan]
I think for me, I think sport and football can provide experiences that nothing else can in life. If I was to list all my happiest memories from my life up to now, then I think the majority are probably football related. So I think the best thing about coaching is having the opportunity every time you set foot on a pitch to create memory for players, which could potentially last for the rest of their life. And seeing players happy and excited to be there and developing as people, as well as players in front of your eyes is just the best feeling. And I think ultimately why we do the job that we do.
[Jamie]
And what skills would you say you need to be like a good coach?
[Ryan]
I think, you know, if I look back on the coaches and teachers who've had the biggest positive influence on my life, It's not necessarily the ones who have had the most technical and tactical knowledge of the game, but it's the ones who actually, you know, cared about me as a person and showed an interest in my life. So I think that ability to build positive relationships with your players on a personal level is the key attribute, because once the player knows that you want the best for them and that you care about them, then they're going to be really receptive to the information that you can give them to help them to develop as a player. And of course, there's lots of kind of skills and characteristics which underpin that, you know, just simple things like smiling, listening, asking questions, you know, being enthusiastic, giving them lots of praise and recognising their effort. I think just generally being a person that they can trust and feel really safe around and if all those things are in place then I think we can really help to transform their lives in a really positive way, both on and off the pitch.
[Louise]
Yeah, really well said. Can you tell us a bit about what your journey was like from where you started and the role you have today?
[Ryan]
Yeah, so I think probably like a lot of the coaches who might be listening, I started out playing. And when I was 18, I moved out to Australia to sign for a club out there, but unfortunately it was a very, very short lived professional playing career. So after a year or so I moved back to England, but okay, probably a bit of a confession time here, but I didn't actually want to become a coach. And the reason for that was because I didn't think I had the personality and characteristics to be one. I think at that time I saw coaches as people who were very loud and confident and could shout and scream at people, and that just wasn't me. But what I did think is that, you know, I saw teaching as being slightly different. And I did think I could develop the skills to become a PE teacher. So when I came back to England, I went to university to qualify as a teacher and then tried to get a little bit of experience around that. So during the university holidays, I worked out in America, coaching at football camps and working with college teams. And then I also got a job at La Manga Club in Spain, doing some work at their football academy as well. So, tried to get like a little bit of different experiences early on. And then once I'd qualified as a teacher, it was a career I had for 10 years, starting off in England before going over to the Canary Islands to become head of PE at the British school in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, which was a brilliant experience. And then the last couple of years in schools was back over here where I oversaw the primary PE provision for eight schools in Leeds. However, during that teaching career, I was always passionate about football and I did want to be involved in the game at the same time as teaching. So I was also working part-time within professional football as a talent ID scout, firstly at Middlesbrough Football Club and then at Manchester City. And I think that was kind of a big pivotal moment because it was, you know, being in that environment at Man City and seeing some fantastic coaches work that made me realise that you didn't actually have to ball and shout to be a coach and actually coaching had evolved to be much more closer aligned to teaching which is what I was doing every day. So while I was at Manchester City I was invited to start doing some coaching first with the boys pre-academy and then got a fantastic opportunity to work with Manchester City women in their RTC program. So at that point, after teaching for 10 years and coaching at Manchester City for three years alongside it, the opportunity came up to join the PE team here at the FA, which was perfect as it combined my two passions and most importantly met my own personal purpose and drivers. And joining the FA was the best decision I've ever made because it's given me so many amazing experiences. And as you two both know, you know, the opportunity to work and learn from some incredible people within the organization, some of whom I think are some of the best in the world at what they do. Then alongside my day-to-day work at the FA, I've continued to coach in the women's game, doing a couple of seasons as first team coach at Hartlepool United and more recently working with York City and their under-16s RTC squad. And then I suppose to bring it right up to the present day, over the last few months I've had the opportunity to work with the England para squads, doing some talent ID and be involved in coaching at a couple of camps with Steve Daly and the partially sighted squad, which has been absolutely amazing. So I've been so lucky to have had some fantastic opportunities within teaching and football over the last 15 years in different parts of the world, which have ultimately got me to the role I have today, where genuinely getting up every morning and putting an England tracksuit on is just like a dream come true and the best feeling in the world.
[Jamie]
It's incredible and such an array of experiences like you've been all over the world which is phenomenal which we didn't know about that's really really amazing. Taking in all of those experiences that you've just given us listed off there what advice would you give them to your younger self to prepare them for stepping into the world of coaching or teaching for the first time?
[Ryan]
The best advice I could give to any young coach starting out who might be listening to this is just to put yourself out there and take every opportunity possible. The only way to improve as a coach, I think we've mentioned it a couple of times already, is to gain as much experience as possible, coaching in as many different environments as possible. And you never know what volunteering your time can lead to. Just to give an example, so the reason I ended up coaching, getting a job at La Manga Club in Spain is because that university lecturer who'd asked for a volunteer actually also worked at La Manga Club, which I didn't know when I put my hand up, but having done those sessions at the primary school, he asked if I wanted, oh, do you want to spend the summer in Spain at La Manga Club coaching the football academy? So I was like, absolutely. But that was just from volunteering that time in the primary school. Similarly, I started talent ID scouting for Middlesbrough Football Club on a volunteer basis, but that led to a job at Manchester City, which then led to a job coaching at their academy and had moments, obviously, Jamie, where Pep Guardiola's setting up a session on the pitch next to me and I'm just having to pinch myself thinking, what on earth am I doing here? Just going out of your way to get experience and putting yourself forward can actually lead to exciting opportunities, probably without realising it further down the line. So I think my advice would be, you know, just get involved in the game as much as possible because there are so many amazing people to learn from, not just in the professional game but in the grassroots game as well.
[Louise]
What would you say is the best piece of coaching advice that you've ever received?
[Ryan]
I think something that stands out is going right back to my first day as a PE teacher and a colleague said something that I've always remembered which was to never forget that the time you spend with your players or your pupils, whether that's one hour a week or ten hours a week, is probably the best part of the week for a lot of them. So they probably look forward to that time more than anything else So give them the best experience you possibly can every time. Make it fun. Make sure they want to come back again and again. And I know sometimes you might be going to coach when you're tired, you're hungry, you've had a long day at work. There's probably people listening to this now on the way to a session in that situation right now. But, you know, just trying to give everything you can to make it a positive experience for the players can make such a difference and ensure they fall in love with the game and you as that coach might be that person who they look back on when they're older as who gave them those opportunities to have brilliant experiences.
[Jamie]
That's an amazing piece of advice, that really is. Now Ryan, we could spend ages talking about all your experiences and delving in because it's been really fascinating hearing about your journey, but one of the main things that we wanted to delve into today is your knowledge on colour blindness and we've not really touched on this yet but you are actually colour blind yourself so it's kind of great to hear from you in your personal experience so thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. So I suppose to start with if you want to talk about and kind of educate us all on what is colour blindness?
[Ryan]
Yeah absolutely so you know some people may have heard of colour blindness or colour vision deficiency, which is its official term, if you like, without maybe knowing exactly what it means. So probably the simplest way to describe it is the inability to see colours normally. So when I look at a colour I will see it differently to you Jamie and the majority of people. Without getting too scientific we have nerve cells in our eye which absorb light but for me one of those nerve cells doesn't work which means that I don't get the full spectrum of colour that somebody who's not colour blind would get. And so the result of that is that a lot of colours therefore look the same, which is obviously where challenges can occur. So examples might be that the colours red and green look identical or blue and purple look exactly the same. So essentially, to summarise, it's probably, it's not being able to see colours as they actually are in reality if that makes sense.
[Louise]
And how many people does colour blindness affect?
[Ryan]
It probably affects more than a lot of people may think. The statistics are actually that 1 in 12 men have some degree of colour blindness, but only 1 in 200 women. And the reason for that is that it is a hereditary condition passed through the X chromosome, so therefore much more common in males. So for me personally, my granddad was colour blind. He passed it to my mum, but she's not colour blind. But she then passed it down to me and one of my brothers, so we both are. However, that statistic of 1 in 12 men might sound a lot to some people, but there are probably a lot of people who have mild forms of the condition who won't actually be aware of it because it's not actually tested for in schools anymore. So they maybe won't even realize that they're seeing things slightly differently than the majority of people so it might just be that the colours aren't as bright for them as they are to everyone else. So I suppose you know to put that stat into some kind of perspective if we took an England game at Wembley then there could potentially be up to about 5,000 people in the stadium who have some kind of degree of colour blindness, although there are some quite significant differences in the severity from person to person with the condition.
[Jamie]
Wow, and you put it into that, yeah that's incredible isn't it? And you've just touched on it there just at the end of the answer a little bit, but so colour blindness, I'm taking it isn't necessarily the same for everybody, are there different forms of colour blindness then?
[Ryan]
Yeah, so there are different types of the condition. The most common one is red-green colour blindness, where those two colours look the same. However, it can be as severe as essentially seeing in black and white but that is extremely rare to have that severity. For me personally, my condition means that there are lots of colours which all look the same to me. So for example, Red, green, brown and darker oranges all look identical to me. Blue and purple look the same. Yellow, light green, light orange look the same. Pink and grey look the same to me, which some people find quite hard to get their head around in our colour blind. And then like darker reds, navies, blacks all look the same. So if you asked me, Jamie, to tell you what colour something was, I could probably narrow it down to three or four, but I couldn't tell you exactly what colour it was, if that makes sense. So, you know, the best way to describe it is probably seeing in shades rather than colours, So darker colours can all look the same and lighter colours can all look the same.
[Louise]
Really interesting thinking about because I guess you can never really tell what someone else can see. Whether it's the same as you but it's really interesting to think about. Can you talk about how colour blindness impacts your day to day life?
[Ryan]
Yeah, so as you just referred to there, the way it's like, obviously, you know, having the condition since birth, I don't know any different. So I suppose it's just things like choosing what clothes to wear in the shop, not knowing what colours are things that you're buying. I remember being told off at school in year seven because I had a pair of my mum's bright pink socks on because I thought they were my grey school socks. So that caused quite a bit of amusement. But I think I remember another instance at school. So things like, you know, art and colouring in. I once made a clear model of Steve McManaman for an art project and I was really proud of it. And then I painted his hair bright green by mistake and everyone found that absolutely hilarious. So yeah and then nowadays it's things like you know when I go down to work at Wembley obviously you know you're getting on the tube and the tube map's all colour-coded so not being able to work out which lines are and things. Things like reading text. So if the background and the writing look the same to me, then obviously the text becomes invisible. So, you know, things like PowerPoint presentations and posters and things like that. Obviously food labels in this country are kind of traffic light colour coded. So to say how healthy they are, but all those colours look the same. The things like, you know, when you like cooking chicken, when you can't see pink, then you're never actually 100% sure if you've cooked it properly. So I've been chicken quite a lot because I know, right, it's definitely done. And still having to, still having to check my outfits before I leave the house. But yeah, I think probably the biggest impact it has on my life is obviously working in the colourful world of football that we all do and the challenges that that can bring.
[Jamie]
It's fascinating just hearing that perspective because I suppose it's something that if people who aren't colour blind, we take for granted. There's quite a lot of challenges with that. If we bring that into a football context then what issues can the condition cause in football environments?
[Ryan]
Probably the biggest one is obviously kit clashes. You know, if certain colours look identical then two different kits in a match can look the same. So whether you're a player, a coach, a fan, an official, that's obviously quite a big problem. Most weekends, there'll be games where, to me and other club-buying people, it will look like all 20 outfield players are wearing the same kit, and it just becomes impossible to watch because you don't really have an idea of what's going on. And of course that could be the same in training if you're using bibs which look the same colour to play with the condition. The equipment used can also cause some problems. So for example, if there are red cones on a green pitch, they would be invisible to someone who's colour blind. Same with some of the markings, particularly on 3G pitches, they might have different coloured markings for different size pitches. Choice of footballs also really key. Probably luckily when I was growing up, there was only really white footballs, but if you go into a sports shop now, you can probably get any different colour football that you want. If darker footballs are being used, particularly like reds or oranges, on a green pitch, then they can be really hard to see, particularly from any distance. Other things like tactics boards and the markers used. Traditional tactics boards tend to come with red and blue markers, but to me they look very similar because they're both dark colours, if that makes sense. I know I'm very grateful here at England Football we use the colour blind friendly ones which make life so much easier. So obviously any environment where colour is involved and particularly in football where colour play is such a key part in the game, it does pose challenges.
[Louise]
And then if we think about it from putting it to you personally, how's being colour blind impacted your career in football?
[Ryan]
So, you know, I think as a player there were games where I actually had to say that I couldn't play because both teams looked like they were wearing the same kit. And obviously, as a player, that's the worst feeling in the world when all you want to do is be on the pitch. I was probably actually really lucky because the grassroots team I played for when I was little and the school team I played for, both wore bright yellow kits, so there weren't many kit clashes. But later in my career, the team I played for in Australia and Scarborough who I played for back in England, both wore red kits. And that meant there were more issues that arose. One that's just sprung to mind, I did have one occasion when I was probably a little bit selfish and I was playing in a cup final at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium and our team was in blue. And as we were lining up in the tunnel, I saw the opposition were in purple. Oh, well, it looked like it was blue to me, but, you know, they looked identical, whatever colour they were. And even to the extent that both teams had white stripes down the sleeve, so there wasn't really anything to kind of differentiate them. But because it was a cup final in a big stadium, I'll pretend it was fine and, you know, play because I didn't want to miss out on that. But it was the most challenging 90 minutes I've ever had in a football pitch because I didn't know who was on my team. So obviously every time I got the ball, I either passed to my goalkeeper because he was the only one I was confident was on my team or tried to Messi dribble past everybody who was in front of me, whether on my team or not. So it wasn't my best game. And then, yeah, probably, you know, like kind of the week to week things like in training, not knowing where areas are, if cones are invisible, or probably just things that, you know, as coaches, teachers, we don't think about, just reference to colours, you know, things like go and stand behind the orange cone or the greens are the defenders and not knowing what that colour actually is. And then as a coach and a coach developer and teacher, the challenges are things like, again, line markings on pitches, particularly sports halls which have hundreds of lines on them, and not knowing what they are, where they are. But obviously the biggest one is still watching games. You know what it's like when you're really looking forward to watching a game and it's the most frustrating thing if you turn on the TV and then, you know, it looks like both teams are wearing exactly the same kit. The African Cup of Nations final recently was a good example where me and my brother were texting each other, he's also colour blind, and we were just laughing because to us it looked like both teams had the same kit on and both those kits looked like the same colour as the pitch. So after 30 seconds we just gave up and said yeah there's no point. So yeah it's provided challenges but there are things that can be done which is probably the good news for the coaches listening.
[Jamie]
Now just going back to something that you'd mentioned a little bit earlier on, you gave us a bit of an example about being in, you know, if Wembley Stadium was full and with the statistics might be 5,000 people statistically there that might actually be colour blind. So thinking about the number of people who have the condition, potentially that affects obviously the football pitch as well so potentially you would expect that a lot of people who play football to have the condition. Are there actually any professional colour blind players that you know of?
[Ryan]
So you know statistically like you've said there if 1 in 12 boys have some degree of colour blindness, then that means that on average, there's at least one in every grassroots boys team or school team. However, with regards to the professional game, there are very, very few examples of players who've actually said they're colour blind. Now, there are kind of two schools of thought about why this is. One is that players don't want to admit that they have the condition out of the fear that they might not get selected for games if they think that's going to have an impact on performance. Or the second one is that players with the condition are much less likely to actually get to the professional game because of the challenges that the colour blind condition has caused them as they are developing. Probably the highest profile player to state that they are colour blind is Thomas Delaney, the Denmark international. But the reason he revealed he had the condition is because he rang up a radio station to defend himself because they were actually saying what a bad game he'd had for Denmark. But the reason for that was because Denmark were playing in red and they'd been playing Mexico who were playing in green. So he said for a lot of the game, he didn't know who was on his team, which is obviously why he'd had such a bad game. So he actually rang the radio station up to say that. And then the women's game, there's Remy Allen who plays for Birmingham City. He was taught about some of the challenges she's had as a player. But other than that, there are very few examples of professional colour blind players. And Obviously the big worry is that if players who are colour blind are having such a negative experience and getting frustrated time and time again because of the environment, we could be losing them from the game. Thinking back to when I was little and I used to get nervous on the way to a match just thinking about what colour kit are the opposition gonna be playing in? And it wasn't until I could see that and I could make sure that I knew the difference that that nervousness went. And I think, certainly when I was first started playing football, I didn't probably have the confidence to say anything, so I didn't speak up and that will definitely have affected my performance. Even sometimes when I did feel confident that I could say something, people sometimes would just laugh, not from being cruel or mean, but they couldn't understand what I was experiencing. I think that it does break my heart to think that there could be hundreds of children up and down the country who are still having this experience now. You know, they get to a game and they've got a red kit on, the opposition have got a green kit on and you know they don't want to say anything but for them it's gonna be a real challenge because they don't know who's on their team.
[Louise]
Yeah and also they don't want to miss out.
[Ryan]
Yeah, absolutely.
[Louise]
You did mention before that not everybody will know that they have a form of colour blindness. Did something happen where you didn't realise you had colour blindness and then something happened and you realised or because it was hereditary did you already know?
[Ryan]
Yeah, like you said, because it's not tested for in schools, which it used to be, but there will be a lot of people who aren't aware, particularly obviously the ones who have the milder form of the condition. For me, it was very apparent, I think because of the severity of my condition, that it was quite apparent from an early age that I couldn't see colours properly and then obviously I was tested very early because my granddad was severely colour blind as well so they kind of put the two and two things together and kind of so I got diagnosed quite early as having colour blindness but you know for anyone listening who thinks they might be colour blind or a child might be colour blind then it's kind of going to opticians now and opticians can provide the test and they do things like, you know, you might have seen where there's like an image with dots and if you're colour blind you can see a number, if you're not colour blind you'll see a different number. So there might be some of the tests that they can do so opticians provide that now but because that's not kind of within every school then there's obviously probably a lot of people going under the radar and even certainly when I think back to when I was at school you know in my primary school there were 250 children but as far as we were concerned, as far as the teachers knew, it was only myself and my brother who were colour blind. But there will have been lots more who probably just weren't aware of it. So it's one of those things that, you know, depending on the severity, there could be people who aren't actually aware they've got the condition.
[Jamie]
Is there anything that coaches could potentially look out for in players that might suggest that someone's affected because of course either maybe players might not know themselves but equally they might not want to speak up so is there something that coaches could look out for at all?
[Ryan]
Yeah I think there are probably things that might seem like the player's been a little bit disobedient or misbehaving at first. You know, like things like you might say, go to the red cone and if they go to the green one, it's little things like that. Probably, you know, other things like running out of an area. You know, if there's, like I said, if there's an area marked out in cones that are invisible on the pitch, then if they run out of it and carry on playing and everyone's wondering what's going on, then, you know, little things like that. Also, you know, from a performance perspective, if their performance is quite inconsistent, then that could potentially be a reason. You know, if you've got one week, someone who has got a 95% pass completion and the next week, they're passing to the opposition every two minutes, it's probably not because they've suddenly become a bad player, it might just be because in the second game the two kits look the same. So those are probably the little things that you might pick up on and coaches this game might think, well, I wonder why they're doing that, but that could potentially be a reason as well.
[Louise]
What can coaches do to support players who are colour blind, so if they know that they're colour blind?
[Ryan]
Yeah, I think, you know, I feel like I've just listed lots and lots of problems about being colour blind or working with colour blind players and a lot of the coaches are probably thinking this is a bit of an nightmare, but the good news is for any coach listening is that there are really simple solutions to all the problems and you can make your sessions really colour blind friendly, whether you know if you've got colour blind players or not. If coaches listening remember nothing else than the colours yellow and blue are the key takeaway colours. They are the colours which contrast most with each other in terms of bibs and kits, magnets on tactics boards, and they're also the brightest colours against grass, so markers and cones. Also, you know, having a white football or a yellow football using yellow and blue bibs and cones instead of reds and greens will just make the session accessible for anyone who has the condition. It's a really simple solution, just using those colours as opposed to traditional oranges, reds, greens. It's probably not going to make a difference to anybody in the session, but if you have got someone in the session who's colour blind, whether they know it or not, it's just gonna make the session really accessible. And just that contrast between colours is key.
[Jamie]
If, for instance, coaches maybe haven't got those coloured cones or bibs, and they can't potentially change it, is there anything that they can actually do with it to still try and make it colour blind friendly or to make it clear for people with colour blindness?
[Ryan]
Yeah, so I'm certainly not expecting every coach listening to go straight out and buy a whole new set of equipment, but little things can help. Little things like marking cones with numbers, So there's another point of reference. So you can then say, go to the cone with number five on it instead of the green cone and things like this. Using different shapes on tactics boards. So rather than it being red V blue, it might be circles V squares. Other things, you know, like taking a set of bright bibs to games so that if there is a red v green kit clash, for example, one team could potentially wear the yellow bibs. And then it's probably just, you know, at some point, probably all the coaches, all the clubs who listen to this at some point, you know, it will come to a time where you're ordering some new equipment. So it's probably just having colour blindness in mind so that, you know, when your club are buying new pieces of equipment, it's ordering yellows, blues and whites instead of red, greens and oranges. So, yeah, I'd probably say just to keep that in mind for the next time you're doing a kit order.
[Louise]
Yeah. And I suppose it just helps, like, if everybody's thinking about it, it just helps more people to be involved and kind of enjoy the game fully.
[Ryan]
Absolutely. And I think it's probably these little sort of changes nobody will even notice. But for somebody who is colour blind, it's just going to make a world of difference to their experience and enjoyment.
[Louise]
Yeah, definitely. So if we think of things on a wider scale, what work is being done within football to support people affected by colour blindness?
[Ryan]
One organisation I do want to mention is Colour Blind Awareness and Catherine Albany Ward, their founder, who has been instrumental in driving positive change regarding colour blindness, not just within football, but across a range of sports and even wider than that. And she's worked with us here at the FA to develop guidance, to develop awareness videos. I've also worked with Catherine, with UEFA and the Premier League recently on a campaign to raise awareness with teachers within PE environments as well. She's been absolutely fantastic in the work that Colour blind Awareness do just to raise awareness of the condition and help people is fantastic. Other things, you know, there's been changes over recent years. And again, it's probably something that wasn't noticed by the majority of people, but the UEFA kit guidelines at the last men's and women's Euros were to ensure colour blind inclusivity. So each team had to have a light and a dark kit to ensure there were no colour blind kit clashes, which just makes such a difference knowing that you can enjoy a game without causing any impact on anybody else who's watching it. The AFL have also introduced a rule change last season, so clubs are actually now allowed to wear their away kits at home if there's going to be a club-wide kit clash. And there's actually been some instances of clubs doing that, which again is fantastic. We've also developed some resources and guidance specifically for coaches and referees, which is available on the FAO website. So certainly compared to when I was growing up, there is much more awareness about the condition and a lot more resource out there for people to tap into to ensure that they're providing a colour blind friendly environment.
[Jamie]
And where can coaches go to find this sort of information and resources on colour blindness and football?
[Ryan]
Yeah so on the FA website we've got articles. I've written a couple of articles on there there's the guidance on there which is a big document which goes into as much detail as you need about colour blindness. Matt Holland, ex-premier league players, colour blind, he's written an article on there as well. Recently did a campaign at the end of last year with Kick It Out as well and so they've got a video on their website as well regarding colour blindness and then you know colour blind awareness, their website and their YouTube channel is fantastic and what they've got is lots of visuals so that somebody who's not colour blind can actually see the world through the perspective of somebody who is. So there's videos from there's a Liverpool game where Liverpool are playing a team all in green in Europe and they put it through the filter. So essentially you could see what I see. And so it looks like both teams are saying just to give that perspective. So yeah, Colour blind Awareness is a fantastic website, not just to kind of get that perspective, but also for lots of fantastic resources. It's kind of the Bible of colour blindness, if you like, because there's so many risks on there, not just in sporting environments, but for teachers and just lots of information about the condition as well.
[Louise]
Brilliant, and we'll put some of those links in the notes for this episode. So finally, if we wrap this up, what are your key takeaway messages and top tips for coaches regarding colour blindness?
[Ryan]
The biggest takeaway is that it doesn't actually have to be a problem because there are some really simple solutions to make to your environment as colour blind friendly as possible, whether you are aware you have a colour blind player or not. So I'd say my top three tips would be use yellow, blue and white cones, use yellow and blue bibs where possible and use light bright footballs which are white or yellow if you can. And just those three simple changes hopefully mean that we don't lose any players from the game who become disillusioned because they have the condition, because ultimately the next Lucy Bronze or Bukayo Saka might be colour blind and we need we need them to have positive experiences so they don't fall out of love with football.
[Louise]
Yeah, definitely. And just to give our listeners something to perhaps go away and try or kind of set a challenge for them, is there anything that you could think of that you could suggest that coaches perhaps go away and do?
[Ryan]
My challenge would be just to do a bit of an audit of the equipment before your next session and try and dig out the cool blind friendly colours like the yellows, the blues and the whites you have in your kit bag and prioritise using those pieces of equipment rather than the colours that might look the same to the cool blind players like greens, reds and oranges. So I think it's just having a look through your kit bag, seeing what you've got, can you pull out those bright contrasting colours and prioritise using those in your sessions as opposed to some of those traditional colours that we might see on a pitch?
[Jamie]
Right. Well, we are coming up to the end of the show now, Ryan, but that does mean there is time for our Swiss session feature.
[Louise]
Yeah. So this is another 30 second challenge, but this time we're going to ask you to explain to us a session idea in those 30 seconds. Are you up for this challenge?
[Ryan]
Yeah, let's do it. Absolutely.
[Louise]
Okay. Once again, there'll be some music. So when that starts, you can begin.
[Ryan]
Okay, I'm going to keep it really simple because I think whatever age you are coaching, parallel 2v2 games are so powerful. You can have lots of games going on next to each other, which means everyone is involved in getting lots of touches of the ball. And you as the coach can then observe and support players individually. You can then use the step principle to adapt the games to meet the needs of each group by doing things like changing the size of the pitch or using different equipment to challenge the players appropriately and ensure they are all getting the best possible experience at their own personal stage of development.
[Louise]
Once again, very well done. Yes. A little bit over, yeah. We'll ignore that.
[Jamie]
That was really good. That was really good. Was there anything that you wanted to actually squeeze in onto the end? It sounded really good.
[Ryan]
I think probably just to also highlight the holistic development we can get from little 2v2 games. You know, they'll be refereeing their own games. There's lots of communication and decision making and you can manipulate the games to increase the repetition of technical skills such as finishing, intercepting, moving with the ball, depending on what it is that you want to get out of the session at that particular moment in time.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, well thank you very much for your time Ryan and for both the session idea but also for sharing your experiences, your journey and educating us on colour blindness. It's been really fascinating to listen to and there's been so much to take away that coaches, hopefully the listeners now will be thinking about what their environments are like and what their equipment's like and how they can do to help. Because ultimately we don't want to deter people away from football. We want it to be, you know, inclusive environment for everybody. So, and I feel like this podcast episode, listening to you speak will really do that. So thank you very much for your time.
[Ryan]
Now you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me on. Really enjoyed it. So thank you to you both. Really appreciate it.
[Jamie]
Right. Well, that was a really good chat with Ryan, really enjoyed listening to his experiences and hearing about colour blindness. What would you take away from that chat?
[Louise]
I think, like you say, really interesting and I think just one thing that kind of kept in my mind was that there's potentially lots of little frustrations and things that happen throughout someone's day if they have colour blindness. So really paying attention to this episode and kind of thinking of the little things that you could change might be just like little things that we could do to make their day easier, someone's day easier and more enjoyable.
[Jamie]
Yeah, and the thing for me is it would tie in for that is, you know, you want to make it that fun, inclusive environment. So, you know, for everybody. And one thing was if you haven't necessarily got the equipment that will help, it's kind of adapting the equipment that you've got. So Ryan mentioning putting numbers on cones for instance or on tactics board using shapes rather than colours can really help so there are things that we can all do even if we haven't initially got the equipment straight up that is really suited for it.
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'll be able to click through to the England Football Community and 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 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.