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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. As always I'm Jamie and I'm with Louise and today we're chatting to Emily Senior, an FA Regional Coach Developer for the North East, to hear about her journey so far and to get some advice to help coaches with their observation skills. Well hi Emily, welcome to Coachcast for the first time. How are you?
[Emily]
I'm really good, thank you. Thank you for having me.
[Jamie]
Thank you very much for coming.
[Louise]
It's really good to have you with us. And what we tend to do to start the podcast off is just find out a little bit more about your role. Can you tell us what it is that you do?
[Emily]
Absolutely. Yes, I'm a regional coach developer. So I work across the whole of the North East. That's from Yorkshire all the way up to the very top of the North East. And I help recruit new coaches, develop them coaches, support them coaches in settings and away from their settings and through a variety of different channels. We have a big focus on the women's game at the moment as well and trying to spark more females to get into the game.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, fantastic. Thank you very much for that and we'll dive into your experience a little bit more later. But first, just before we do that, as this is a coaching podcast, we always like to start the episode by giving some good advice at the top of the show.
[Louise]
So we call this your arrival activity and we'd like to challenge you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in 30 seconds. Are you up for the challenge?
[Emily]
Of course, let's give it a go.
[Jamie]
That is exactly what we like to here.
[Louise]
When the music starts, you can begin.
[Emily]
Okay. Number one, definitely picking the right times to intervene. Number two, observe as much as you can. Don't think that you've always got to be the one talking. Number three, make sure that we are quick to transition between activities to maximise ball rolling time. Number four, can we make sure that we understand all the needs of our players to make it cater for everybody. Number five, can we build relationships with individuals, make sure that these individuals are all understood and we know what's going to make them tick so we can motivate them.
[Louise]
Look at that!
[Emily]
I got five! That's impressive! Is that like, I feel like we need a leaderboard, am I doing okay?
[Jamie]
That is brilliant, thank you very much for that.
[Louise]
You smashed that out of the park.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. Well, we'll dive into the main part of the show, Emily, which is to find out all about you. And we always start off this section of the podcast by asking a guest, what was your first experience of football like?
[Emily]
Yeah, my first experience in football was as young as five or six years old so my dad's very familiar with telling the story. Playing on the on the playground at school and that getting fed back to my parents at home that that was all I was doing basically at that time. So very early on I knew football was a huge love of mine and started playing straight away from there. My dad took me to my first session, super shy as a child so wouldn't join in, stood and watched for the first two weeks and then after that my dad managed to get me involved, much to his delight. Huge football fan, great football player himself back in the day. So yeah, started playing from the age of seven and played all the way through to probably till I was about 23, 24. So yeah, about seven years ago.
[Louise]
So it was a real passion from the beginning.
[Emily]
Absolutely. Wholeheartedly was the child that got stuck into watching games and all of that kind of stuff.
[Louise]
Yeah. And so on the other side of that, when was it that you got interested in coaching and how did that come about?
[Emily]
Yeah, so the coaching side probably became more apparent to me when I got to college. I had an outstanding coach when I got to college and was really forward thinking in the game. The late Paul Futcher, outstanding coach, outstanding person, made us all feel really excited to play. And I think that's when I first started thinking I'd love to be able to do that. He made coaching seem just as exciting as playing. So definitely that was my first insight into coaching and then started to take an under 11 side from there.
[Jamie]
What was that first experience of coaching like, then taking that under 11 side?
[Emily]
The ins and outs of coaching became very apparent because people make it look easy sometimes when they've been doing it for a long time. So then going to try and step onto the pitch yourself for the first time and take the lead on things. I'd learn by stumbling over things, you know, and finding my own way. But yeah, I absolutely loved it. I was working with under 11 girls in a grassroots setting in the club that I'd played my football at as a grassroots player. So it was just a new experience for me, something that I was excited about. Helped me build a lot of confidence, a lot of skills that I probably lacked as a teenager. So, yeah, I got a lot out of it, definitely.
[Louise]
What would you say that you enjoy most about coaching and what were the things that kind of really solidified that you wanted to carry on doing it?
[Emily]
I think even from the early days, the thing that I've always loved the most is the light bulb moments. So seeing like the penny drop with somebody when it's been something that you've really been intentional in wanting to get out in the session and then seeing that moment light up for the player themselves as well. I don't think there's a better buzz for a coach than that, than seeing the penny drop. Yeah, lovely.
[Jamie]
You kind of gave us a little bit of insight into your journey, but do you want to go into a bit more detail about what that journey was like from your first starting out to where you are today?
[Emily]
Yeah, so I've worked across the game in a variety of different settings. So from grassroots, like I say, under 11 sides, then I went into, so more so like private settings, so what they'd call like soccer centres. So we went into loads of different centres across Leeds when I was at university, delivered sessions to players from the age of six all the way through to adult sides. So I've worked across the variety of the game and then found that my biggest love was in the senior game. So I've worked for the last 10 years in the senior game and predominantly in the women's side. So I've coached from tier five through to the National League, so that's where my biggest passion's been. But even from the play phase, I did loads of work across the last seven years with those in the play phase. So from early years, literally from 18 months, and they're starting out with multi skills, all the way up to six years old. So I've literally worked across the whole length of it.
[Jamie]
To kind of delve into that insight a little bit, do you have any like top tips to help any coaches like notice what the difference might be between coaching different age groups at all?
[Emily]
Yeah, I think the engagement side is very, very different. So being able to, and I know we'll talk about this lots today, we're talking about observation, but being able to observe and understand what makes people tick, and that's gonna be very different when they're at different places in their life. So you have to understand the individual first to be able to do that and you can do that by observing, you can do that by communicating with them and then being able to know where you can pitch the level for that and that might even have some variety in that group but definitely for the different levels you have to change your coaching behaviours to be able to meet their needs, but also observe and know what makes them tick, yeah.
[Louise]
And going back to your journey, you must have had so much advice and kind of different ideas that you've picked up from different people. What advice would you give to your younger self to prepare them for stepping into the world of coaching for the first time?
[Emily]
I think the biggest thing now would be to enjoy the journey of it because I think it becomes an environment where we were always striving to be as good as we can be, which is brilliant. We always want to strive to be a better coach. But I think sometimes we link a checkpoint to that and trying to get to the next destination, whether it be a higher age band that we want to work with, or it be a more talent space team that we want to work with. And I think when you're doing that and you're always thinking about that next destination, you don't actually enjoy all the learning part and all the bit that you're in at the moment. And when we talk about and when I spoke about it earlier, the parts that I enjoyed, it's in the moment, the parts that you enjoy, it's not getting to the next place. So I think that's the really big thing for me, I'd tell my younger self to just enjoy it. Relax in it a little bit, enjoy every moment of it.
[Louise]
Be present in the moment.
[Emily]
That's it, absolutely.
[Jamie]
Yeah, I like that, really good piece of advice. Sticking kind of with the theme of advice, what's the best piece of advice that you've actually ever received?
[Emily]
One that really sits for me from my university days, one of my lecturers was speaking to us about this idea of respect, and you know how is respect earned? And I think sometimes when you're in a leadership position like you are in coaching, I think you just assume sometimes, especially in the naive days when you're first starting out, that you just automatically deserve that respect and that very much isn't the case. It has to be earned. We're working with people first before players, so we have to make sure that we understand the people. So a big piece of advice I got was you earn respect through three ways. Working really hard, and I think a lot of coaches in the game are doing that. They really are at every level. The second one is being quite knowledgeable in your field. So going away and making sure that you understand everything about the remit that you're working in. So really dig deep into the bits that you're missing and go and learn more. And then the third and final part is trust. You really need to be trustworthy because if people, your players, feel like they can put their trust in you then they're really going to work for you and they're really going to want to do well. So that's my, the best piece of advice I've ever had.
[Louise]
And would you say that that's the same advice for, that you'd give to someone to make a positive impact on a player's journey or would there be anything else that you'd add to that?
[Emily]
I think if you're looking at the individual and you really want to make an impact on the individual person's journey then it comes back to knowing them and that comes from a variety of different things. There'll be parts about their game and them that they don't even know yet. So that has to come from you observing them and being able to read different parts of them, their game yourself as a coach, but then communication. There'll be parts of their game and them as a person that you don't know yet and Sometimes you don't always see that when they're in certain scenarios certain environments and you need to ask and communicate with the player So I think to have the most impact on an individual, you need to understand them first, get to know them.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. Well, Emily, we've hinted at it at the start and you yourself mentioned it just a bit back that the chat that we want to talk to today is about observation, taking a closer look at observation, share how you use it and to give advice to our listeners. So to start, in your opinion, exactly how important is it for coaches to have good observation skills?
[Emily]
So I'm not being biased because we're on the coach cast today, but I genuinely think it's up there as one of the most important skills for a coach. If we don't observe our players and we don't find the right moments to observe, then we're not going to be able to do a lot of the other coaching skills that we have. We can't maximise engagement, we can't intervene at the right times, can't do any of them things if we've not observed first. So it really does become a bit of a prerequisite to be able to bring everything else to life. And I'm not shy in saying it's something I overlooked a little bit in my early days and have seen massive impact since really honing in on the observation skills that I have now.
[Louise]
How do you develop your ability to observe effectively?
[Emily]
Yeah, so it's like everything else, you need to practice it. Like every other skill, you need to practice observation. So if you are trying to watch everything, you will see nothing. So it's really, really important that you know what you are trying to look for. And once you know that, what you're trying to look for, then you will be able to really have a positive lens on that, that will allow you to intervene at the right moments, it will allow you to praise at the right moments, all of the different skills that that we want to bring to the table as a coach, we can do when we've been able to observe.
[Jamie]
Now if any of our listeners or anyone who's watching this are like new coaches or teachers it can be quite potentially overwhelming when you're going into that first session to maybe know what to look for. So what would you say are the most important things that they should try and observe at their first training session?
[Emily]
I would say if it's your very first training session your observation and the things that you're looking for are as simple as how engaged is a person in a certain activity? Like do we need to adapt that activity to make sure that it meets different players needs because we've seen that someone's engagement's gone down. Well, how do we know what that looks like? Well, it might be that they're starting to show us signs of boredom. They might be kicking a ball away while we're speaking. They might be touching somebody else on the shoulder, messing about a little bit. Well, is that because they're a bad player? Probably not. It probably just means they've either not had challenge or it's over-challenging for them. And how do we know that? We know that from observation. So it's really important that we don't overthink it sometimes in terms of what we're looking for in terms of the technical, the tactical. Sometimes, and when we talk about the four corner model, sometimes we are just looking at their social skills and how they're interacting with others to give us tell signs as to whether they're engaged, whether they're not.
[Jamie]
Is that the same across age groups? You mentioned that you've got experience from the youngest to the senior game.
[Emily]
Absolutely, so in the senior game it might look more so like frustration. It might look like their head has completely gone down and they're frustrated with their game. Well do they actually understand what the intended outcomes are for that session? Has it maybe gone over their head a little bit? And that's why they're finding all of this frustration. Well, we wouldn't know that and we wouldn't know that they're necessarily frustrated if we're not taking the time to observe. If we're just going in to speak and intervene, we're probably missing those moments and then we're going to have less impact ultimately.
[Jamie]
So yeah, so we kind of talked a little bit and I appreciate this is very much like just a little bit of a top tip, like there's more things to potentially be looking out for, but like the real key things for new coaches. So we've talked about at training looking at how engaged they are. Is that the same on match day or is there anything else that coaches, you would advise coaches maybe to look out for on the first matchday?
[Emily]
Yeah if it's your first match day I think you want to, any of the coaching points that you've brought through in your training session needs to be relevant to the match day. Everything that we speak about on match day needs to be something that has already been worked on. We don't want anything new popping up on match day because there isn't the time to be able to bring them new points across. So we really want to make sure that the things that we've spoken about is what we're looking for. We're not looking at the entire game. We're not dwelling on if there's been a bad throwing. We're not dwelling on the things that we haven't touched on already. So having a real clear focus, and this comes in your planning stage, even for match day, the planning stage is important. Are we planning for what we're looking for when we go into the side of the pitch? Do we know what we want to be observing? And if we don't know that, then we're going to have a real, real problem in trying to just focus our lens. So yeah, I would say link it to the outcomes that you've wanted in your training sessions.
[Louise]
We spoke a little bit before about kind of your experience working with different age groups, but if we talk about coaching younger players particularly, what is it that you observe when working with them? Is there anything other than kind of engagement?
[Emily]
Yeah, so if we're looking at the other corners on the four corner model, if we're looking at the technical side, then we really want to look at the individual themselves. So when we're working with younger players, we really want to develop the skilful player. So when we're looking at the individuals, it's really about what's on the ball, what is happening when when they're on the ball. So we might do a turning session, for example. Well, when that player gets onto the ball, that's when we've really got our observation lens on. How are they starting to turn now? And if it's exactly as we intended in the session, and they've done it the way that we explained in a demonstration, then that's our moment to go in and praise with intent. If it's not, maybe it's just a one-off, and this is a really good rule of thumb to go by, maybe it's a one-off, but we keep it up here. We keep it in our mind in case we see that player do the same again. So when that player then comes back on the ball and they go to do the turn again, if they're then having the same problem that we've seen before, right, we might go and intervene now. So the observations that we've had linked to the intended outcomes means that we can go and start making an impact on the individuals. So I'd say it's more around what's happening on the ball with your younger phase until you can start bringing around your movement and stuff off the ball, which is going to happen a little bit later on.
[Jamie]
Yeah, I was just going to pick up there in terms of like the impact of waiting and not necessarily diving in. So you've observed something might not be right, it doesn't mean that you have to dive straight in and I think we've mentioned on this podcast before a few of our guests have said like almost like giving them three opportunities to give it a try before diving in because then that's a little bit more of a pattern. So just wanted to raise that, that's a really really key point to take away from there.
[Louise]
How does observing change depending on the age group that you coach? So thinking about player motivations and kind of engagement and stuff like that how does it tend to change as you go up?
[Emily]
Once they've started to move up the age groups, you really are coming away from the ball and around the ball to be able to see the bigger picture, because there is so many moving parts, particularly when it goes into the full game. There are so many things that naturally You want to try and correct in the moment, but taking that step back and going, what are we trying to get out of the session today? What are the intentions here? And having a really critical lens on those moments as opposed to everything. So that also comes down to the engagement and the motivation of players and they're the little things that you look out for as well but from the technical tactical aspects it's what's going on on around and then even more so away from the ball so that you can impact the entire team.
[Louise]
Gives you a good framework to work on when you're trying to think of what to look at?
[Emily]
Absolutely, it helps you build up your interventions as well because once you have worked with them on the ball then you can start to come away from that player individually. You know that when they get the ball they know what they're supposed to do with it, so how does that impact everybody else around them? So now you can start to build steps as to how you intervene, so I've worked with that individual, how does that impact the rest of us now? So then we move out a little bit, right, so these three around that player, we know what happens to them now, so what happens to the bigger picture, what happens to our very highest player up the pitch now that they know what they're doing, and then you can really start to dig a little bit deeper with players.
[Jamie]
You mentioned intended outcomes a few times in terms of that being what you should be observing. Just to help the listeners, can you give a few examples of what intended outcomes are and maybe a few examples of intended outcomes that you've observed in your own coaching journey?
[Emily]
Absolutely, so the intended outcome should come in your planning phase, so before you're going out into the session you should know what you want to get out of it. It's got to be achievable for your participants but also a little bit challenging as well so that it motivates. So for example you might have a pressing session and in your pressing session you might have a real focus on their body shape and how they guide players away from danger areas on the pitch. So we're going to go and press towards the player and when we get close to the player, we're going to shape our body to force them out wide. So it's the aggressive nature in the press. That's going to be one of our coaching points. Once we've been aggressive in the press, we're going to put the brakes on and body shape sideways to force them away from from any danger, so wide of the pitch. You've already got there three coaching points that you know that you can then bring into the session. So by having those as outcomes, you're already guiding your observation. So when I'm then stood either on the side of the pitch, might not be side of the pitch, I'm sure we'll touch on the different coaching positions that you might take up as well. But once we've got to the side of the pitch and we can see that player starting to press, whether it's the pressing activity or the game itself, we'll be able to see whether or not they've been able to take on those coaching points when we've practiced it. And if they're not quite getting it, and we've seen it, like we say, maybe three times, and they're not quite got it, okay, now I'm gonna go in and intervene. If they have got it, brilliant, let's praise, give intent. The rest of the players around them are gonna hear and see that, and it's another learning moment for them. I've seen that they've done that right. That's what she, that's what she wants from us. That's what he wants from us. So I've seen that that's correct. I'm going to do it as well. So it's a real, real planning moment to be able to know what their intended outcomes are and then use your observation to guide that.
[Louise]
And I guess that kind of leans into knowing what good looks like, I suppose, when you're observing. How do they know what good looks like? How does a coach know that?
[Emily]
This is a great question and this is what comes to you understanding your game and trying to know what you want to get out of the game. So if you are trying to win the ball back really aggressively, you need to make sure that you know what that looks like. So if a player, for example, has a bad touch and the ball falls further away from their body, then we know that that is a moment that we can go and win the ball. So every situation is going to be different. But as a coach, we've got to go away before the session and make sure we know exactly what that's going to look like for what we want to get out of the session. Does that make sense?
[Jamie]
Yeah, it's kind of almost like knowing really what your philosophy or game style is realistically, isn't it? The way that you want to play.
[Emily]
Absolutely, and at the younger end, less so. It's more what you want to see from individuals for their future game. So if you're working in a club environment and you know that that player is going to be hopefully staying with the club, then it's what's happening at the top and what do we make sure they need to have? You know, you want to make a player an all-round player. So it's the parts of the game that they're missing. And that again is going to come from your observations. So if we're not able to recognise the parts of the game that they maybe shy away from, do they not press? Do they not go in and try and win the ball from a player when it's ricocheted off their foot and it hasn't been a great touch? Have they not recognised that that's a moment that they can go and win the ball back. Well if they haven't, we'll make that a real learning moment. So I think it comes more so from coaches really being keen to go away and learn about the game themselves as well. I think you have to be keen as part of your learning to understand the game's demands and then how best you think you can overcome them demands with your players.
[Jamie]
I think it's interesting as well when we talk about what good looks like and it is maybe an ideal and ideology behind what you think pressing, good pressing looks like, but maybe with some other skills. So for instance, moving with the ball that, you know, what good looks like might look different to each player perhaps. Like how, how do you deal with that with observation?
[Emily]
I suppose it comes down to, and this comes back to I suppose how we find out what looks good. Success becomes the measurement. So if they have successfully won the ball back, we know that's good. However they've gone about that, it might look a little bit differently for different players, depending how they move with their body. Every player is going to be a little bit different, even at the top level, nobody does it the same way. So it's the success measurement. Have we been able to win the ball back? Have we been able to retain possession of the ball? Have we been able to recover and win it back early? Whatever the focus is, we'll have a success measurement and that's how you know if they're doing it right.
[Louise]
Are there any frameworks that you use or you would use to help your observations?
[Emily]
Yeah, so we've mentioned a couple. I think definitely the four corner model is a huge one because that makes sure that you're not just limiting your observation to just the technical or tactical elements, but also looking at how, even just as simple as how your player is settling into the environment. Might be a new player, how are they interacting with other people on the team? Do you maybe need to help that interaction? Are they a little bit shyer? I mentioned at the beginning, I was quite shy. The coaches that I had from a young age really helped bring me out of my shell. So, you know, trying to encourage them to join in with the rest of the group, maybe getting a leader in the group to go and support that player. So, looking at all four corners of the model and bearing that in mind when you're focusing on your observations is a great one. But also the step principle. So when we're trying to manage difference and we're trying to really cater to everybody's needs, we can't do that unless we're observing exactly what's going on. So when we set up a practice, do they need to be certain tweaks to the practice for certain individuals to make it a little bit easier? Because we've noticed that they're looking a little bit frustrated, we're looking a little bit agitated, I'll use the step principle to make the session a little bit easier. If they're finding it too easy and they're getting a bit bored, they're kicking the ball away, they're messing about with their friends, well let's use the step principle to change the space or the task itself, the equipment or the amount of players that they're up against to make it a little bit more challenging.
[Jamie]
I think it's really good the step principle to be able to use a really good framework. I'll share a story in terms of like I can remember my first sort of like training session that I ran and my observation skills I think needed big improvement back then I can remember we were working on passing and one side had really crisp passing the communication was brilliant but they had like the two really good players on the pitch probably the better players more with higher ability potentially at the time. And while they was being successful, the other side wasn't enjoying it so much, but it's so almost like honed in on the passing, the, you know, communicating, everything's working, it's fine for them. But they just thought about the step principle thinking actually we could probably under load and overload a side for instance and using observation skills so having that in your mind is such a really good tool to be able to use.
[Emily]
Absolutely, absolutely and you do miss those moments if you are intervening too much and intervention might even just look like shouting something over to one player Whilst you're doing that you're not observing their moment so you might not have noticed that the other team are really struggling because you you're busy thinking about how you're going to impact that next player with with your verbal cues and your praise and all of the other things that we try and think we can take control of, well, we can also take control of how much time we give ourselves to observe. So yeah, it's a really good point. It's a really good point.
[Jamie]
Out of interest, you've mentioned it already before, is coaching positions and everyone seems to, there's pros and cons to wherever you stand. Can you kind of just give us a bit of an insight into the positions that you could potentially adopt as a coach and then maybe say whereabouts that if you have a position that you actually prefer to stand on there on training or match day?
[Emily]
Absolutely, I mean there's no wrong or right answer on this. My advice would be that if there is, and this comes down again to the intended outcomes piece, what are you trying to get out of it because then that's going to guide your coaching position. So if I'm working with some hold up play from my centre forward and when the ball goes into my centre forward it's very much around how my other players get in behind into the space that they've created. Well if I stand in the middle of the pitch, where the ball's coming into the striker, I'll be able to see how much space, how much movement there is to be able to run in behind. So, and that might change when I then go and work over with the wide player. I might want to see it from their perspective. So don't be afraid to go and get yourself into the session when you're observing. Now if you're looking from a younger point of view, from a younger perspective working with younger players, it might be that you are really conscious of things like their engagement. So then I might need to step back a little bit and make sure that I can see the whole group. So that might be more from the side of the pitch, behind the pitch, so that I can see the whole group in action, so that I can monitor things like engagement and how motivated they are in the moment and be able to see the bigger picture. It's the same when we look at match day, we know that we've got to stand in the dugout, well whereabouts do we stand to be able to see exactly what's going on? Is there somebody that can look up from a higher vantage point so that we can see from a bit more of a bird's-eye view what's going on. It all depends on what you're trying to see in that moment and I know we keep coming back to it but if you're not clear on what that is, if you're not clear on what you're trying to see and what the intention of it is, then you'll really struggle with your observation and where to position yourself.
[Louise]
I guess it might be quite useful to have like just some notes on a paper with all the most like the headings of things that you want to be looking for so at least it reminds you as well. Because I guess you can get distracted, especially on a matchday.
[Emily]
Absolutely, And especially when, if you are newer to it as well, and again, this comes with practice, but if you are newer to it, I remember numerous times where I would have my intention and it might be to be able to turn with a player on my back. And in that moment, I've seen something else happen, a really poor pass, and I've gone in to try and support them with the pass, well, just having them notes to remind you, you are focusing solely on their turning with a player in behind them. So I'm just looking for them moments, don't worry so much about the pass. Actually, did the pass make it harder for the turn to go in behind them? Because I could probably go in and coach that then. So it is just reminding yourself and if notes work for you, there is no shame in having just three little notes there around the three coaching points that you want to see and go in and make impacts on.
[Louise]
Out of interest, where do you like to observe from?
[Emily]
With the senior game, I prefer to be in where I'm delivering. So if I'm working with my midfielders, I tend to try and see it from their vantage point. If I'm working with the younger age group for the engagement point, I do prefer to be around the outside so that I can see numerous players and how they're interacting with one another. It also depends if you've got other people with you. We're not all lucky enough to have other individuals that work with us, but if you know that you've got someone that can observe the overall group and the engagement and give you a little tap on the shoulder when they think someone maybe does need the session adapting with the step principle Then you might just go in and focus solely with individuals and go and watch people a little bit closely So I use a real variety if I'm honest with you. I'm quite busy.
[Louise]
That's good to know though isn't it? That you don't have, it's not, there's not a perfect place for all the time. It's kind of move around, figure out where.
[Jamie]
Yeah, exactly. Finding out what's best for yourselves and the players really.
[Emily]
Absolutely.
[Jamie]
In today's world, technology is absolutely everywhere and it's more accessible now than it probably ever has been before. So how can coaches maybe harness that when it comes to observation?
[Emily]
It's a brilliant point. I think if we're lucky enough to have video footage, if we can use it at our training, even better. Sometimes even more impactful than than watching a game back. I know we all like to watch the game back and pick out the goals and things like that, you know, the exciting moments, but we do sometimes miss things, particularly when we just spoke about the coaching position when you're moving into the middle of the pitch. We can sometimes miss the pieces that we spoke around away from the ball. So if we are missing that, but we still want a little bit of insight in that, and there's trade-offs. So we might trade off not seeing what's happening away from the ball in the moment because we think it's really important that the players that we're working with understand what's happening on the ball. And that's okay if that's our intention. But if we then want a little bit more insight when we come away, we can use that video footage to go, well, what was actually happening away from the ball in that moment? Cause it might be that that player couldn't turn past somebody because the rest of the team hadn't created enough space and maybe we get a little bit more insight from that. So we can definitely use it to help our observations and maybe even to help plan our intended outcomes for the next session.
[Jamie]
I will say that not everybody does have access to technology, to cameras, to it, and we're not saying that people need to go out and buy all this equipment. So how can coaches maybe improve their observation skills but without using maybe the high-end technology?
[Emily]
Yeah, so a really good tip that I like to give to coaches is because observation often becomes less and less because we're trying to intervene more and more and that comes from a good place as coaches. We want to feel like we're impacting the players, so we go and say more and do more. So what I try to say to coaches is, imagine you've got 10 pound coins in your pocket. Every time you speak or intervene, even if it's a shout across the pitch, however you use your verbal cues for players, you lose a pound coin. You've only got 10 for the entire session. If you use all 10 in your first 20 minutes, you're observing for the rest of the 40. And what are you taking away in the rest of the 40 that you're taking purely from observation? So really limit yourself because then not only do you become better with your observation skills because you practice in them more, but you also become more impactful with your intervention skills. So it's a really powerful tool, something that I would recommend all coaches try. I used to really struggle with taking a step back and not intervening as much so it really helped me.
[Louise]
It Gives you that kind of physical thought process, doesn't it? Like I've spent a pound.
[Emily]
Yeah, exactly. Exactly like, oh, bit of a slap on the wrist, not another one. Give yourself a budget. That's it.
[Jamie]
I like that. I like that.
[Louise]
Some players may have additional needs. Do you have any useful tips to help people observe to ensure their training sessions are accessible for all?
[Emily]
Absolutely. I think we all know that the player comes first. So more than anything, we want them to be engaged and enjoying the session. And that again is why observation is so important. So if we're not doing that in the first three or four minutes of the session, then do we really know if everybody can access what we're trying to do? So it comes down to understanding your players needs and that just hammers home how much we need to use them observation skills to make sure that everything is accessible for everybody.
[Jamie]
Now we've spoken a lot about kind of how to observe and some top tips to help people do that but kind of before we move on, What actually happens next then with your observations? How do you kind of put that into action?
[Emily]
The first thing to do would be to, every time you plan in your session, plan for the observations. So when you sit down with your session plan, plan for the scenarios that you might see in your activity and then when you see those in action and that's you observing, go in and intervene or give praise in their moments. So the planning phase is really really important when it comes to this.
[Jamie]
And when you are making observations, like we've talked about in terms of like waiting and giving players a little bit of a chance to try things if it's not necessarily going well. Do you always dive into making intervention or if you've spent those pounds that you've said that you'd like to kind of use, Do you wait till after the session and maybe interact with them then? Is it not always in the moment I suppose is what I'm getting at?
[Emily]
Absolutely yeah and that again comes down to knowing the player. So some players will deal better with having a demonstration in the moment, Some players will deal better with just a conversation after the session to be able to go, actually do you remember when we spoke about how we turn in that situation? Well in that moment you didn't actually do it there. Next time we're back at training see if you can do it then. And then they'll be thinking about it away from it as well. So it does depend on the individual and that's a really important skill as a coach to be able to understand the different individuals and what's going to work. That's really important on match day as well. So we can't be shouting all of the information throughout the game as soon as we see something like we have to keep that in our locker maybe take a note and then we can have that discussion either at halftime or post game so that we learn from that going into the next one.
[Jamie]
Absolutely crucial I mean observations obviously crucial whether it's at training or match day, but particularly on match day when you've got limited chances to interact with players. Absolutely.
[Emily]
And so many moving parts as well in the game. So, so many other things that could distract and deviate away from the thing that should be in your lens. So, even more vital that we plan for what we're trying to see on a match day.
[Louise]
Do you have any examples from your journey in coaching where you've used your observations to guide decision making successfully?
[Emily]
I think I use it every single time I coached it to make impact. So most recently, she won't mind me saying if she hears this, I'm certain. So I have a player at the club that I'm coaching at now, at Bradford City. She's an outstanding midfielder. And I'd been watching her for a while because in possession, I think she really draws your attention. She's really creative with the ball, makes fantastic decisions on when to play. And I'd noticed out of possession, we were often getting left a little bit short on individuals that were back behind the ball. So her recovery runs just weren't as prominent. So like we just spoke about, it wasn't something I tried to correct in the moment. I knew that she was quite frustrated by her recovery runs and the speed at which she needed to get back. So instead of bringing that up in the moment, it was a conversation we had at the next training session pre-game, spoke about the recovery runs, gave her a couple of ideas on how she could make that easier and be a little bit more proactive so that it felt less of a task. And then her recovery runs for the back end of the season were some of the best in the squad. So that was a real positive from the last season for me, one of the biggest, most valuable ones for me. And for her as well, she's told me since, like how much she couldn't believe one conversation has impacted that. So definitely observation helps hugely.
[Louise]
I guess it shows you for the players how useful it is to have another set of eyes on what you're doing because you potentially don't feel that you can't work out why you're not doing it.
[Emily]
Absolutely, that's it. Like often it's not that the player can't do it. It's not that it's not in their capabilities. They just need somebody to help guide them on the solution to make it a little bit easier. And that's ultimately what we're there for. Yeah.
[Jamie]
And that's kind of a good example in terms of what you said at the top of the show about what you enjoy about football coaching, that lightbulb moment there, so it must be really nice to think that you've had that impact.
[Emily]
It really is. That's still, even with senior players, I think everybody assumes when you get to the senior end of the game that it becomes really results driven and that's the only things that you find wins in as a coach. I think the bigger highlights are when you're really impacting individuals and collective groups of people as well.
[Jamie]
Well, looking back at everything we've discussed so far, can you kind of summarise maybe the key top tips on observation that you would like people to take away from this episode?
[Emily]
So to summarize, plan for your intended outcomes and link that to your observation so you know what you're looking for. Think about your coaching position to have the most impact and when we have observed, think about how we can then go in and impact those players in a variety of different ways through different interventions or different conversations with players.
[Louise]
What we do like to do is ask our guests to set a coaching challenge to people who are listening. So thinking about what we've spoken about today and observation skills, what kind of thing would you suggest that people try to kind of get them on this pathway of better observation? So I
[Emily]
think the big challenge I want to set for everyone is the £10 challenge. So I think everybody needs to give themselves that £10 budget, have £10 coins in your pocket. Every time you go to intervene, there's a pound gone. So use them wisely, make sure it's impactful and use the rest of your time outside of those £10 on observation. Brilliant.
[Louise]
Be really good to hear how that goes for everybody and what kind of difference that makes.
[Emily]
And how quickly they spend them.
[Jamie]
Yeah, let us know in the comments below, like, just let us know how quickly you spent those £10 coins. Right, well, we are coming up to the end of the show now, Emily, but that does mean it is time for our Swift Session feature.
[Louise]
Emily Blunt So this is another challenge, 30 seconds as well, but this one we're going to ask you to explain to us a session idea in those 30 seconds.
[Emily]
Okay.
[Louise]
Are you up for the challenge of this one?
[Emily]
Yes, this is a big challenge. 30 seconds isn't a long time, but we'll see how we do.
[Louise]
We'll give it a go. Okay. When the music starts, you can begin.
[Emily]
Okay. So you've got a four-piece grid, four boxes, three players in every box. You've got one pressing team, so one box is gonna be on the move, but the rest of the boxes are trapped in, locked in. The pressing team, one player goes into the box to put pressure on you, and the rest of the teams, you've got three passes in your box and then you have to release it to a new box. Great for player awareness, understanding of where the outlet is, to be able to pass into a new box and avoid the pressing box.
[Louise]
There you go.
[Jamie]
Was that that? You smashed it?
[Emily]
It's longer than you think, I'm happy with that. There we go.
[Louise]
You were nervous but no need to be.
[Jamie]
Well, you actually smashed that out of the park. What a nice little session idea as well that.
[Louise]
Have you got anything else you want to add to that? Any more context?
[Emily]
There's a few ways that you can adapt that with the step principle as well. So you might add extra pressure. You might have two players going to press into each box so that they're a little bit more under pressure. Makes it a little bit harder for them to find the outlet, keep changing the size of the boxes if they get really good at it so that the passes are a bit shorter and sharper. But yeah, I really like that session. It's a good one for not only the possession-based football, but to have a real awareness of what's going on elsewhere on the pitch to be able to play to the right areas. Brilliant.
[Louise]
And has it got a name, that game?
[Emily]
I've never named it. It's just one that I've always designed for that reason. So I don't know if it's been used before. I don't think I've seen it anywhere else before. It's just something we've put into play with our players to be able to. It's a bit like a Rondo. I suppose there's four or three Rondo areas. And yeah, so maybe somebody in the comments needs to give us a name for this one.
[Jamie]
Let's name that.
[Emily]
Name the session. It's a new piece.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. Well, thank you very much for your time today, Emily. It's been great having you on. Hopefully you've enjoyed your first experience on Coachcast.
[Emily]
Absolutely, yeah, it's been lovely. It's been great to chat.
[Jamie]
That is all we do 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, which is where you can post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or 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.