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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 here with Louise and today we're chatting to Ryan Davies, an FA Physical Education Officer, to get his insight on to how to effectively communicate with players. Well hi Ryan welcome back to the show again how are you?

[Ryan]

I'm great thanks Jamie, Thank you both for having me back. Really looking forward to it.

[Louise]

Yeah, it's always great to have you on. So we'll just start as we always do and we'll just find out a little bit more about your role for anybody who hasn't listened to an episode that you've been on so far. Can you tell us what it is that you do?

[Ryan]

Yeah, so as Jamie said, I'm a physical education officer, part of the wider coach development team here at England Football. In my role, I work with teachers and 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 also work with the wider coaching and coach development workforce, hopefully helping them to give really positive experiences to the players and the coaches that they are working with.

[Jamie]

Brilliant, thanks again for that little recap Ryan and as you know after that recap we always dive in to a little bit of a top tip feature before we get into the main interview because coaches could ultimately be on the way to training while tuning into this and we want to give them some good advice at the top of the show.

[Louise]

You always give us really good tips so we're gonna ask you for some more again but we're gonna ask you to give us as many of those tips in 30 seconds. Are you up for that challenge?

[Ryan]

Absolutely, of course, let's do it.

[Louise]

Okay, once the music starts you can begin.

[Ryan]

Okay, so I think whoever you are coaching, make sure that the session is fun and engaging for them and if you aren't sure if something is fun and engaging then the best thing to do is ask the players because at the end of the day football is about them and doing everything we can to make them excited to come back time after time. Secondly I think having a clear focus for both you and the players means that everybody knows exactly what you're going after over a period of time. And finally, make sure that what you're delivering is age and stage appropriate, giving the players lots of opportunities to play, explore, solve problems and have lots of fun.

[Louise]

Incredible. Absolutely perfect. You can tell you've done this before.

[Jamie]

Yeah, *** on to time yet again and us always Ryan. Well, we'll dive into the main part of the show and actually I think last time that you joined us was actually back in March 2024. So it's been a little while since you were last on. So how have you been since we last spoke to you?

[Ryan]

Yeah, I've been great, thanks Jamie. And I was getting a bit nervous about whether I was going to get the call up again. So thanks for having me back. It does feel like a long time ago and a lot has happened since then. But it's been another fantastic year and truly enjoyed every single second of being able to do a job that I absolutely love and work across lots of different projects and areas of the game.

[Louise]

Do you think you've had any particular learnings that you'd like to share with our listeners that you've had since we had you last on?

[Ryan]

Yeah, so I think I mentioned to you last time that I've been working in and around some of the England para squads and supporting camps with the partially sighted squad and the cerebral palsy squad and, you know, that work led me to have the opportunity to be asked to step in as the interim head coach of the Powerchair team for the summer of 2024 to lead them into the Home Nations tournament up in Scotland. So for me, wearing the three lions is the greatest honour you can have. So to be given the privilege of being an England head coach was just a dream come true and an experience which I'll forever cherish. And getting to work alongside Rob Seal and Steve Daly, it was a fantastic experience to work with some of the best players in the world and to go up to Scotland and win the Home Nations Championship was just a brilliant experience that I learned so much from. As well as that, it's also been great to continue to work with coaches and players in the England Para Talent pathway across all the teams. And, you know, I can honestly, I can promise everybody listening that it's only a matter of time before we are consistently winning World Cups and Euros across the board because there's some unbelievable talent coming through in every squad. So obviously loads of learning experiences from that. And then within the PE team, we're currently having a real focus on supporting heads of PE within secondary schools and supporting them with their curriculum design and ensuring as many pupils as possible get access to real high quality PE and football within their time at secondary school, which, you know, hopefully in turn will lead them to having a future in the game in whatever environment is appropriate to them. Also been fortunate enough to work on a couple of projects within coach development since we last spoke. So one of those being play phase which is you know focusing on supporting those working with children at the start of their football journey aged four to six years old and also the coaching disabled footballers program which includes an online module and a face-to-face workshop that we deliver through the county FAs supported by the fantastic team of disability mentors. So it's been a really busy period, having been involved in both those projects, but certainly very rewarding to see those ideas and hard work come to fruition in the form of resources, which are hopefully helping coaches to support their players to the best of their ability. So, you know, having that opportunity and privilege to work across a wide range of projects and environments is, I think probably biggest learning I would say is just confirmed, but we all know, which is ultimately that coaching is simply about helping people. You know, whether that's England players or four-year-olds or disabled players or school children, if we can have that positive impact on their lives no matter how small it is then that's success as a coach and I think it's really important for the coaches and teachers who are listening to remember the influence they have, whether that is helping an England player to win an international tournament or just making a five-year-old laugh so that they want to come back to football up here next week. I think just making sure that we never forget that positive feeling that we can give to people and every time that you have a group in front of you that positive impact you can have then that's something that they'll never forget.

[Jamie]

Very eloquently put at the end as well, like just in terms of like the impact that coaches can have and you've certainly had a massive impact since we've last spoke to you. That's an incredible amount of stuff that you've actually got across in the last year or so since you was last on. Firstly, obviously, congratulations on the Home Nations Championship. How was that experience for yourself?

[Ryan]

It was amazing. It's something when you first start coaching, to get the opportunity to be an England head coach is, you know, the pinnacle of what you can hope to achieve. So, you know, very privileged to be given that opportunity to do that. So just that experience of being on camp with players and, you know, the support team that you have around you and that preparation to play against other nations is just amazing. And then obviously when you're standing there before a game, the national anthem is playing, it's a moment of great pride. So yeah, something very privileged to have had the opportunity to do.

[Jamie]

I'm actually buzzing for you for that. That's fantastic.

[Louise]

I think it's one of those things as well. It's a testament to how you operate as a coach developer as well as like taking all the opportunities that you can get, which is another really a really good thing to kind of pass on to people to kind of try and just try different things and you never know where it can lead you kind of thing.

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's something we talked about last time, just, you know, putting yourself out there and, you know, like I said, even last time I spoke to you, I wouldn't have imagined that the work I was doing with the private squads would have led to being an England head coach. So yeah, just, you know, putting yourself out there, I think, is probably a big piece of advice just for all coaches listening because, like I said, yeah, you never know where it can lead.

[Jamie]

Talking about never knowing where anything can lead and taking opportunities that come, is there anything that's coming up in the near future for yourself?

[Ryan]

Yeah, so I think something that's, you know, really exciting that we're working on as a coach development team at the moment is the UEFA B youth licence, which I think will really help to support those working with players who are developing and learning the game through childhood. You know, as we know, and we've spoken about before, it's a critical time in a person's life as they're growing up. So how we support them in their football environments is vital to help them become not just good players, but good people and ultimately set them up for whatever they go on to do in life. So I think the UEFA B Licence will really help coaches to do that. And it's a really exciting addition to our work. So that's a big project, which is something that's coming up, which is, you know, really exciting to be a part of.

[Louise]

Very exciting.

[Jamie]

Yeah. I look forward to seeing that. Well, Ryan, you've joined us today to give us a bit of an update about what you've been working on since you last spoke, but also to talk about effective communication, which is obviously a key skill for coaches to have. So I suppose to dive into this discussion, what does effective communication mean to you and why ultimately is it so important to be an effective communicator?

[Ryan]

Ultimately, effective communication is about positively impacting others through your words and your actions, but while also being able to carefully listen and process the thoughts and the opinions and actions of others. So, you know, I think if we summarise it like that, I think being an effective communicator aligns directly to a major part of, you know, what it means to be an effective coach or teacher, because, you know, as an educator it's so important to be able to positively influence the people you're working with, otherwise there's no point in being there. But, you know, some of the things we're going to talk about today I think it's it's really clear that you know how you communicate in order to get the best out of people may look very different depending on who you're working with and the environment you're in because you know as you know every single person you work with as a coach or a teacher is unique, so how you get the best out of them through your communication also has to be unique and I think that's what makes it such an amazing and powerful skill but probably also a difficult one and challenging one to master that can take many years and I know I certainly haven't got there yet in terms of mastering it but hopefully you know just some of the little things we talk about today can have positive influence on some of the coaches who are listening to think about their communication.

[Louise]

If we think about it in terms of your teaching and coaching background, Are there any differences in what communication looks like in each of those areas, would you say?

[Ryan]

It's a great question. I think, you know, whatever the environment, you know, the better you know the individuals you're working with, the better you can effectively communicate with them. If any of us take our everyday life, how we communicate with someone when we first meet them will probably be very different to how we will communicate with them if they became a close friend in 10 years because of everything that you get to know about them. And I think in terms of the two environments that I mentioned last time that In my experience, teaching and coaching have become much more aligned than when I was first starting out. And the communication element of that has played a massive part in that. Because, you know, when I was growing up, I saw coaches as people who, you know, would potentially scream and shout and were very big characters using primarily command style. Whereas a lot of my teachers maybe use different methods, such as question answer and guided discovery more. However, I think, you know, due to the influence of coaches like Gareth Southgate, Serena Beegman, Graham Potter, and the involvement of coach development, coaches have now used a variety of ways to get the best out of players and on the whole I think how coaches communicate with players might look very different now to how it used to, certainly when I was growing up which was a long time ago, but I think I see quality coaching now as much more of a two-way communication between the coach and the players, rather than the traditional way of a coach telling the players exactly what they want and the players just having to get on with it. And I think that plays a big part in the work we do with the coaches as part of our coach development work.

[Jamie]

You kind of mentioned it there, that in terms of that it took you a little while, maybe to kind of learn what communication is needed with your players and it's obviously a journey that we're still all going on. But I suppose I don't want to put words in your mouth for what this answer is, but I was just going to ask, did communication come easily to you when you first started teaching or was it a bit of a learning curve, I suppose?

[Ryan]

Definitely a learning curve. A lot of your communication comes from confidence as well, as well as knowing the people who you're communicating with, that confidence is an integral part of communicating effectively. So, you know, you've asked there about, you know, when I first started out and if I think back to when I first started teaching and those early classes that I had in front of me, I was certainly, you know, very nervous. I was thinking, I can't believe I've been trusted to, and given the responsibility to educate these people who were in front of me. And I think they were probably staring back looking at my face and thinking the same thing, to be honest. But as a result, I think not having a lot of confidence, I probably, my communication wasn't as effective as I would like to have been. If I think of, you know, just remembering one instance from my first year of teaching vividly that I think I still have nightmares about now. I was asked to teach an A-level PE theory class and I remember the lesson was about the body's aerobic and anaerobic energy systems and sub-maximal oxygen deficits and lactate accumulation. And you know, when I was at school myself, my school hadn't offered GCSE or A-level PE and science definitely wasn't one of my strongest subjects so to say I was lacking in confidence going into teaching this lesson was a bit of an understatement and you know I was just so I remember being just so worried that the students were gonna ask me lots of things that I didn't know the answer to. So as a result, I thought the best course of action was almost to learn the lesson like a script. And I remember there was absolutely no two way dialogue between me and the class because I was just petrified that if I gave them the slightest opportunity to ask me a question, I wouldn't know the answer to. So I just I talked to him like a robot for an hour and it must have been the most horrendous lesson to sit through, so I'll apologize now if there's any members of that A-level class who are listening today. Hopefully my communication's improved a little bit. I think, you know, it just highlights how important that confidence is, and you know, if you bring that back to coaching, if you're confident with what it is that you are delivering, that will allow you to communicate much more effectively. You know, whether that's providing fun games in a wildcat session, or up to preparing a professional team to defend in a low block ahead of a big game at the weekend, you know, that confidence in yourself and what you were doing allows you to communicate in a really positive way. And you know that particular experience that I referred to there also taught me that you know it's really important to be your authentic self and be comfortable with not knowing the answer to absolutely everything because players and pupils will soon see through you if you're trying to put on an act.

[Jamie]

Other than obviously trying to probably know the material a little bit and obviously giving things a try to gain a little bit more confidence, are there any other like quick top tips that our listeners or anyone who's watching this can take away to develop their communication skills.

[Ryan]

I think, you know, one of the biggest ones is to actually get feedback from the players that you're working with in terms of how they like to be communicated with. And again, I know I keep reiterating it, but you know, the more you get to know someone, the probably you'll find that out for yourself, but also getting feedback from the players. And, you know, I think there's definitely times where how you speak to one person or one player in your team might have to be different to another because of how they react to how you're speaking to them. So I think, you know, getting to know the players as best as possible and constantly asking them for feedback in terms of what's the best way of communicating and you know particularly you know we've talked about coaching disabled footballers and you know the fact that some of them might have you know additional needs and different ways that they need to be communicated in with but you might not know those unless you've actually found that out from them or the parents or the carers. So I think that's really important. So actually making it a two-way, you know, communication dialogue and understanding what's important for them and how best you can communicate with them individually is a really important skill to master but one that can be really beneficial to be an effective communicator.

[Louise]

I was just going to ask off the back of what you were saying before, if you were to go into that same situation where perhaps something had come to you quite quickly and you hadn't had a chance to read up all you needed to do about it or how would you approach a lesson like that now do you think?

[Ryan]

Yeah I think you know I mentioned I think about the importance of being authentic and honest and you know looking back now I was probably only about three or four years older than the class I was teaching then you know so going back into that environment and maybe being honest with them to start that I had been thrown in a little bit at the deep end in the fact that I was teaching a lesson that I wasn't particularly comfortable with, it was one of the first lessons I'd ever taught and, you know, probably that honesty with the class would have gone a long way and probably been a much more effective lesson because then we could have probably, you know, had different tasks, rather than me just standing at the front talking, it could have been a little bit more in terms of them, you know, finding things out for themselves and maybe, you know, presenting back to the group and things like that, which would have been a much more engaging lesson, I would imagine, for them than me reading my script out at the start of the front of the class and then being brought to tears. So, but again, you know, all these things in the coaching system will be the same, that all these things where it's communication or practice design or delivery all come from experience and, you know, I think it's important, you know, we often talk about that reflection and that reflection on what you're doing is so key because then that allows you to improve. And that's exactly the same for being an effective communicator. If you're reflecting on how you're communicating, then you can always probably find little things that you can do better to make it even more effective.

[Louise]

Yeah, definitely. It's always good looking at things in hindsight and seeing how you would change it. When you are talking to players, how important is it to be mindful of your body language? What do you say?

[Ryan]

Yeah, I think that it's vital. And I think the research suggests it's about, about 55% of your communication actually comes from your, your body language. So, you know, that, that's so important and, you know, I've mentioned play phase and that's something that we've really emphasised when creating the play phase philosophy because particularly with those initial interactions with our youngest children coming into the game, that can have such an impact on whether they want to stay in football or not. If I think back to my nephew and his early experience of football, He went to a few different clubs and sessions, but there was one that he loved more than any other and that wasn't because the coach was a tactical genius or knew the ins and outs of the high press. It was essentially because of the manner of the coach and was always so welcoming in terms of their communication and body language. He'd always greet every child with a massive smile and a name and a high five and, you know, from a body language point of view, be jumping around enthusiastically and having fun himself, which then that transferred onto the players. Whereas, you know, I think you'll know it yourselves If you see a coach who's maybe standing there with their hands in their pocket, slouched down, doesn't look very interested, then that's probably gonna rub off on the players and you're not gonna get the best out of them. I think in terms of body language, something that's really helped me was watching back videos of when I've been coaching. It can be a real eye-opener to what your body language looks like and how the players might be interpreting it. And I think that's something that can be a really effective tool if coaches get a chance to do that, because you probably do notice things that you think, oh, hang on, I can't believe I've been doing that. And that could have looked like this to a player when I didn't mean it to. So again, it's a little bit of self-assessment to help you improve. And again, from my own experience, something that really made me realise the power of body language was when I taught and coached in Spain for a couple of years, and I was either communicating in my second language or the player's second language. So that really emphasised how important your body was and actions were to actually get messages across because I didn't always have the words to actually say verbally what I wanted to do. So, you know, the actions and the body language actually, you know, were vital to be able to get those key things across.

[Louise]

Yeah, it's really interesting way of thinking about like how if you don't have words as the first thing to go to, your body is the kind of second backup.

[Jamie]

Yeah, and ultimately it does have a bit of a, you might not think it, but it does have a big impact on who's in front of you, who you're coaching realistically like say if you kind of slumped shoulders like hands in the pockets a little bit disinterested then how can we expect you know players to be interested and motivated in any sessions?

[Ryan]

Absolutely and I think it's the same isn't it when you know if you walk into any room then you know you'll look and you start to make judgments on people based on their body language about, you know, especially if you go into a room where you don't know people, you know, who is it you're gonna approach, who are you gonna speak to? And it's the ones who've got that open body language, you know, the smile, look like they're friendly and want to engage with you that you'll go to and I think you know remembering that like I said particularly when in the work done in play phase with those children who are four and five and probably the first experience of actually going to something and you know like that and that welcoming body language is so important to like I said make them want to keep coming back.

[Jamie]

Thinking of another kind of aspect of communication, what impact also can kind of like a changing tone, manner or even volume have when you're speaking to your players?

[Ryan]

Yeah, I think it's really important, particularly when you're out on the grass delivering a session, your tone, your manner, your volume, like you mentioned are really important. And I think, you know, again, going back to early in my career, maybe particularly when I was being observed or assessed and I've tried to be during a session constantly energetic and loud in order to impress, that's made the session become about me rather than the players. And the players have probably actually switched off to the information I was trying to give because I just became a constant noise in the background rather than varying things. So, if you can vary your tone and the volume throughout the session that can really help to dictate the tempo at appropriate times. So, you know, if I give an example, if I'm delivering, let's say, you know, an out of possession session, which involves me, which involves my players pressing, then at moments, if I want them to close the opposition down quickly and win the ball back, then that might be the time when I raise my voice. It might be a time when I encourage and speak quickly, and that'll dictate the tempo of what I want them to do. Whereas at times when I want them to maybe drop off and sit back, I might be more relaxed, a bit calmer, softer spoken in terms of a way of managing the situation. So I think the volume, the tone, the manner that you have can be vital in terms of actually dictating the tempo of the session. And then I think it's also important when, you know, when we're speaking to the players individually, you know, it goes back to something, you know, we keep mentioning about knowing the players and how you speak to each of those players individually, you know, and again, I've had players who, you know, if I've spoken to maybe with a raised, firmer voice because I need to get a message across, some might react in a way that motivates them, whereas others might react in a way where actually I don't like, I feel like I'm being criticised and that might affect the performance. And, you know, I think being mindful of your tone, your volume and your manner are critical in terms of developing groups of players, but also the relationships that you have with individuals as well. So yeah, I think along with body language, they're vital in terms of how we effectively communicate.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I think that's a really important point to take away there for anyone listening or watching is just like it is just getting to know your players and what gets the best out of them it's not a one kind of solution fits all like approach it is just knowing what's best for them and I think I've probably told this it said this example or this story before on the podcast in terms of like one little trick that I've, that I was kind of taught on the course before with a tone manner and volume was just like if you know people are maybe not paying attention a little bit or maybe a little bit excited and I think it was kind of like I think they told me just like to try and kind of lower like my voice like the volume sort of thing and then all of a sudden they kind of pick up a go we might actually be missing out on something here and funnily enough it did actually work doesn't mean it's going to work every time but people did actually come around and go oh actually you need to say something important here and we're actually missing out.

[Ryan]

Yeah absolutely and that's you know I think particularly having had you know 10 years as a teacher as well in the classrooms every day that you know those little tips and tricks you know are so important for getting the best out of classes. And I think also, linked to that, moments of silence can be really powerful as well. You can probably think about when you were at school as well, and I've still got this one teacher in my mind as well, that when they were silent, just stood at the front, everybody became silent because they knew, right, we need to listen now, because if they're silent, that means we have to be silent and I think it's you know it's the same when we're coaching a football session as well you know we've got to be able to give the players opportunities to make decisions for themselves and you know sometimes if we're constantly speaking then they don't get the opportunity to do that because it's like we're talking them through the game. So, and those moments of silence can be really powerful as well and gives you an opportunity to actually observe what's going on.

[Louise]

Just thinking as well, how tiring it could be to all just be at one level the whole time as a coach. So even giving you that, the difference in approach to things and levels and volumes and what have you, it's probably better for you as a coach to kind of just make sure you don't burn out halfway through.

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, again, going back to, you know, like I referred to, I certainly remember, you know, during my training year as a teacher and when someone was coming to observe me, and like I said, I was so kind of hyped up for it, and I was doing probably 10, 000 more steps than the kids were in the PE lesson because I was just everywhere and being energetic. But again, it just became constant noise to the children as opposed to actually listening to what I was saying because I was just in the background. And like you said, I was absolutely shattered after the lessons because of how much energy I put into it. Whereas, you know, we want to certainly use our communication to dictate the session or the lesson, but what we don't want is it to, you know, overcome everything else and be the session. So yeah, those moments of changing tone and volume and also silence are really important and getting it right at the right times.

[Jamie]

Talking about getting it right at the right times, do you have any tips to help people with their communication, whether it be tone, manner and volume or body language, on a match day? Because I appreciate a lot of people might find it stressful or in some cases, depending what the coaching context is to anybody listening or watching, that three points is actually, you know, that they're needing to go for, for instance. Like, do you have any tips just to be like, you know, to try and keep the consistency sort of thing of their communication, no matter whether it's training or matchday?

[Ryan]

You know, it's a great question that because I think match day can provide lots of different challenges to training, such as, there's probably a lot more eyes on a match day in terms of on you as a coach and what you were doing, there might be more pressure to get a result depending on the context, there might be nerves from you and the players. But, you know, it goes back to something we talked about earlier, which is I think it's really important to be yourself in both contexts, whether that's training or a match day, and being authentic. And it might feel, you know, quite tempting to feel like you've got to put on a show or a performance for the parents or the crowd who are watching. But it's worth remembering that a match day, particularly in youth football, is essentially just an extension of the player's development, like training. And it's not a separate entity, it's just another milestone in their development. So, I think remembering that and being authentic is really important and you know, set it forward, but your players will soon work out if you're not being yourself and you're putting on an act because they'll know you. So I think it's also, you know, like we touched on in training, it's also definitely possible to over-communicate on a match day as well. You know, whether that's to try and embed too many tactical messages before the game or at half time or even during the game. Just come to mind that I know I've had in the past where I've actually had a parent come up to me and say, it looked like I didn't care as much as the opposite opposition manager, because I was quite quiet on the touchline in relation to them. And I wasn't jumping around and screaming and shouting like they were. But my justification was that that's not my natural personality. If I suddenly started doing that, the players are going to wonder what's going on. And like we've said, we can't expect our players to become good decision makers if we are constantly talking them through the game and making decisions for them. But, you know, what we can do is use calm communication to guide them at appropriate times and, you know, have confidence in the work that you've done together prior to the match date. You know, you don't need to be giving all the information on the match day. Hopefully that's just seeing some of the things that you've worked on prior to it come out. So having those really high standards as well is something that's important. And you know, probably the critical thing is always reminding yourself that your communication is for your players and it's not for everybody else watching, it's for your players. So having that in your back of the mind I think will always help.

[Jamie]

It's a fascinating observation isn't it in terms of like some people's maybe opinions of like effective communication like you mentioned there is like people jumping up and down on the touchline you think about what you might see on match of the day sort of thing, like with the managers jumping up and down, shouting and some obviously don't. But I know obviously being a fan and being in the stands that some people's opinions of a manager on the touchline literally is how animated they actually are. But communication is so much more than that.

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think it's always remembering that as a coach you were there to help the players, whether that's you, whether you're winning 4-0 or losing 4-0. You know, I think, you know, when I was growing up as a player, I've had managers who and coaches who might be kicking water bottles and throwing things about when we've conceded a goal. For me as a player, that didn't really help because it just increased the negativity of the situation of conceding the goal. So staying calm is so important and that allows you to make some positive decisions to help the team. You mentioned I think a great example of that is managing emotions was Steve Holland during Euro 2024 when Nolwenn Oli Watkins scored the last-minute winner in the semi-final. He didn't start celebrating wildly, he remained really calm and started discussing with Gareth what substitutions needed to be made in order to secure the game in the last couple of minutes. Now if he'd been celebrating running up and down the touchline then he wouldn't have been able to do that. So probably the message would be to remember the bigger picture of the whole game and try not to get caught up in individual moments, which is certainly difficult on a match day, especially if you're in an environment where results are so important. It's certainly a challenge to do that, but if you can, and like Steve Holmes, it's one of the most critical moments and high profile moments to be able to do that I think is an amazing skill and remembering that bigger picture will give you that clarity of mind to be able to make some positive decisions and ultimately to help the players. And you know something again linked to what I mentioned earlier around helping yourself to be able to do that. Something I've done is, you know, just have a little start an audio note on your phone when you're coaching with a microphone and, you know, on the way home listening to some of the things that you might have said and again, that can be a very powerful learning experience. It can also, you know, you might hear things, think, oh, I'm not sure, you know, how the player might have interpreted that, or I can't believe I said that, I don't even remember saying that. But, you know, again, it's another powerful tool in terms of reflecting on how you're communicating. So that can be really useful, even if it is a little bit, makes you cringe a little bit when you are listening back to it.

[Louise]

On the topic of like listening or listening back to yourself, would you say that to be an effective communicator, that being a good listener is also really important?

[Ryan]

To be honest, I don't think you can be an effective communicator without being a good listener and I think it's not just listening to what people say, but also, you know, we talked about body language and actually listening to their body language and what they are doing. We need to be able to understand the players' wants and needs in order to give them the best possible experience and you know observing the players and listening to the feedback that they're giving can take a bit of bravery but it can also allow you to give them that better experience. I think we've all probably you know all the coaches have probably been there when you know you're in the middle of a session and you say, right, we're doing this practice or this activity next and you see a few players' heads drop or they start to moan and groan and that probably tells you everything you need to know about what to think of it. But then, you know, On the other hand, the best feeling is a player runs up to you and says, oh, can we do this that we did last week? Because that's ultimately the body language and what they're saying is telling you, right, well, they enjoyed that. Let's, can we incorporate that into what we're doing again? And I think that listening skill and listening to the players and actually taking on board what they say is also brilliant for developing positive relationships with them, because it's showing the players that you actually care about what they are feeling. It's not just all about you and what you think. It's actually about them. And a couple of examples from my work in PE, we often talk about pupil choice and voice. Same within play phase, giving children the ownership in terms of the task that they might be doing, in terms of equipment that they might be playing with, or opportunities to create their own games. We've mentioned earlier as well about coaching disabled footballers and understanding players' needs in general, but maybe particularly with disabled players who might need you to listen to information about them, which could really help you to help them and it might be something that you haven't actually thought about. I think, you know, probably one of the other things we can listen to is actually why the players are there in the first place and I think, you know, particularly when they get to kind of secondary school age, they can be there for very different reasons. You know, you might have some who are there who, you know, are there because they have ambitions to be a professional in the game. You might have others there when they get to 12, 13, they were there just because they enjoy kicking the ball ball with the mates and that's what that's what we're there for and so understanding that and listening to why they're actually there can can help you to shape their learning experience and tailor it to them so it's you know it's what they want to get out of it so you know that listening like we said whether it's listening to what they're verbally saying or listening to body language and their actions is so important and a massive part of the effective communication that we're talking about.

[Jamie]

So we've kind of covered body language, we've talked about listening and kind of like manner, tone, volume. There's a lot of stuff for people to take in there when it comes to communication. So if you was to kind of summarize it into, and this might be difficult, I'm not saying that it's going to be easy, but if you was kind of summarize it into like, what's the most important thing that for a coach kind of remember when they're going to communicate with their players?

[Ryan]

I think it's something that we've talked about a lot, but I'd say the most important thing is knowing who you are communicating with. So, which sounds really simple, but the better you know the players or the pupils that you're working with, the better you understand what their wants and needs are, then the better you can communicate with them. So again, it sounds really simple, but my advice would be that if you know who you are communicating to, then you can communicate with them much more effectively than if you don't. So just getting to understand as much about them as possible will really help. So I'd say that probably the most important thing in terms of communication because like you said right at the start, everybody's unique, everybody's an individual, so everybody needs communicating to and with in unique and individual ways. So the more we know about a person, the better we can do that.

[Jamie]

And is that kind of key to, I suppose, like being able to actually plan for communication? And if so, is that actually something that you do yourself?

[Ryan]

Yeah, I'd say that's probably one of the biggest changes or things that has evolved in my own planning process from where I started out in terms of actually, you know, planning questions and incorporating those into what it is that I'm delivering. You know, whether these might be, you know, whole group question and answers, parts in the session to gauge the understanding of a topic or there might be individual questions or interventions, you know, based on the position or the role that you're asking them to play in the system. And I think that's something that, you know, not just personally, but it's been great to see more and more over recent years when observing coaches is, you know, as coaches using like drive-by interventions during sessions to speak to players one-on-one as the game continues rather than, you know, stopping the whole session. And again, something I was definitely guilty of at the start of my career was saying, stop, stand still too often, and then giving an instruction to just one or two players, while the rest of them stood around there getting cold and bored and probably disengaging with the session. And, you know, we've probably already been there when you're in a session, that's the worst thing you can hear as a player is, right, stop, stand still, because you just want to play. And so those little drive-by interventions and planned questions and topics of conversation that you can have with individual based on their own needs is vital. And in my role, I'm fortunate to get to work and observe lots of coaches and that's something I'm seeing more and more often is actually planned interventions within within the session plan so it's not just the coaching points it's not just what practices I'm going to do but it's actually right these some questions that I might ask at this point in the session these the questions that I'm going to ask to this individual to gauge their understanding and you know, I think that's really really important part of part of the planning and delivery process to be an effective coach.

[Louise]

It's almost really helpful as well to know when you're going to do those things So you're not having to be everywhere all at once and kind of communicating with everybody in all different ways. You could almost like plan that you're gonna do some bits of communication with some people and talk about some things on one session and then different things on another.

[Ryan]

Probably something that, you know, probably I haven't reiterated enough today, is that power of observation in order to be able to effectively communicate. And, you know, as a lot of the coaches who are listening will know, we use the six capabilities and these can be a really powerful framework to use just to actually, you know, spend a couple of minutes actually just watching a player and you know while watching them either in a game or in training we can then give them some really specific feedback for them. So you know for example you might watch a player for two minutes in in training and you might notice that the player is misplacing passes because of something like you know the position of their body when they strike the ball, for example, or they might be getting caught in possession when they receive because they haven't taken information in through scanning before the ball arrives. So, gathering that information then allows you to go in and speak to that player and communicate with the player to help them and adapt what they're doing so that they can have more success. So, you know, I think again giving yourself the opportunity to actually gather information which can help you to communicate is really key as well and not just going in with a predetermined right I'm going to get this across this across this across it's a case of right well what information can you give them How can you communicate them based on what it is that you're actually seeing? And, you know, other methods that we might use, you know, setting like clear success criteria for a session So that you and the players, and we mentioned it right at the start in the top tips in terms of if you've got some clear objectives, then they're really clear about what it is that they're going after. And I think it's also worth remembering that the communication doesn't always have to come from you as the coach. You know, if the players have a clear understanding of what you are looking for, then they can start to peer assess and help each other to get better by giving appropriate feedback. So then the communication, you know, increases by tenfold because then they can all communicate and help each other as opposed to you just helping individuals or groups at a time.

[Louise]

It's really useful to hear that there are lots of different ways that you can do it and just make people think about the ways that they might approach different situations. How would you know which method to use and when? Is it just by experience or is this kind of a rule that you go by?

[Ryan]

You know, a lot of it does come from, like you said, experience. Again, going back to the players, the individuals, the groups that you've worked with, how much opportunity you've had to work with them. You know, in a lot of cases it might be, you know, questioning and answering based on previous work that you've done with them. If it's a group that you're working with for the first time, it might be a little bit of question and answer based on just to gauge where what their starting point is, you know, a little bit of guided discovery in terms of not giving them all the answers but helping them to get there themselves. Whereas, you know, sometimes there might be those occasions and particularly in performance environments where, you know, you've got 15 minutes at half time, if you need to get messages to the players, then you're going to be very much command style, right, I want you to do this, this, this and this in the second half. So I think it's very much based on context in terms of what's the best method at the most appropriate time. And again, you know, understand individuals, where they're at in terms of their moment in learning, and how much you've had the opportunity to work with that group or that squad of players. And I think probably one message you get across based on that question is that it's not a case of, right, I'm a command-style coach, or I'm a question-and-answer coach. It's having that toolkit so that you can use lots of different methods and using the appropriate ones at different times is a really valuable skill to be able to employ.

[Jamie]

So Ryan, we've talked about quite a lot of things and shared a lot of tips to help people with the communication skills, but one thing that we've not really touched on that will likely impact how you communicate with your team is kind of the ageing stage that you're actually working with. So can you give us some tips to help our audience communicate effectively when they're working with different age groups?

[Ryan]

Yeah I'd say probably the most critical thing is that age appropriate language. I think particularly you know in football environments when we're talking about technical and tactical elements of the game. You know, if we take some, you know, some terms or phrases that, you know, things like press, squeeze up, switch, pivot, you know, they probably aren't going to mean much to the youngest players. So it's important that to make our language clear, simple and understandable for the players that we've got in front of us. One of my favourite play phase games is Sharks and Fishes, which from a tactical point of view is essentially developing compactness as a defensive unit, but a five-year-old doesn't need to hear that. All they need to know is that if they work with the other sharks and stay close together, then it's going to be hard for the fish to swim through them. So later on in their journey, then we can start to introduce more specific terminology and concepts as and when they're ready. And that age and stage is so important and knowing what interests they might have outside of football as well. This can really help you in terms of introducing exciting themes into your sessions and communicate messages in different ways. Another one we use working with Key Stage 1 teachers is something called an aeroplane game, where the players have got to get past air traffic controllers who are chasing after them, giving them speeding tickets and they've got to look after their passenger which is the ball. Again, essentially it's developing lots of attacking and defending principles but as far as those children in year one are concerned, they're just aeroplanes flying about from airport to airport as fast as they can. So it's really, really important to make sure that we are being as appropriate as possible in terms of language. And, you know, from my own experience, and it springs to mind, when I taught at an international school and I actually taught PE from reception class, so the four-year-olds, right up to sixth form. And I actually had a day on my timetable where I taught reception first lesson, then I was teaching sixth form, then year one, and then back to sixth form. And so constantly adapting my communication to speak to four and five-year-olds and then to 18-year-olds and you know Six Forms would soon let you know if your sports alumni are five years old. It's again probably another example of you know adapting to speak to different groups and it's the same as anything in life isn't it you know how you speak at work might be different to how you might speak to your family, you might be able to speak to friends and you know you're constantly adapting how you communicate and I think football environments are exactly the same.

[Louise]

Yeah it's a really good way of, I bet that was a big learning curve that day in particular but really interesting thinking of it in those terms, like if you were to switch between how would you, what would you change and how would you change it? So we heard earlier about your work with the para teams, so it'd be really good to get some of your insight on this. So for any coaches who have players with additional needs, do you have any further useful tips to help them communicate effectively with their players?

[Ryan]

Yeah, I think the message, you know, would be to understand the needs of the players by speaking to them and their parents and the carers and maybe learning as much as possible about them and their additional needs. You know, as part of our new coaching disabled footballers online module, we have a range of support cards and resources for a variety of disabilities which, you know, provide information on the disability and also on methods to help the person who might have that disability in a football environment. So you know some of those examples that we've referred to might be things like structure boards or like pictures as methods of communication so players can see exactly what's going to be happening in the session and in what order without verbally telling them. Also we use things like Emojicon cards so the players can let you know in a non-verbal way how they might be feeling so that can really help you in terms of managing them in the session. Other ones you know such as BSL for deaf players or, you know, making sure that the player is in front of you at all times. If the deaf player lip reads, obviously in deaf football, things like flags are used instead of whistles and something else, which is amazing within the pirate teams, we use an app so that, you know, we have a microphone and what we are saying comes up on a screen in real time, which is amazing technology for the deaf players and has made communication, you know, take it to the next level. And, you know, last time I was on, we talked a lot about colour blindness. So again, using appropriate colours when communicating with players is really important, especially when referring to tactics boards or bibs. And there are obviously, you know, hundreds of hints and tips for effectively communicating with different, you know, different needs of players. So my main advice would be to speak to the player, find out what works for them and have a look at the coach disabled footballs workshop which says it's got lots of you know free to access ideas and resources which I think can can really help coaches.

[Louise]

Yeah brilliant, thank you.

[Jamie]

Right well looking back at everything we've discussed which we've covered quite a lot in the time so thank you very much for that Ryan. Can you kind of summarize the key top tips on communication that you would like all of the listeners to take away today?

[Ryan]

Yeah so I think my top three tips would be to ensure that communication with players is a two-way process, so you are listening to their thoughts, their feelings, their feedback to make it a real positive and player-centered environment. I think number two would be keep your messages clear and concise, using that age and stage appropriate language we've talked about, remembering that every player is an individual with their own unique communication needs and you know finally I'd say constantly seek feedback and reflect on your communication in order to help make it even more effective. And this can be getting feedback from other coaches, from your players, or through things like we've mentioned, like videoing yourself or audio recordings, and always looking to improve yourself and your communication methods even further.

[Louise]

Perfect. And if we were to ask you to set our listeners a challenge or something to kind of get them to help start improving their communication a little bit, What would you suggest that they do?

[Ryan]

It's probably something that, you know, we have mentioned a few times today, but I think it's something that I didn't start to do until later in my coaching career, which was actually at the end of sessions or even during sessions, actually ask the players, right, well, what do you think of that? What, you know, if we were going to do that again, what would you want me to do differently? And again, you know, it takes a little bit of bravery to do that because, you know, particularly children can be very honest with you, but, you know, that's what you need. And I think it's exactly the same when it comes to communication and actually seeking the feedback from the players and you'll work out maybe players within the squad who will give you that honest feedback. And so you can say about, right, during halftime, did the messages that I want to get across, did I get those across or not? And if the answer is yes, brilliant. If it's no, then right, well, what could I have done better to get that message across? And so, yeah, my challenge would be to put yourself out there, show a little bit of bravery and actually ask your players in terms of, well, what's my communication like? What does my body, what messages does my body language say to you when I'm on the sideline? Or what messages does my body language send to you when you first arrive? And I would imagine that the coach listener will, you know, probably get some interesting things back, just like I've done when I've done that but again it can be really powerful and allow you to reflect and really help you to improve how you are communicating with the players.

[Louise]

Yeah so be brave and give it a go.

[Ryan]

You do have to be brave when you get an honest opinion from players Especially if you've just lost a game as well. Yeah. Yeah.

[Louise]

It would be really interesting to find out, you know, what kind of feedback people are getting and how it makes them feel and what they decide to do with it next. So yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Do let us know if you've given it a go.

[Jamie]

Yeah, feel free to share in the comments how that's gone. Well, Ryan, we are coming up to the end of the show now, and you've just given our listeners a bit of a challenge. We're going to end on a challenge for yourself because it is time for our Swift Session feature.

[Louise]

Yeah. So you've done this before. So it's not new to you, but a 30 second challenge to explain to us a session idea in those 30 seconds. So you up for giving it a go again?

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

[Louise]

When the music starts, you can begin.

[Ryan]

So I'm going to share a session on the subject of today, which is effective communication, and it's a brilliant game for players to effectively communicate and develop that. So it's one week off, three in a row. So to picture it, just think of human noughts and crosses. You've got two teams of three players in a three by three box grid, just like knots and crosses. Both teams start in the middle of the square. And when you say go, they've got to work together to communicate with each other and be the first team to get in a line of three in any direction to win that round.

[Louise]

Perfect. Fantastic. Oh, brilliant. That was

[Jamie]

a good idea. Thanks for that Ryan. And thank you once again for joining us online today and giving us an insight into both what you've been up to, but also like, you know, some really, really fascinating and really good insight on your communication methods and some top tips to be able to share with everyone so yeah thank you very much for that.

[Ryan]

No you're welcome and thank you very much for having me back on, I really appreciate it. Anytime.

[Jamie]

Absolutely anytime like you say, hopefully we'll soon have you on for your hat trick appearance.

[Ryan]

Absolutely, I'll look forward to it.

[Jamie]

Right well that's all we have time for today but don't forget to check out the 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.