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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. We're Jamie and Cody and today we're joined by Conal Murnin who's here to talk about becoming an effective coach and being the best version of yourself. Well hi Conal, welcome to the show for the first time, how are you?

[Conal]

Yeah good thanks, thanks very much for having me.

[Cody]

Yeah thank you so much for joining us Conal, it's great to have you on. Our avid webinar attendees will know your face for the first time for the podcast listeners tell us about who you are and what you do here.

[Conal]

Yes my role here at the FA is coaching and learning developer so I've been in this role and full-time since June of last year before that I was a casual coach developer delivering on UA for C and UA for B licenses for the FA. And then since stepping into this role, I sit within the team that looks at designing resources and courses that support learning for coaches at all levels of the game, whether it be the webinars like you mentioned Cody, or courses right through to our UA for B and UA for A diplomas as an example. So yeah, I'm involved in lots of different moving parts within learning experience in the game.

[Jamie]

Love that. Thank you very much. Just before we dive into the main part of the show, as this is a coaching podcast, we always like to give coaches some top tips to start the show with.

[Cody]

Yeah, absolutely. This is called our rival activity. So we'd like to challenge you to give us as many top tips as you can within 30 seconds. Are you up for that challenge?

[Conal]

Absolutely. Let's try it.

[Cody]

Beautiful. Okay, well, like I said, in 30 seconds, your time starts now.

[Conal]

Cool. When you're planning start with the end in mind. Have a really clear focus on what you want to coach and what you're going after. But at the same time don't try to coach every player and everything at the same time. If you're smiling and enjoying yourself then chances are your players will as well. So a big message is don't forget to enjoy it. You're never going to get everything right so don't worry too much about trying to do that. Be kind on yourself in terms of making mistakes and just try and always be open to learning and growing. I think that's a really important mindset to have within coaching.

[Jamie]

Absolutely smashed that. By the way, you did that so calmly and effectively. That is incredible.

[Cody]

That felt really, really good.

[Jamie]

Well, Conal, you've had an array of experiences in your career so far, coaching at university, going on to work for the likes of Chelsea and Fulham, as well as previously being a coach developer here at the FA. So reflecting on your experiences, what does personal effectiveness mean to you?

[Conal]

Personal effectiveness is ultimately how we show up as coaches. So it's not about just what we know technically and tactically, but also our ability to connect with players, our ability to communicate with those around us and kind of manage ourselves to the best of our ability as coaches, whether that be looking after your wellbeing, which I'm sure we'll discuss across this conversation, managing your time, which is sometimes a big challenge for coaches and ultimately just trying to have the best impact you can on your players so trying to pull all of your experiences together to have the most positive impact that you can every time you work with your players.

[Cody]

Yeah wonderful answer and I think a bit that stood out to me it was early on you said about communication. I was going to ask you if you could pick up on what you think effective communication looks like, maybe not only to players but the wider atmosphere and environment.

[Conal]

Yeah, I mean as coaches we're not only just communicating with players right, no matter what level or context you work in you'll be communicating with parents, with other stakeholders within the clubs, whether that be communicating upwards to senior staff or communicating with your fellow coaches around you. For me, effective communication is communication that meets the receiver kind of where they are. So you wouldn't talk to an academy manager in a one-to-one meeting in the same way you would talk to an eight-year-old who's coming to their first ever football session. So kind of tailoring your approach to meet the kind of needs of the person you're talking to. I also think something that has become really important for me across my journey is that communication, we often think about the speaking aspect and maybe less about the listening aspect. And I think particularly when you're working with players, you can pick up so much from just actually pausing to listen, what they have to say. Players will sometimes be really honest with you as well, particularly young players. So there's scope there to receive feedback and take that on. I also think to communicate effectively in moments where you might be having difficult conversations or challenging conversations with players or with colleagues or with parents, it's important to kind of have a plan before you go into that conversation, but then also like reflect on it afterwards to be able to learn from it and be able to communicate as effectively as possible the next time that scenario might arise.

[Jamie]

Of that. So we talked about communication. What do you think are any of the core components that make a coach effective?

[Conal]

I think relationships is a massive one, so being able to build relationships with those around you. A lot of my experiences are within the youth game and the ability to connect with and inspire young people is really, really important. It's a bit of a cliche and it's a thrown around statement, but people generally don't really care who you are or what you know until you show them that you care about them and that you can have their best interests at heart. So yeah, that relationship piece is massive. I also think being able to kind of adapt and be comfortable in different environments and being able to react to situations when they arise is also really important. We work in a game that is constantly evolving and changing, but also at the same time, week to week, session to session, the number of players you have will change, the number of session venues might change, the weather will change, and being able to adapt and react in those moments is really important. And then I guess another bit is, and this bit is quite tough, but it's been something over the last couple of years that I've tried to really zoom in on, I guess, within my own practices, like that's the sense of self-awareness. So like who you are as a person and how that translates as a coach, but then also being aware of what your strengths are and how you bring those to the fore and use those to develop your confidence. Then also identify what your areas for development are as well. I said at the start in the top tips like you're never going to get everything right and you're never going to know everything. So it's important to be aware of what those areas for development are and be able to ask for help because ultimately if you develop and build on your areas for development it only increases your effectiveness. So those are probably some of the most key components I would say.

[Cody]

I mean I think it's super interesting that the question was posed is what makes a coach effective or what components do that and then you've outlined a lot of personable skills, more relationship building, more communication things. So would you say it's more important to be able to have an impact on your players than having that technical and tactical knowledge or is there a balance you've got a strike in there somewhere?

[Conal]

There's definitely a balance. Ultimately we exist as coaches to support players to get better as people but also to help them get better as footballers so that technical and tactical knowledge is certainly important. What I would say on that is we live in an age now where information is really readily available. So someone could download a session plan off the internet and kind of go and deliver it to players and be able to identify what the key technical and tactical knowledge is. But in terms of delivering that session most effectively, I think a lot of those personal characteristics are really important and sometimes it can be an area that we maybe neglect or forget to focus on because we get so caught up in the technical and tactical detail which is like I've said really really important but ultimately how you transfer that detail to your players is what is how that comes to life is through those personal characteristics.

[Jamie]

We'll say if anybody's wanting to download any session plans, please do check out our website, England Football Learning, plenty on there for you. Just thinking about one of the core components you mentioned in terms of that building relationships. Do you have any top tips for anybody tuning in today how they can start connecting with their players effectively?

[Conal]

I think one of the biggest steps when building a relationship with anybody in this context, whether it be players or coaches or staff, is just to acknowledge that there's a relationship to be built there and that takes time. Certainly early on in my coaching journey, if I deliver a session with players for the first time, I was thinking, oh, that player doesn't like me or that player didn't warm to me, why are they not responding? But sometimes these things take time to really build strong relationships. So acknowledging that that is part of the process is really important. Trying to get to understand them as people, like what goes on in their day-to-day lives. My current coaching role, I coach an under-ten group and before training they arrive for signing and we have like a ten-minute period with them before we even go down to the pitches to train. That ten minutes is really important to just ask them stuff not about football, connect it into what's happening at home for them, what's happening in school. Can you find out what they're learning in school, maybe ask them some questions about that. Some of them take part in other sports and just being generally inquisitive about what it is that goes on in their lives and who they are. Some players will respond really quickly to that and will open up quite quickly. There's often the ones that maybe don't respond or don't engage straight away that you have to just kind of gently keep going with and keep trying to build that relationship. And then also, like I said earlier, in terms of communication being as much about listening as it is about talking, I think being open and approachable and players and parents knowing that you're open to conversation, they feel comfortable coming up to you and sharing stuff. I think that's the kind of end goal we're all working towards in terms of players feeling that it's not just you speaking to them, they can come and bring stuff to you as well because the relationship works both ways.

[Jamie]

So yeah, I imagine Cody, obviously you're coaching as well as yourself, I imagine that's a powerful thing there, being able to have an effective relationship where it is open and both players and parents and yourselves working together.

[Cody]

Yeah, I think Connor mentioned it earlier, I think it's, like you said, a powerful tool, but your players won't listen to you necessarily about the technical and tactical stuff that we've said is important, unless you show them that you care in the first place or the parents see that you care with their children. So when they turn up to the session and you ask them, oh, how was that math stuff you mentioned to me last week? It resonates really well with both player and parent because you've remembered the little detail about them which shows you care. So they're more likely to then listen to your coaching points that you deliver in the session.

[Conal]

Yeah, definitely. I think it also comes back to the kind of environment you're looking to create as well. I coach at an academy environment and at times it's quite high pressured. The parents are bringing their kids three, four times a week to be part of this environment. And my attitude to it is that this should always be, it should still be the highlight of their week. And we play a massive part in that in terms of the environment we create. And it's very easy in that environment to get caught up in the football, which sounds a bit silly, but you forget that these are still nine, ten, eleven year old kids who are still going through the same stuff that their friends are going through in school and us being able to connect with them over that sort of stuff is also really, really, really important as well as all the football stuff.

[Jamie]

So something that you've also already mentioned is being adaptable, which is key for being an effective coach. So what are some of the common challenges that coaches may face during training or match day and how might we overcome them?

[Conal]

Yeah, I mean the most common one that happens every single session, it's really rare that it doesn't happen, is the number of players you expected to turn up don't turn up. So yeah, I've got a squad of what 14, 15 players, and it's quite rare that you get all 14, 15. So being able to plan for those eventualities is important. So when I'm planning sessions now, I'll have a conscious think of thinking right, I've planned for 14 but what does it look like if 12 turn up, what does it look like if ten turn up. Doesn't mean you're doing three different session plans but just having a kind of an awareness of it and a kind of backup plan in your head if the players don't turn up. Another common problem is like if the weather is bad and sessions get cancelled or games get cancelled and all of a sudden you're backlogged later in the season when games get rearranged and how you kind of adapt to maybe having going from having one session and one game a week to two games in a week and how you still support players to learn within that. And then also if like grassroots, whenever I coach grassroots, I remember quite regularly in the in the winter months, you would get either like shifted indoor or you'd end up indoor sharing a sports hall with four other four other groups. And there's always kind of if there's pinch points or touch points in the season where you know things might change at the last minute, not necessarily having to plan three or four different sessions or have a really detailed plan in the back of your mind. It's just being consciously aware of what might change and what might happen. I think another big thing within coaching has probably been one of the biggest developments in my practice in recent years is being adaptable enough to coach what's in front of you rather than coaching the plan. So I think when I first started coaching, certainly my confidence came from almost hiding behind the session plan a little bit going, I've planned this in really good detail. This is my comfort blanket now. Whereas in actual fact, a lot of the skill in coaching for me has been adaptable to go, this is what I planned, this is what I'm actually seeing in front of me in terms of what the players are doing or what they might need. Do they need to be progressed quicker? Do they need to be maybe pulled back a little bit and make things simpler for them? So the ability to adapt within sessions is really important. Avid webinar listeners will know that we talk a lot about the step principle and stuff like that and that can be a real good tool to use to adapt your practices, whether it's just like manipulating space, manipulating the task or the number of players. And again, I think that's a really useful way of being able to adapt quite quickly without having to, like I said, have four or five different session plans for different eventualities because nobody has the time to do that and so simple things like that can help.

[Cody]

Sorry to put you on the spot a little bit yeah but I'm now thinking to our you know if our listeners are tuning in and they're resonating with what you're saying but they're not quite sure what the answer is. So for example if we think about the step principle and you were doing a session on let's say some in-possession core skills, what sort of things could you do to make that session easier or harder or just adapt it in the moment?

[Conal]

Yeah so say you've planned for ten players to show up and you've got a 5v5 and you get one drop out, That's always the classic one, you get one draw by your numbers are there, therefore uneven. I think a lot of the time we try to fall back on like having even teams and sometimes it's actually okay to just overload one team and play like a 5v4 because that presents different pictures for players, different challenges and stuff like that. It might be if you've got the luxury of a co-coach or someone that you can work with and lean back on. It might be if you have more players than you're expecting, as an example, you might break the game into two and do two separate practices. You might do like a carousel approach where you create two or three different stations and players rotate around if you get pretty big numbers. So there are kind of, I guess, some different, there's probably the P aspect of Step within there and also the S aspect. I've seen it before, I've gone out and supported coaches when I was a coach developer delivering courses, like they, coaches will sometimes plan a space, like a pitch size or an area size for their practice and if they get less players they might still do the same practice with less players in the same size of an area, which is fine but just being aware of what the trade-offs of that might be. So players have to cover larger distances, players might find it more difficult to press, there might be more space for the attackers, it might make it a little bit easier for them, which are all fine things, just being aware of what the trade-offs of those might be. Like I said, the step principle is a pretty good tool to be able to utilise to adapt things live and in the moment. Another thing I would say is that you don't have to do all the adapting before you get the players going or before the session starts. So it might be that you are doing a session with ten players, one gets injured and then one has to go home early and all of a sudden you're left with eights. You don't have to pause the practice and let the players stand around for ten minutes whilst you run around moving cones. You can do it as they're playing, you can use people who are around you as well to help out and try and maximise that ball rolling time.

[Cody]

Yeah I mean we can even utilise our players as well can't we to move the areas and stuff like especially to look at that E of the step principle. So we're going to move on slightly, there's a question more about how to support the best version of ourselves for player development. So what are some strategies and tools that we can use to help ourselves be the best version of ourselves on the grass or outside of that actually as well?

[Conal]

Yeah, good question. I think it's important to acknowledge that coaching is not easy. Like we do in the moment love it. It's what our passion is and it's we feel most kind of alive and energized when we're on the grass with players. But it's important, it's not an easy thing. There's lots of things that occupy our heads as coaches in terms of when you're out delivering a session, we've all experienced it, like what are parents thinking? What are senior management thinking? If you're in an academy environment, what's actually affecting the players as much as possible. So it's important to acknowledge that it is a hard thing and to not be too yourself and to not, I guess, chase perfection all the time because you're never going to get everything right. But there's certainly for me some things we can do to try and enhance our personal effectiveness. I think time management is a massive one. Everyone, whether you do this full time for a living or whether you volunteer as a grassroots coach, we're all strapped for time. People are really busy live. And I think something you can do to help yourself with that is to try and minimize the amount of planning you have to do by kind of maximizing the practices you've already designed or the practices you've already done. So rather than designing an entirely new session or entirely new practices week to week, which can take up quite a bit of time, it's perhaps how you recycle practices you use before, recycle stuff the players will have experienced before and stuff that you might already have a written plan of. The way I plan is I plan all my sessions on a PowerPoint, so I've got a slide deck of the feature of all the sessions I've delivered across the last, since the start of the season. So quite rarely do I have to go in and create a brand new slide, if that makes sense. I can just duplicate one from earlier in the season and tweak things depending on what the topic is or tweak things depending on what stage of the week it is, how many players you've got, who the individual focus is for that session. Now for that kind of decreases your time you spend planning. So you get, you free up yourself and get a little bit more time and perhaps feel a little bit less under pressure in terms of time. I also think a big thing to try and do is ask for help. Like if you need it, I'm the luxury of my role where there's two or three of us that plan the session together, deliver the session together and reflect on it, but not everyone has that. So it might be that. I remember when I was coaching grassroots, often you'd be coming onto the pitch immediately after a group has just finished beforehand, you've got no time to set up, then how do you either maximise a pair and or they get the players going themselves to either help you set up or get them doing something whilst you're setting up your practices as an example. I think on asking for help, I think in order to maximize our kind of effectiveness, it's important, like I said at the start, to kind of develop a self-awareness of what are your strengths and what are your areas for development. So it's important, I think, to try and take a zoomed out approach of who you are as a coach, and that's really hard to do on your own. So my advice to coaches is get people that you trust or get people whose opinion you value to come and have a little look at you. They don't have to be an expert in football coaching by any means, but they can come and have a watch and kind of give you some feedback and that might help you to become aware of stuff that you maybe don't see yourself when you're in the thick of it as a coach.

[Jamie]

Talking about reflection and being self-aware as well, what should coaches be reflecting on regularly and how can people use reflection to evolve themselves as a coach?

[Conal]

Yeah, reflection is really important for me. It's just as important as planning. I think if you plan and deliver a fantastic session, you aren't really gonna take away and learn from it unless you spend some deliberate time reflecting on it. And again, this links into what I said before around trying to minimize the time you spend doing things. So previously when I was reflecting I used to kind of drive home from the session. I spent the whole time driving home thinking about the session. Then when I got home I went okay now I have to reflect and maybe write some stuff down. Whereas now I used to drive home to reflect and I'll do like a voice recording of my reflections from the sessions. You kind of kill two birds with one stone as you're traveling home. When I reflect on my sessions, there's kind of three main things I reflect on, that's the practices, the players and my behaviours. So how did the practices work that I designed? What was the space like? What was the impact of the practices and the design of the practices on the players, was it the impact that I'd intended or was it a different impact altogether? I think it's important to reflect on your practices because then when you go to reuse them another time in the season you can then make a note and say, oh maybe next time you do that you might increase the space a little bit or you might decrease the size of the playing area or change a rule or a scoring system as an example. When reflecting on the players, that's more around how they responded in the session and maybe if there was any like standard individuals who maybe excelled or maybe found it quite easy and then how we might stretch them further in the future. Maybe there was some individuals who maybe struggled a little bit either technically or perhaps behaviour wise or engagement wise. You kind of make a note on that, what was it that maybe made them engage or made them not engage and how do you action that for next time. And then the exact same for reflecting on my behaviour. So firstly, how did I behave in the session overall? Was it I kind of stepped back and let the players play and it was more of an observation, speaking to individuals type thing. Was it getting in the middle of the session and not only reflecting on what your behaviours were but what was the impact of that. And that helps kind of inform in the future when you go, oh well last time when I asked that player two or three questions it kind of confused them and they didn't respond well to it. Oh, but I gave that player a lot of praise and actually that had a really, really positive impact on their kind of engagement. Making a note of that and kind of being aware of that will just massively help you next time you go to deliver a session because you've taken away some really key learnings there.

[Cody]

I think like with any learning, being deliberate is a word you use, which I really like there. So actually writing them down, it will help you remember it for next time. Even if it's not something that you do return to the next week or the week after, you writing it down, you want to sit in the back of your mind and go, oh, that player reacted really well to this, so I might just subconsciously do it again. It might be something that you look for within the practice but it might just be there in the back of your conscience going well we've actually reflected on that so it might come back out again.

[Conal]

Yeah I think something that would be a tip I would give coaches is you can reflect on everything you can spend a long time reflecting and not all of it is going to be massively useful. So if you're struggling to kind of get a real succinct impactful reflection on your previous session, previous practice, try and challenge yourself to come up with like one action point from your, from your session. So what is it that I'm A. Going to do the same next time or B. I might potentially do differently.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Love that. To also be your best self as a coach, is it also vital to look after yourself and your own wellbeing? And if so, How can you do that?

[Conal]

Yeah, it's really important. The reason I laugh is because any coaches you speak to throughout the season, there's moments where they might feel tired or there's moments where you almost feel like you're kind of limping towards the end of the season. But it's yeah, I've said before, it's important to acknowledge that coaching is tough, it's important to acknowledge that the season is long in some aspects, particularly in this country where the weather's not particularly good at different points of the year. If you're doing this on top of other commitments as well, family life, jobs, social life, it can be really tough to balance everything. I think it's really important to carve out time for yourself and to give yourself a chance to switch off from thinking about football and thinking about coaching. Have really intentional points in the week where you spend time doing stuff that you enjoy. If you've got family, kids, make sure you connect with them and don't let coaching kind of take over your life. It's an industry and a role I guess that can often feel lonely and can often feel like you might have a little bit of self-doubt. You might have a little bit of imposter syndrome. Like certainly when I started working in the professional academy game, there were moments where you think, oh am I ready for this kind of environment? And then the big bit of advice I would give to coaches is when you do have concerns or worries or moments of self-doubt, sharing those with other people is massively important. And actually sharing it with people outside of football and outside of coaching will give you a new perspective on it, but also sharing it with like your fellow coaches and stuff as well, well you'll realise a lot of you go through the same things and have the same worries and the same concerns. There's been many times where I've driven home from training and thought, oh did I impact the players as best as I could? And then you actually spend a little bit more of time reflecting on what you did and trying to notice the really positive small stuff as well. Sometimes the positives aren't tangible. Like we often get caught up in the negative stuff and sometimes that's more noticeable than the smaller tangible stuff. But ultimately if your players have had a good experience and they go away with smiles on their faces and want to come back the next time no matter what level you coach at that's a pretty good win in my book.

[Jamie]

Absolutely and probably the most important really is to be having people returning loving the game and wanting to come back.

[Cody]

But you mentioned them negative moments, them not quite as nice feelings. What does an effective coach to you, Conor, look like when things genuinely aren't going that well? So either on the grass, such as losses, mistakes or pressurised moments?

[Conal]

Yeah, I think Those moments can be really tough and like I've mentioned in the previous question, that's when self-doubt can really start to creep in. Certainly earlier in my coaching journey when those moments happened, it would take up a lot of time and emotional energy thinking about them. But what I've come to learn is those moments are just part of the journey. In the same way that we wouldn't expect a player's journey to be entirely positive and like in a straight line to the top. A coach's journey is the same, there's going to be moments of real difficulty, moments of challenge and it's just trying to approach those things with a bit of a growth mindset to go well what can I actually learn from this? This moment is challenging me and pushing me as a coach but that is ultimately going to try and make me get better. So I think in those moments that you mentioned, either things are not going particularly well, maybe a session isn't clicking or you've lost a game and that can feel quite challenging. In those moments it's important to remember the big picture. So, what is the purpose of your role? What is the purpose of you getting into coaching? Why did you get into coaching? And that can kind of help you frame the difficult moments and add a little bit of perspective. So, for example, if you've lost a game, it's okay, I might feel quite negative or a little bit emotional about it now but what can I say in this moment that's going to really support the players? How can I put a positive spin on it and get them lifted for the next week? If you're running a session and you think, oh this session's really not clicking, the players really aren't engaged, Sometimes it's just admitting that that's okay and you know we get things wrong, we design practices wrongly sometimes, the way we pitch a session doesn't meet the players where they are on that particular day. My advice to coaches in those moments in training is just to kind of step back, get the players playing a game of some description and even if you have to spend two or three minutes just withdrawing yourself to the side, taking a deep breath and going, right, what is it that I can do to maximise the most of this remainder of the session? And then when you've got a bit more time after the session that's when you can kind of reflect a little bit more deeply on potentially what you might change. But yeah certainly in those moments where it feels difficult or pressurized, lean on your personal values, lean on your kind of your rationale and your why for being in coaching and ultimately just always have the players at the forefront like how can you serve them best in that moment.

[Cody]

Yeah so you mentioned the players obviously they're going to be taking them losses or mistakes or pressurized moments maybe even worse than you are so do you reckon there's a place for like maybe redefining what that success looks like because a loss isn't always a loss if your team has performed exactly how you wanted them to and got a bit unlucky. So yeah, is there a place for redefining that success?

[Conal]

Yeah 100% it depends on like the context in which you operate. So if you are playing in what we call three-point football where you know your professional level and jobs are on the line and there's millions of pounds on the line for wins and losses and stuff like that. I can see why in those moments when you lose it can be hard to take the positives but certainly in grassroots football, youth development football, there's massive successes that can lie in games even if you lose. Like you said Cody, it might align to what you've been working on in training and actually you execute it really well on match day but you just don't get the luck because unfortunately you can control a lot of stuff in football, but sometimes it just doesn't go your way. So yeah, I think how you frame success and how we respond in those moments will have a massive impact on how the players respond, particularly when you work with children and young people. They will certainly look to you as a role model and how you respond in those moments will impact their reaction too. So if you can kind of, even if you're feeling particularly frustrated or particularly emotional about it, if you can kind of park that to one side and think about how can I respond best to, like I said earlier, to motivate them or to add a positive spin on things? Something that I quite like to do after games is, regardless of the result, speak to individual players and highlight something that they did because you'd be surprised sometimes what players forget that they did during matches in particular. They might be, they'll remember the goals and the assists but they might forget the recovery run where they sprinted 30 yards back to stop an attack. They might forget the unbelievable save they pulled off to keep you in the game and I think being able to make note of that and highlight that to the players is also a really powerful way to always make sure you've got something positive to speak about on a match day, kind of regardless of the result.

[Cody]

Yeah, so we've already spoke about that coaching is hard enough as it is, so not trying to remember every little detail that happens. So I think one tip that we could tell our listeners is ask your subs to help you. If you've got a learning objective on a whiteboard, they can make a little tally every time that happens or they could write down specific moments in the game that they think are a really good example of that happening and then that can take some workload off you as well.

[Conal]

Yeah and I think linked to that you mentioned taking the workload off you a little bit I think buying parents into that idea particularly if you coach youth football if you can support parents to have really purposeful positive conversations in the car on the way home that can that can help you as well with how you create this kind of response to match day regardless of the result.

[Jamie]

We've talked a lot today about like what makes an effective coach, you know, letting players know that you care, being able to reflect, being able to build relationships, But what are some of the maybe the coaching behaviours or actions that might most undermine your effectiveness as a coach? Kevin McCullen,

[Conal]

Thinking that you can do it, do everything on your own can be quite a tricky kind of mindset to have. I think one of the biggest dangers to any coach is thinking that you've cracked it and thinking that you kind of know it, know everything. The reason I love coaching so much is because you are never really stopped with or never really finished with learning. There's always something else to learn or get better at or different ways of doing things and the game constantly evolves. So I think if you, something that's potentially dangerous for your effectiveness as a coach is kind of having that closed mindset and maybe not being receptive to feedback and maybe not wanting to continue learning and push yourself. And that doesn't mean you have to do a, you know, a coaching qualification every single season, but just trying to seek out new information and seek out maybe different ways of doing things or ways of improving your practice. I think sometimes we as coaches can be guilty of kind of obsessing over control. So we want sessions to look nice, we want players to listen to everything we say and respond really well to what we've planned because it looks really nice in our heads but ultimately it's important to remember that the game belongs to the players and we're here to support and guide them. So yeah, it's potentially dangerous to think that you are kind of the one source of truth for them and you're the one that's going to give them all the answers when ultimately our role is to guide and support them rather than sometimes to necessarily just like tell and overly constrain them I guess.

[Cody]

Yeah, absolutely. You've mentioned throughout the conversation we've had today a lot about the impact that you feel you've had on the players when you get back in the car as part of your reflections. But what if there's a listener out there that's kind of struggling with knowing whether they're having an impact on their players or their team. So how do you think you can discover whether you're having an impact or not as a coach.

[Conal]

I think reflection becomes a massive part of that because this is why I kind of place importance on reflecting on the players as well because if you kind of use that reflection model over time you'll build up a picture of where the players have been and kind of where they've got to and you'll be able to understand the kind of impact you've had because you might see a player, you might look back on your reflections earlier in the season, you'll notice a player who was maybe disengaged during training and then all of a sudden they've improved in that sense and you'll be able to look back at your reflections and see that journey. It can be really daunting as well, but ask the players what they think. Fundamentally, if they enjoy your sessions, they feel like they're getting better, then obviously their sense of how much they're improving will be a bit subjective, but you can't go too far wrong if they're enjoying themselves and want to be a trainer and want to come and play in that environment. And then the kind of the other thing that can be quite tricky to do is ask parents for their thoughts. And again, that can be quite a vulnerable moment for us as coaches. But again, they might say something and notice something that you haven't noticed. And that might be a really positive thing, which actually gives you a confidence boost to go, Oh, I hadn't really realized that that's the sort of environment we've created. And the parents love coming here and they think that your coaching is fantastic for their child. If you work in an environment where you've maybe got like a boss that you report into or maybe other other staff that are around you within that environment. Seeking out feedback. A lot of clubs and coaches now will look to support coaches with feedback, but if that's not something that you actively get, then looking to seek that feedback as vulnerable or as daunting that can be sometimes, it can be a really impactful thing on your coaching. It's been a massive impact for me over the last couple of years having people come and watch sessions and ask you your thoughts on them and ask for your reflections and giving their reflections. So yeah, I'd say seeking feedback is a massive part of that and like I said before, it doesn't have to be someone who is really familiar with the game, it could be someone who has just been watching your sessions for a couple of weeks and can kind of give you a viewpoint that you maybe don't see.

[Jamie]

Looking back at your journey so far then, how would you want your players or fellow coaches to describe you as a coach and what would that say about your effectiveness as a coach?

[Conal]

That's a good question. It's interesting I got asked that a couple of weeks ago and kind of stumped me a little bit because it's not something I've ever really thought about before but the question I was actually asked was how do you think the parents of the kids you coach would describe you. So I mean some of the things that are really important to me in terms of values and beliefs are that I would like to think parents and players know that I care about the players and not just as footballers but as people as well and try and act as a real role model for them and kind of act with like integrity and honesty as well. For me I think it's really important that we don't lose that sense of fun as well. I think that's how players would describe the environment and the sessions that they're a part of. Ultimately we all got involved in football because we fell in love with the game at a young age and I think it's really important that, particularly in an academy environment where it can be quite serious and pressurised, that you still keep that sense of fun and still highlight of the week for the players and they still really fall in love with the game. And probably what I'd like other coaches that have worked with me as well would like to describe me as would be someone who's like thoughtful about the game, thoughtful about my own practice and like I said someone who hopefully doesn't present as you know being closed minded or being closed off to feedback. I actively seek feedback, I actively kind of challenge and reflect on my own practices and I actively want to get better so hopefully that comes across.

[Jamie]

Love that and I love Aaron mentioned obviously you're working in an academy setting but still it's all about the players enjoying it. It doesn't matter what level of football it is we just need the players to enjoy it.

[Cody]

I think the age as well I think a lot of times as you move up the age groups coaches think they've got to be more serious or more like you know coaches that you see on TV but I think in general even when you're working with open age players they're still there to have fun you know even if they're into their 30s or 40s and they're coming to your sessions they're there for a bit of exercise of course, but also to enjoy themselves and socialise and being aware of that and giving your players time to do that as well, especially within the hour or the hour and a half that you get, it's super important I think.

[Conal]

100% and you're completely right in the sense that you have to create that space for the fun to happen. And yes, players naturally enjoy playing the game and they enjoy competitiveness, but I think like, particularly working with the age group I work with, that space for a little bit of like playfulness and silliness and stuff is really important as well, particularly if, and not to generalize, but sometimes at school they might be in environments where they're sat in classrooms, they might be in environments where, you know, if their behaviour's not great, they're quite rightly told that there's standards and they need to behave in a certain way and then they come to us and certainly there's expectations around behaviour absolutely, but bringing that kind of playfulness and fun this particularly at the end of a school day is quite important.

[Jamie]

Well Conor we've got a few quick-fire questions for you now and the first one is what undermines effectiveness the most?

[Conal]

Not considering the impact that you're having on your players. So looking at designing a fantastic session on paper but not having a consideration for what is actually going to be the impact on your players within that session. It's a really, really

[Cody]

good answer. It's back to the start thing where you said about starting, thinking about the end when you begin, you must want to think about the impact first and then circle that back to the start of how can I make this the most effective session I can? Okay, what is the most underrated coaching skill?

[Conal]

The most underrated coaching skill for me is the ability to react in real time to what you're seeing in front of you. When I've been out to watch coaches in different environments and support them in coach developer roles, planning is normally pretty good because they are able to access information online and they have a good grip of who their players are and they can design really good practices. It's when things don't happen the way they expect to, being able to kind of go off the plan and respond in real time to coach the individual that's in front of you based on what they need, That's underrated.

[Jamie]

And finally, if a coach wanted to improve their personal effectiveness ahead of next season, where should they start?

[Conal]

I would suggest trying to get a real, as good an understanding as you can of kind of who you are, what your values and beliefs and what are your strengths as a coach and what are your areas for development? And then potentially looking at mapping out, well, if I know I want to improve on these things, well, how am I going to do it? It might be that you, like I said, throughout this episode, like looking to receive feedback from others, accessing any form of learning online that you can and maybe go into observe more experienced coaches in their environments to see what you can learn. But underlying all that stuff is having a growth mindset and being open to learning and improving. That's the best place to start.

[Cody]

Yeah. Thank you for that answer. That was brilliant. But we want to be a bit more direct now with our listeners. I want to set them a challenge if you wouldn't mind. So do you think you could set a challenge to our listeners based on personal effectiveness mixed in with just being the best coach they can be something they

[Conal]

can really take away and think about? Try to next season at least five times get feedback on your coaching.

[Cody]

Five as many as five.

[Conal]

From somebody else. Five times throughout the season, try and get someone to give you feedback on your session. I think it's such a valuable way to get a different perspective on what you deliver and how you deliver. It can be quite daunting and it can be quite scary but it can be really powerful over time. The reason I say five as well is because the first time you get it done it might be a little bit tricky and you might have your walls up and but over time the more you get used to receiving feedback the more receptive you become to it and the more valuable it becomes.

[Jamie]

Love that. And if anybody wants to give that a go, let us know how you get on in the comments. Right. Well, we are coming up to the end of the show now, but that does mean it is time for our Swift session feature.

[Cody]

Yes. This is where we give our guests 30 seconds on the clock to give our listeners a session idea they can take away as they might be on their way to training and they might be running a bit late just a little bit of inspiration for them. So it can either be your favourite session to deliver or something that you've touched on today. Are you up for the challenge?

[Conal]

I'll give it a try. There we go, that's what we

[Cody]

like to hear. Okay, are we ready? Beautiful. Our time starts now.

[Conal]

So this practice looks at both ruthless finishing but also really tough defending around the box. So set up quite a tight box pitch with a goal at each end, goalkeeper at each goal and normally play 2v2 within the pitch with two players on the outside. So it's normal 2v2 trying to score past the goalkeeper, you can use the players on the outside to play one touch passes back into the back into the pitch and what you'll find from that sort of design is loads of rebars off the goalkeeper, loads of first time finishing, loads of opportunities for players to make blocks.

[Cody]

But a really really good session idea especially it's very adaptable with the step principles too so I think our listeners will really really enjoy letting their players give that one

[Jamie]

a go. Absolutely, absolutely well. Well thank you very much for your time today Conor, hopefully you've enjoyed your time on the show we've certainly enjoyed listening to you and having your advice and the same for you Cody, thank you very much for joining me on the sofa today. Hopefully you want to come back one day.

[Conal]

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

[Cody]

That's what we like to hear, isn't it?

[Jamie]

It absolutely is. Right, well, that is 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. As always, you can head to the England Football Community to post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or you can drop them in the comments section below.

[Cody]

Yes, please do. We'd love to help you out, so please send your questions in. We'll be back soon with another episode, so if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button down below to make sure you don't miss it. From all of us at England Football Learning, thank you for listening.