A midseason masterclass

Last week, a number of guest speakers were invited to Wokefield Park in Reading where they set out to enhance the learning of the 17 coaches currently studying for the UEFA Pro Licence.

Steve McClaren, Stuart Pearce, Hope Powell, Keith Hackett and Colin Gordon were among the speakers and they spoke at length about their very different experiences of football, encompassing football overseas, tournament strategy, refereeing and player representation. Fourteen-times champion jockey, Tony McCoy, was also invited to discuss how he reached the top of his profession, having ridden more winners than any other jockey in history.

Roberto Di Matteo, Paul Hart, Gus Poyet, Steve Staunton, Julie Chipchase and Nigel Adkins are among this year’s Pro Licence intake, who are halfway through their 12-month mission to achieve football’s top qualification, and these two days of further education were part of the course’s ‘midseason masterclass’.

John Peacock, The FA’s Head of Coaching and Pro Licence Course Director, and Dick Bate, The FA’s Elite Coaching Manager, have been mentoring the group throughout the year and will continue to do so until they graduate in July.

The Pro Licence is somewhat removed from the day-to-day coaching and tactical matters a coach or manager is required to consider and focuses more on managing elite players, creating a winning mentality and learning how to successfully work with a club chairman or chief executive, as well as how to deal with players’ agents and the media. As Peacock explains, the speakers were selected with a view to covering as many of these diverse aspects as possible.

“As much as tactics, strategy and leadership are an important part of football, it’s good to look at other related factors as well, such as agents and referees,” he said. “It’s important to get good speakers and we think we managed to get a very good cross section of speakers, including those from different sports as well.

“And this year is the first that we’ve had someone from the players’ agent side of things. Colin Gordon is an excellent sports agent and there was a good conversation between him and the group about their experiences of players’ agents.”

Over the two days, Stuart Pearce and Hope Powell discussed how they prepared the England Under-21s and Women’s sides, respectively, for their European Championship campaigns last summer and Peacock also passed on his experiences of tournament football with the England U17 team. On a similar note, former Sweden Coach, Lars Lagerback, offered his know-how of the international game from a non-English point of view.

Northern Ireland manager, Nigel Worthington, discussed the differences between club and international football, Keith Hackett clarified the difference between certain red card offences - prompting a healthy debate among the group - and Steve McClaren spoke with great zeal about football in Holland, having enjoyed a successful couple of seasons at FC Twente. Manchester United scout, Jim Lawlor, and players’ agent, Colin Gordon, also gave a detailed insight into their own specialised fields while the final guest was Tony McCoy, who provided an alternative perspective on motivation and creating a winning mentality.

This is the ninth year The FA has hosted the Pro Licence and over 150 coaches and managers have achieved the qualification so far. Staple ingredients of the course include the handling of professional players, the psychological side of the game and how to manage upwards, but Peacock admits that the course, like football itself, is constantly evolving.

“One of our key objectives is to revamp the Pro Licence ready for 2011,” he said. “There are some fantastic elements within it, but we need to try and make even better than it already is.

“A big area to look at, which we have dealt with in the past, is the scouting and recruitment of players, particularly now that it is becoming a world market. It’s not just looking at the top end, in the Premier League, but also how it works in the lower divisions as well.

“We need to look more at the tactics and strategy side of things. Something which is often levelled against English coaches, which is not always correct in my opinion, is that tactically we are a bit naive. I think the more we can start to address that at the highest level, get some practical experience and start to throw things out and discuss in more detail, is key going forward.

“It would also be good to see the managers and coaches working in their own environment a bit more than we do,” continued Peacock. “We tend to have quite a bit of distance learning and conference calls where we talk about many things openly, so as an FA staff it would be good to go in and watch them at close quarters.

“The relationship between us, as the course leaders, and the managers is paramount to our understanding and for them to show us how this course is helping them with their day-to-day jobs.”

This two-day masterclass was the second of two residential courses the coaches were required to attend, although, as Peacock alluded to, the majority of the Pro Licence comprises a lot of distance learning and conference calls.

A study visit requires the coaches to view the coaching practices and day-to-day routine of either a club overseas (Steve McClaren invited any of this intake to visit him at FC Twente) or a club from a different sport; rugby union and rugby league clubs have been favoured in past years. The coaches must relay their findings in a 25-minute presentation in July.

A game-planning task must also be completed where the coaches will demonstrate how they have prepared for a particular fixture this season, including opposition scouting reports and player recovery if it is a midweek game. Further conference calls must be conducted before the coaches can qualify, focusing on fitness, medicine and goalkeeping, but, as Roy Keane admitted when he qualified in 2008, the learning doesn’t cease there.

“Qualifications are very important, but there is no substitute for learning on the job itself,” agrees Peacock. “And by learning on the job and by going off and studying other aspects of the game, from whatever source, can only enhance their education and learning going forward. We like to share ideas and that’s the beauty of the Pro Licence; it is about sharing and it’s great that they’re all prepared to do that.

“A good coach and a good manager will continue to learn and will gain knowledge from whatever source they can.”

Over the coming days, TheFA.com will publish interviews with a number of this year’s Pro Licence intake as well as guest speakers, Steve McClaren and Tony McCoy.