Any young coach harbouring a desire to carve out a successful career in the game would be well advised to listen to a man that helped shape the development of the all-conquering Manchester United team of the 1990s.
Eric Harrison guided the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes through the Manchester United youth team set-up and after winning The FA Youth Cup in 1992, these players provided the nucleus of the United team that would go on to dominate the Premier League for the rest of the decade.
TheFA.com caught up with Harrison at Keele University, where the youth volunteering charity 'V', teamed up with McDonald's to offer newly-qualified Level One coaches mentoring and guidance with a view to making them better coaches.
"I'm 100 per cent certain that they listened to what I had to say and learned how to improve their sessions," Harrison said. "Their attitude was first class and I can tell through working with them that they will be very good coaches and they’ll help to create better players."
Creating better players is a mantra that Harrison himself has followed ever since he took over the United youth team in 1981, but when asked for his thoughts on the benefits of becoming a coach, continued involvement in the game is a far more resonant feature.
"If you love football and want to put something back into your community, you should definitely take up coaching," Harrison advised.
"A football career goes very, very quickly – at both Professional and grassroots level; there’s only so long your body will hold out for. Coaching is a great way to fill that void once you’ve stopped playing and you’ll get a huge amount of satisfaction from still being actively involved in the game."
Along with Martin Thomas, The FA's Assistant National Goalkeeping Coach, ex-Manchester United and England Captain, Bryan Robson and Steve Daley from the England Partially Sighted team, Harrison took these new Level One coaches (all aged between 16 and 25) on separate coaching sessions and he has a simple four-point plan that he would pass on to any coach in the game:
- Preparation
- Organisation
- Observation
- Inspiration
The most important of which, he believes, is inspiration.
"If you’re trying to climb the coaching ladder, displaying inspirational qualities will tick a lot of boxes. I'm a bit loud, but you can be a quiet coach and still inspire players.
"Inspiration is massive thing in coaching, especially if you’re the first coach a player has come across. You don’t want anyone to fall out of love with the game before they’ve really had a chance to experience it."
Harrison hopes he has inspired the young coaches at Keele to continue with their coaching qualifications, because, as he himself concedes, "without grassroots coaches football would be dead."
"Having taken their Level One badge and with most of them having played the game, they all know the basics of Team Coaching, but hopefully, the input from Bryan [Robson] and myself has added to their knowledge and abilities."
