10 ways to develop an internal club coach development system, for free!
Professional development budgets aren’t always readily available at football clubs, but there are still many free and affordable ways to develop a coach development system internally.
Whether your club is fortunate enough to have a Technical Director/ Director of Football/ Coach Development Manager on staff or none of the above, developing ongoing coach development opportunities for your coaches should still be a top priority.
Enabling access to a variety of existing resources can be a simple yet effective way to ensure that coach development is a key activity of the club, all year round.
In a previous article titled ’10 Key Responsibilities of a Technical Director’, I outlined the role of a Technical Director and highlighted that coach development should be a fundamental focal point.
To support this point with actionable initiatives, I have collated ‘10 ways to develop a club coach development system, for free.’
These recommendations should be achievable regardless of whether your club has a Technical Director or not but they should be reviewed and endorsed by the club board and committee for their full support and commitment.
Note: These are in no particular order of impact or importance and should all be addressed in relation to each other.
—
1. Establish the goals and objectives of your coach development system. This strategic exercise will help to establish your priorities as an organisation, understand the resources required to meet your goals and help to determine who can assist you in this mission. It should be a club-wide undertaking with input from the club board, club committee, and any technical departments as well as representation and input from the people it is most likely to impact. It is important for your club coaches to understand so their motivations and intentions are aligned with the club's vision of coach development.
2. Establish a practical and appropriate coaching curriculum. This should provide a blueprint for coaching within your club and establish key terminology, principles and a common coaching language. This document should be well understood and shared throughout the coaching group so that it can be referenced consistently throughout the season. It can be shared as part of any induction for new coaches and serve as a basis for upcoming meetings. It should also allow for opportunities to refine and evolve the document based on testing and experiences throughout the season. For those that don’t yet have their own curriculum, clubs could adopt the national coaching curriculum, such as the one provided by New Zealand Football. https://www.sporty.co.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=0c3b1ef2-2f1f-4fa3-b6cf-2bd80a76d652
3. Plan and publish your yearly calendar of events. These should be based around the competitive league system, avoiding any key clashes with dates of significance in both the national calendar and the local events scene. It can be promoted and advertised in advance, both internally and on the club website to ensure that there is a high level of availability. This calendar can be populated with a number of external events that are highlighted in the following points.
4. Utilise established local online coaching portals such as OFC Learn, which is free for all registered coaches across the Oceania Region. This platform is packed with articles, courses and other excellent resources that can be shared internally with your club coaches. The platform provides unrivalled access to some of the world's best coaches viewed from the comfort of your own home including the recent OFC Learn Coaches Conference 2022.
This event featured talks from experts in their field such as Owen Eastwood (Performance Coach), Bev Priestman (Canada Women’s National Team), Paul Temple (Wellington Pheonix), Ben Bartlett (Houston Dynamo), Fabian Otte (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Timo Jankowski (Fiji Football Association), Gemma Lewis (Football Association of Wales), Dawn Scott (Washington Spirit) and Sean Douglas (FIFA & OFC).
One way to maximise the engagement of these resources within your club is to host a watch party in your clubrooms with your coaches. This provides an opportunity for reflection and discussion on their practical application within the context of your club. Given that these events are often viewed on-demand, you can use these types of workshops to provide a framework for development events over a number of weeks.
5. Encourage your club coaches to actively participate in other global coach development networks and online coaching courses. These are a great way to network and gain new perspectives and fresh insights as well as a way to earn new coaching qualifications for your coaches. They are often free, accessible at the coach's own pace and can be bespoke to the learning intentions of each individual. Three of my recommendations would be:
Player Development Project continues to provide an extensive library of content, community chat boards and other practical resources for coaches at all levels from across the globe.
UK Coaching hosts ‘Coach Development Conversations’ as a social learning space led by coaching and coach development experts. This is in the form of various podcasts, live events and links to academic articles.
US Soccer Coaching Education also has a number of free online modules in a variety of coaching disciplines, which are recognised under various confederations and associations around the world.
6. Utilise informal social media communities such as New Zealand Football Coaches (2.5k Members), New Zealand Futsal Coaches and Australian Football Coaches (4.1k Members). These are great ways to connect with like-minded coaches from other clubs around the country. Often these coaches are having similar experiences and may be in a position to offer advice on particular aspects of coaching, review any coaching sessions you choose to share, or help to connect you with other people of relevance.
7. Utilise and encourage cross-code development opportunities. Sport New Zealand and their Regional Sports Trust (RSTs) often run or facilitate coach development opportunities that include a number of different sports. With a total of 17 RSTs in existence around the country, there are many common challenges that coaches face across codes, providing an excellent environment to learn from others. You can find the full list of RSTs below from which you are able to search their coach development offerings. https://sportnz.org.nz/find-a-sport-or-recreation-activity/?type=regional
8. Hold regular club-based coach development events, inviting guest speakers who can connect either online or in person. Through your club's established networks there may well be experienced coaches or coach developers who would be willing to deliver a workshop or presentation for free/pro bono. Many presenters may see this as a great opportunity to showcase their work and get experience delivering to a new group. You should remain tactical around who you invite and ensure any messaging is enhancing and reiterating the desired behaviours of your club’s vision and philosophy. By hosting these sessions once a month on a pre-determined day (for example), you can get coaches in the habit of being available and continue to build and educate the coaching team while cultivating a feeling of community within your organisation.
9. Create internal mentoring or buddy systems. Depending on the size of the club, you can link up with coaches to support and learn from one another. The composition of these pairings could be based on age group, experiences, qualifications or personality compatibility. This dynamic should facilitate the exchange of ideas, observational feedback or a more formalised and structured approach to review and reflection. You may have to assist with the organisation and format of these discussions to ensure that the conversations are enriching and enhancing your coaching team.
10. To support administrative requirements and to keep a record of coach progress you should maintain accurate records of formal coaching qualifications and set timely reminders of any expiry dates or upcoming reaccreditation periods. Most qualifications have an initial 3-year awarding period, typically expiring on 31 December. This information will be crucial to ensure that your club coaches are able to earn any necessary revalidation points. Whilst each coach should get these reminders from the National Sports Organisation (NSO), I would suggest it is good practice to maintain internal records and plan out the path of opportunities well in advance.
Whilst this ensures qualifications remain active and up to date, it will also ensure your club continues to meet any regulatory requirements such as club licensing or similar. Many clubs that have not planned ahead may find themselves in a situation where coaches have not completed these requirements in time and if there are no more opportunities to seek reaccreditation, this can cause problems when the club is applying for updated licences.
—
All of the above should be supplementary to the formal coach education pathways and courses offered by the NSO.
Providing a combination of formal, informal and non-formal coach development opportunities in-house will help your club to create an aspirational environment for your coaches and will ultimately ensure that their players are given the best possible chance to succeed and grow both within your club and beyond.
“Putting time and value into creating an in-house coaching group that shares a common football approach, language and methodology can be a powerful vehicle to help grow your program and the development of your players. Through informal workshops, peer-reviewing, a curiosity to learn and having a like-minded team around you give you a solid foundation of consistent behaviours and high standards — I believe in not only developing players within the club but also its people around them’’
I hope the list above has illustrated that coach development is possible at a low to no cost, highlighting just a few ways to implement initiatives that will ensure your club coaches are part of a thriving environment both on and off the field.
For more Football Management articles, be sure to follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/stevendillon
