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S1 E5 - Rob Porter
84 Plays3 months ago
On Todays episode we have Rob Porter. Rob has his UEFA B license and FA Youth award he has coached at all levels from grass roots, developmental centers to professional academies. Rob delivers CPD events for the Oxfordshire Football Association and has even taught coach education to inmates in prison! Have a listen to this interesting episode to hear Rob's insights and opinions.
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Transcript
Introduction of Guest: Rob Porter
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of Session Share, the coaches podcast. My name's Craig Burthesaw, and I'm excited to have Rob Porter as our guest today. Rob has a UAE for B license, FA Coach Youth Award, and has coached at all levels from grassroots to developmental centers to academies. Rob delivers CPD events for the Oxford, Oxford Share Football Association, and has even taught coach education to inmates in prison. Can't wait to talk about that one, Rob.
00:00:46
Craig Birtwistle
How are you doing today, mate?
Rob's Coaching Journey Begins
00:00:48
Rob
I'm not too bad. I'm just getting over a cold so apologize if I don't sound amazing, but I'm getting there. So it's been a long day on holiday camps. That's one of my responsibilities is being in charge of the optional community holiday camps, um which has been very full on this week. We've got three camps running. in um or All three camps are sold out today, so that's really good. And it's been it's been a full on day, but a very productive day.
00:01:15
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. So if you fall asleep but towards the end of the podcast, I'll understand why. So that's a that's good to know. So Rob, tell me a little bit about your background. What got you interested in football?
00:01:26
Rob
In fairness, I played youth football into Ben's football, ah gave up. It's actually quite funny, I was looking and on the whole game system and actually the last time I actually played was 2004. So that's that shows it's been a long time, had a few back problems, back surgery, all the rest of it. So stopped playing and then didn't really have any involvement with football until my son started playing and the team that my eldest played for, one of the coaches was stepping away so he asked for any volunteers so I stepped up and kind of it just all spiralled on from there to be honest with you. So I worked out that actually I wasn't the worst at it and it was actually something I really enjoyed and I've kind of gone from there to it becoming my full-time job so you know it's been an interesting journey.
00:02:14
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. And when you got like kind of like roped into it with your with your son's team and everything like that, what was like your motivation to get your career started?
00:02:24
Rob
So basically just to start, it was just to spend a bit more time with my son and obviously help the team out because, you know, they didn't have a, they needed a coach. So I thought, well, you know, it's something that it helps my son, it helps the team. So, you know, why not give it a go? And that was kind of the, the start and, and sort of it just spiraled from there.
00:02:43
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic.
Evolving Coaching Philosophy
00:02:44
Craig Birtwistle
and As it was spiraling through, when you were examining like the potential of doing it as a hobby, then making it into a career, did you come up with like a coaching philosophy?
00:02:55
Rob
Yeah, so, you know, i've I've actually written out my coach in philosophy. I did it a few years ago. And every now and again, I'll go back to it just to update it, see if anything's kind of changed, which in fairness,
00:03:08
Rob
you know when you've got more experience you've got to get to know yourself as a coach and I think obviously different experiences might impact you differently but on the whole I think as you progress you kind of have that understanding of yourself and and what you expect and and what you want to see out of sessions and matches so I think it's something that you should I don't think it should ever be set in stone I think it should be always a a working in document but um But yeah, it's ah it's it's one of those things where I've kind of evolved it over the years and to where the point I am now.
00:03:39
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic. I love that comment about evolving your philosophy um because ah we like taught on all our licenses that we do to be able to develop a philosophy, make sure it like impacts out the way we think about the game, the way we teach the game and everything like that.
Adaptability in Coaching Styles
00:03:56
Craig Birtwistle
But I love that word in particular of development and Basically the philosophy should be like organic shouldn't it? It should grow with you and like obviously I'm i'm at the age of like 42 now so and I started coaching when I was in my teens so the philosophy that I came up with when I was 18 for example would be very different to what I've got now would you agree with that?
00:04:19
Rob
I think coaching has changed, you know at least I hope it has. um you know When I played it was it was a lot of laps, it was a lot of lines, you know and and these days you still see some of it, but I think you know coach on the whole has changed where it's more player, it's about the player, it's player led rather than it being all about the coach. so You know, I think it's, yeah, I think your age definitely impacts it as well. And I think the experiences you have. So, you know, who you work with, what teams you work with. And I think that's where working from under, you know, five, six year olds all the way up to men, I think is it's probably help benefit me. Because I think if you're your philosophy, you've only ever coached under seven, under eight, it's going to be vastly different than a men's team's philosophy for their manager.
00:05:08
Craig Birtwistle
Totally agree. ah I've always said that I got better as a coach because in the beginning of my career, very early on, I hate to say this, and some of them might be listening, but I worked for some bad companies. And I felt like that though working for those bad companies helped me evolve as a coach because now all of a sudden, I think I'm off the top of my head, and they told me 15 would turn up and only five turns up, or they told me five's turned up and 50 turn up.
00:05:34
Craig Birtwistle
and ah they say, I've got this much space and I don't have that much space. All these sort of things you come up with as a coach, don't you, that help shape you?
00:05:44
Rob
Yeah, definitely. An adaptability is massive. I've actually been to a coach the other day who was saying it's one of the things that she really struggles with is is adapting sessions. And I said to a certain extent, obviously having that plan B in your session plan. So if you've got a few less or a few more is great. But to a certain extent, that kind of comes from experience. Being in those situations and knowing actually, well, this yeah this has happened to me before. I'm actually, A, I've got a plan, but B,
00:06:13
Rob
I think the more experience you are, the less you panic in those situations where like a younger coach is like, oh wow, I've got five more than I expected and that means my plan's not going to work. And that can be quite daunting. But when you've been there and done that a lot, I think it becomes far
Experience vs. Qualifications
00:06:27
Rob
easier. And that's where experience is massively important for me.
00:06:31
Craig Birtwistle
I totally agree. um I always liken it to when someone comes out to say fix your sink or something like that you hire a plumber to come around your house and you pay for them for the hour but they they're done within 15 minutes. I kind of liken that the fact that their experience has helped them get it done within 15 minutes.
00:06:51
Craig Birtwistle
And why I relate to that with soccer is the fact, or football, is the fact that when we do a session, someone asked me the other day, how long do you spend developing your sessions? And I said, I can be done in 10 minutes or I can be done in 90. I said, however, that's because I've had that much years experience to understand how to break down every small little detail.
00:07:12
Craig Birtwistle
and do that a lot quicker. So I wouldn't say to you as a new coach, spend 10 minutes on something and it's going to be a full procession because that's not going to be the case. It's going to be a case of you've got to think of every possible scenario that might come up. And you've also, as you just alluded to there, have a plan B, have a plan C if the conditions don't go your way. So I 100% agree, Rob.
00:07:38
Rob
Definitely, definitely. Yeah, experience. um It's one thing I know a lot of the moment that there's a lot of talk about qualifications and and obviously qualifications are vitally important. And, you know, the higher up you get, theyll said they are needed for certain positions. But I said to a lot of coaches, the more experience you get, the better you're going to get as long as obviously you you do the review part of it. You know, a lot of coaches do the plan pretty well, do the delivery well. But then when it comes to review, they don't. And I think the more time you spend reviewing and recognising where you need to improve it, it develops you a lot faster.
00:08:14
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. Couldn't agree more. um We're going to be back after a short message from our Zencaster sponsor.
00:09:01
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back to Session Share, the Coaches Podcast. We're here talking with Rob Porter. And Rob, we've just had a really great conversation talking about like your motivations in football and your coaching philosophy.
Coach Development & Accessibility
00:09:13
Craig Birtwistle
What I'd like to do now is delve a little deeper into player development. So um tell us about some of the issues that you find when it comes to player development.
00:09:24
Rob
Um, obviously courses, you know, play a coach is trying to get onto courses. I know it's a big thing. Um, and I think the thing, especially going to sort of being in that stage of my career, I'm kind of going into a bit more coach development side of things is actually trying to just reach coaches who maybe don't go to CPD events because CPD events are absolutely brilliant and they're good for coach development, but they only tend to reach the people who actually want to go to them.
00:09:51
Rob
and know I did one the other week and I said to him, at then then hats off, you've come out on a Tuesday night and spent two hours of your time and they're all volunteers and not being paid to do it. um But it's how do you reach those coaches who actually won't take two hours to to go to a CBD event? And in fairness, you know if you're facilitating players playing, then you're doing a good job as long as you're you obviously you know not doing anything that's a safeguarding issue or anything like that.
00:10:19
Rob
But it's, you know, how do we as coach developers, especially kind of reach those coaches? And it's one thing I'm doing with my role with optional security is doing in-house CPD for grassroots clubs. So rather than them, them coming out to a CPD event, actually we're going to them and we're actually going into their environment. So they're there at the time. And I think more of that, I think is is probably the way to kind of reach those coaches.
00:10:44
Craig Birtwistle
I 100% agree. I feel that ah you hit the nail on the head being able to get as much information to people as much as possible is the key because I live in America. I'm English, but I live in America and I've gone through the whole system. I have my A license and the A license alone at the moment cost you $4,500.
00:11:07
Craig Birtwistle
in order to get the A license. Obviously I'm paying it because I'm a full-time professional and I know it will benefit my career and everything like that but here's the thing there's so many coaches out there that are volunteer based or they're doing it on their own they're W2s, they're doing it without paying tax um or paying their own tax, I should say, all the way through.
00:11:30
Craig Birtwistle
So how do you think we can get out there more and like help these coaches and rather than paying all these ridiculous finances?
00:11:37
Rob
Thank you. Yeah I think not that the CPD event sort of bit is is big going into clubs and probably upskilling people in the club so that they can actually deliver the CPD themselves I think as well. You know empowering the vast majority of clubs have got senior people in there who who have the knowledge and actually empowering to actually go out and and spread that knowledge to the other coaches in the club I think is is really important as well.
00:12:03
Rob
But also things like, you know, these podcasts, social media, I think, play a ah really powerful kind of role in it as well.
00:12:04
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah.
00:12:11
Rob
But I think at the same time, it's still it's it's getting those coaches to recognise in these, you know, these ways of of developing themselves.
00:12:20
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah I feel that to go on what you said it's it's like the old allergy of teacher man to fish right so it's kind of a case of we need more Rob Porter's out there that's gonna like pass the message on for example to every single person because like you're only one man you can teach so much but if you can teach 10 that's gonna teach another 10 and teaches another 10 and so on that's obviously gonna help grow and you mentioned the fact that
00:12:41
Rob
Yeah.
00:12:47
Craig Birtwistle
ah Coaches getting the opportunity to listen to podcasts, check social media, there's websites out there. And that was the sole reason I started Session Share a while back, where I started doing videos on YouTube and the next elevation was to create a podcast so I could talk to coaches like yourself in order to share information and help grow so so much. So talking about that,
00:13:15
Craig Birtwistle
do you If you were to meet a new coach, what were the biggest advice you would give them in order to help them in their career?
Enjoyment in Coaching
00:13:24
Rob
there's yeah There's loads of advice I suppose you could give. I think the main one though actually is to actually just enjoy it. You know, a lot of coaches. they get stressed about coaching and they' be you know and in fairness, and I suppose it it can be stressful at times, if things aren't going particularly well, but actually just just enjoy the process and enjoy enjoy the time you get to spend on the grass. Because for me, it's you know it's almost therapeutic because it's like actually everything else in the world isn't going on, you're just there.
00:13:56
Rob
You're helping these players improve. You're hopefully providing an enjoyable session for them. And actually, yeah, so it's it's just that enjoyment factor, I think. Enjoy it as a coach, because a lot of coaches you see very stressed out. And you know how you are, especially as a coach, when you're coaching, I think rubs off on your players. So a coach who's enjoying themselves and is relaxed and is energetic, I think helps that helps rub that off on the players. Where if a coach is,
00:14:24
Rob
stressed or angry or or that side of it. I think that kind of rubs off as well. So yeah, I think just just that and have that enjoyment factor. Enjoy what you're doing. I think it's massive.
00:14:34
Craig Birtwistle
It's funny you mentioned that because when I had Peter Prickett on not too long ago, when I asked him the same question, he's held them to relax. So it's funny that you had the very similar look at it there because I know you know Peter pretty well.
00:14:48
Craig Birtwistle
so Yeah it's great and i would ah i would agree with that because so many coaches are so stressed about getting their points across. One of the things i mentioned as a coach's tip not too long ago on on my session share youtube channel was the fact that um read the room is what i called it, it's a case of when you're when you're training and i know you come in with a plan,
00:15:10
Craig Birtwistle
But there's sometimes where that plan needs to go out the window if you feel that they've had a stressful week at school, if it's exam week or something along that those lines. Sometimes you need to kind of relax a little, understand that it is a game at the end of the day and we want the players to enjoy it. Obviously we want them to grow, we want them to develop, we want them to achieve.
00:15:32
Craig Birtwistle
um But there's got to be times as well you understand that most of us coach children, whether they're 18 year olds or three year olds, we we coach children. It's essentially like that. So we have to teach them in a way that's going to be enjoyable.
00:15:47
Craig Birtwistle
The 0.01% that would be listening to this podcast that work with professionals, I get it. But even you you watch these like YouTube clips of Arsenal, Villa, Man City and everything like that, but the amount of times they do like a fun warmup where it's like juggling into a trash can or something along those lines, I 100% with what you're saying there that you've just got to make sure that it's enjoyable for you as well as the players because they do, they read off you very well.
00:16:14
Rob
Yeah, definitely. I think enjoyment is, going back to philosophy, enjoyment's the the main thing. Because I think when I did my way for B, and at the end of my presentation, um the tutor said,
00:16:28
Rob
should every, should it because ah enjoyment was a big thing on there on my presentations, what should every session be enjoyable, whether it's, you know, a professional team or, and I said, well, yeah. And he said, yeah, that's right. You know, the day, whoever, if you're playing football, yes, if you're a professional, you're getting paid to do it and and fair play to them. But you should see when you try to enjoy your job, shouldn't you? So yeah, enjoyment is probably the the most, the biggest factor for me to be honest with you.
00:16:53
Craig Birtwistle
I remember not too long ago I was doing a coach evaluation with one of our coaches and I was evaluating him and I um mentioned about bringing more fun into your session and when I said that he he was very defensive and he said ah well I'm not a clown I'm here to teach them.
00:17:12
Craig Birtwistle
and the one thing I had to try and get him to understand and eventually he did was the fact that when we say have fun it doesn't mean ignore everything about coaching it can just be fun because at the end of the day the game should be fun and if the game at the end weren't just two teams two goals and try to score the most games if that bit's not fun they're really not shouldn't be involved in the game of football to be honest because that's what it all equals but like you can do shooting games, you can do passing games, you can do 1v1 games that are fun but are effective as well so no one's asking you to go out there and be a clown but we are asking you to bond with the players because that bonding but yeah between a coach and a player is really important isn't it?
00:17:56
Rob
Definitely, and I think it goes back to what you said a little while ago about understanding your players, like if you know it's been exam week and they're stressed out, that's where asking your players, asking them questions, things like that. Because otherwise, if you don't, you'd never realize that and you'd be like, well, why is this session not going very well? Actually, it's because actually everyone's stressed out because they've got GCSEs or MOCs or the American equivalent.
00:18:20
Rob
And actually, you know, that's where that's it. You know, the the player before the person before the player is is massively important for me. Understanding the players, knowing what makes them tick. And, you know, I think that's that's a trick that a lot of coaches miss. It's just that's my centimeter. That's my number nine. Well, actually, that's Johnny or Sarah or whoever. And they're they're actually a person. So, yeah, getting to know your players is massive.
Building Bonds with Players
00:18:46
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, I remember a while back when I was teaching high school, I was talking to the other, I was coaching the boys' high school team and I was talking to the high school girls' coach and he told me that he feels in his season he'll spend more time in readers than he will on the football pitch. um Just so you know what readers is for our English viewers and everyone else, readers is like an ice cream shop.
00:19:08
Craig Birtwistle
for example. right And what he was trying to allude to there was the fact that the bonding off the field, especially for girls, is more important than the ones on it. Because here's the thing, we've we've played the game and we've played the game with people that we don't necessarily like when we're on the field. yeah i be We'll shout, we'll argue, everything like that. But as soon as we cross back over that white line, it's kind of like forgotten about.
00:19:32
Craig Birtwistle
whether it's the opposition or the plateau or your teammates. With the girls game, I feel like sometimes that can blend out of the field and then into into their social lives. So it's a case of you've got to make sure you um coach the person as well as coach the player.
00:19:49
Craig Birtwistle
because then they will grow with you and after being a coach for girls for many many many years, I only coach boys at the moment but that's not by choice i because I really do like enjoying girls and female ah women in general um but once you have a bond with that player I feel like they will do anything for you like they would run through a brick wall and you just get that that bond a lot quicker than you do with guys because guys just turn up They're all cold, calm and collective with it and just want to play the game. But with the girls teams that I've coached, I've always created that bond and it's made football more enjoyable when I've gone there because it's just like you get to know them as people as well as players.
00:20:33
Rob
Yeah, there's a there's a great quote, which I probably get wrong. ah They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think that is that's so powerful. And it's like this is the asking questions of one side of it. But then it's just remember those little bits. It's like,
00:20:48
Rob
ah What are you doing at the weekend? I'm going on my Duke of Edinburgh award and actually the next week it's like at the start of session how how was it? How did you get on at the weekend? So and stuff like that actually it's like do you know what actually the coach cares about what I'm doing outside and you know just little things like that.
00:21:06
Rob
and then actually when it comes to coaching side of it you get a lot more out of them because actually you know it's there's there's something there where it's not just oh not just a player to actually a person so you know spending that little bit of time asking questions and then actually following it up on it i think is it makes everything better um you know with everything sort of inside the session
00:21:31
Craig Birtwistle
I agree. I mentioned but again as a coaching tip recently, the fact that um preparation can actually help with bonding. And what I mean by that is like, ah some coaches I've seen, if their session starts at 5.30, they arrive at 5.25, they're running around, they're f throwing cones down and they're scattered and it's all over the place like that.
00:21:52
Craig Birtwistle
And then there's other coaches like like I try to be at least. I get there at five o'clock, I will set up and I'll all be set up before the players even arrive. So when the players arrive, I can have that few minutes of talking to them without feeling stressed that, oh, I got to set this up, got to do that and talk. And I also feel that like those water breaks can be really important as well. You don't want to send them for a water break just because you want to set up the next activity. If you've prepared,
00:22:20
Craig Birtwistle
by just taking a cone up or putting a cone down to change from one activity to the next, you can use those water breaks to have those little moments of conversation, throw a joke in, make sure they know you're a person and not just a robot, everything like that. So it really does help with that bonding experience.
00:22:39
Rob
Yeah, definitely 100% agreed with that.
00:22:43
Craig Birtwistle
So speaking of like advice that we mentioned, um chief Do you any
Training: Repetition vs. Realism
00:22:49
Craig Birtwistle
advice that you were given that has really helped you in your in your journey?
00:22:49
Rob
I think one of the things that was a big kind of light bulb moment for me was was one of my tutors was saying about the balance between repetition and realism. And I think that's something that I didn't get right a lot of the time, especially as a younger coach. And it's and that obviously goes down to that balance between repetition and realism will depend on who you're coaching. If it's an under the sevens foundation phase team, might be different from a men's team.
00:23:22
Rob
but if you have a session that is very kind of repetitive but has no realism to the game, yes players might work on passing a lot but then actually when they get into a game situation and then there's 19 other players 20 other you know whatever players on the pitch actually it could be a struggle and at the other end of it if it's all realism and actually someone leaves a session that's worked on finishing but has had no shots then actually have they become a better player so so getting your your balance in your sessions where actually there's there's that balance between repetition and realism i think is is really important and that's kind of one of the key things that always stuck with me
00:24:02
Craig Birtwistle
I love that I always refer to as my aha moment because I do everything in my session that leads towards the game at the end that shows them how it works in a realistic environment and then like when I do the old stop freeze technique or whatever You see the kids, as you say, the light bulb going off, the eyes go wider. It's like, oh, this relates to the warmup earlier when we were moving around the mannequin or the cone or anything like that. So that is great. And I also like the the flip of that as well, because as you say, if it's realistic to a game, how many shots does your striker get in one game? Might be one or two maximum.
00:24:43
Craig Birtwistle
But in practice, you want to replicate the fact that he's going to get those one or two chances, 100 different replications of it. So I think i think that's awesome. I really do. We'll be back after a short message from Session Share.
00:25:13
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. So Rob, we're going to finish the podcast on a bit of a lighter note.
Memorable Football Experiences
00:25:18
Craig Birtwistle
um Can you tell me what your favorite moment was in sports? It can be anything as a player, a fan, a coach.
00:25:25
Rob
ah Actually, you know, I was thinking about something else, but it was quite funny because today it popped up in like a Facebook, like one of them kind of Facebook memories. And um but five years ago today, we went, it was my eldest, 18th birthday, we went to Sulu and Barcelona for like a surprise kind of few days away.
00:25:47
Rob
And part of it, we went, me and the youngest um went to the new camp to watch Barcelona and actually kind of come up on the memories of we managed to get on film like Messi scoring a free kick and it kind of panned round to my son, his face and all the rest of it. So that's kind of those kind of moments and actually Lincoln's last, my son's actually coached with me now. So he was on the holiday camp.
00:26:07
Rob
I was showing the other coaches the lunch break and he said that was brilliant but also it's there's a little video of us having Domino's Pizza sat outside the new camp so it's like the Domino's and then like pans up to the stadium so he said yeah I'll always remember that so that was actually quite wasn't my original thought but actually that come up today and I thought that was quite powerful
00:26:08
Craig Birtwistle
Awesome.
00:26:21
Craig Birtwistle
Oh wow. I totally agree and it it really is something when I'm a father of three boys myself so I completely get it the amount of times that I've had these memories but those memories are so much better when quote unquote the yeah that is so much better when it's shared. It really is like you have that bonding moment with your kids, see those opportunities. Like my my son, we got to see Messi play in MetLife stage and when they came over here. So, and he still remembers that even though he was really young at the time, so it was a good like six, seven years ago or something, maybe even longer. So I 100% agree. it's ah It's a great moment that you can enjoy that sport and that's,
00:27:13
Craig Birtwistle
Again, it seems like this session, this ah podcast has been about bonding from the start to the finish to be perfectly honest. So what a great way to wrap it up.
00:27:22
Rob
Yeah, and I think, yeah, it's actually quite special at the moment because he's just started his coaching journey and he's doing some coaching with me on the holiday camps, all the rest of it. So it kind of, but you know, that's, that's what football's all about. It's about those, that bonding it's about. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a father and son or a father and daughter or a mother and daughter or and everything like that.
00:27:41
Rob
But those bonds you make, especially when you you see players you used to coach on the street and they kind of still remember you and you have a little chat and you've got fond memories of being, you know, they've got fond memories of being coached by you. That's massively powerful as well. It means you've had an impact on someone's life. And, you know, that for me is is the most important thing is the enjoyment while they're there. And then actually the memories you create, I think is is so powerful.
00:28:07
Craig Birtwistle
Or maybe we'll have Porter Jr. on here at some point. but that that Well, thank you very much for your time, Rob.
00:28:10
Rob
You never know.
00:28:14
Craig Birtwistle
This has been great. I've had a really good time chatting and talking about it. So Rob, if for any of our listeners want to get in touch, do you have any social media platforms that you use?
00:28:25
Rob
Yeah, I'm on, well, Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it now, it's a RJP coach. So that's mine. And I think the main one, go over to the Sunday share as well and have a look at that. It's not my kind of page by help with the admin. But you know, that's another one like yourselves, you know, do loads of good work for the coaching community. So that's another one that is definitely worth having a look at.
00:28:52
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, I follow Sunday Share as well. I really enjoy ah what they post and how we're doing exactly the same as we are doing here, collaborating coaches to coaches, making sure we can all grow in the game. So um again, thank you very much, Rob, for your time. I really do appreciate it. This was a brand new episode of Session Share, the Coaches Podcast.
00:29:15
Craig Birtwistle
Thank you to Rob for his time. ah Please make sure to join all our social media platforms and give us a comment and mention about this ah podcast. This has been Session Share, the coach's podcast. Thank you for listening and thank you for coaching the beautiful game.