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S1 E7 - Lee Cosgrove
77 Plays3 months ago
This episode we have the pleasure of having Lee Cosgrove on the show. Lee is a U18 Coach for Harb town??, he has his UEFA B, he has been successful with course in mentoring, Coerver, futsal. He spent 5 years with Leicester City’s Developmental Center and has spend 25 years managing and coaching teams of all ages. He is the creator of one of my favorite twitter or X pages with The Sunday Share. This is a great listen! Let us know your thoughts and opinions on Lee and Craig's thoughts.
Lee Cosgrove
Twitter / X - Follow @Leecosgrove10
Twitter / X - Follow@SundayShare10
Session Share
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpF44AndExPudaD9AXe2v3Q
Twitter/X - Follow @SessionShareNet
Facebook - sessionshare.net
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello and welcome to our next episode of Session Share the Coaches Podcast. My name is Craig Burtisall and I like have Lee Cosgrove on this as this week's guest. Lee is a UEFA B coach. He has had success with mentoring courses, Corva coaches, Futsal courses. He spent five years at Leicester City's Developmental Centre and spent over 25 years managing coaches, teams of all ages. He's the creator of one of my favourite Twitter or X as we have to call it nowadays pages, The Sunday Share. It's really great stuff Lee. So how are you doing today mate?
00:00:56
Lee
I'm alright Craig, it's very good we've had a game this afternoon but firstly thanks for asking me on on this, it's always good to talk football and football coaching so we appreciate that, but yeah I'm good thanks.
00:01:08
Craig Birtwistle
Well, that's the thing. We talk about it anyway, so we might as well record it, right?
00:01:11
Lee
Exactly, yes.
00:01:14
Craig Birtwistle
It's really funny because we we were having a conversation offline, Lee and myself, and I think I need to start recording these conversations up before we start, kind of a bit like stick to football. um We were having a good bit of back and forward.
Lee's Journey into Coaching
00:01:30
Craig Birtwistle
So, Lee, tell me a little bit about your background. What got you involved in football?
00:01:35
Lee
um Well, I mean, just from the very, very early days in English, lad, I'm 56 now, so I'm knocking on a bit, but it was street football, as we all did in in in back in and in the 70s. Then you end up for school teams, and then I started at under 11 at that them days. It was under 11, it was the earliest you could play for a team called Elston Park.
00:01:58
Lee
um which I've since managed and coached there and then you just kind of go through that and played up until I was about 40 odd just playing I was managing my local village team um doing what I thought was coaching at the time was probably a bit of YouTube stuff and stuff I'd seen myself when I was playing. I was fortunate enough to play under an ex-professional player and he did some stuff. Looking back now, it was probably a bit old school there. but
00:02:29
Lee
um Ended up when I had my son and he he was into football luckily, although I forced him. um yeah Then when he took it up, I thought, and my club at the time, which was called OBL's in Leicester, they were very good at like promoting coach education. And I thought, well, let's go and do it properly so.
00:02:50
Lee
um started to do my coaching badges and I think if you love the game and and you want to know how it works and you want to break it all down you want to get the knowledge so you can have a better understanding of the game so it was always a thirst to get the not the badges because of the badges sake to get the knowledge so I just love the game I love the social side of it I love the fact you can go anywhere around the world and you can talk football you bump into people that even if you don't know them personally they'll know somebody so it's just a great world and the games the games forever changing and
00:03:29
Lee
I don't think you ever get to the end of your knowledge thinking, you know what, I think I've got everything. We have moments like that, I think, where you think, I think I'm i'm okay now for where I am. but you just kind of keep going and keep going. it's just to and Just enjoy the game and being around the game, watching it, um coaching it and trying to help others and yeah, just have an impact really. I think once you stop playing, you kind of go into no man's land a little bit, a bit of wilderness where you're not relevant or important and then you get the ump with that and think, I better start ah learning something else and try and get
00:04:04
Lee
and well im needed again. so So yeah, it's probably two halves of playing and and coaching, but they're blended at some stage where I was player manager and and stuff like that. So yeah, just love the game and never tire of it really. You have moments where you think, well, maybe I need to rest from all this. um And we all take rest from time to time mentally, but yeah, just the love of the game and and and and meeting people and connecting like we've just done and and stuff like that.
00:04:34
Lee
so
00:04:35
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, it's funny. It's funny that you bring that up. Like, I feel like a lot of coaches get started that way. Like we play, obviously we get to a point where it's probably time to type the boots where we don't want to or whatever. So we get kind of like roped into coaching. Um, we start coaching and I think our first instinct is to do what we know. So we go back to the exercises our coaches did with us. And like, as someone who's a similar age to yourself, Lee, I'm in my early forties.
00:05:05
Craig Birtwistle
um I witnessed that as well. i I came from like a background where it was like more the old fashioned kick and run and everything along those lines. And as I've grown older um and more wiser, hopefully wiser at least,
00:05:22
Craig Birtwistle
Um, I've tried to figure out what sort of coach I wanted to be and like more possession biased orientated and stuff like that. So, uh, one of the best compliments I was ever given, uh, which was funny was that a, a parent said to me, are you sure you're not Spanish the way you coach?
00:05:40
Lee
yeah
00:05:40
Craig Birtwistle
And i I took that as a compliment, but like, uh, I think Albert whistle doesn't really sound good.
00:05:42
Lee
yeah yeah
00:05:46
Craig Birtwistle
So I'm definitely English. That's for sure. um When you were talking about your career and like, when you finally said, you know what, the coaching is what I want to do.
00:05:57
Craig Birtwistle
It wasn't just like a hobby na now, it was kind of like a passion. What motivated you to pick
Motivations and Challenges
00:06:05
Craig Birtwistle
up your career?
00:06:05
Lee
Yeah, I think I think when you like kind of get in into it I think you're always looking above yourself and you're looking at all the coaches and you look at the they've done the level two so UE4B wasn't available at when I started for grassroots but you look at the coaches and you think well I tell you what they they look like know what they're doing and you kind of A lot of it's some of it's ego, let's be honest. You want to be that you want people to say you're a good coach. If they've done that to you, then you know fair play. You want to you want to prove that you you know the game because I thought I was a decent footballer compared to things, but you just kind of want to know that you've got the knowledge and you can an impact. And a lot of it is ego. You just want people to say, well, your team's playing well. They're playing some great football fluid.
00:06:53
Lee
and you aspire to the coaches that you're moving around in circles with and going, wow, that's that's where I want to be. and When my lad was, when I first started at Under Sevens,
00:07:04
Lee
coaching my under sevens, he got invited into a, this was where the Lesser City thing came in, a development centre. So I took him along there and I knew one of the coaches that was doing it and he was at level two at that stage and I thought, wow, nothing against level two's but at the stage I just thought, wow, that's it. And then about two or three weeks later he says, come on Lee, you know what you're doing, come and help us.
00:07:26
Lee
And I'm like, whoa, this is less a city here and you've done your level two, I'll be out of my depth and you'll be fine. And I did that and that was probably one of the best things I did in five years. Five years have been that. I did a couple of bits in the academy, but genuinely it was a development centre.
00:07:41
Lee
and that's where you kind of look at people and and then I think you just admire some people whether that be tutors on the courses that you've done um you know sometimes it's a bit fine and you think wow I'm miles away from that um so yeah just aspire to be like we did one with the players you wanted to be a good player you wanted to have a good reputation so I think that's that's all it is and ah a lot of mine was I didn't want to give the parents any excuse to say you don't know what you're doing because if you've got the knowledge and you can prove that you know how the game works and you can coach their kids
00:08:12
Craig Birtwistle
Mm.
00:08:19
Lee
and you can see how the game plays to a a certain level, then they can't come knocking at you saying you don't know what you're doing. in So if they see you going on the courses and putting putting the effort in, then you're trying to better yourself and you can have no complaints. So I wouldn't say it's worked completely because you're never going to please every parent, um but they can't accuse you of not doing what you're asking the players be all in give 100% and be all in so yeah it's just aspiring to be somebody within that because you move from the playing world you get for forgotten about nobody bothered that you used to play and who you used to be not there was anybody but you then want to go into that coach coaching world and be somebody and be respected
00:09:06
Lee
um And then you just try and keep going and keep going until you till you get there and and hopefully it works. So, um yeah, that's that's really why I wanted to do it. less The Lesser City was, wow, what, you know, we had kids from under sevens to about under 12s doing it on a Monday night for three and a half hours. And so you learned how to, behaviors, connecting with young kids. I didn't realize then how important connecting with players were at that stage.
00:09:35
Lee
But you know, you've got behaviour with excitable seven-year-olds and then trying to coach them and then you before you know it, you're finishing the night with under 12s and it's a different ballgame.
00:09:39
Craig Birtwistle
Okay.
00:09:44
Lee
So it's a great thing to do and unless the city really helps you, they put certain CPDs on and let you into the academy to watch.
00:09:45
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah.
00:09:55
Lee
And yeah, going into ah an academy and seeing some great coaches. you think well that's what I, that's what I want, not what I certainly want to be but that's how I want to hold myself and you know have that knowledge so I think it just comes within to drive yourself really.
00:10:12
Craig Birtwistle
I love the fact that you said the drive was um to like prove your knowledge to the parents. And I think ah we all do that. Definitely in the beginning we like like coach in order for everyone to understand how we did. And then as we grow older, we kind of understand that like,
00:10:32
Craig Birtwistle
It's, it's about the player. We were putting that information out there. We want the players then to be able to tell that information to their parents at that dinner table sort of mentality. What did you learn at practice? So no, that sort of thing. So I think that's really good. And then it goes from then as we grow as a coach to stop being that trainer that just passing our knowledge. And to the point of being a coach now where you mentioned about learning how to connect with that child and everything. So.
00:11:02
Craig Birtwistle
That kind of like evolution, if you will, of us as a coach really helps with like building a philosophy. And when we build that philosophy, it's definitely organic. Have you found your philosophy has changed as your career has gone on?
00:11:18
Lee
Oh, definitely. Oh yeah. I think when you when you but when you start out, or say under sevens or whatever, you start your coaching journey, you're grasping at anything. You're trying to get as much drills it that you can and and information. And you just, well, this is a great drill. Completely no good for seven year old kids, but like it looks, it looks you're trying to make it look fantastic, but it's not doing anything. And I think as you go and you go on courses, reading books has been fantastic. um you know Good education, certain books.
00:11:49
Lee
i did I read Douglas Mobs, a teacher's guide to coaching or whatever, Douglas Mobs, if you've not read that, absolutely unbelievable, blew me mind that word. Lincoln teaching to coaching, blew me mind. The Gold Dust book by David and Keith Mayer is really worth a read. that's more not so much It's not about drills, it's how you make connections to people and body language and talking and stuff like that. So I think at first you're just trying to be look good on the grass.
00:12:19
Lee
That's what you're trying to do is you want it to look good on the grass and look at look at me with my clever drills. And then eventually you realize that you've got to connect with these people, whether they be kids or even the parents or just older players. And I think you you get that knowledge later on. If you knew that at the real, if you're lucky enough and knew that at the very start, um then then you've done well.
00:12:44
Lee
but I think you kind of go that as you get to things. And then people recommend books. You go and watch certain coaches. And you just, it should like I say, it's just, it evolves as you go, as you pick with experience. And then eventually I think you get to know what's good, what you need, what you don't need. And then you're just picking from here, there and everywhere. It's knowing where to look. That's the real skill, knowing where to look and what you're looking for. And then just then kind of blending that in and um
00:13:15
Lee
I think, i think you yes, you want to be your own person, but I think we're made up of tutors, books, ah yourself as a player, experiences. So you're just finding out, you probably never knew where I was then, but i was how I was going to get to here, or even if I was going to become here. And I'm probably now another 10 years old, maybe a different coach, but that comes with the experiences that you get. But yeah, it's just,
00:13:45
Lee
It's ah it's ah an amount of many things that make you where you are.
00:13:50
Craig Birtwistle
I couldn't agree more. I feel like I've always likened it to a jigsaw piece. So like when you when you're starting your career, the the board's empty. You've got to start your picture. So you're taking pieces from everywhere. And if you imagine the jigsaw being your life, then obviously slowly but surely you start adding to those pieces. You start understanding where You come in and if you have that passion, as you said, to pick up that book, to watch that podcast, what look at those YouTube videos.
00:14:23
Craig Birtwistle
go see a coach, go talk to a coach, all these sort of things. You start then taking say 10% of what Lee's done, 10% what Todd's done, 10% what Craig's done. And you start editing those those percentages then to kind of make your philosophy, ah your style of play, your system of play and everything to, in order to make Lee Cosgrove's Philosophy then to make great multi-sours Ideology of the game.
00:14:55
Craig Birtwistle
So this is all fantastic stuff. We'll be Of course Yeah
00:14:58
Lee
Let me just add in there Craig, just to go back to i like your jigsaw bit, I do love that, that's a great idea, but sometimes Yeah, I'm stealing that one.
00:15:09
Lee
But sometimes you get a bit that's from another jigsaw and you've got it and you're trying to force it in somewhere. It's not even for that jigsaw, it's for another one. And eventually you go, hang on a minute, I don't need that.
00:15:18
Craig Birtwistle
right
00:15:20
Lee
I thought I needed it, but I didn't.
00:15:21
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, that's one thing we spoke about online, wasn't it?
00:15:21
Lee
But not every piece is for the right jigsaw. And you eventually you get to learn that, that you're grabbing for that piece. and But if it doesn't fit, then just get rid of it, but knowing that it doesn't, because somebody somebody can be looking for for hours trying to make it fit and it's not going to fit. But yeah, I love that. That's ah a great different analogy.
00:15:42
Craig Birtwistle
About how like coaching is great, not black and white. Me and you could both do the exact same session plan with very similar kids. And it actually come out very differently just because of the way we approach it.
00:15:55
Craig Birtwistle
And it's not to say one area is right and one area is wrong. It's how it works for that particular player. Because I've done session plans that I consider that my yeah bread and butter of my yeah lessons and I've done him and they've been great.
00:16:12
Craig Birtwistle
I've done it the following week and I'm like, what in the world happened? It all fell apart and then it just depends on the situation.
00:16:17
Lee
Yeah.
00:16:20
Craig Birtwistle
So couldn't agree more. um We'll be back Lee to discuss a little bit more. We're actually going to move on and talk about Sunday shares fourth year anniversary and how our listeners can be a part of it after a short message from Zencast.
00:17:16
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. We're joined with Lee Cosgrove here and we've been talking about coach education in general. What I want to move on to now, Lee, is a big passion of yours. um I mentioned it in the intro about Sunday Share, one of the X pages that I follow very well. You guys offer some great insights and session plans on a regular basis.
00:17:39
Craig Birtwistle
And I hear that there's a fourth anniversary coming up.
The Sunday Share Initiative
00:17:43
Craig Birtwistle
Before we get into that, can you tell us a little bit about Sunday Share?
00:17:44
Lee
who
00:17:46
Craig Birtwistle
Where was, how did it start? What was the motivation behind it?
00:17:51
Lee
ah Well in all honesty there wasn't any motivation behind it, I might be giving the game away there, but we were in lockdown so it was January 2020, a complete lockdown, the whole world, no football going on and then that's where Twitter as it was known then was just a great way of still connecting with people and talking football and just that we weren't getting pitch side or training sessions or changing rooms and I literally just, i add it I had one of my golden drills I think and I thought what I put that out there and people probably people have heard this but the the very first one was called Saturday Share because it just happened to be a Saturday and then so I put that out and then the week after it happened to be a Sunday so I did I just thought you know let's put a hashtag to this hashtag Sunday Share don't just came in my head put that out then a couple of people commented on it and and then I think it was Rob Porter really and another friend of mine Thomas
00:18:47
Lee
the Polish goalkeeper coach you know they said well oh you know what I'll do that so I put the hashtag with it and I went yeah yeah you do that and it kind of just went from there there was no real um game model idea of it becoming this this thing that it's become it was just something to keep us going in lockdown and then it just kind of went from there and escalated from there not not straight away but it just kind of going in and then we just every Sunday I do something and other people doing and just people just started joining in
00:19:19
Lee
And then because people had bothered to do a Sunday share, I would then retweet it and make a comment and just kind of pass it on. And then it kind of went, it started, I did it every Sunday for nine months. And then but by the time the end of them nine months, one would come out of a certain lockdown period where we' we're allowed to go and play games and everything.
00:19:41
Lee
And it would just be coming the whole Sunday, like Sunday morning till really Monday morning for the Americans or were behind us. um So yeah, that was it. It just became a bit of a community to thing, connecting with people. And people just seemed to enjoy it. um So and then I think the old idea was it it was I think people a lot of people were afraid of putting in their drills online or session plans or whatever because there was a lot of negativity and people say well that's not very good well hang on a minute I'm only a level one it's from the sevens
00:20:16
Lee
You know, so, but we made it. I, when I, when I was doing it on my own, I made sure if anybody came in and started saying anything negative, I'd ah jump on it. Just say, look, if it's, if you haven't got anything positive to say, just leave it. Just let, let these people get in with it. So we did that.
00:20:31
Lee
And then after nine months, I thought, I've got to stop this because it's becoming time consuming. And then Peter Prickett, I know that you've had on and he mentioned, he said, Oh, this is, this is a good thing. Let's, let's keep it going. if And I went too much time. He went, well, let's, if we get some help. So him, Rob, uh, we got Hannah Duncan on. Um, so the four of us were doing it then. We've since added Carl, Carl Wilde's come on board.
00:20:58
Lee
andnna Hannah left and started playing football at a good level as well. Mark Lyons, who was in the Leicester City Academy, he was doing it as well and now Tony Meade is doing it. So there's now four or five of us doing it. And um yeah, here we are four years, nearly four years later in January. um and It's just now become a thing on on Sundays and it just happens every week.
00:21:22
Lee
um And then I kind of started it where everything's free. That's the odd idea. we're We're not a selling page. Everything's free. and people If people have got books to sell or stuff just sessions that you can pay for, I just say to them, put a free session on there. If you want to put a link on there, do that. But give them something for nothing. And then if people think I like that, I'll go for it. That's fine. But don't just come and sell your wares on there. It's not like that.
00:21:52
Lee
And then after the first year, we had a bit of, I thought, well, a bit of an anniversary, and then I've been lucky enough to connect with loads of people that got books and bazooka goals and stuff like that. So we had a bit of a celebration for the first year and the second year. So we'd have a big giveaway on the thing here of just prizes, you know, coaching prizes, all sorts of stuff. I mean, we ended up with trips to PSVI in Hoven, um to their academy, bazooka goals,
00:22:19
Lee
god knows what unbelievable some unbelievable prizes um and then get into the anniversary meet-up i went on one of those psv ironhoven trips i went with the winner uh reese limbert uh he won it and me and him went And because I've done my B license seven years ago, apart from Curva courses, they were like the last ones I've really done. And I love being on a course with coaches, you know, being in the same room with coaches, just chatting and talking and just swapping ideas and information and opinions. And I went on that PSV one and I thought, this is brilliant. I love this. I had a great time with meeting different people from all over the world. Well, all over Europe.
00:23:04
Lee
And that gave me the idea of having a meetup. It'd been going round my mind for a long time. And then so we did one in August. We got the first one off the ground. We did it at Warsaw LFC, which you'll know. um Luckily, Rob Williams, I know him quite well from the academy. I asked him if we could happen. And we wanted it to be free. We didn't want it to be charging people. and having the pressure of selling tickets, so we did one there, Rob was brilliant with his and Martin Bolz was the Eddard Academy, he did it, or Eddard Coaching, he did it he did a presentation, so we had about 24 people go there.
00:23:41
Lee
um And then public probably two or three years ago, the England Learning Twitter site did a Sunday Share, actually did the hashtag Sunday Share with us.
00:23:55
Lee
And like, we all connected each with each other, because we were on a WhatsApp group saying, have you seen that England Learning have done it? And it was like, wow, this is you know this is their their main site.
00:24:05
Lee
So are they still do it now, almost every week.
00:24:06
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, that's cool.
00:24:09
Lee
um And then when we did the Warsaw one, um England Learning came and put a presentation on for us. And John Falwell, great bloke from Leicester as well, I know him. He did a great presentation. And I think when he saw what we were trying to do, yeah yeah he said, I mentioned about and being blown away with England Learning doing it. And he said, well, let's try and get ah let's try and get a room at St. George's Park.
00:24:38
Lee
means the head of coaching for this country so we've now got one coming up to tie in with the fourth anniversary in January next year that's going to take place at St George's Park in January.
00:24:49
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. That is awesome. St George's Park, what a beautiful facility to play it in. That's great.
00:24:55
Lee
Well Yeah, you can't ah you can't get much better than that. Warsaw was good, but then George's part, the head of there, and like that was kind of ah um a wish list, do you think?
00:25:01
Craig Birtwistle
Right.
00:25:05
Lee
if we can get If we can get it there, I mean John's been brilliant, John Ford's been brilliant helping out there um to get us there, so it's kind of... um Let's tie it in with the fourth anniversary and see what we can do there. But yeah, fun I but i've did meet Futsal level 2 there and it's one of the places you go and you can just feel with the football there that the tutors are brilliant. The place is brilliant. just just football you know so Just football heaven really there. So we've kind of landed on the feet with this one. I still can't believe we've managed to sort it out. So um I'm looking forward to that.
00:25:40
Craig Birtwistle
So imagine this one's going to be the biggest at the four then, right?
00:25:44
Lee
ah Well, we're limited on the numbers because they're given as literally a free room.
00:25:48
Craig Birtwistle
Okay.
00:25:51
Lee
But you don't get much of free at St George's Park.
00:25:51
Craig Birtwistle
Oh, wow.
00:25:55
Lee
But John's been done very well and and he's managed sorts of stuff.
00:25:55
Craig Birtwistle
That's true.
00:25:58
Lee
I think it's about 42 places we can get. Again, it's it's going to be for free.
00:26:02
Craig Birtwistle
Gotcha.
00:26:04
Lee
um we've got Saul Isaacson Hurst who's a fantastic one-to-one coach who's doing professional plays, he's been in Arsenal, he's been in Tottenham, he's been in Chelsea ah he's going to come and do a presentation for us and then ah England FA are you going to do a presentation on Futsal and we're going to observe some of the releases today, we're going to observe some of the Premier League Academy Futsal games in there as well so a little tour of St George's Park so um It should be a great day, hopefully.
00:26:37
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic, can you tell our listeners like how they can get involved with it?
00:26:41
Lee
yeah well um First of all, give the Sunday Share site a follow and join us every week. for millions and millions of free resources.
00:26:53
Lee
um What we did was the Warsaw one was, um it's the first one, so when we did that I was like just chuffed that we'd got people to turn up.
00:27:04
Lee
They come from all over, one chap called Colin came from Gibraltar to visit his family in the Midlands but he still kind of came anyway.
00:27:09
Craig Birtwistle
wow
00:27:11
Lee
So when we were there, without blowing away that people had put the effort in to come to us, that we said, everybody there, you've got first dibs at St George's.
00:27:12
Craig Birtwistle
excellent
00:27:19
Lee
So we've we've given it them, so some of them have kind of ah contacted me. But like early December, we'll put it out there and it'll go out for those that are interested. and it will be a case of can we cater for everybody if people want to come there should be there should be enough spaces to hopefully please everybody be i think we might be oversubscribed once it goes live but yeah just join us and we'll just get everybody to contact us and make sure that they're really interested and we'll go from there and depend on how many people want to come but it's only to everybody really
00:27:33
Craig Birtwistle
Wow. Excellent.
00:27:54
Craig Birtwistle
Sounds good. And for all our listeners, um the information that we're talking about will all be in the podcast description um when you when you see this podcast come out. So you'll be able to click on, you'll be able to be invited into Sunday Share on Twitter and find out about all these great things. Lee, we're going to be back after a short break. ah Be right back.
00:28:31
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. We just spoke about Lee's passion of Sunday Share. You spoke about how you created it and how much of a success it is today. Sunday Share, like Session Share, my own exercise YouTube channel, is dedicated to helping coaches grow.
Advice for New Coaches
00:28:49
Craig Birtwistle
With this in mind, what's your best advice that you've you would give a new coach?
00:28:55
Lee
Oh, what a question, that is.
00:28:57
Craig Birtwistle
okay
00:28:58
Lee
um
00:29:01
Lee
my My advice to coaches would be, my one of my passions is observing other coaches. Okay, so I would say to other coaches, just go and watch other coaches. If they can be better than you, it don't matter what level they could be, it might be academy, it might be just on the local park, but just,
00:29:24
Lee
them observe what the coach is, ones that are experienced, see how they how they ah set the session up, how they talk, how they dress, the body language, how they talk, because ultimately that's where you kind where you're kind of heading. You can't take everything from that, but I don't know, just just get get the knowledge Don't be in a rush to get all the knowledge. Just get the bits and pieces that you need. Keep it simple. Keep it enjoyable. Connect with those players. you know That's everything. If you can't connect with the players, no matter how good your drill is, if they don't like you, you're not connecting. You're wasting your time. Just just make sure that you connect.
00:30:13
Lee
Get a little bit of knowledge, go and watch others, keep it simple, just enjoy it. Don't be in a rush. Don't be in a rush, but have a thirst for learning. That's what I would say. It's ah it's a marathon, not a sprint.
00:30:26
Craig Birtwistle
I love that. And one thing we mentioned earlier as well about the courses um that kind of brought on some reminder to me is when you're doing those courses, understand that you can learn as much from the coaches that are on the course as well as the instructions. So one of the things that Lee and I spoke to a little bit when we were offline about the fact that when we're in these environments, don't just learn to pass the course, learn for the sake of learning. And I feel like I in particular didn't figure that out until I got on my A license course, where I started realizing that like, yes, the piece of paper is great. You know what I mean? It's going to help you open doors and everything like that. But if this is truly a passion for you,
00:31:12
Craig Birtwistle
learn for the sake of learning, think about like when I started doing my A license and the read when I did my A license, it was now over a year as opposed to a week, which I felt was so much more beneficial because I took the information I learned and passed it onto my players. And that's when I truly thought I was getting better as a coach because now I was taking the advice and the information I was giving. And like I said earlier, if it was in a square, I was now shaping it into the ball that I needed.
00:31:42
Craig Birtwistle
and by getting rid of that 3% I didn't agree with by adding 3% more of what I already knew and stuff like that. So I think that advice that you're giving there Lee is spot on. do you do you Did you ever ever given any advice by someone that really affected you all the way through your career?
00:32:03
Lee
um I was, for people who can remember the youth modules, um I did a couple of my youth modules. First, youth module one and youth module two with it a chap who was a lot ahead of coaching in Lesser John Griffiths. He's now I think he's doing England under 18 girls team. And I think I've been on to me, I've been on me one, me level one.
00:32:28
Lee
And the tutor that was doing it, he did I don't think he wanted to be there. He wanted to do the level two, but he didn't have the accreditation to to two to the level two. And it was a bit of a like, just a bit of a negative kind of thing. I love the course, i love the old level one course, it was face to face with brilliant. And then John Griffiths, he took them two things and I'm like, that's that's that's what a coach looks like.
00:32:54
Lee
and you kind of he had he had everything he had all the answers to how the brain works how how children learn behaviors let alone all the football stuff and he was kind of an inspiration to think that's that's where i want to head to um and he was brilliant i was fortunate enough as well to observe john mcdermott i think's now head of england coaching now i think he was topman then and i went to loughborough university to watch him do a four hour session with the top number 14s, 15s and the the attention to detail, the voice in how we demanded stuff and stuff like that so I think you just take them bits from there you don't try and copy them but
00:33:39
Lee
they kind of they were the ones. Amongst other things, the chap I know who did the Leicester City thing that there was a level two, you know he was he was he was football mad as well and it kind of picked bits and peated off in. And then a while ago the FA did some mentoring where you could, be the adminchers, they'd come into clubs. And I remember going to my club, it was OBL's at the time, I'd only just started under sevens and the the FA had assigned um ah to and a mentor for the club and we sat in this ah meeting and nobody put their hand up and I'm going okay I felt embarrassed for this chap I went I'll have a bit of that and so I was mentored two or three times and they were fantastic they were really helpful so
00:34:24
Lee
I think you just it's it's those people above you that you come't want to try and emulate and and try and copy, shall we say. They're the ones that drive you on. Sometimes you get yourself in a situation and you think, what would what would they do? How would they handle this? How would they handle this? I don't know. Somebody playing you up or the drill falling down or whatever. but So yeah, I think there's a few people along the way that you've looked at. This is coaching courses. yeah We can talk about PEP and starter football, but that's just a little bit further on there. But actually being a coach, I think it's, I think every coach will say they've been on and they've been a tutor that's helped them or like a mentor or something like that. Or they've been in, and what, some coaches at Academy. So they're the ones that inspire you to be better, is that what I'm saying?
00:35:16
Craig Birtwistle
I love that and i've I've always loved the courses where, as I mentioned earlier about the shade of grey when it comes to coaching, Tovo Academy is a big one that I love. I love the old fashioned NSCAA in America, it's now called ah United Soccer Coaches.
00:35:34
Craig Birtwistle
And the reason I love like the premier de but diploma that I did over here, for example, was because the instructor said to us, I'm not going to foul you on based on it being right or wrong, because there is that room for debate. Like my 433 could be very different to your 433 and so on. And the way he worded it was, I'm going to pass you as long as you convince me that works for you. So like we got like the Cebudio players out, we got like the boards out, we got the players out on the field, everything like that on the pitch. And as long as you could prove the fact that this way of coaching will resonate with the player, it will help the team and everything like that, you got the pass.
00:36:20
Craig Birtwistle
and i like that because it wasn't just a case of now you ankle lock your foot to receive a pass like the the black and white of coaching because it's now when you're talking about systems you talk about formations styles everything like that there's more than one way to skin a cat when you look at you mentioned people earlier people who am like guadiola or people that Amelie Ancelotti or Marino. These are three different, very different styles of coaching, but three of the most successful coaches we've ever had in history. As simple as that. So I love that. And um Lee, we're going to finish off with a bit of a light note.
Memorable Moments in Sports
00:37:00
Craig Birtwistle
Can you tell us what um your favorite moment in sports is? It could be anything as a player, as a fan or a coach.
00:37:09
Lee
o and think that I think a thing ah massive part of me trying to be the coach I am is because I'm coaching my son and I want him to have a better I had a great experience when I was younger but I want my son to be a better technical player and enjoy his football with his mates um more than anything else so it'll be linked to probably watching him, either him and his team play. I think when you can, when your team's
00:37:46
Lee
We probably won, if we won two or three games I think, that's where that's how I want him to play. That's what I've taught them. It's all come together. Real pressure gaming. They've just played the football the football that you see in your head.
00:38:03
Lee
And it's not Barcelona 2012, it's your version of that. When you see that a happen in front of you and you've not driven it yourself because you've been joy-sticking and screaming and shouting and moving players, if you can sit back and... I've stood back sometimes and just watched my team play without instruction.
00:38:24
Lee
And they're the moments that you you think this is this is where it's come together. Yes, we've won leagues, we've won cups, but just sometimes performances that have like just, you know, you've just gone, wow, we've we've we've got it. we've we've been We've been fortunate enough. We've been, my team's been into Leicester City Academy a couple of times and we've played their light shadow squads or their academy teams, but maybe year year below us.
00:38:48
Lee
And I've been going in there really nervous thinking, oh, this could be this could be nasty tonight. And they've absolutely blown me away. you know it's all they've just got the They've just got their heads on it and played. And I remember somebody's parent, who'd not been to watch it a long time, and her son, she went she came over and went, wow, that was unbelievable. That was unbelievable. She said, look can't that's proper football. The last time I come and watch, they were just kicking the ball and animals around and running around. So it's them little moments that you just think,
00:39:17
Lee
you know what that's that's a part of me all that time and effort is now showing itself in a football match and you know you just them little comments like you i think you mentioned earlier about being a spanish coach somebody's come over and said they look a well-drilled side they look fluid side just it's just them little moments so yeah you could say winning the league might be one but just to when you've had a total performance and you think you know what they have learned it they have listened and they've got it and probably i can't pick one out but there's been a few times when i've just gone wow that's that's that's brilliant that's made my day so
00:40:02
Craig Birtwistle
as berlin ah As a dad of three boys myself, I totally get the fact that when you see them thrive, it's so rewarding, and probably even more so than what you did as a player or you did as a coach. um I think it sums it up, and to wrap it up, connecting it back to Leicester City, when ah Peter Schmeichel was asked what he's most ah impressive thing in sports was for his life. He responded when Kasper Schmeichel won the Premier League and you think Peter Schmeichel's done it all, he's won the European Championship with Denmark, Premier League's Champions League with Manchester United and yet seeing his own son lift the Premier League title was ah the most rewarding for him. So I think that sums it up brilliantly.
00:40:51
Craig Birtwistle
Well Lee, thank you so much for your views and your insights. I've found this very beneficial and I'm sure our listeners will agree. um We will put all these details in the social media um to drag on to Sunday Share. We'll put that in all in the descriptions of the podcast. Thank you very much Lee for joining us on Session Share, the Coaches Podcast.
00:41:14
Craig Birtwistle
Be sure to get in touch with us across all socials that we have discussed. You can find them in our celebration in our ah platform description. could Best of luck League of Sunday share and the celebration coming up. This has been Session Share, the coaches podcast. Thank you very much for listening and thank you all for coaching the beautiful game.
00:41:36
Lee
Thanks Greg, much appreciated. Cheers.