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S3 E1 - Carl Wild
60 Plays22 days ago
On todays Episode we have Carl Wild. Carl has his BA with honors in Football Coaching and Management. He is an FA Coach Developer, an FA talent Reporter on the womens pathway and a published author. Some great stuff there Carl.
Follow Carl on X: @CarlWild75
Buy Carls books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B08YKGVK54
Follow Session Share and Craig
YouTube: @sessionshare4375
X: @SessionShareNet
X: @CraigBirtwistle
Facebook: sessionshare.net
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Session Share' with Guest Cole Wild
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Session Share, the coach's podcast. My name is Craig Burtussell and I'm excited to have Cole Wild on the podcast today. Carl has his BA with honors in football coaching and management.
00:00:30
Craig Birtwistle
He's an FA coach developer and an FA talent reporter on the women's pathway and is a published author. Some great stuff there, Cole. How are you doing today?
00:00:40
Carl Wild
Hi Craig, yeah, really good thanks. Thank you for having me on. Looking forward to our chat today.
00:00:45
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic.
Cole Wild's Coaching Journey
00:00:46
Craig Birtwistle
ah Carl, tell us a little bit about your background. What got you interested in football?
00:00:51
Carl Wild
ah Yeah, so in terms of just growing up as a kid first of all, like most of us do. So just ah joining me local grassroots team and just playing there, no level at all. So not no good enough to play any decent level whatsoever, just the just the local team and and the school team.
00:01:12
Carl Wild
um um And then as I got older, obviously quite a lot of us get into coaching the same way in terms of kids. So it was me son that came along first of all. um He wanted to play, which was great.
00:01:25
Carl Wild
Went along and that's about a few weeks' time. They needed help and they needed some people to help run the team. So I volunteered just to make sure so he could carry on playing, obviously, and and for him to go and enjoy himself. and From there, I got the bug of coaching, really. That's where it really really started to kick in. I enjoyed it. Just thought dabble with a few coaching badges, just the lower ones at that stage, just to sister help myself really and help the team. just just truck i like to If I'm going to do something like a lot of people, I want to try and do my best that I possibly can at it.
00:02:01
Carl Wild
ah and found that was I was all right at it and I was doing doing pretty well and I got more and more interested. so then just took the plunge, really, and ah Left my job, went went and went and did a degree at university to get some more ah knowledge around it go and do part-time football coaching and all that type of stuff and just sort of moved my way through it for it all and and just picked up other jobs. And then eventually got into a bit of teaching as well, which quite a lot of coaches do just ah because it's very similar, obviously.
00:02:35
Carl Wild
And then finally I've sort of landed myself at a university now where i'm lucky enough to to be like a coach educator, a lecturer on it and and run football courses there for the university and and helping young coaches start their journey and do the same with the FA in terms of delivering their coaching badges. And throughout that time, I've just picked up different coaching experiences at different levels in terms of the male and the female game, grassroots,
00:03:03
Carl Wild
young kids, especially like under and 12s, that's sort of the area like to work in, all the way up to adults. So, yeah, yeah, just been really lucky in my journey. Got into it late coaching-wise, not until to short say but ben ben i will just able just to work my way through, work hard like we all do. And I've been very lucky. It's one of those, isn't it? Sometimes you just...
00:03:25
Carl Wild
right time, right place and all that type of stuff. And i managed to get myself into some some really good opportunities.
Craig's Coaching Beginnings
00:03:31
Carl Wild
So, yeah, that's about it, really.
00:03:33
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. One thing that really interests me about what you said was the fact that On my personal coaching journey, I was like 18 when I started coaching, um mainly due to the fact that there was no more playing opportunities for me.
00:03:47
Craig Birtwistle
they kept doing like the local pickup soccer and stuff like that, or football in the case. and But then got the opportunity to start coaching. What was really interesting about what you just said there, though, was that kids came first and you started coaching through your love of the game and obviously the love of your kids, giving them the opportunity is that...
Career Transition to Full-time Coaching
00:04:09
Craig Birtwistle
that you could give them. um It must have been a very difficult conversation to have when you already have kids to give up a regular job and go into coaching full time.
00:04:21
Craig Birtwistle
What motivated you to make that switch, if you will?
00:04:25
Carl Wild
Yeah, it was first of all, a very difficult decision to make and it was, I have done it without the support my family what whatsoever. So again, very as I mentioned a few times, i was very lucky on that side.
00:04:38
Carl Wild
I think sort of the sort of lifestyle and sort of balance. i was in it I was in a job that I'd been doing for about 10, 12 years and I just really didn't like my job. It was something I got up in the morning, I dreaded going to work, but obviously I had to go mortgage and so forth.
00:04:56
Carl Wild
um But i think it's just you start doing it I'm sure lots of people listening to this will will know what talking about. you You just absolutely get the bug for it. And even though it was only volunteering, I'm only doing probably what, 10 hours coaching a week and games at the weekend.
00:05:12
Carl Wild
I was almost spending more time doing that in terms of planning and everything and getting everything ready. But I was concentrating on me on the actual job because it was just something that I really found interesting. And obviously,
00:05:25
Carl Wild
with your child involved in it as well, when you put a lot more effort into it. And I think it was when I realised, I think once I'd done a, I just pushed myself a little bit just to get through what was the level two at the time in terms of coaching qualifications. And after that course, I sort thought, I realised I was all right at it in terms of what I was doing. And I noticed a couple of skills that I could transfer from my job and other days life and the slight point to be coaching. So,
00:05:54
Carl Wild
ah started doing a little bit of extra stuff while i was still doing my full-time job just to see how it went. and So at the time, Manchester United were running a lot of extra community stuff in terms of working in holiday camps and you can go abroad and do some coaching sessions for them.
00:06:13
Carl Wild
Again, lucky to get a job doing that. So I'd spent... You did couple of weeks over the summer doing some holiday camps with them and so forth. And again, it was going well, good feedback from some really experienced people and so forth.
00:06:27
Carl Wild
And it was one of those moments where you thought, if I'm going to do this, I'm going have to do it now because time's running out a little bit.
00:06:34
Craig Birtwistle
Mm-hmm.
00:06:34
Carl Wild
and so I just took the plunge again. But again, loads of graft hard work. It was as if I had to take another job on while I was at university. So was working
Role of Luck and Hard Work in Coaching Career
00:06:44
Carl Wild
nights, finishing work at eight morning, sorting the kids out for school and then straight into university, get back, try and get a few hours kit and then start it all over again. was real graft for two, three years. But then obviously the the rewards have been, you know, I can't even describe how lucky I am now in terms of,
00:07:03
Carl Wild
that time where you hated getting up in the morning to go and do your job, you're complete opposite now where you're getting up with a bit of a spring and you start and you just have to pinch yourself a few times just to realise where you are now in terms of how lucky you are in terms of the job. And that's why so don't mind whatsoever jumping on things like this. If I can help out other coaches in any way whatsoever with my experiences and sort of my mistakes that I've made across the years, if I can help in any way, I'll always give back because, again, I'm i'm just one of those very lucky people who can do this full time.
00:07:36
Carl Wild
When I realise there's thousands of people out there still doing it as a volunteer and I always take the hat off to them because it's such
Evolving Coaching Philosophy
00:07:44
Carl Wild
a graph for them. But so, yeah, absolutely.
00:07:47
Carl Wild
um Just a bit of luck, again, just one of those grab it while you can moments and luckily it paid off because you know if if not, I'm i still doing that job I didn't like.
00:07:58
Craig Birtwistle
It's funny, though, that you mentioned, look, because I've heard off a lot of people that it's really convenient that hardworking people are the most looking at the end of the day.
00:07:59
Carl Wild
do
00:08:09
Craig Birtwistle
And it sounds like you work really hard in order to make that switch. um During that like transition period from like you becoming a part-time coach, and for all the coaches that are listening, I have the uttermost respect for someone who can work nine till five and then go out on the field, like I'm engulfed in the game every day. I work as an administrator during the day as a director of coaching, and then I go on the field at night. And even I find that difficult to go from the office to the field.
00:08:38
Craig Birtwistle
And even though my whole day is football, um but I have the utmost respect for people that are able to do both. It just shows how much passion and love that they have for the game in order to be able to do that.
00:08:51
Craig Birtwistle
During that transition that you had, and basically now that you're a full-time coach with lots of qualifications, lots of experience in what you would consider a short time if you started after the age of 30.
00:09:05
Craig Birtwistle
How has your philosophy changed? Where is your philosophy now in coaching?
00:09:11
Carl Wild
Yeah, ah I think first of all, like we all started off, we probably didn't even have a philosophy when I first started in terms of because you don't want quite understand it. And then obviously your philosophy sort of develops over time when you start understanding stuff. And, you know, in my coach education role, I always say to coaches, if you don't know something, you don't know something. so it's It's changed mainly because of other people showing me stuff and changing my knowledge and changing changing my understanding and so forth.
00:09:43
Carl Wild
um So game's changed quite a bit in terms of coaching as well over that time. So that's all had ah had a huge impact on me in terms of it. But I understand now that it's very much about environment.
00:09:55
Carl Wild
I'm a huge one of environments in terms of getting that environment right ah in terms of for the kids, but in terms of the coaches as well. So probably the best example I i can give is just just recently, I've just finished um about six months ago, but I ran the boys section at a semi-professional club over here in England for for three, four years.
00:10:18
Carl Wild
And we had to get coaches in. and So I had to get coaches in that that could run run the teams and so forth because we we were starting from scratch again. And the big thing for me was i wasn't too concerned over qualifications in terms of or experience or ah previous coaching, what they've done and so forth.
00:10:37
Craig Birtwistle
Thank you.
00:10:39
Carl Wild
I was i more concerned about getting the right people in because I knew if I got the right people in, they would be open to conversations. They would be open to... um developing themselves to be open to to doing going the extra mile in terms of whatever needs to be done for the kids and so forth.
00:10:58
Carl Wild
So I can ah can work with people like that rather than someone who may have really good experience, really good qualifications, but they're quite set in their ways and so forth and what want to do it in their own way and just turning up to do the coaching for the sake of coaching and then maybe leave it. So I think getting...
00:11:17
Carl Wild
people skills in and getting right people into these, these positions was was really important at the time. So from that, I could then work with them, we could create environment and basically just, it's more about getting the kids turning up for training, then, then putting in situations where they can have fun, they can express themselves.
00:11:36
Carl Wild
they can challenge each other and so forth. And then it's just us as coaches sort of just then dropping little hints and tips in for them rather than it being about us and us taking up most of the time and telling the kids what what what should be done and this is how it's done, et cetera.
00:11:53
Carl Wild
Really sort of, fading in the background a little bit in terms of letting them have a real goal themselves and then just coming in at the right moments and picking the right moments to come in in and work with them and just giving those little hints at the right time to help them to to to just improve by if it's just half a percent for that night or one percent for that night and then building on that the following session and so forth. So,
00:12:19
Carl Wild
Yeah, I think a real big change is just environment, getting it right for the kids, bri getting them something where they're really going to be able to not only enjoy themselves, that's obviously the main thing, but hope all coaches do for that reason, but where they can really challenge themselves and express themselves and sort of almost be their own teacher in terms of environment. And we're just there sort to give them some extra little guidance when when it's needed.
00:12:44
Craig Birtwistle
Love that. a very player-centric philosophy there. i really like that. um We'll be back after a short message.
Challenges in Coach Education
00:13:34
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. and We're going to go into a little bit more detail now, especially in coach education. Carl, what do you feel are the major issues with coach education? How can we improve in this area?
00:13:50
Carl Wild
Oh, controversial question, first of all, Craig.
00:13:52
Craig Birtwistle
Okay.
00:13:55
Carl Wild
I think the biggest one, first of all, I sort of touched upon it a little bit earlier, is like people don't know someone if they don't know it at the end of the day. And I think actually reaching out and and touching everyone and getting key messages across to the thousands and thousands of coaches across, you know, just in the UK and everywhere else in the world in terms of,
00:14:16
Carl Wild
giving up their time on a on a Saturday or a Sunday in the week um it's just supporting them first of all so it it's reaching out and getting key messages across and helping them understand what an important job they've got first of all in terms of not not only just in terms of the impact they have on these kids in terms of nothing to do with football just in terms of life and so forth But also, when it comes to football, keeping them involved in the game and making it something that's really enjoyable for them.
00:14:49
Carl Wild
So I think, first of all, getting getting those messages across to so many people, I think is really, really challenging. um um And then I think the second challenge we've got as coach educators is not if everyone realises how complicated and and hard coaching actually is.
00:15:07
Carl Wild
um It looks very straightforward in terms of putting on some practices and then putting the kids into a game and so forth. But when we really start delving into it, into not only the game of football itself, which is quite a simple game, but at the same time quite complicated as well, but in terms of actually working with small children and so forth, it's really, really challenging.
00:15:33
Carl Wild
And again, we sort forget about, I always talk about coaching and education being obviously very similar. It is in terms of coaching and teaching very, very similar. So if we think about teaching, my daughter's going through her her teacher education at moment at the university. So she's on a three year degree ah to to understand how it is to actually teach children.
00:15:55
Carl Wild
um But we're probably then asking somebody else to volunteer and work with kids and coach them and give them no training whatsoever. maybe apart from like a little ah few hours training if it's online or something, but then expect them to be able to behave in the same way as a teacher would and understand the needs of it the kids and so forth. So think when you look at it, and I know obviously it's not, but we won't be able to replicate that in the slightest, but you can see the the big the massive difference. So no one's ah a career and she's doing that, but obviously a lot of the people are volunteers, but they've got to have further support in terms of not just understanding the game of football, it's more about understanding the kids. And think that's the biggest challenge we have sometimes, that a lot of coaches forget the kids and they forget what they were like. And, you know, I touch upon it a lot in terms of people should be surprised when kids start messing about as kids because they are kids. What else do you expect them to do? They're there.
00:16:52
Carl Wild
They're there, they're turning up, they're excited, they want to play football and so forth. And if we don't get it quite right in terms of putting the practice, it's boring when we're still around and waiting a turn or the coach is talking for 10 minutes and we're not doing anything. Then all of a sudden, why are they messing about and why are they misbehaving? And it's it's just tiny little things like that. I think we we need to help coaches more. But at the same time,
00:17:16
Carl Wild
we We need coaches to be engaged in that as well. They they need to, again, which I fully understand, like they're giving up the time, which is fantastic, and the volunteering, putting these these practices on for these kids and so forth.
00:17:21
Craig Birtwistle
Thank you.
00:17:29
Carl Wild
But I think, again, just understanding the responsibility they've got and therefore just doing a little bit extra outside of it in terms of their own education. in terms of understanding how how they can work with players a little bit better by understanding their needs and so forth. And then in turn, you put that little bit of hard work in the next seven, eight years when working with these kids is a lot easier because you're putting in strategies and you're understanding what they want. It just makes your life a lot easier and a lot smoother as well in terms of stress and so forth. So i think the key challenge, I'd say, getting getting messages across to so many coaches, but then also...
00:18:06
Carl Wild
trying to get them to understand the complexity that that coaching actually is and the the challenges that you face when, especially when youre working with these small children.
00:18:17
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah. um Yeah, I was, i will say straight away i I threw a hard ball at you. That was ah a tough question. and i mean I've definitely got a ah lot of viewpoints in this. That's kind of the reason why I started Session Share, the YouTube channel, and then broadcasted it into a podcast.
00:18:37
Craig Birtwistle
One of the things that I see is a major issue is the fact that we have these volunteer coaches that come out were great, and some of them are extremely passionate and want to get better.
00:18:47
Craig Birtwistle
And I can talk mainly for the American platform because that's where I've spent most of my coaching career. But over here, for example, we have these licenses that are ridiculously expensive.
Coaching Licenses: Cost and Accessibility Issues
00:18:59
Craig Birtwistle
So if you're if this isn't your full-time job, i don't know how you justify spending that sort of money on on those. We also have a license pathway that goes up like this. i've I've been fortunate enough to do all my licenses out from A down.
00:19:14
Craig Birtwistle
But like when you're doing the A license, for example, you're only coaching 16 to 18 year olds or, or adult basically. Right. So there's, there's a ceiling on every person who does a younger age age group.
00:19:29
Craig Birtwistle
So like, for example, if you're teaching a U9 team and only a U9 team, you realistically can't do any more licenses once you get past the D license. But as you know, coaching a U, an eight year old team.
00:19:43
Craig Birtwistle
has its own challenges and you don't want to be do if you coach Nate your old team for 10 ten years You don't want to be there doing the same exercises for 10 years. You don't want to be doing the same way of coaching for 10 years.
00:19:56
Craig Birtwistle
There's no way to progress and power them forward. So that for me is like the biggest difficulties. It's how can we get coaches like yourself, like me, like everyone to help these volunteers or not even volunteer, but lower level coaches that need that experience for lesser money and what sort of things that are you doing out there as a coach educator and the people you work with to get into like all the different clubs in and around England for example
00:20:28
Carl Wild
Yeah, I mean, umm I'm involved in a few things at the moment. So again, for people are on Twitter or actually it's called it, I'm working with a few other lads on there with something called the Sunday Share, first of all. and So we're involved in that, which again, is just trying to connect coaches and in terms of getting ideas across in terms of different practices or different ah strategies they use within their coaching. so So first of all, ah we do that.
00:21:00
Carl Wild
I personally wrote a couple of books as well, which I like to think are good resources in terms of just supporting coaches. I've got another one coming out next month as well. So again, hopefully that the ones who want to improve and and develop and so forth use resources such as that.
Supporting Coaches: Initiatives and Resources
00:21:18
Carl Wild
And then obviously in my main role in terms of the FA, obviously I do the, I deliver on the B and the C licences. But this year but we've we've started putting on some extra stuff, which has been really good. So we're doing some extra CPD events ah across. um So I work in it what we classify as a county in the UK. So I work in in Cheshire.
00:21:38
Carl Wild
here in England and we're putting on probably at the moment it's working out around about two a month at the moment across the whole county in terms of ECB dance free of charge for any coach to come along different topics so we give sort of a library of topics out to the the local clubs they can then choose which one they they like the look of in terms of or what they feel is needed for their particular club and So, for instance, we've got one around creating a a philosophy for a club um or creating a training curriculum or training program for a club. So we're delivering a couple of them in a few weeks' time.
00:22:17
Carl Wild
ah we've got another one where, it a again, we have ah the first qualification here in England level one or introduction to coaching football, and that goes then onto a sea licence.
00:22:28
Carl Wild
So we've got a sort of a bridge in the gap sort of one as well, so they can sort of have an idea of what it looks like on the sea licence to them an idea whether it's the right course for them in terms of whether they think that would be a good idea for them to progress on.
Upcoming Book for Coaches: Practical Insights
00:22:43
Carl Wild
So they're going down really well at the moment as well. We get a really good amount of coaches coming along, again, get to interact with each other. We and do a couple of hours in the in the room in the classroom, but then we get out in the pitch as well to try.
00:22:57
Carl Wild
i think that's really important. Talking about it's great and ship and discussing what it could look like, but then coaches really want to see it, don't they? See it materialise, put it in context. We get some local teams in, so it's kids that we're using as well, rather than trying to do it with adults. and I think they're going down really well at the moment. So I think things like that, i think CBD, small snippet events are definitely a real benefit to coaches in terms of that.
00:23:23
Carl Wild
ah that And then university, we put on extra stuff for it for the students as well. So we've got some really good coach educators at the university to work at. So again, we're sort of noticing that probably here in England over last ten years the the coaching qualifications have changed dramatically. So I i mentioned that level one, I think previously, guess the old memory now,
00:23:47
Carl Wild
It was something like a six day course and it was all on the pitch and put this in the classroom. It's now completely online. The level two was 10 days and we came out and visited the the learners a couple of times in their own environment. It's now down to six days and it's sort of in-house sort of assessment sort of criteria. So,
00:24:09
Carl Wild
We're noticing that obviously the education we were looking to get at the time, they're probably not getting the same level in terms of the amount they're getting. So we're putting on extra sort of in-house courses as well, where the students can engage in alongside their main degree.
00:24:25
Carl Wild
Again, for the ones, and again, these ones are really eager, really keen. They come along just just to get more more knowledge, more time on the pitch, because it's key in terms of improving as a coach. I think that's the main place we're going to improve.
00:24:38
Carl Wild
So ah like we'd like to think we're doing as much, not probably as much as we can, but hopefully we're doing quite a lot there in terms of just trying to help and support coaches as much as we can. And hopefully ah we're getting plenty of buying into that and getting involved in
00:24:53
Craig Birtwistle
Excellent. ah You mentioned there as well about that you've got a book coming out. um Can you tell us a little bit about like what the book's about and how that can help coaches?
00:25:02
Carl Wild
Yeah, so again, touched on it before, but I'm in a really lucky situation at the university work at where we've got a real good pool of talent in terms of coaches and coach educators.
00:25:15
Carl Wild
And we were just, it came round about a chat this one day during a meeting that a lot of our, we we keep asking our students to go away read up on certain things. And then we're sort thinking, well, they're asking what in particular, what books and what resources. And we're sort of scratching our heads ourselves thinking this,
00:25:30
Carl Wild
there's nothing really out there in terms of helping them.
00:25:33
Craig Birtwistle
Mm-hmm.
00:25:34
Carl Wild
So we thought probably the best way to do it and to resolve it is that is to is to write our own one. So um I've edited the book, but then we've got loads of really good contributions from different coach educators and different coaches and around their different backgrounds. So we've sectioned the books off into into different sort of elements of coaching. So we've got a section around, for instance, coaching with different age groups,
00:25:59
Carl Wild
So in this country, number of other countries there sort of split into sort of foundation phase, youth development phase and professional development phase. So sort of foundation, if you're not to 12 year olds, then 12 to 16. So we sort of done a section on each one of what type of coaching maybe should take place. And we put practices in there and linking it back to theory.
00:26:18
Carl Wild
And then we got some stuff around c creating the right environment. So coaching philosophy and so forth. another section. Then we've got other bits around the add-ons to coaching. So some stuff around individual development, ah using performance analysts to support coaching,
00:26:36
Carl Wild
And then sort coaching, yeah sort of self-development as a coach, there's stuff around mentoring and coach education and self-reflection and that type of stuff in the in the book as well. So lots of theory in there. So so again, saying towards, first of all, our our students, so some real good studies that we refer back to. But then the main thing is that we wanted to do is then put it onto the actual pitch. So, which is what the academics say you should do and so forth. And, well, hold on, what does that actually look like? So, then we've gone and produced sort of practices and ah sketch curriculums and so forth that the reader then can see how it actually looks and visualises in terms of day-to-day coaching. So,
00:27:18
Carl Wild
Yeah, it's out next month, so ah really excited about
Advice for Aspiring Coaches
00:27:21
Carl Wild
that. hopefully, again, anyone who's interested in that type of stuff can can can grab a copy and and hopefully it supports coaches in ah a different way in terms of some of the other stuff that's out there.
00:27:32
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. And what we'll do for our listeners who are interested in and looking at Carl's book, we'll leave the information in the description and the podcast.
00:27:32
Carl Wild
and
00:27:41
Craig Birtwistle
And I'll also leave, yeah, no problem.
00:27:42
Carl Wild
Brilliant. Thanks, Craig.
00:27:44
Craig Birtwistle
And all the details for Carl as well, that you could reach out follow him on X, for example. Carl, we're just going to take a short break and we'll be right back.
00:28:09
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. We've just been having a great chat, Carl and I. He's been talking to us about a lot of the things he's doing that sounds fantastic with the FI and in England, helping coaches out.
00:28:22
Craig Birtwistle
In order to help coaches out, um Carl, what advice would you give or have you been given that has helped you in your career?
00:28:31
Carl Wild
Yeah, I think some of the obvious ones, first of all, it is it sounds mad, and I'm sorry, going hear, is just to get us bit spend time on the pitch. There's no greater experience um and no greater sort of coaching tool to to help you then just to go get as many hours you can on a pitch but putting yourself in different situations within that so not just keep coaching the same age group and the same group get yourself out your comfort zone go go go go be uncomfortable and then and you'll learn a lot so if again your use I was when I first started off I always sort of coached the young'uns
00:29:08
Carl Wild
So under eights, nines, tens years or, you know, but eventually I knew I needed to go of go work with the older players and the bigger formats of the game. And that was really difficult, ah really difficult for me to begin with. Again, just just because I hadn't played the game to any particular level, as i mentioned. So just really, when you start looking to find details and into what athlete goes on, yourself it sort of opens your mind a little bit and your eyes. So getting on the pitch and getting into uncomfortable situations.
00:29:41
Carl Wild
ah And then I think other bit for me is a massive one for me is is spending more time planning. I think it's very underrated in terms of actually planning and when you actually plan and so forth and how much time you spend in planning. So again, just going back to that role I had a couple of years ago, tried to get key messages across to the coaches working with to plan well in in advance Because if we're planning, say if always take half an hour or an hour to plan whether it is, then I'm trying to get them to understand that maybe that hour is not probably the night before the session.
00:30:17
Carl Wild
If we can get ahead of ourselves, but there's no reason we can't plan a session two, three weeks away in terms of in advance. And then we can spend time to come back to it and look over it and so forth.
00:30:29
Carl Wild
And especially when you work with the young ones, there's no reason why you can't actually plan plan all your sessions before the season even starts because what we shouldn't be doing is reacting to what's happening on the pitch. Obviously, we can still tweak stuff and so forth in terms of that if they're really, if as a group, they're really struggling with certain aspects of of their development or the game and then we can tweak it, but very much into long-term player development. So basically, just giving them everything that they need over the season, doesn't matter what's happening on the pitch in terms of games and everything, they need to learn
00:31:03
Carl Wild
certain aspects of the game at a certain age. And therefore we we can sort of plan that one in advance. so ah ah event But then looking at the real fine details in terms of what those sessions look like.
00:31:15
Carl Wild
So we talk about a lot and with with but the students and coach learners and so forth around thinking about the before, the during, the after um when we're putting on practices, because usually we think a lot about the during.
00:31:28
Carl Wild
So I usually use the example of like the... the Real basic one versus one practice where the defender passes the ball to the attacker the attacker tries to dribble past the defender and sort of stop on the line and so forth. so that that's me So we're looking at maybe the adjuring then while we're actually doing the dribbling.
00:31:47
Carl Wild
But if we look at the before and after the dribble, that doesn't look very realistic. So how often does a defender pass the ball to the attacker and the angle in which the pass comes in? um What the defender can't do, we can't start pressing as the ball's actually being played because they're being the person who's playing the ball as before. So we might need to put server in and then the server plays it from an angle and a distance that's realistic to what it would look like in game.
00:32:14
Carl Wild
And then we look at the after. So if you beat a defender, do do we ever stop it on a line in a game of football? No, we don't. So what actions do they do? So it might just be get past the defender and then pass it into like a target area or it might be a cross or it might be a shot. So,
00:32:32
Carl Wild
When we start looking at it again in terms of planning, we can do some really good stuff with it and quite creative with it and really replicate the game in terms of what it looks like. And it goes back to putting those players in that environment then of what it looks like in a game. And then you start problem solving in terms of, right, I've got get past the player, but I've also got to get past the player and get me pass off afterwards as well, because that's what's going to happen in the game. So...
00:32:59
Carl Wild
Two biggest bits of advice for me is get on the pitch, get yourself in some uncomfortable positions and spend more time planning and really take care of your planning and really think about your planning and go back over it and make sure it's absolutely spot on in terms of is that the best possible practice that you can come up with for that particular moment and for those
Designing Realistic Practice Scenarios
00:33:18
Carl Wild
players. So, ah yeah, that would be the main two for me.
00:33:22
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic advice. One of the things that I took from that, which I thought was really, really important for coaches, and want to highlight a little bit more, is when I'm planning a session, I look at the whole pitch first.
00:33:24
Carl Wild
I'm not sure...
00:33:37
Craig Birtwistle
And then all I do is then, depending on my topic, I then start to narrow the pitch down until I get to where that topic relates. Because so many coaches will teach dribbling and there'll be no field markings to encourage whether dribbling. And then as soon as the game hits, they're shouting at an eight-year-old kid for dribbling inside their own 18-yard box.
00:33:57
Craig Birtwistle
and stuff like that. So I do think when you narrow it down and then try and make the it realistic there, because like, as you say, left winger dribbles a lot differently to and ah ah to a fullback or a centre back and so on.
00:34:11
Craig Birtwistle
So narrowing it down, making it realistic, I 100% agree in the one v one I've done it myself. I've seen other coaches do it where it's just so simple to pass the ball and just do a 1v1.
00:34:25
Craig Birtwistle
And in your head, it doesn't seem to make any distance, but you're now encouraging a player to pass the ball to the opposition, which you certainly don't want to do You're starting with a dead ball that you don't usually do.
00:34:35
Craig Birtwistle
You're stopping it on a line, which you don't usually do.
00:34:37
Carl Wild
yeah. yeah.
00:34:38
Craig Birtwistle
So I completely get that. And one of the exercises I did not too recently um ago was the fact that it starts as a 1v1 with two small pug nets, like on either side.
00:34:49
Carl Wild
ye
00:34:51
Craig Birtwistle
And one player was actually literally trying to shoot, but you tell them the ball cannot leave the ground, so it's not going too hard. So then the other defender has to first block the shot,
00:35:02
Craig Birtwistle
And then it becomes a 1v1. but And now, because the idea then is, because blocking a shot as opposed to receiving a pass is a very different technique.
00:35:11
Carl Wild
Absolutely.
00:35:11
Craig Birtwistle
And the ball will bounce off that player and become like a 50-50 from time to time, which is also realistic in the 1v1 environment.
00:35:11
Carl Wild
Yeah.
00:35:20
Craig Birtwistle
So when you start, as you just said there, analysing the given situation and able to break it down and give that opportunity to make it as realistic as possible, it's it's fantastic advice. 100% agree with that, Colin.
00:35:36
Carl Wild
Yeah, we we do something quite similar in terms of that first bit that you talked about there, Craig. So do we we advise coaches, if you can, sort of stop that thing about the game and stop it in the moment of when it's about to happen, so that dribble. um And then you can almost sort of like get a picture frame and drop the picture frame on top of that moment.
00:35:53
Carl Wild
So then look at the spaces that are happening, look at which players are involved within that that moment, how many players... What are they trying to do in terms of the dribble and so forth? And then just basically that that's your practice almost in terms of the area size.
00:36:08
Carl Wild
And then just to bring it all, just because you mentioned it there in terms of the way you sort start that dribble, which I think is a really nice idea of doing, is that, again, we sort of forget about, we did some research done recently that we showed it to our students in terms of how possession starts.
00:36:25
Carl Wild
And so it was something around about, in terms the study that took place over a tournament, it was something from around about 70% of the possession comes from the transition. So, i.e. winning the ball off the opposition, whether it's ah an intercept or a tackle. sorry But most of the time, and again, just like yourself, I'm guilt with all these things as well. And this is what I'm learning.
00:36:44
Carl Wild
We always start with a sort of a set ball in terms of this is how the practice starts. But that's literally probably... 15, 20% of the game in terms of a goal kick or or free kick, most of the time you you start off by actually winning it off the opposition. So therefore, that's then telling us the importance of transition within practices.
00:37:05
Carl Wild
So we've got to make sure we incorporate transition as much as we possibly can. So this is what I mentioned before about football being a real simple game, but at the same time, when start digging deep into it, it's actually quite complicated. And this is where, again,
00:37:19
Carl Wild
you don't know it, you don't know the end of the day and this is where we sort of need to try and support and help them as much as we can with just getting to think about things like that and if they can, then they're going to be in an even better position than hopefully what they already are.
Memorable Coaching Moment
00:37:35
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. Carl, I've had such a great time with this chat and I love to leave coaches with one last question. And this kind of gives us a bit of an insight into the person behind the coach.
00:37:48
Craig Birtwistle
So, Carl, what's your favourite moment in sports? It can be anything as a player, a fan, a coach.
00:37:55
Carl Wild
I think it's probably is as a coach. I remember sort of that in my early journey in terms of i was working... with a girls team and it was an under-10s team.
00:38:06
Carl Wild
It was just over in England at the time in terms of when girls football what was really getting promoted and it was they were giving licences out to these professional clubs and so forth. So I'd done a year and it was in my second year at a certain club.
00:38:19
Carl Wild
um we were We were struggling massively in terms of I ah don't think the girls had won a game all season. We'd gone over to to the tournament somewhere, I can't remember what it was,
00:38:30
Carl Wild
And some of the other coaches couldn't make it. So I was asked to go and work with another group. So I went off and worked with another group and and so forth. And my sort of group of girls that were off on another pitch and playing games. And then halfway through, I think last game of the tournament, halfway through, of sudden, all my team came legging over and were just jumping up and down on me while I was trying to sort. And it it turned out they'd won the game.
00:38:56
Craig Birtwistle
Oh, fuck.
00:38:56
Carl Wild
And obviously, which they hadn't done all season, it have been down to me because I was off on the other way. But the happiness they got from it, and again, we've sort forgotten that I'm a huge, huge, again, nothing nothing should be about winning football in terms of young kids.
00:39:13
Carl Wild
It's all about development for me. But at the same time, you've got to understand they want to win. So... And they're jolly getting that from us. I'm never going to go to a game of football with nine or ten-year-olds in terms of not trying to win a game football. That's down to them because, you know, they're going to try. But for my focus, it's about developing them and making sure they're enjoying it and so forth.
00:39:36
Carl Wild
to share that moment, the way they they came over, just just to tell me they won. And that's that's all they wanted to tell me and to see the happiness they got. Because they've worked so hard all that season and they never stopped trying and developing and hard work and rewards. And it was just one of those moments, again, because I was still in that sort of moment, whether to go full-time with it or not. And think tiny little details like that, I thought it was such a great moment for them. And then the...
00:40:03
Carl Wild
I might have almost brought a tear to my eye, but i'm not in that type of person. part But yeah, it stands out, like say, for that to come straight to my memory when you ask that question, I think that sort
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:40:13
Craig Birtwistle
yeah
00:40:14
Carl Wild
of puts where it was in terms of out ah but how much of a moment it was.
00:40:18
Carl Wild
So yeah, I think possibly that, possibly that, mate.
00:40:22
Craig Birtwistle
That's awesome as well because its even though it was about the win, it's the connection you have with that group.
00:40:27
Carl Wild
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, that that's exactly it.
00:40:30
Craig Birtwistle
You're getting that connection and then like being so happy and you being that happy for them. So that is fantastic. And that's the exact reason why I asked that question. It always ah leaves us realising that we do have a fantastic job.
00:40:45
Craig Birtwistle
It is a great thing to do. And the bonds that we create with these players can last for a lifetime. So, Cole, that's about it for today's episode of Session Share, the Coaches Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:40:58
Carl Wild
No, thanks.
00:40:58
Craig Birtwistle
Be sure.
00:40:59
Carl Wild
I'll be right back.
00:41:00
Craig Birtwistle
You're welcome. Be sure to get in touch across all our socials to offer your opinion on all that we've discussed. You can find our social media platform we use in the podcast description, as well as we'll put Carl Wilde's details of his own and where you can purchase his books.
00:41:17
Craig Birtwistle
This has been Session Share, the Coach's Podcast. Thank you for listening and thank you as always for coaching the beautiful game.