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S1 E8 - Andrew Stevenson - Coaching children with Autism
119 Plays3 months ago
On Today episode we talk to Andrew Stevenson on his experiences and opinons on coaching children with special needs.
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello and welcome to Session Share, the Coach's Podcast. My name's Craig Burtisall, and I'm really excited to have Andrew Stevenson as our guest today. I've known Andrew for a long time. We go way back to the school days of Great Bar Secondary School in Birmingham. Some dark, dark days right there. No, only joking. ah Since then, we've moved in different yet similar
Founding Streetly Coaching
00:00:39
Craig Birtwistle
directions. Andrew and I have connected many times via social media, bouncing ideas back and forth, just like so many of our listeners.
00:00:47
Craig Birtwistle
Andrew started streetly coaching as a single coach in 2017, but has now grown to include a full team of staff and has had a 350% increase of children enrolled in the program. This is impressive stuff.
Supporting Neurodiverse Children
00:01:02
Craig Birtwistle
However, more impressive is that out of those players, 30% of those children all aged between seven and 14 have confirmed or suspected neurodiversity.
00:01:14
Craig Birtwistle
Parents have been quoted and told Andrew that Streetly coaching is a safe place for their child and that must be the best feeling in the world. How are you doing today, Andrew?
00:01:24
Andrew
I'm good mate, I'm good. ah Well, it was all right until you reminded me of the dark days of secondary school, which I've spent 25 years trying to forget, but yeah, all good. And it's good to see you haven't lost the accent as well. 15.
00:01:34
Craig Birtwistle
um I've really tried my best to hold on to that and that was all part of the counselling of getting over great basketball.
00:01:37
Andrew
Yeah, you've done well.
00:01:42
Andrew
Good man.
00:01:42
Craig Birtwistle
yeah so So Andrew, let's delve in a little deep into this episode.
Football Passion from Childhood
00:01:47
Craig Birtwistle
Let's but start about your background. How did you get interested in football?
00:01:52
Andrew
ah Football as a whole, I think I've been interested in it for as long as I can remember. I think my earliest memory is being a seven-year-old sobbing young boy, being put to bed after we were knocked out of the 1990 World Cup in the shootout with Germany. So it goes way back. In terms of playing, played from about the same age. I think from the age of eight onwards, I was in the the Warwickshire leagues. Not sure what they're called now if they still exist. Played up until I was i was in my teens.
00:02:21
Andrew
Then I got a job and like many of us, I kind of left football by the wayside, um still played recreationally with friends on weekends. and in um power leagues and five or side leagues and things like that. But got to my 30s and it just felt like I needed something more, needed football back in my life more. I was always watching it, um always going down Birmingham City every weekend, watching watching us get battered. and But other than that, I wanted to be involved in the game. Again, I had ah ah a lovely family, um a good job, but um I needed something
Coaching Beginnings with Family
00:02:56
Andrew
else. And it was my
00:02:58
Andrew
girlfriend at the time and her wife said why don't you look into coaching never really given it a thought so made some inquiries went out uh did my badges as they're called over here fa badges didn't know to what end i was doing them had no plans beyond that um And then took it from there, decided to leverage some local relationships that I had in the area, um had those because at the time our two oldest boys were seven years old and both in primary school. So I took our two lads and asked if any of their friends fancy getting coached as well at the same time and started on a Saturday morning.
00:03:36
Andrew
um my two boys and I think eight other kids from the local area and it just snowballed from there really and here we are as you said we're seven years on um 54 kids I think at last check and a team of five coaches um I roped in a good friend of mine seven years ago called Dave who's still with me um so he's my number two is really coaching and and it's uh yeah every Saturday night going forward that's what we do
00:04:04
Craig Birtwistle
I love that you, you speak about the fact that it's just organically grown basically, hasn't
Motivation from Family Experience
00:04:09
Craig Birtwistle
it? It's, uh, and it all started from just a passion that you had for the game.
00:04:09
Andrew
hundred Yeah.
00:04:15
Andrew
yeah
00:04:15
Craig Birtwistle
So you wanted a little bit more, and I'm sure obviously your boys as they grew up sparked even more interest in you then as well, because you wanted to get coaching. Correct.
00:04:25
Andrew
yeah Yeah, for two different reasons. Actually Craig, my two who my two eldest who were seven at the time, they're now 14. um One has ne ah neurodiversity, one is autistic and my other lad is what we call neurotypical. So I'll speak as we we go on in this, I'll speak a lot about typical and diverse and it's just in that context. So um my lad who's typical is obsessed with football and so in that in that regard that's what kept me in the game a lot in terms of coaching.
00:04:56
Andrew
the um My other lad, who same age, who is neurodiverse, he has autism, it was one of the drivers of of what we do at Streetly Coaching and how we saw the number of children coming through with neurodiversity. It was seeing what he was getting from that at the same time whilst he was there. So my two different boys were getting very much different things at the same time from it. And that that was a ah driver with with what we end up becoming, which is what we are today.
00:05:24
Craig Birtwistle
So you say that was kind of like the drive, and so I'm guessing that's kind of like your motivation.
00:05:29
Andrew
Yeah.
00:05:29
Craig Birtwistle
and Was there any any more motivations of than the passion and obviously yeah your boys needs?
00:05:35
Andrew
Well, I think ah think football, like like many sports, it's transferrable into life. So I won't spit out the usual um cliche figures of how many kids make professional footballers, because we all know that.
00:05:48
Andrew
But what it does give you, along with any other sport, is your discipline, your teamwork, your hard work, learning how to lose um effective leadership.
00:06:00
Andrew
um And these are all qualities that you can take into later life. So whether you're ah an employer, an employee, a partner, whether you become a parent, whatever it is, their skills you can take in. So I think I wanted both my boys to have that as well as their friends, which is what it was about at the start.
00:06:19
Andrew
um And then we started to get inquiries, and my motivation at that point was that I didn't like to say no, I didn't like to turn people away. So one session became two, became three, and that's how we got to where we are.
00:06:32
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. And I like the way you say that life has basically shaped your motivation because it does for all of us, whether it's like money orientated because obviously we need money to pay for our mortgage, to pay for our kids' foods, their clothes, everything along those lines.
00:06:38
Andrew
Yeah.
00:06:48
Craig Birtwistle
And there's also motivation, internal, where it's like your passions and so on.
00:06:53
Andrew
Yeah.
00:06:53
Craig Birtwistle
um Obviously life dictates your motivation. Also, I've been explaining to coaches that life really determines your philosophy of how you coach as well.
00:07:04
Craig Birtwistle
So how have you came up with a coaching philosophy over the years?
Coaching Philosophy and Growth
00:07:08
Andrew
This is a really tough question. I always feel like this is the kind of question that you need to have wrapped up in a sentence but I think it's more nuanced than that and you learn that as a coach as you go along. I think it's fourfold for me, certainly for for for what's what what we do at Streetly Coaching.
00:07:23
Andrew
So our motto, so if you if you go and look on the Facebook page you'll see that it's Streetly Coaching, nurture the game. And I think what we mean by that is perhaps nurture the love of the game.
00:07:35
Andrew
So we get them for an hour a week, that's all. um There's only so much we can do in that time. So what we're trying to do is encourage them to to leave us after an hour and seek out football in any other medium. So whether that's we want to watch it, we want to play in the garden, we want to go down the blues or the villa.
00:07:54
Andrew
um preferably the Blues, or we want we want to um but even you know play it on the PlayStation or the Xbox, whatever it is, it's all about football. So we're trying to encourage them with that. So I think that would be the first part of our philosophy. um Secondly, and I think this is really important, more so with the younger end of our groups, the seven, eight, nine year olds, so we try to have a ball at their feet all the time. So it's about having one football for every one player.
00:08:21
Andrew
um If they haven't got a ball at their feet for 75% of the session, give or take, we're probably doing something wrong at that age. um You know, your red corner is recording your technical side of the game. It's really, really important, especially at that age. um So it's about getting them on the ball, getting them as comfortable as possible, as quickly as possible. um One of the measures we have in our philosophy is if they're running to us rather than the balls that are off the side we're probably doing something wrong we want our players to turn up and you know wear the footballs try and seek the match straight away like so that's that's another measure that's that again is that's probably part two of our philosophy um part three and we have this um luxury because when we don't work in a competitive environment where we encourage mistakes and and by that i mean that
00:09:11
Andrew
we don't want to hear apologies for a misplaced pass or a shot that goes wide we don't want them to not try and get around the defender another time if they failed four times already you don't have that luxury in competitive football you have to perhaps find another way straight away with us it's about making the mistakes you know we want our kids to fall over doing the rainbow flick. We want them to figure it out for themselves. um But what we do on the back of that, try to say to them, is if you are going to make these mistakes, which which you will, and we encourage, try and problem solve at the same time. So why why are you on your face in the mud rather than doing the rainbow flick? Try and figure it out. Why have you not gone around that player after four times? Come to us. We'll work with you. That's why we're there. So it's about making mistakes. And then the last one of the four
00:10:00
Andrew
I think his resilience, I know again it's very cliche but it's very easy on a cold Saturday morning when the rain's coming down and we're seeing it this weekend coming I think um to think ah ah don't I don't fancy it today I'll just I won't get up oh I'll give it a miss it's only training it's only training it's only practice it's only coaching I think having the resilience to get up, turn up, pick that ball up is what it's all about. Half the half the the battle is is is getting there on a so the cold, Saturday wet, dark morning. um So I think if if I was to sum up the philosophy, it would be turn up, get yourself on the ball as quick as possible, make some mistakes and then fall in love with the game as you do.
00:10:42
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, it's funny you say that. i've I've heard many times on all these coaching courses that I've done about exactly what you said about a philosophy that needs to be able to be put on a sticky note. That's how small it should be. I don't think it works like that. I think, as you said, it's got to be ingrained in everything that you do. I feel like a philosophy should dictate how you are as a coach and everything that you've said, those four points that you brought up are brilliant because it does sum up streetly coaching perfectly.
00:11:10
Craig Birtwistle
after doing my research after knowing you for many years and we talked back and forth about streetly and just seeing like the reviews online which are glowing by the way absolutely amazing what i read on the facebook account it if you go in you see what what Andrew's done you'll see all those four points that he said
00:11:21
Andrew
Yeah, thank you.
00:11:31
Craig Birtwistle
come out free-fold. It is fantastic. And the parents speak about all those sort of things in those reviews. So if you do get a chance, check out their Facebook page, look at the reviews. If you're anywhere near those areas, I do strongly suggest you reach out to Andrew, see if there's any availability. As we move forward, we'll be back after a short message from Zancaster. We're going to talk to Andrew about how he's teaching of children with special needs.
00:12:13
Andrew
Thank you.
00:12:40
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. um We're going to go into a bit more detail in developing players, in particular players with special needs. Andrew, can you tell us first what was your motivation in helping these kids through soccer?
00:12:53
Andrew
Yeah, absolutely. and So but before I go into this Craig, I think it's important for me to to note a couple of things. um Very importantly, I am not qualified in any way um in the development of neurodiverse children. I have no qualifications in it other than the fact that I am a parent of two. I have three boys, two of which are on the ASD spectrum, um the autism spectrum. and Beyond that, my qualifications are coaching. The fact that I'm a father with neurodiverse children and the fact that I've been coaching and qualified to do so, I think I am in a good position to blend the two.
00:13:30
Andrew
I think I mentioned earlier that I'll be using the term diverse and typical and that's just to differentiate those on the spectrum of autism those not so those typical children.
00:13:41
Andrew
um So I mentioned my two boys, and my two oldest boys earlier, when I started started coaching. Around the age of seven, when when I began this, we started to see um Oliver, that's our diverse eldest, we started to see his neurodiversity bear out.
00:14:03
Andrew
um With him, it it was in a social setting, so he became, in particular with Oliver, he became very difficult for him to read social cues. So I'll give you some examples with that. um if If you and I were talking and chatting and I put my arm around you and we were laughing and you moved away, ah you and I would know that's a cue for me to understand that you were perhaps a bit uncomfortable, you don't necessarily want that kind of contact.
00:14:30
Andrew
with Oliver it was a cue for him to lean in further closer because the person was getting closer away just a further away just didn't understand it so that was really bearing out at that age football was a ah way for for Oliver at that point to have some common ground with other children um as you know we're a massive footballing nation So whether it's in the playground, the school yard, um you know, at clubs, in the park, wherever it is, you inevitably come across football. So I think any child, I think you'd be lying if you said that any child that that wasn't into football didn't have an advantage socially, because I think they do. So being there on a Saturday gave Oliver that that kind of little bit of, you know, extra five, 10% for him to be relatable with the other kids and and he enjoyed it.
00:15:23
Andrew
I think then, um but because of that, I started to see some of Oliver's friends being interested in joining as well. So a lot of Oliver's friends group, I wouldn't say they were all diverse, but he certainly gravitated towards children of that ilk because that's what happens in those settings. So we had a couple more join who were, you know, yeah not necessarily autistic per se, but would certainly but were perhaps in that that realm would later go on to be diagnosed with it.
00:15:52
Andrew
um and And they joined and we had some some typical children as well. and And I just saw the blend of the two. So my motivation that that at that point became, this is a real common ground for those children who in other other settings, perhaps in the classroom, or perhaps at children's parties, which they're all going to, same parties, you know friends from school. They weren't having that common ground, but all of a sudden they were on the football pitch. And I thought, this this this could work.
00:16:18
Andrew
Also another motivation at the same time, I'm not sure what it's like in the States but over here I imagine it's perhaps the same but but here when they get to about the age of 8, 9 and 10 that's when the the children start to filter off and join teams and play competitively. So what was happening was the kids were coming to me for a short period of time and where they were typical they would go off and play in teams. Some would stay with me on a Saturday, some would leave Where they were diverse, they wouldn't. they They weren't comfortable enough or they didn't have the drive to do so or the parents were perhaps reluctant to to put them in um competitive competitive football, which I can talk about later on in a bit more detail, um which I understood.
00:17:02
Andrew
um So we would see, we would then see from the age of 9, 10, 11, more diverse children joining for the first time who had had no experience of football, couldn't just be dropped into a competitive footballing environment.
Creating an Inclusive Environment
00:17:16
Andrew
So Streetly Coaching became our deal for them. It was low to zero pressure, but with the same physical output, the same output of of progression in terms of ah football knowledge as well. So that become became another motivation. um I did mention that the parents a few minutes ago
00:17:37
Andrew
and not perhaps encouraging kids who are diverse to join teams. Now I can say that um from my own point of view. So as well as my two older boys, I've got a younger child called Lucas. Now Lucas is also ASD in a very different way to Oliver, but but he is. And he's he is he's nine years old and he's at very different points to his peers in terms of his technical ability with football perhaps some of that's my fault because I started him a bit late, but certainly with his emotional um stability, let's say. And I think that if Lucas was to be dropped into a competitive environment, you know, training in the week, playing on a Sunday, you know, being hammered about how he did in a position and whatever ever else comes with it, I think he would struggle. So I understand parents in that position who aren't encouraging their kids to join teams. So
00:18:31
Andrew
as our ages went up you saw more and more but I haven't run the numbers but perhaps that 30% was greater in the older end than it was in the the younger end I don't know. um So my motivation in a nutshell for helping them was to maintain a safe environment where children with no interest in moving into competitive football, diverse or or typical, could still come along, play football, enjoy, learn without the pressures of competition league football, which you know I've played, you've no doubt played, we we know what it's like. So
00:19:09
Andrew
But we did maintain we we we developed some good affiliations with some local clubs as well. I coach at other clubs and so do two of the other coaches who who work with me. So if kids do decide that, oh, coach, I want to join a team, is there anything for me? We've we've got the the avenues to do that. But if they don't, it's fine. You can stay with us. I've got i've got two who have been with me, excluding my own kids. I've got two who have been with me from the age of seven.
00:19:33
Andrew
and they're still with me now at 14 and they have no interest of playing competition football and they're happy they've got other interests outside of this and they play they play with us on a Saturday so yeah I think I've gone around the houses a bit with it but I think in a nutshell it was it was giving them a I mean again it's cliche but it's a safe space for them safe space for those children
00:19:52
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic. And it's, it shows that, um, the parents have so much trust in you because of your experiences, both as a parent and as a coach. And what do you find has been like the biggest obstacles as you, as a coach of the players and all the players you have, what do they have to conquer?
00:20:15
Andrew
ah You're talking about diverse children in particular, are you, at this point? Yeah.
00:20:19
Craig Birtwistle
a little bit of both to be honest.
00:20:19
Andrew
um
00:20:20
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah. So I'm, I'm definitely interested in those players. Um, but like, I know you coach both, um, people with it.
00:20:23
Andrew
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think... I think Craig, you're you're probably you know you've been doing this a lot longer than me and you would have seen the boundaries for your typical child. so I don't think there's anything I can say on this podcast that's going to enlighten anybody, but I don't think a lot of coaches work with children on the the ASD spectrum, so I will talk about that.
00:20:46
Andrew
um
00:20:49
Andrew
I would say as a coach, the first that one of the biggest ones to deal with is is boundaries. so it's making perhaps making isn't the right word. it's It's helping or encouraging those children to understand boundaries on the football field and off the field for that matter.
Challenges for Neurodiverse Kids
00:21:06
Andrew
So diverse children can struggle with boundaries. They can struggle with physical boundaries. I mean, I gave you that example earlier with Oliver, you know, some of them are like that, not all, but some.
00:21:18
Andrew
They can also struggle with socially acceptable boundaries, so language or etiquette. So, you know, things you just don't say in the moment. Now, when they're children, it's hilarious. They will come out with, some of them I won't repeat on the podcast. I don't know what age rating you've got on this book. But yeah, some of them you can't repeat, but that they will they will tell you how it is. And that is refreshing at times, but also you have to be You have to be conscious and aware that not everybody is like that and you've got 11 other children in front of you who are not used to that. So sometimes hes it's maybe recognising the triggers before they occur.
00:21:58
Andrew
um And as a father, I think that's helped me to to understand when when one of my children is going a particular way in a conversation and you have to steer them back and say, no, no, no, we'll we'll talk about something else now. So there's an element of that, so boundaries. Something else that, I wouldn't say this is a struggle, this is quite this is actually is quite amusing at times, literal interpretation. So a big part of a certain element of autism is that things will be taken very literally. So I'll give you an example and I won't use the player's name to save their embarrassment, but um we were demonstrating ah an exercise.
00:22:39
Andrew
a drill a game whatever you want to call it and I used a like a a piece of language that you would understand as a coach and most players would wear i the ball counts on my feet and I said pick up the ball and go and I literally would run with the ball at my feet comes to the child you shout pick up the ball and go and they pick up the ball literally with their hands and they go so it's funny they find it funny the parents are laughing
00:22:59
Craig Birtwistle
Right.
00:23:02
Andrew
So I think sometimes the literal interpretation, there's many of those, um that's where demonstrations come in and you know this is a youth coach anyway, most of what you do on the pitch should be demonstrating to them rather than giving an instruction and and I mean you you know fire words at a nine-year-old and see how long it takes for them to turn off whereas stand in front of them and show them and and they'll they'll buy in.
00:23:23
Andrew
So there's that. The less amusing side of it sometimes, and this is ah maybe something that the player has to deal with, is that you would have now no doubt heard the term meltdown. you've probably hit Your kids are probably have probably had meltdowns in their time, but unfortunately they they tend to be a bit different with ASD children.
00:23:41
Andrew
they seem to be wholly necessary, they're required, they're a release valve for them dealing with um pressures that we wouldn't understand and you have to allow that. Now going back to When I spoke about league and competition football, there isn't really a place for that. You you you cannot stop ah a league, a competitive league game of 22 players at certain ages um because one player is having a meltdown. It's just, you can't do it. It's not practical. So in in in our setup, it's strictly we can't. So we have had cases where players will, and the noise will become too much for them.
00:24:23
Andrew
ah use them I'm going to use the word noise in inverted commas, and I'll go back to that in a second. and The noise becomes too much for them. um The fact they're losing, they're on the losing team, if we're doing a game at the end of a session, may become too much for them. Failure sensitivity is difficult anyway with children. you know Put them in ah in a football setting, a competitive setting, it's even worse. So helping them to understand you know the result is irrelevant and and we have some methods for doing that which I'll talk about in a second so um yeah meltdowns is is one so it's allowing them to leave the pitch if you need to go and sit behind the goals and have two minutes to cool down do it not in a ah you've been naughty kind of way but more of a off you go go and do what you need to do and then come back when you're ready you know you've you've got your process you know what it is off you go so they can do that with us um
00:25:16
Andrew
Noise. I mentioned noise earlier. I purposely put it in inverted commas. and Sensory overload is probably a better name for it. Now we call it noise because that's what the children call it. That's what my children call it.
00:25:31
Andrew
I was mistakenly under the impression for a long time, Craig, that noise was literally just noise, auditory noise that you can hear, that perhaps it's too loud, that you and I may think is okay, but but to them it's a lot. it's It's not just about the volume, it's about the direction, it's about where it's coming from, how much of it's coming in that direction. So to deal with noise,
00:25:53
Andrew
we ask the parents, don't give instruction. So, you know, don't you do this anyway, it's it's a common thing. But with us, it's very, very important.
Handling Sensory Overload
00:26:02
Andrew
Some of our children cannot handle instructions coming from their peers on the pitch, two different coaches and a set of parents, they can't. um It's difficult enough for any typical seven or eight or nine year old, it's near impossible if you have a certain element of neurodiversity, you just can't process it.
00:26:23
Andrew
um Inevitably, excess noise leads to meltdown. That can happen. So we try and nip that in the bud early by reducing the noise. I put the word noise in inverted commas earlier because it was quite recently and it was my youngest, Lucas, who helped me understand that I didn't really grasp this until then, but noise isn't just auditory noise. So the example I use is, and this was only a few months ago, we had a session and we left and Lucas and I sat in the car and I said to him what you normally say rather than how do you think you played it's did you enjoy that what would you do differently next week you know all the standard questions so I said to him did you enjoy that and for the first time he said no and going back to this brutal honesty that they give you sometimes he said no I didn't and I said okay what didn't you enjoy
00:27:11
Andrew
He said it was very busy. And I said, what do you mean busy? He said, I just felt like everybody was here and coming at me from different angles and was behind me. And I said, do you mean the noise, the volume? And he said, no, like everybody around me. And I realized then it's not just auditory noise, it's visual. You know, there can be too many things happening at the same time.
00:27:33
Andrew
So what we've tried to do, it's not a result of this, but it ties in nicely. um you know The FA's model of playing through the thirds, and you know that and if you're familiar with their DNA now, if take it from the back, play it all the way through. So we third off the pitch. um And by by breaking the pitch into thirds, it allows us to do two things. It allows us to Drown out that noise that we're talking about, the visual noise, all of a sudden you haven't got seven, seven-year-olds running around, you've got three because I've split the pitch. um It also allows us to to box them by ability as well. No point in having someone who's at the top end of the the the group putting flying tackles in against somebody who started last week, pointless. So hopefully in time that will bear out, but that's something that I've only recently
00:28:22
Andrew
grat I think I always knew it, but I think he really put it into words for me, Lucas did, and I thought, yeah, that's, I understand that now.
00:28:30
Andrew
Something that helps, years, when when I first qualified, ah I went out to local clubs and asked if I could shadow some coaches, because I was very honest and said, I don't know what I'm doing, I want to shadow, I want one to learn. And Tamworth FC came back to me and I went to went to their ground and and did a session with them, ah and when I walked in,
00:28:52
Andrew
The ground was silent and I thought, okay, maybe there's no parents here watching. They were training at the ground itself. I thought maybe there's no parents here. When I got in, there were parents there, there were parents, there was coaching staff, but everybody was silent and I thought either I'd gone deaf or I was down the blues again.
00:29:11
Andrew
I didn't know which it was, but I walked in and I realised that they were coaching in silence. Now, I don't know if you've ever come across this, that he was running a silent session.
00:29:21
Craig Birtwistle
Wow.
00:29:22
Andrew
it It wasn't silent because he was catering to any and diverse children that I'm aware of. He ran the whole session in silence an hour, which was admirable. And I thought, wow. When I asked him, when I asked Rich, you know, what's the crack? What are you doing? He said, we're we're encouraging the children by by not allowing them to speak. We're encouraging them to use other ways to communicate, whether it's body language, you know, clapping, whatever it is, they're finding other ways. We find that they have to lift their head up more to look because they can't hear anybody.
00:29:56
Andrew
So we do that, abstractly. Do we do it because I'm trying to, yeah, i think we I think we do it because we're trying to encourage them to find other ways to communicate. But I also think it's great for the diverse kids because when you give them silence, it it must, I can't imagine, how it must feel when they've had 45 minutes of noise and then coach says, you know what, everybody now, absolutely silence. And it is, it's silence, even the parents, to their credit, silence.
00:30:24
Andrew
um So, yeah, some of those obstacles, you know, with the meltdowns and the boundaries, it's about recognizing. The last thing I'll say on the boundaries is that with any of this, whether it's recognizing a boundary is about to be broke or language, ah fruity language is about to be used or a meltdown is about to occur, I think it's important that we see that early. And the only way we can see it early is if there are an adequate number of coaches to children. So we work on a one maximum, one coach to 12 kids, and we try and do 10. I think the FA rules off 14, I believe, I may be wrong, but the fewer children you've got, the more attention you can give them and you know you can nip these things, head them off at the pass and nip them in the bud. um So yeah, I think I've answered your question in terms of boundaries and and meltdowns and and things, but those are the biggest obstacles, definitely.
00:31:22
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, so that's really interesting stuff. ah the The silent practice in particular, I can imagine for a child of those those needs would be, I wouldn't say music to your ears, because we're obviously working in silence.
00:31:29
Andrew
and Yeah.
00:31:37
Craig Birtwistle
but But I'm sure that that must be an absolute blessing for them. And that's amazing. and Talking about blessings, the parents of these players,
00:31:48
Craig Birtwistle
I've read the reviews, like I said, and like they're they're delighted.
00:31:50
Andrew
Yeah.
00:31:51
Craig Birtwistle
But when they come into the program, they must be really nervous.
00:31:53
Andrew
okay
00:31:56
Craig Birtwistle
What advice advice or information do you give these parents to like reassure them um that streetly coaching is, as you say, a safe place?
00:32:04
Andrew
The first thing i'll I'll say to them always is is before um I was a coach, I was a father and before I was a coach, I was a father of of neurodiverse children. So all my three boys were here and we recognized in in two of them already that they were diverse and then my coaching career, if you want to call it that, big began. So I went into into it knowing that So and my first and my first kind of advice to them is I'm ah um' a father who has children with extra needs. i understand First of all I understand your concerns as a parent, I understand your worries. I mentioned my youngest earlier Lucas and me not wanting to put him into league football so I understand why people would want a set up like ours first and foremost.
00:32:50
Andrew
um
00:32:52
Andrew
Yes, so that that would be that's that's my first one. and The other one is as well, because we're not in a competitive football environment, because we are just training, just training, they can improve at their own pace.
00:33:08
Andrew
now their pace is you know one child's pace is going to be 10 of another's and that's absolutely fine we're not there's no collective goal with us there's no league to win there's no promotion to chase there's no relegation to avoid um we're not trying to get them up to speed in a certain position because somebody's leaving at the end of the season all the problems that you get or the issues you get with league football there's none of that um So they understand that and I can give you many many examples of children who are working at much slower paces and they're happy to and we're happy for them and that's fine. um The other thing with us is if it's not working and it's not for you and we've had a conversation and we can't fix it
00:33:52
Andrew
then you're free to go. By that I mean, there's no um <unk>s no pressure on you to stay because we're halfway through a season and we're chasing a promotion and we've got nobody to play your position, you know, the kind of issues that you have no doubt faced as a coach where somebody's left halfway through a season and left you in the lurch. There's none of that. If it's not for you, you know, you're here on a month by month basis, you want to try it, come and try it. All our first sessions are completely free with no obligation, come along and try. It may be for you, it may not be.
00:34:21
Andrew
We use the word trial. It's not that we are trialing them, it's that they are trialing us. That's something that's important as well. um You know, we can simulate most things at Streetly Coaching, but pressure isn't one of them. No matter how much we try, we can't simulate pressure, nor do we want to, to a point. So they have no pressure. um I think, because we've been talking a lot about this, and I think I've mentioned the um the spectrum of of ASD quite a few times. I think it's important for me to just clear something up if I can't crank. The spectrum that you hear about, you people are forgiven for thinking it's a linear spectrum that runs from maybe mild to severe and you're either here, here, here. It's not it's not at all.
00:35:05
Andrew
The spectrum is is is actually a circle, so people should look up, if if anybody's interested, they should look up the autism wheel. And it is literally a wheel with 10 segments, I believe. I can't tell you the 10 off the top of my head, but they range from all different behaviours.
00:35:22
Andrew
and within each spoke of the wheel you are mild to severe and then when you plot plot the graph around it gives you the spider graph shape you know everybody's is different so that's why when you say you know I understand how an autistic child is that's very very difficult to do because I have two autistic children one is completely different to the other they are chalk and cheese and Oliver has um um social issues that we mentioned earlier and and boundaries.
00:35:50
Craig Birtwistle
you
00:35:52
Andrew
Lucas doesn't, not in in a million years would he have those those issues. He's manifest in other ways. So I would encourage people to look up the autism wheel and understand that it's it's a circular wheel with different points in each spoke, not a linear.
00:36:05
Andrew
you' not You're not just mild or you know or severe or in between. You are different in different areas and it forms this this circle. So it's it's interesting to look up.
00:36:16
Craig Birtwistle
Andrew, when a parent comes to you and wants to join the club with their
Key Information for Participants
00:36:22
Craig Birtwistle
child, what information do they give you that helps you understand the best way to treat their child?
00:36:22
Andrew
Yeah. yeah
00:36:29
Andrew
ah The only information we do, we take is medical conditions. So, so if obviously the standard things like a day to birth, obviously, but it's it's just simply medical conditions, what have they got? And what I do tell them is, um tell me about any ah additional needs confirmed or otherwise because we went through a process where it takes years to get somebody diagnosed. Now, if you you you can suspect your child is ASD and you may be wrong, you you're probably not, you're probably right as a parent.
00:37:04
Andrew
um Some behaviours can be mistaken for ASD and it's not. um But because of the ages they're coming to to me, seven, eight, invariably there's no diagnosis at that age. It takes a long time. um Covid didn't help, that held things up ah for for a long time, including including ours as well. So I don't want you to come to me and and and say to me,
00:37:30
Andrew
he's got confirmed he or she has confirmed autism but if you haven't had a confirmation i don't mean to keep it from me just you know just tell me so it's i'm very yeah medical conditions confirmed or otherwise and if they say we think or he's he or she's been looked at this then i will bear that in mind in the session but to be honest craig as well meaning as the parents are and they are ah I don't want the ceiling to be placed from day one by the parents so I'd rather just get get okay give me the information you have and I'll get the child out there on the pitch and I'll watch them because and we were guilty of this and me and my wife laugh about this and now we were terrified when our
00:38:12
Andrew
Eldest who has autism was going to secondary school, ah more so my wife didn't want him to get the boss on his own or anything and it turns out he's been an absolute boss so I think we place ceilings on our children sometimes as well as elevating them in other areas sometimes we you know we think they're better than they are because they're ours but in other in other circumstances like ASD I think we're guilty of placing those ceilings and I'd rather just give me the info and and leave me to it and let me watch. I'm not an expert in autism but I know what I'm doing with coaching so I can see when the two blend so yeah I would say my my my advice then would be confirmed or otherwise just give me the information you've got.
00:38:51
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic stuff. We'll be back Andrew after a short message.
00:38:54
Andrew
not from
00:39:11
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. We just spoke about Andrew's amazing work he's done with the players of all needs and ability levels. As someone who has worked hard in growing an organization while keeping standards high and focusing so much on the attention of each individual player who needs it, what advice would you give a coach who is starting up trying to emulate some of the successes that you've had in the world of coaching?
00:39:37
Andrew
Yeah, good question. I think um i think we we we talked touched on it earlier, so I won't go into great detail, but demonstrate would be my number one. it's less Less words, more more action. I think show the player what what you mean. and You know, our language as an adult to a child is so different. And you and I, whether we're coaches or not, as adults, we could have conversation. I could use certain words to do with football, you would understand. Seven-year-old hasn't got a clue what we're talking about.
00:40:06
Andrew
So demonstrate. especially in my realm where a third of your children are ASD and they like literally need that demonstration. Demonstrator would be number one. um Something that's a bugbear of mine and and some of the coaches you've been on there previously, no doubt, have talked about this, but it's when a player's standing still, it drives me mad. That's not just in you a training sense, but on the pitch during the game as well. so I would say make sure that your players aren't standing still.
00:40:38
Andrew
um I think if they're standing still, it's dead time, it's wasted time. Sometimes it's unavoidable, no doubt, so you know you may want a queue of children for an exercise that you're doing, hopefully not. um But can that queue be halved and split between two coaches? And also, if you do have a queue, can the children in the queue have something to be doing while they're waiting, you know even if they're just knocking a ball back and forth?
00:41:02
Andrew
um um I'm confident that if you were to come down to Streetly coaching and get the children on the pitch and ask them a question, what's the easiest thing to do on on ah on a football pitch? They would all say nothing because we've drilled that into them. But nothing is the easiest thing to do. And the second thing would be if you find yourself doing nothing, do something. So as a coach, encourage the children to do something, whether that's scanning,
00:41:29
Andrew
moving into space, finding space, ensuring you're in the right position, ah pulling up a teammate. I'm all for that. If your teammates not doing what they should be, pull them up on it. um I think the biggest one though, the third and final one, I would advise any new coach that you have to be willing to adapt. You have to drop your ego.
00:41:50
Andrew
um you could plan a session the night before and you know what it's like and maybe I'm giving a secret to the game away here but when you're a new coach you plan everything you plan to a minute and then as you do it a few more years you realize okay I'm going to get an idea of this this is what I'm going to do but this bit will be flexible and we'll see how this goes and they may lead me get to that part sooner because I think if you plan if you're rigid in your planning and you're not willing to adapt and after 10 minutes the session isn't working, you're wasting your time and you're wasting their time and I think you've got to be willing to change the session um and ah going back to
00:42:29
Andrew
the fact that we have diverse children and then being direct at times, they will tell you within 10 minutes if your session is rubbish. They will use that language, Craig. They will say, coach, this is rubbish. I'm not enjoying this. And you have to take that on board. you can't be You can have no ego. You can't have pride. You've just got to say, yeah, fair enough. Let's try this. How about this that we did two weeks ago? Yeah, I love that coach, right? let's Let's crack on with that. So drop your ego and change your plans. I'll be my last one.
00:42:55
Craig Birtwistle
Those kids certainly keep us on our toes, don't they?
00:42:57
Andrew
I don't mind, you do.
00:42:57
Craig Birtwistle
That's for sure. On a lighter note to end the episode, um what's your favorite moment in
Personal Sports Highlights & Contact Info
00:43:05
Craig Birtwistle
sports? It can be anything as a player, a fan, as a coach.
00:43:09
Andrew
um Um... Well, I mean, I'm going to pull out the obvious one here, the 2011 Carlin Cup win when we beat Arsenal in the last minute. I was at Wembley, I was right behind the goal um when the when the ball went in. yeah I mean, obviously the the cliche answer should be um anything that my children do, anytime my oldest scores a goal from the wing or my youngest puts a game-saving tackle in. I think that's probably true. The the the emotions are similar, but yeah, 2011 Carlin Cup win, definitely.
00:43:38
Craig Birtwistle
I feel like I need to develop one of those old fashioned 90s boo buttons, um like for whenever I have a public city fan on the podcast. ah so
00:43:48
Andrew
You certainly do, mate. You have a good idea.
00:43:50
Craig Birtwistle
Well, Andrew, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. um I think this has been a very valuable episode because um I'm sure a lot of our listeners will agree this is an area that I am not too familiar with and an area that I definitely want to understand better and I feel this episode alone has helped me get to
00:44:10
Andrew
<unk>
00:44:10
Craig Birtwistle
um And better understanding. I'm certainly not just like you said about yourself earlier. I'm certainly not going to claim to be an expert in this um But the work you're doing Andrew is fantastic and I do really much appreciate you for your time It's been a lot of fun chatting back and forward.
00:44:24
Andrew
Thank you.
00:44:27
Craig Birtwistle
The conversation was very beneficial um Andrew before we go. um Is there any way our listeners can get in touch with you?
00:44:36
Andrew
um Yeah, you can go to Facebook. It's the only um social media channel we're on. If you go to Facebook and look up Streetly Coaching, it's Streetly, spelled S-T-R-E, sorry, S-T-R-double-E-T-L-Y, Streetly Coaching, and we're on there. Apparently, we're on Instagram. My number two Dave has done an Instagram channel. I know nothing about it, so go and check that out as well. Streetly Coaching on Instagram, but yeah, you can find it from there.
00:45:01
Craig Birtwistle
Superb and what we'll do as well for our listeners as well as I'm sure a lot of people if you are experiencing some of these issues that with your child and if you're in and around the Birmingham area obviously you can maybe go and visit Andrew's sessions I have an an opportunity If you're not in or around the Birmingham area but you do have any questions about football, soccer, I'm sure Andrew would be able to hear you out as well.
00:45:27
Andrew
Yeah, a bit delighted.
00:45:27
Craig Birtwistle
So I will put his details in our podcast description. and Well that's about all we have on today's episode of Session Share the Coaches Podcast. Thank you again Andrew Stevenson for joining us.
00:45:41
Craig Birtwistle
Be sure to get in touch across all our socials to offer your opinions and on all that we have discussed, you can find our social media platforms in the podcast description. This has been Session Share, the coach's podcast. Thank you for listening and thank you for coaching the beautiful game.