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S1 E6 - Todd Beane Tovo Academy
143 Plays3 months ago
This week we are very excited to have Todd Beane as our guest. Todd is the son in law of the late great Johan Cruyff. He is the founder and CEO of the World Acclaimed Tovo Academy. Todd has an MA in Education from Stanford University. As an athlete Todd played for Division One college Dartmouth. So I think it’s fair to say if it’s Football or soccer Todd has been there and done that! Have a listen to this fantastic conversation.
Follow Todd on
X: @_ToddBeane
Visit: tovoacademy.com for more details on courses, camps and the Tovo methodology
Follow Session Share and Craig
YouTube: @sessionshare4375
X: @SessionShareNet
X: @CraigBirtwistle
Facebook: sessionshare.net
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Transcript
Introduction of Todd Bean and His Background
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello and welcome to the lightest episode of Session Share, The Coaches Podcast. My name is Craig Burtisall and I'm very excited to have Todd Bean as our guest today. Todd is the son-in-law of the late great Johan Cruyff. He is the founder and CEO of the world acclaimed Tobo Academy.
00:00:34
Craig Birtwistle
So Todd has an MA in education from Stanford University day and is an athlete. Todd played for Division One College in Dartmouth. So I think it's fair to say um if it's football or soccer, Todd, you've been there and done that. How are you doing today? today
00:00:51
Todd Beane
I'm doing well. I think being there and doing that just means you're older. That's a nice way of saying I'm older. Thank you for that, Craig.
00:00:59
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic. Yeah, great. So tud tell us a little bit about your background. What got you involved in football?
00:01:05
Todd Beane
You know, like I grew up in the Northeast United States where ice hockey was quite popular. So my first out of the gun sport was ice hockey, little league baseball. And then in middle school, ah they started a soccer team and it caught my interest of being just actively a little bit more active than than baseball, a little bit more like ice hockey, actually. So it immediately caught my attention. I jumped in and I haven't looked back since. It was a nice, a nice journey using the game and academics to lead me through those opportunities that you just mentioned. So.
00:01:32
Todd Beane
U.S. suburbia upbringing and then leading 20 years ago, making the move to Barcelona. So a little bit more international than I anticipated originally, but all around the game and education teaching.
00:01:45
Craig Birtwistle
It's funny you mention ice hockey because um when I first came to America myself, I'm from England, came over to America. That was the first sport I wanted to go see because it did seem like the closest thing to football because it's like it's not a case of stop, start, stop, start. It's it's a very fast and furious game. So that's quite interesting.
Foundation and Influences of Tovo Academy
00:02:05
Craig Birtwistle
um So you run the Tovo Academy and I'm a real big fan of the Tovo Academy and your methods. and I haven't had a chance to do an in-person course yet, ah but I have done the interactive ones, which I can't speak more of. I think they're very valuable. Can you tell us a little bit about the Tovo Academy and how it got started?
00:02:26
Todd Beane
Yeah, it was really an idea. I have a friend in Connecticut, Joe Cleary, who's up at Loomis School. We're brainstorming about language study abroad programs, you know? And I did one in college, i had an opportunity to go to Mexico and and do a language academic study abroad. And those are obviously quite popular for students in the United States to come abroad. And we thought, wouldn't it be great to do a sport term? And originally, that was kind of the idea, of the name, actually. I think we even had logos and t-shirts made, you know, sport term, to have kids that were interested in football, soccer. be able to come and not abandon that passion while they were getting an academic and cultural immersion program. So Touhou started as initially as a cultural athletic immersion program, specifically for soccer brands, kids that wanted to come across typically from Canada, the United States, come to Europe, spend a term with us and and compete and play and train in addition to you know immersing themselves in the culture, the language.
00:03:17
Todd Beane
and everything that's you know wonderful about Spain here. So it started that way. And then a few coaches asked, well, what are you doing differently in the way that you train those students? And there came about the courses that you were involved in. And we hope to get you at an in-person course, hopefully sometime soon. The courses were an extension of that question. Well, what are you doing differently with your colleagues there ah that differentiates your program in methodology?
00:03:43
Todd Beane
from others and that really forced me to be disciplined and to be clear about what we were doing, why we were doing it and ultimately the details of how and that led into the Tovo methodology. The Tovo methodology as you know kind of going worldwide was really an offshoot of that original sport term idea which is now a Tovo to Academy program.
00:04:04
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic. So it all got started before even meeting Johan then am I right?
00:04:09
Todd Beane
Yeah, you know, I had taken good notes in working with Johan. We worked on projects around the world. I watched him ah restructure, you know, Football Club Barcelona as an advisor with bringing in Frank Reichard and Pep Guardiola and sitting down and watching those, you know, those conversations take place about how to rebuild Barcelona in the image that Johan really believed it could be and bringing in the right people to do it. and then At that point, I kind of left a project I was working with him on and dedicated to football. We did a project in South Africa. We then jumped into a project at IX in Amsterdam. And then I went out to l LAFC. We did a project in Mexico Achieva. So when Johan turned ill, and in full disclosure, as you mentioned, he it was my father-in-law. So when he turned ill, we knew early on
00:04:58
Todd Beane
at some point that it was not looking good in terms of long-term prognosis. and And I wanted to kind of ask his blessing um to take the notes that i've you know I took from him, the vision, couple that with what I knew from Stanford about good pedagogical practices, and bring a program to kids, and then ultimately the methodology to people that that with whom this would resonate,
00:05:21
Todd Beane
um and and just kind of bring this worldwide from that opportunity. So as I said, I always say it's a combination of kind of the intuitive vision of Jan Kreif and the sound pedagogical practices that I was fortunate enough to learn from great people, both at Dartmouth and at Stanford. And coupling those two, I think what we managed to do is do something quite innovative and unique and something that I think he would be quite proud of.
Tovo Academy vs Traditional Training Methods
00:05:45
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic and one of the things that I've always liked about when I found the Tovo Academy and got interested in it in the beginning because I kind of like in coaching to driving a car. You drive a car like you've been told to, so you pass the exam. But like I've been driving for 20 plus years now, so I'm pretty sure I don't drive the way I was taught at that point, whether that's good, whether that's bad or whatever. But um I kind of found that about the US soccer model of coaching sort of thing. I did a lot of things on the courses that I didn't necessarily agree with.
00:06:18
Craig Birtwistle
And then I liked the idea of the Tovo Academy because it was more free flowing. It was more ah technique focused. It broke things down a lot more. And um i was I was really against the fact that US soccer came out and said that they didn't agree with the Rondo saying it wasn't directional. And I feel like if your Rondo isn't directional, it's actually not working properly.
00:06:45
Craig Birtwistle
it's if done correctly it's one of the most important and also challenging aspects ah of a practice. um Do you agree with those sort of thoughts?
00:06:56
Todd Beane
yeah you know that sort of inicate thing we say in spanish that's sort of um feeling you had that in your gut you were going through that process through your licensing and i had the opportunity to do that with amazing coaches ziggy smith and i how and others is back in the 90s so i got my a license you know back then it's no longer i think incredible but um i i also knew that while i was going to that through that process it didn't resonate fully with me so i i filled in the blanks and i answered the questions and i gave the u.s soccer what they wanted back from me and i followed like a good boy i went to my
00:07:30
Todd Beane
you know I followed the the lines of reasoning and I produced what I needed to produce to get the A license at that time. But that's not the way I went home and coached because I knew that a lot of what I was learning from the Soccer Federation flew in the face of good sound pedagogical practices that I learned at Stanford. right So I saw this dichotomy between good sound educational practices and soccer practices. And it didn't make sense because I don't care if it's music, art, science, sport, ice hockey, football, soccer, whatever you want.
00:07:59
Todd Beane
um We're educating children and the better we are at tapping into the way that children actually learn makes us better facilitators of learning. And so Tovo was always an extension. But prior to Tovo, I was doing things differently back at Salisbury School in Connecticut with the buddy I mentioned where we started. We were just building really dynamic, engaging training private programs because we knew that that was the best part of training when the kids were engaged when they were making decisions, when they were sweating it out, when they were failing, when they were
00:08:33
Todd Beane
when they were competing in contextualized environments. So we did that without the language around it. We just did it because it resonated with us. Tova was a formal extension of that. And I think what Johann gave me was the confidence to say, you know what, even at the upper echelons of football, and he was obviously at the upper echelons of football, he believed in contextualized competitive training and that learning should be fun. It should be engaging. It's a sport. So everything that resonated with me resonated with him.
00:09:01
Todd Beane
And from those notes, I was able to build the confidence to put this methodology back into the world while respecting the US Soccer Federation's interpretation. And they're great people, as I said. um But I liken it to education. You have general education and then you have Montessori education. And while Montessori education isn't the maybe mainstream education, it has a place in the landscape.
00:09:25
Todd Beane
It's in the conversation of how best to educate young people. Togo's become that. Togo's become not the dominant paradigm, and it never will be. But for those with whom it resonates, and it resonates deeply, it's in the conversation of how we best promote learning and joy, and how we do that through really inspirational, innovative strategies to engage the children, keep them in sport as long as we possibly can.
00:09:49
Craig Birtwistle
I love that. it's um It's a case of finding the positives from each situation, whether you take what you learn from US soccer and you build upon it with a more refined ah philosophy, more refined focus, if you will, on the way you want your philosophy to be.
Coaching Evolution and Modern Adaptations
00:10:08
Craig Birtwistle
And I imagine your philosophy has been very organic. I feel like it must have grew from you your days starting the first program at college,
00:10:17
Craig Birtwistle
building it through, travelling around the world. How do you feel your coaching philosophy has changed over the years?
00:10:25
Todd Beane
I don't, I think, or to be honest with you, when I got out of Dartmouth College and I started very young to coaching while I was still playing, I started coaching a private school in Northwest Connecticut called Salisbury School. And so I think like a lot of young coaches, I coached the way that I was coached, right? You're just an extension of, I say, well, listen, I went to Dartmouth and all that's not the highest football in the land. It's a D1 program and I got to play and I got to participate for four years. So it must have worked because it worked for me.
00:10:55
Todd Beane
But that's not necessarily the right thing to work and in life, right? Just because it worked for me doesn't mean it's the best program. So what I did is I embraced Bobby Clark's style of of training. I emulated his way of managing people. And I started to change the way that we trained. Does that make sense? Like I really admire and still do Bobby Clark as an amazing man, amazing mentor for young people.
00:11:19
Todd Beane
Well, for just for people in general. So I took that from him and I started implementing kind of those Scottish style trainings because he was a Scotsman, is a Scotsman. And and in doing so, I started to focus more on the dynamic part of training, which would typically be at the end of those training games. And I started replacing out the drills, the kind of the isolated detailed drills that I didn't think would actually nurture the type of learning I wanted to promote.
00:11:46
Todd Beane
So in that way, it was kind of transformational for me and my coaching staff to say, let's keep the parts that actually maintain the holistic perception, deception, decisions and action, which are training games and position exercises and run those that you mentioned. And let's weed out those isolated static exercises because we weren't seeing the same engagement. We weren't seeing the same learning curve. take place. And so it was very organic in that way, but it was always true to the idea. And I really come back to almost those ice hockey days that I mentioned. Pond hockey is about taking the shovel, taking the sticks, taking the skates, walking across the pond. It used to be, I don't know if they freeze anymore. But when I started in New Jersey, actually, the ponds in New Jersey probably don't freeze anymore. But what was that? It was holistic training without me even knowing what I was doing.
00:12:37
Todd Beane
right It was being with your peers, dividing up the sticks, 4-4, 5-5, 3-3, whoever happened to show up that day, and playing organically, and maintaining the integrity of the holistic components of the game, playing the game, and learning the game through the game. right And that was always in my heart, which is why when I got to US soccer, this this sort of the cardian vision of dissecting the game into its parts never resonated with me, although I did it because I was told to do it.
00:13:06
Todd Beane
And I, let's say I swallowed that, you know, that Kool-Aid at the time, I thought, oh, I'm going to do 50 moves with the kids because then they're going to be as good as Kreif, they're going to be as good as Maradona, they're going to be good as the greatest stars in Beckenbauer and others. And it just wasn't playing out. It looked great on paper. It looked great in theory. I had the t-shirt, I had the the exercises, I had the 50 moves, the Kreif turn being one of them.
00:13:30
Todd Beane
And what I realized was that was not applied intelligence.
00:13:33
Todd Beane
It was robotic, it was static, and it was logical, but it did not actually affect the change I was hoping my players. And so this organic movement from static and isolated drill work into holistic training, competitive contextualized games, came through clearly as I started to experiment as a coach. And it was only later that I was able to put you know the academic language to it or Johann's vision to it. That would come much later.
00:13:33
Craig Birtwistle
Hmm.
00:14:06
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, I love that. I feel that um Johan Cruyff, if I remember, and I do apologize if I butchered the quote or anything like that, but he said that um He trained three to four times a week at Ajax but played on the street every night, something along those lines.
00:14:23
Craig Birtwistle
And then he said, so where do you think I learned how to play? And I love that because it's a case of um he's taken what he's learned and he's put it into action because as you were saying there, when you started off and it was very technical driven, I'm sure your players did really well at beating a cone, but then it did it translate to actually beating the defender.
00:14:42
Craig Birtwistle
So I totally get that, that's awesome.
00:14:43
Todd Beane
Yeah. And you you make reference to that with the Rondo. For for us, the Rondo, and I don't want to to belabor this, it's it's comparative to what other activation exercise would you choose?
00:14:58
Todd Beane
It's not that a run, though, is better than a training game, because our our our programs are made off of training games, principally. They're all competitive and contextualized games. So a training game is the bulk of our training session, or training games are the bulk of our training session. Position play exercises are competitive and contextualized. And you come back to the activation phase. So if you're not going to do a run, though, what will you do? Will you do the FIFA 11, where you lift over your legs, and you go back and forth, and you're not on the ball? You're not making decisions? Are you can do laps are you going to What other are you going to just stand in line and pass back and forth?
00:15:27
Todd Beane
So it's comparative to and has to be compared to another activation exercise. And the idea that the game is directional is abundantly obvious. What's not obvious until you learn from some of the best is that the game is not just directional, it's multidirectional and it's contextual.
00:15:49
Todd Beane
And it's based upon vision, decisions, and precision, all of which is incomped cup ah is part of a rondo, but not part of lines, laps, or lectures. So when we got to Tovo, I just took those one thousand drills that I had when I was in Salisbury, Connecticut, and I started to throw out about 990 of them um because they were not competitive. They were not contextual. And then by extension, they were not nurturing character, intelligence, and skill.
00:16:17
Todd Beane
which is ultimately what the match or a game demands.
00:16:22
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. We'll be back after a short message, Todd, and we would like to talk about coaching and play at development. So this is a short message from Zeg Castor.
00:17:11
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back and we're going to go into a bit more detail on coaching and player development. Tom, can you tell us about any issues that you feel is prevalent in their youth development at the moment?
00:17:24
Todd Beane
Well, if we start outside the lines, um, I would say we're putting way too much emphasis on pathways for children that are five, six, seven, eight, under 12 years old, right? We're putting too much pressure on the game. And I think by extension, we're taking the joy out of it. When we get screaming parents, when we get screaming coaches,
00:17:44
Todd Beane
When we're worried about winning the under eight, you know, festival in New Jersey outside the lines, I think we're starting to recognize the ills of being those parents of putting too much pressure on a sport that's inherently fun within the lines, I think.
00:18:01
Todd Beane
We've done a disservice to our children, not out of ill intent, but out of maybe lack of knowledge in the way that children actually learn. I think what we've done within the lines too often is we've dissected the game, as I mentioned, into unrecognizable parts. And as soon as we begin to, and I think we are putting back that holistic vision, I think we'll have greater perspective on how children learn and how beyond the lines of the game, ah parents, mentors, community members can support that learning and maintain the joy that is inherent in the game. If we can get learning and joy as our greatest focus, our why, and stick to those strategies, the hows that accomplish that, we are well on our way to making sure this game remains the beautiful game.
00:18:44
Craig Birtwistle
I love that, and for me, it's... I totally agree with you. And I feel like you keep mentioning about how how to teach. And I think that adds sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. The amount of times I heard when I was younger, a older person saying like, oh, that's not what we used to do and stuff like that. And you kind of switch off straight away. And recently I've been thinking about that for myself as well. When I talked to my players, I've been talking to them about you got to get outside more, you got to play more, you got to do more away from my practice.
00:19:18
Craig Birtwistle
And I'm starting to see the fact that their childhood is very different to my own childhood. I was out nearly every night playing with my friends, whether it be football or any other a sport, to be perfectly honest. And it's got to the point now where I'm trying my best to figure out what is the best way to teach them, not how it was to teach me. Like, do we have to bring in more technology-based?
00:19:43
Craig Birtwistle
ah evolvements into their practice. Have you noticed that with the way you've built your project?
Integrating Play into Training
00:19:49
Todd Beane
Yeah, I think what what we've tried to do is, and you made reference to it, and when I grew up in New Jersey, I was always in trouble with my parents for coming home too late. I always had to come home when the street lights turned on, but I was like, well, they weren't on at the in ah at the pond or at the at the field, right? I swear they weren't, right? So um I think those days probably have long gone, maybe, realistically. I wish it were not so. So what is the new kid facing? He's facing a lot of computer time at school, facing a lot of FaceTime on the phone.
00:20:18
Todd Beane
And so what we need to do is bring play to practice is the way we've done it at TOA, right? So we have to bring that competitive contextualized play to training grounds.
00:20:29
Todd Beane
and allow them to get what we might have gotten on the streets or in the patio or on the fields, wherever we've grown up and fortunate enough to do so with our mates. um I think we recognize those days don't exist anymore. It's more play dates than just, you know, ah freedom to play. So I would like to bring, and we do that, we'll bring more play time into the training environment so that they get that robust, nutrient rich environment.
00:20:54
Todd Beane
And we know from that nutrient-rich environment, skills, character, and intelligence emerges.
00:20:59
Craig Birtwistle
It's great advice. it's ah Thank you for those solutions there. I think those are some things that can be implemented straight away into most people's training. As you grew up as a coach and you developed, what advice would you give a new coach is coming into his own? Like we spoke about earlier about how they're doing a certain way to do their licenses, but how they can evolve. What sort of advice would you give them?
00:21:26
Todd Beane
I think the first first piece of advice would be the the the toughest transition is when you're a player, it's about you and your team. And you have to make an amazing switch of mentality and mindset. it's Once you coach, you have to make the constant decision. It's not about you anymore.
00:21:41
Todd Beane
It's about the players in your charge. And that's not easy. And I did not make that transition well. I wanted to prove myself as a young coach. I wanted to win the championship. I wanted to prove to older coaches that this young gun was able of you know capable of leading a team to victory. And those friends that were with me put up with a lot of nonsense back then because I was lost in that egocentric approach. And then I realized finally that, you know what? It's not about me, my trophies, my, my, my. It's about them. How can I nurture?
00:22:09
Todd Beane
the character in a child, the intelligence and skill of a child so that they take on the world with vigor. And that's piece of advice number one is to recognize it's no longer about you, it's about the children in your charge. Piece of advice number two is it's a sport, have fun, enjoy it. And piece of advice number three would be learn as much as you can about learning as possible because it'll make you a better educator, a better coach and a better mentor.
00:22:33
Craig Birtwistle
Great stuff. um The first one you said about making sure it's about them and not about you. It's very easy to, it's very difficult to do that in the beginning because as a player, we're so centralized on us about our development, about our nutrition and everything like that.
00:22:49
Craig Birtwistle
It's very selfish and I kind of liken it to being a parent as well. And I know you have six children, is that right, Todd?
00:22:56
Todd Beane
That's correct, yeah.
00:22:56
Craig Birtwistle
There's a special place in heaven for you, I tell you, man. Uh, so yeah, I kind of like it. It's a becoming a parent. You spend your whole life just worrying centrally about you, not necessarily being selfish, but understanding that you're going to look after you better than anyone else will. And then you become a parent and you have this little thing in front of you and it's like, okay, well.
00:23:18
Craig Birtwistle
The things that I want it don't necessarily matter as much anymore, ah passing it on to that. So being a player, being very selfish, and then understanding that when you become the coach, it's not everyone look at me. It's about now, how can I make sure my players, my team progresses as much as possible? So I think those those are three really good pieces of advice. ah We'll be back to that after a short message from our session. show
00:24:00
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back and we just spoke about advice that Todd would give a new coach three pieces of great advice right there. So what advice were you given when you were growing up that helped you with your career?
Advice and Personal Reflections from Todd Bean
00:24:15
Todd Beane
When I first started teaching at Salisbury School, one of the deans pulled me inside and said, don't try to be somebody different on the soccer field that you are in the dormitory, that you are in the classroom. Be genuine, authentic self, and be positive and purposeful. So that's probably the best advice I've ever been given, just straight up, you know, right to you. The rest of the lessons you learn from the way that people conduct themselves, the mentors, the leaders, the coaches that I've had in my life. but That was really sound advice. Be your authentic self and be true to your most noble self.
00:24:47
Craig Birtwistle
That's great stuff. And it's easy to say when we we start off as a coach that I want to emulate Pep Guardiola, I want to emulate Johan Cruyff and everything like that. So being true to yourself is really good. you You learn from people, but don't lose yourself is essentially what you're saying, right?
00:25:04
Todd Beane
Yeah. And it took it took a while, as you said, in that transition to get out of the egotistical competitive nature into a little bit more al altruistic educator mentor role. And and I said, I'm sure like many of us, but maybe I led the way. I failed on so many occasions where I lost sight of the larger picture.
00:25:24
Todd Beane
right and and Whether it's just being upset with a referee or being frustrated by a loss or or just losing yourself in your own mind because you didn't solve that game or that match and you lost sight of the larger picture. So while I had that advice, it took me a while to embrace it, but once I did, I recognized the value of it. Be authentic, be positive, have some perspective, and then go out and do what you do best and make sure that the kids want to come back and and play some more tomorrow.
00:25:51
Craig Birtwistle
I love the word fail that you use there. And um as as human beings, we don't want to fail, but we understand that I was always told that fail means the first act in learning. So it's a case of having that opportunity to have that learning curve, which just makes us as good as possible. So very good voice there. And so Tom, we're going to finish the episode with a little bit more Freedom a little bit more open and Tell me about what your favorite sports memory is. It could be as a player. It could be a fan a coach
00:26:25
Todd Beane
Yeah, I think Well, as a player, it goes back to dates now, but you know, I had an amazing high school team in Connecticut. and We just bonded tremendously. We made an amazing undefeated run and managed to win the state championship. And I remember specifically being on that yellow school bus and getting a police escort back into Simsbury, Connecticut. And I thought,
00:26:46
Todd Beane
Wow, we've done something remarkable. Of course, there's everybody else as a state champion and the other states and tournament champions. But when you're in that moment and you've accomplished something and when you're young and you've got your bonding with the mates and the police guide you back to town, I still hold that memory as as the year. And I think if you fast forward, I was fortunate enough to be on invite with the Barcelona delegation when they Barcelona played Champions League against Arsenal in Paris.
00:27:15
Todd Beane
And to be part of that delegation and to be there and to watch watch that game and to watch ultimately Barcelona win was a pretty memorable experience. I don't know how many people get the chance to watch their favorite team go win the Champions League and be ah on invite and have nice seats and some appetizers to enjoy that. So that was a wonderful evening. It was much more enjoyable and celebratory than had we lost. So it was a big night for Barcelona, one of many.
00:27:42
Craig Birtwistle
two great memories there i'm sure when you're on that school bus uh you felt like you'd hit the big time there but
00:27:48
Todd Beane
That was it. yeah On that yellow bus that I think I still think dominates American culture, on that yellow bus being led and then getting to the town blind. and having the local police turn on the sirens and head back to the high school. Yeah, you put in perspective how how insignificant that might have been. But for the people on the bus and the community, it was significant in its in its moment to to unite and celebrate all that's good about sports. So I hold it dear, knowing that it's not the biggest trophy someone can win.
00:28:20
Craig Birtwistle
And that's the thing that's what we're doing as coaches. We are creating memories. We are creating opportunities for players to grow and love the game, essentially. um You mentioned earlier about how fact but the the 0.01% is the ones that go out as professional. So we have to foster a love for the game. We have to create good memories like you just experienced there.
00:28:45
Craig Birtwistle
so we can now produce the next line of coaches because I didn't get a chance to play professional. I loved the game that much that I became a coach and hopefully some of the players that I coach go on to be professional, go on to college careers, but essentially love the game and look back on my time with them very fondly.
00:29:04
Todd Beane
i I think you make a good point. they You know, the the professional players will emerge and hopefully, you know, with that character, that intelligent skill that's required to play the game of the upper echelons. But that's really, I don't think can be our purpose. I think our purpose has to be promoting learning and joy and to build the relationships that what but that
Fostering Love for the Game and Relationships
00:29:25
Todd Beane
sport is about. I always say that football is nothing if it's not about relationships.
00:29:29
Todd Beane
And I could put in ice hockey, I could put in volleyball, I could probably put in music and art and dance and theater into that equation as well. But ultimately we know, we just know from common sense, but we know from research that if children have robust relationships that'll help them and guide them.
00:29:45
Todd Beane
and nurture them, they're gonna be better off and society will be better off for the sport and the mentors like you that have led these children. So I think that's the bigger picture and then once we have the capacity to maintain that, although it's difficult in moments of heated battle, and when we maintain that perspective we're our best selves and we're better for the children that we're responsible for.
Connecting with Tovo Academy
00:30:05
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. And Todd, if our listeners want to get in touch with you or find your programs, your online, your in-person courses and everything like that, where's the best place for them to visit?
00:30:17
Todd Beane
I think the best place to start is just at the website tovoacademy.com. um There you have a list of everything we're doing, why we're doing it, where we're doing it, and when it's available. And as I said, we're basically running a few programs for players, you know teenagers specifically, that want to come to Spain in January. For an intensive January term immersion program, and then we're running a program at Princeton at the hun school in a program out of Monterey in July for the US audience. And then we're doing some club projects with some clubs as well. So that's all listed there. And for the coaching audience on the on in this broadcast, we run online programs. You've had a chance to to dig into that.
00:30:55
Todd Beane
We run presidential programs in Spain in January, and then we'll also be at the Hunt School in July, and we'll be out at the Robert Louis Stevenson School at Monterey in early July of next summer. or So the coaches that we're engaged with is an amazing network now. We've had the opportunity of of coaching over 1,000 coaches or more now. um And it's not that all will leave and take that and and you know just plug and play, but there's there's a great number of coaches now at every level, pro, college,
00:31:25
Todd Beane
down through grassroots that are are giving this a go and and doing it with this methodology in mind. So toboacademy.com will get you started, and then you can run away if it doesn't resonate with you or dig in if it does. Either way, where we have great people, whether they're TOBO or family or not.
00:31:41
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic, and you're you're a big user of, ah we'll call it X now, Twitter, if you will, um and people can follow you on there as well, right?
00:31:45
Todd Beane
yeah Yeah, just at underscore Todd Bean. And that's just, I usually tweet once or twice a day, typically about development, coaching, ah try to keep the trolling away and try to keep just positive engagement with people that are honing their craft and and doing great things like you are in New Jersey.
00:32:06
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. um What we'll do as well is we'll leave all the descriptions in the, ah sorry, leave all the information in our description for our podcast, for all our listeners that are interested in getting in touch with Todd, finding out what great things that Tovo do in the academy. Well, that's about all the time we have on this episode um of Session Share, the Coaches Podcast. ah Thank you, Todd Bean, for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure.
00:32:33
Todd Beane
Thanks for the invite.
00:32:34
Craig Birtwistle
ah
00:32:34
Todd Beane
It's an honor to speak to your audience.
00:32:36
Craig Birtwistle
ah You're welcome, thank you. ah Be sure to get in touch across all our socials to offer your opinions on all we have discussed. You can find the social media platforms we use in our podcast description. This has been Session Share, the Coaches Podcast. Thank you for listening and thank you for coaching the beautiful game.