In 1975 I started my long and some would say wholly uneventful forty years in coaching, coach education and more lately tutoring the future coach educators. So slowly over forty years I've moved upstairs! To celebrate this war of attrition I thought it would be good to blog about the stages in my career from the first team I coached through teaching and coaching into coaching teams at national level and then on to systems development and now coach education development and implementation. Also I wanted to put on some sort of record who has influenced me and who I vaguely helped along the way (with a few old photos to help)
translation
Schools Days and first coaching
I started to shape my love of coaching and teaching after a conversation with my three influential PE teachers abut how to develop a career in sport At that time the only option was to enter into teaching - not sport science or sport development sport just good old teaching degree. I was Head Boy and the Head Teacher encouraged the Head Boy and Girl to volunteer in some way, I thought to get some experience of what it might be like to be a teacher and the three guys Vic Groves, Keith Stonebridge and Tony Hadley (no not the one out of Spandau Ballet but the one now in British athletics coaching sprints - more of him later) asked if I would like to coach the under 13 B football team against a few primary schools . " Hell yes" I said. Well, maybe without the H word. So I was appointed to my first coach's position. I arranged my first coaching session and did a plan! I played defence against attack trying to set a pattern for the future crunch games. I 'd got my track suit (orange) my whistle round my neck. This was the time when the film KESS had just come out with the classic football scene with Brian Glover. So I had an instant role model!
On to the game - I needed to be dressed right so I needed a rain coat or so I thought? Could be completely misinterpreted These Days Why a rain coat - well because Villa manager Ron Saunders had a rain coat. - Why else ? So I went off as a 17 year old with a load of 12 and 13 year old's, not a teacher in sight, for a Saturday morning fixture against the primary school locally - children playing against a year younger. How Times Have Changed. I cannot remember the score but I think we won 3- 2 . I'd got the coaching bug. I carried on coaching that year with great encouragement from the PE Staff who I can not thank enough for giving me the chance.
So football was the sport to coach but I'd also reached a good level of fitness and Tony Hadley needed someone to get points in the 400 meters hurdles for our school, Arthur Terry, in the Sutton Schools Athletics championships- so through blackmail so I was convinced to do it - never forgiven him and I still remember coming off the last bend and thinking I left behind my lungs. Still had my tracksuit so was nicknamed the "flying carrot"
So onwards to College and the bachelor of education specialising in PE.
So onwards to College and the bachelor of education specialising in PE.
College years
I went to West Midlands College of Higher Education (now University of Wolverhampton Walsall campus) to undertake a Bachelor of Education specialising in PE . To put things into context this was the first year teacher training was fully degree only. Before then you could become a teacher gaining a teaching certificate (T.Cert) by doing a three year course with five 'O' levels although you could by invitation stay on for a forth year to gain a degree! The year ahead of me had 40 PE students and we were nine and one of the nine was a dance student. Five blokes and four women embarking on three years of teaching training and social the life that comes with Higher Education. I was for my sins social secretary and booked Alvin Stardust and Mungo Jerry amongst others.
First lecture - educational dance welcome to the world of teaching
Being taken through educational theory and the philosophy of
physical education came secondary to Wednesday afternoon sport! Football,
basketball and cricket dominated my college life. But as with all
student teams coaches were not thought of unless someone was injured could do
it. So that's how I started coaching basketball. We
had a group of enthusiastic sports team clumsy guys, mainly rugby players and
we needed them whipping into shape for a tournament! I had played a little and
so I was keen to take on the organising. We asked one of our
lecturers to coach us. He agreed and started with setting up man to man
defence - we agreed with the approach or what would now be called
"philosophy" but playing man to man needs an element of mobility,
body awareness, balance and agility - not renowned in the rugby
players of the day! I had a badly twisted ankle, so my first
coaching experience was to change that and go to a zone with an offence
of pass it around a lot until the big guy (6 '6 Second row brute) got free to
put a layup in - shooting outside the key = 0% . We
did OK in the tournament and beat the rivals Dudley Local which was the main
aim So what did I learn as a coach - coach to a plan to get
the best out of what you he's got and understand the motivations and
aspirations of your players - In this case have a good run around and enjoy it.
I'd now really got the coaching bug!
These days Universities encourage students to take coaching
qualifications. It was no different then. I
did my Preliminary FA coaching badge on a week of the summer of '77 on the
fields of Walsall. I must say I found it fairly easy but still had to demonstrate how to coach. Then football was technically and tactically dominated by the philosophy of Charles Hughes "Goals are scored goals in
the penalty box THEREFORE get the ball into the box and as Often as Quickly as
you can." Good old long ball English football. I
did also "certificate chase" and did level 1 Tennis. Which
I cannot remember ever using apart from putting on my CV!
One of the great experiences of College was going away as a year group
to the then National
Sailing Centre in Cowes, Isle of White . A week sailing and
socialising but not always in that order. I was lucky as we had a great
instructor and only two of us in a boat, Whereas the others had three in a
boat. So we had more chance to have a go. This was the first
time learning by doing became a very obvious way of learning skills. - This was where my
philosophy of encouraging people to try things out rather than being Told took
shape . We had a great instructor who let us do it and so we learnt surprisingly quickly and had great fun learning how far you can tip a
wayfarer before it capsized. We worked out a number of simple rules -
the flatter the boat in the water the faster it goes adn we only need one captain. Charlie Herriotts (now a
head teacher) and I had a great time and I have relived the experience sailing
on a few holidays since most notably in the Caribbean trying to teach /encourage my children to sail.
At that time in the 70's the Uni captain was the key person
setting tactics and I do remember nearly out-foxing a more skilful older age
group in six-a-side cricket by setting 3-1 offside field. We were well ahead until I bowled the last over of "hit me" long hops. (note to self be a coach not a player) However that led me to be appointed as cricket captain and led to net sessions, leading
player improvement and trying to work out how to win games through good
tactical application. I still think tactical awareness is under
provided for in Education programmes for team sports to this day.
Three years of rich experience was finished off in the last two terms of teaching practice (TP) and my second mentors in teaching / coaching styles. Firstly to the now closed Boldmere School and the head of PE Ed Richards. His standards set with children were firm but fair. I learnt even the good kids had to be told off when they needed to be Ed ran a gymnastics club - far away from the College educational gymnastics. The gym club had a focus of a display at the school open day. They mostly did dive rolls forward over boxes and platforms in sequence. How different from making tree shapes! It enthused a group of children who were not going to play football or do athletics. I was fascinated in this group and wanted to analyse Their movement. So with my DJ strobe light and an open camera lens I took a series of photos to demonstrate and analyse the movement. Furthermore as DJ in night clubs at the time I suggested setting the display at open days to music so with War of the Worlds Chic and blasting out the display went ahead to open mouthed potential pupils from the local primary schools.
Ed was very much about self-discovery, supporting and encouraging the team to take calculated , supported risks in their performance which challenged the group to strive for higher and more complicated skills.
My second TP was a very different environment and one I was maybe more comfortable in; a very team based PE department. Remember this was late 1970's and then a PE was not in the national curriculum or in fact a national curriculum did not exist Until 1988 ! Manor High, Wednesbury in a down town part of the Black Country with Martin Flint and Graham Angel - basketball and rugby players of a high level so guess what sports they did? They encouraged me to play in the local league basketball team containing some students and this gave me my first experience of a school- links club! As well as a coupe of seasons playing West Midlands Premier and division five in the same week. This was a great experience and at that time the sports hall would be open only in the evenings for school led activity and it was free!
This teaching practice also made me realise why I was not a high performing field event athlete. I'd never had the practice in school! I'd be lined up with the other 29 members of my class and had two or three goes at the shot / discuss / javelin a lesson / year. Surprisingly I never got any better. Graham however was very different. After a very strong organised safety briefing he had small groups of five or six students dotted around the field . Each group had at least ten attempts at each activity before rotating. Safety was paramount and no students anywhere near breaking the throwing line. Each student recorded their scores per event into a big heavy book. Each pupil then worked out AAA five star award they were eligible for (early use of maths in PE). If anyone cheated the other pupils were excellent at informing staff! Manor had excellent results at district level but also the vast majority of pupils got a certificate. This philosophy of "you only get better if you practice" has also been a guiding principle carried through coaching and all my coaching and tutoring. "Pupils don't get any better when you are talking" This was his mantra. .
PE Teaching
So I got a job PE teacher at Perry Beeches Secondary School in Great Barr Birmingham - the sad part I beat my friend Charlie to the job It was a small secondary school, the nearest one to the Alexander Stadium and right next to the M6, The school entered competition in the Aston School District which incorporated some of the most deprived areas of the country. Now Perry Beeches is a free school and has at least three annexes across the City. Then it had a school gymnasium and a grass sports field of one one football and hockey pitch situated next to a nature reserve and quarry, which was ideal for cross country. Now it has Sportshall and synthetic grass pitch and the nature reserve is closed to cross country for safety reasons.
To put into context the only sport in 1979. The only junior leagues outside of school were Sunday morning football. I ran twelve teams helped by non-PE teachers turning out to support Football, Badminton, Table Tennis, Cricket, cross country and athletics fixtures. This changed when the teacher action in 1984/5 defined teachers as having to work 1,152 hours a year and many teachers stopped supporting teams. When I was CEO at Basketball I reviewed the national teams and on the female side there was a four year age group without any representation which directly related to year in school groups who were the most affected by the teachers action.
My first lesson was to a year 10 group - my head of department's guidance for the football lesson "give them a ball and they'll be happy -. Oh by the way two of them are good boxers" So lets start with high standards I thought! My second assignment was to take the under 16 football team in a cup final left over from the year before end at the Birmingham County FA Ground (where I have just become a Director). It was Perry Beeches v Holte. I thought we would be fine as we have Craig Shakespeare Who went on to spells with Walsall and West Brom and is now coach at Leicester with Nigel Pearson. It was not to be - Craig did scored our one in a 9-1 defeat and a certain Mark Walters playing for Holte score 4 or 5! What a talent.
The School was at the time known to be a Volleyball School and Craig did play for England at Volleyball -. But I was having none of that . The indoor sport was to be basketball. So my head of department took the volleyball . He moved on after two terms and had taught me nothing apart from how not to conduct yourself as a teacher My new head of PE was coming back into teaching after a gap and gave much needed discipline to the department including simple things like improving the speed of changing to increase contact time and a format for teaching.
Working on my principle of you only get better if you play and practice before I instigated before school practice for basketball, football and in the summer athletics and cricket. Those early morning sessions along with double lunchtime sessions of an outdoor and an indoor session proved invaluable in developing one-to-one coaching and tactical development team. We developed a strong reputation for quality of our PE and play. Furthermore I wanted to give an opportunity for every pupil to represent the school. So I brought in PE department polices - 1. When we hold to home cross-country event everyone in the first three years can take part. 2. That year in league games only boys in that year group play and 3. In cup games we would move up exceptional players one age group. These polices along with good teaching improved enjoyment of PE for the pupils and success externally. 
At that time we drove both curricular and extra-curricular provision. As I had enjoyed running and cross country I wanted to enthuse pupils in this area so I made the cross-country an activity. So we made sure we did cross-country every month not just when the fields were too wet. I used the nature reserve to make it a little more interesting by for example we had a race to the fox holes and one to the badgers set etc. Furthermore I was concerned some of the lads were of a " larger size "and not likely to enjoy cross country as much as others. So when we came to a hill we would all stop and then have a race to the top with a difference. When the fastest got to the top I would blow a whistle and wherever anyone was they would stop and turn round and get to the bottom as quickly as possible. This pushed the quick ones and the slower ones had a longer recovery. This meant the larger lads felt more engaged and valued. Many of them represented the school and were proud of doing so even if the goal was to finish. (It also went on school reports that they had represented the school). The school cross-country team won both the Birmingham and West Midlands championships . I did meet one pupil a year after I had left and he did say he missed cross-country more than football or basketball! We were successful in winning a number of district cricket, football and basketball titles in an area which was exceptionally competitive at the time.
Dave Fisher (Simon Fisher's - GBWBA father's talent manager) was a mentor of mine. Dave was an England Basketball Director and an exceptional coach. When he heard we had entered the league competition he invited us down to Broadway school for a game. I set-up a basic zone defence and a very undeveloped man-to-man and he gave my coaching lesson - they absolutely destroyed us he did tell me afterward they were national champions the year before! So I needed a coaching course -. I went to the Blackpool Easter school, the only provision of coach education at the time. It was a week-long mixture of coach education courses and much "socialising". Dave Ransom was the tutor and went on to be CEO and coach of England At last I learnt how to build and maintain on offence and defence, This was followed by the oterh opportunity the Loughborough summer school and the club coach award (L2 equivalent) - a great week culminating in a match against a top local / national mixed team league - it was that game I decided I was to be a coach not a player. Although I still have the badge!
I constructed the school style of play and put together a playbook but more importantly displayed the basic offence and defence on a notice board for all to see. Something I think about now that I have always tried to make things visual for those that like pictures to understand. I further developed the approach that lessons were dedicated to skill development and the morning and lunchtime sessions were dedicated to team development. Also I allowed players to practice shooting at break times giving them free time to practice and got to the Head Teacher invest in an outdoor goal - not the last time I will do that! This playbook I used all through my basketball coaching adding to it as I developed teams and players. The same in football, we played 4-3-3 until a year 10 and then to 4-4-2. This was new at the time and confused many schools who were used to 4-3-3. I spent so much time on developing staff skill and it was a proud moment was when one of the smallest school kids won a penalty competition at Wolves.
Our athletics gradually improved over time, through the Graham Angle philosophy, and a group of boys were keen to stay after school to practice throwing and jumping. Particularly in the early years we used to athletics as a basis to develop basic skills. We had pupils arriving in the first year who we had to teach how to run, jump and throw. The one pupil who went on a basketball scholarship in the states, Raymond Davies, was 6-1 'when I came in year 7 and did not have to jump. So we taught him how to jump before he touched a basketball. He was Aston District Champion at high jump and long jump three years running. This proved vital when he came up against players of the same height. I've lost touch with Ray but I think I have now is a doctor in the USA. From the investment in cross country athletics came easily to pupils, even though we only had a 300 meter grass track! I had one Athletics claim to fame. Although we had a range of district champions only one boy, Ian Cattermole, made it to the finals of the English Schools Athletics and that was in the Hammer. Still to this day I do not know any technique related to Hammer throwing but I spent many an after school session with enthusiastic "larger boys" taking great pride in throwing the hammer. Practice made perfect,. Although I did aid the process by putting in a concrete circle in learning new building skills! Maybe a bit extreme but it was needed.
I had many enjoyable experiences in my six years of teaching but some of the most enjoyable waere coaching district football teams. I took over a team in 1980 from Bryan Jones when he left for his first stint at Aston Villa leading the youth academy. Bryan led the most successful Academy in the country before leaving after falling out with Paul Lambert. My co-coach of that team was Steve Burns who later joined Bryan at the Villa Academy and developed a whole host of high quality footballers.
We had the one player in team from who went on to play professionally and for England from that district district team; Tony Daley . At 12 was the most outstanding prospect in the district - better than Walters. Tony was at St Georges School which also produced Gordon Cowans and Dean and Simon Sturridge uncle's of Daniel at Liverpool. This was down to teachers Glyn Edwards and Colin Rogers who inspired so many boys in the most challenging part of Birmingham. So a hot bed of talent. Craig, Tony and Darren Moore (Described in later blog) are some of the nicest people you will ever meet and completely against the stereo type of professional footballers [SK1] . I posted this picture on Facebook and we found 10 of the team.
However at year 9 we had a problem with Tony as he had played over 120 games and surprisingly that season he was starting to get knee problems. Everybody wanted him - He played in three different age groups at school and at the weekend So Steve and I spoke to his parents, school and Sunday teams to reduced the number of games in the next year to between 25 to 30 games. I still feel this allowed Tony to make a career of football. Still too many of our athletes not just in football fall by the way side due to injury through over play led by short term thinking from coaches, teachers or parents. Simple message; sport for life is not the next game and players need to be nurtured through adolescence as games at that age are not important but being able to play sport for life is crucial.
I was sad to leave teaching in 1986 but the teachers action had ripped apart and the school sport . Governing bodies at the time were very slow to pick up and organise age group competition leaving a big hole in talent development. Even now conflict between schools and clubs exits. NGBs competition needs to recognise the role school sprot plays and has played. However schools associations also need to be clear about the role they can play in the changing education culture of the UK even through they have been around since the late 19 th or early 20 th century.
My next blog will explore my time coaching in That inter-club environment.
