Who am I? And how was last season for me?

I sit here looking at the screen for some inspiration or even a distraction. Attempting for what’s probably the 5th time to put a blog post together and then actually post it!

I think back to what’s probably the most valuable season been I have had in a long time! Why? Because I have spent time developing me not only as a coach but as a person.

With my role as Lead Foundation Phase Coach I have to have or at least be working towards the UEFA A and the Advanced Youth Award (AYA), I did the Foundation Phase course on the AYA. Now my A Licence has been going on for a while and when I first started out coaching that was the pinnacle. When you qualify and get awarded your A Licence you can then coach within the pro game. Over recent years the Youth Modules have been developed to add the human side to the knowledge of coaching qualifications.

I have to say I have been hugely impressed with everything about the AYA. One of the overriding message was about being selfish. Not that everything has to be about you, but to take away as much as you can from the course, ask questions, research. Think what works for you and how you can implement it within your coaching, ‘Remember to always sharpen your axe!’

I would go as far to say that the AYA has done more for me than my A Licence blocks of work did. Although the AYA is around the player and the structures of practice to build in around the 4 corners. It posed me questions like what is my philosophy? What are my values and beliefs? When challenged do I really believe in my values and beliefs or do they bend depending on what’s happening? It also poses the question of having real meat on the bones about what you want from a session and how it’s going to help the players.

It's safe to say I’m very hard on myself and like to think the standards that I set myself are high, one of the areas I have progressed in, over the last few years is being a better reflexor. After season rather than just being harsh on myself I can now look more objectively at how everything went. This has happened because of the people around me. I am lucky in a way I not only have some very good people around me, also people I trust to give me honest feedback and say it as it is rather than be fluffy and sugar coat things. I believe in honesty within what we do, it allows for better conversation and this helps develop better reflection. Not only after a session, but during it. Being able to talk within a session allows for better practice development. Which will then help to develop the players as everything is pushing/stretching the players at the right level.

It’s has been interesting learning the academic side to the course and being able to put theories to what and why we do certain things in coaching. This then helps you understand why you do certain things, most people who go on the AYA will probably already do some of what we are being taught. But now we can know the science around it. Listening to the external speakers who bring their own knowledge and expertise, as well as some straight talking. What you could feel from all who presented was a passion for what they did.

Something that it did do, that probably went more into my subconscious and plant a seed was that I needed to know who I was? Not only in terms of what I wanted with a philosophy or my values and beliefs etc. But who I am when I coach, who is the real Craig Large?

When I speak to people I often say I felt like I was coaching my best around 5/6 years ago. It felt natural in what I was doing. I believed everything I said. The enthusiasm came across. For one reason or another that’s probably changed over years and I’ve gone from being me (rightly or wrongly), to trying to be someone else or something I’m not.

This year through a lot of reflection and in that honest reflection (good & bad) from myself and others I am rediscovering who I am. Taking the opportunity to be more ‘business like’ as it was put to me rather than trying to help everyone and answer every question asked from people not in the session. I had to remember that the coaching session is my time.

As all this was going on with my courses and using the support sessions that come with both qualifications, I wanted to improve other areas of how I coach, with that I signed myself up for two League Managers Association Courses. On them I got to listen to Lee Richardson and Richard Nugent. I came away from both with a lot to think about. The talk with Lee Richardson was on Personality and Performance, which thankfully was worthwhile as I had gone to that rather than spend Valentine’s Day evening with my wife (thankfully even though not into football she is very supportive of me). For this I had to take a personality test and it was scary just how accurate it seemed to be. It has given me a good base to develop other areas of myself and performance. The second Master class was with Richard Nugent and was about Emotional State Mastery. This was just as the ‘Beast from the East’ hit. I have to say it was worth the drive up. Richard was able to provide information that I could relate to, his first story I could put myself in a similar situation. Even that morning and it’s something that I keep referring back to. The rest of the day provided more areas to look into and improve as well as enhance! I was also introduced to TED Talks, which have added to my development.

So, with everything I have done this season, including coaching. I am finally back comfortable in my own skin. Coaching as is right for me. I look upon everything I do as a way to improve. I will never be happy with how I am. But that’s because I want to be the best I can be and with football constantly changing, if you keep doing the same things you are going to be left behind. Just as if you only focus on coaching, you aren’t doing yourself or your players justice. To help players develop you need to know about the four corners, I have read lately that some don’t believe in the four-corner model. For me I use it and can see how they blend together. You can’t just work on one area. Everything we do will affect a player in all the areas. Using the model helps in my opinion understanding and you can’t affect one without considering the others.