Grass Roots football - restoring my faith in our great game

After a career playing at a decent level and subsequently going on to coach at a similar level, I’m currently at a stage in my life where football has to take a bit of a back seat.

A couple of years ago I decided to take an opportunity to coach an U19s side who, despite the team itself playing at a fairly serious level against top non league sides in the region, were part of what I consider to be a true grass roots football club – providing the local community with somewhere to play football from U7s through to open age football, including a women’s team and an over 45s’ team. In the same time period, my son has also started playing organised football for a grass roots junior football club in a nearby village.

Whilst my experience of grass roots football recently has at times been frustrating – mainly because my approach is more focussed on developing high performing players rather enabling a broad range of players with varying levels of skill, fitness and commitment – I have learnt a lot both as a coach and a parent.

There are some wonderful people involved in the game at grass roots level, and I want to tell you a little more about two of them.

George’s coach is a guy called Owen and Owen is the prototype grass roots Under 7s coach. His son is one of George’s team mates and he has an older son who also plays for the club. Owen willingly volunteered to coach the teams his sons played in despite having very little football experience either as a player or a coach. He has the FA Level 1 coaching certificate and organises the training and the games along with a couple of the other dads who assist where they can. The club as a whole is a Charter Standard club so whilst not every coach approaches their role in the same way, there are some consistent messages about fair play and respect evident from the signs visible when you arrive with your child every Saturday.

Owen’s approach seems to be largely based on providing the best experience he can for each player, trying to develop their skills but most importantly, trying to ensure they enjoy their football. There is no favouritism for star players, and despite the temptation to do so, he resists playing his stronger players more than the weaker ones. His bond with the players is based on him being a friendly approachable guy with a warm nature – he doesn’t take himself too seriously, recognises that he’s a novice as a coach and doesn’t try to hide the fact by imitating behaviour he sees from coaches on the television. He doesn’t suffer bad behaviour from the boys and ensures that they all show respect for each other, their opponents and the other coaches/referees.

I don’t think all of the parents agree with his approach, some preferring to see their children playing in a team that wins but relies on its better players and lets the weaker ones pick daisies on the sideline. Some of the messages from the sideline and Owen himself do indicate that winning is perhaps more important than it should be sometimes (“get rid of it!” or “don’t try that there!”) but for the most part, he has created a culture where kids’ enjoyment of the game is paramount.

Although he lacks the experience, technical knowledge and confidence to develop players to elite levels when compared with local academies, I am so pleased that my lad has started his relationship with organised football under Owen. When (some not all) opponents’ coaches are screaming at their lads and subbing the weaker player who has only had 4 mins’ game time because he has just made a mistake, Owen focusses on encouragement and letting the kids play. 

Owen knows a little about my footballing background, and every now and then asks for my opinion. Whilst I might suggest the odd thing – maybe the keeper not kicking the ball long but rolling it out to ensure they play out from the back – for the most part I try to stress that he’s doing a much better job than I possibly could. It takes someone with fantastic patience for a start, and my communication style is perhaps not as warm and engaging as his. I learn from watching the way he interacts with the players and deals with conflict even if it just young kids wanting to win the weekly man of the match award.

Changing attitudes towards winning, the development of weaker or smaller players, and the focus on the coach rather than the players is so important if our nation is going to adapt and start to develop better young players. Cultural and behavioural change is so much harder to affect than the technical framework and I firmly believe that by getting more coaches like Owen into the game, the foundations will be there from which technical tweaks are easy to make. Without the right culture things will not change.

The second guy I want to talk about is a guy call Joe who works with me coaching lads aged 15-19 in what we call the Development Squad. Joe has coached at the club for about 14 years, is highly respected by many of the players and their parents, and has 3 sons of his own, all good players in their own right who have all been through the club’s youth section and one of them is in the professional game now.

I went to a presentation evening last season for the club’s under 16s as many of the lads would hopefully be moving into the Development Squad and I wanted to take a look, meet some of the lads and get a feel for what they had experienced to date. Joe was the lead coach for that age group at the time and 3 of the lads went on to full time football with pro clubs soon after. What struck me more than anything was the respect that everyone in the room had for Joe.

He’s a very mild mannered Irishman, and when I first met him I was struck by his friendly and warm nature. He played to a very good standard himself many years ago for what is now Dagenham and Redbridge, so he has been around good football as a player. My initial feeling was that he was perhaps a bit too nice at times, and that maybe his friendly approach would need a bit more steel with older players, but that we’d complement each other well regardless.

Along with the other coaches, we agreed on some fundamentals around a playing and coaching philosophy, as well the general environment we wanted to create, and we’ve shared much of the coaching responsibilities over the course of the season. Despite the fact we’ve had a very disappointing end to the season due to a lack of players, I have thoroughly enjoyed the season, and it due in no small part to Joe.

An old team mate of mine said that footballers are like ships passing in the night, and at a certain level that is certainly correct. In the same way, the various people you meet in football often have a tendency to drift in and out of your life. Joe however has had such an impact on me that I can’t see myself letting him away that easily!

He’s an FA level 2 coach who can put on a fantastic session and is particularly good at making good technical habits more permanent, and then helping players apply those techniques in game situations. The style of his sessions are always upbeat, which starts from the minute players arrive when the little Irish fella can be seen bounding up to players and shaking their hands like a long lost friend. His interest in their lives stretches far beyond the realms of the football pitch or the dressing room. I guess his many years coaching some of them creates that father figure type mentality but his duty of care for them just hit me and inspired me from day 1.

Whilst I largely drive the tactical and mental approach that we begin by implementing on the training ground and then take to the match day, Joe has proved over the course of the season that whilst he may appear super friendly, he is also fiercely competitive and will not tolerate poor standards – he’s not the soft touch I perhaps thought he might be. I did wonder about how credible he would be in a dressing room full of experienced elite players but he’s proved to me that he has the character to do the lot.

But for me, he is the perfect example of a coach who can mentor young players as well as develop them as they transition from junior football to youth and then senior football, a period of time when young lads go from playing with their friends to dressing rooms where performance is more important and the confidence to progress on your own in new environments and with new people is sometimes needed.

That incredible ability is born out of his warm and engaging nature – good players need good people to look up to and they don’t come much better than Joe. In my many long discussions with him about the game, he’s helped me to realise just what a privilege it is to take the field with a group of players and help guide them as footballer and as people.

We all get hung up on what’s wrong with football in this country and sometimes we don’t see what’s right about it. We also take ourselves a bit too seriously at times - taking a step back from the high pressure environments that we help to create can really help us to recognise the fundamental values and foundations we value with a bit more clarity.

Whilst Owen and Joe are special for me, I’m sure there are many, many more like them up and down the country and if that is the case, we have a wonderful chance to make the game in this country better.