The new FA Level 3 (UEFA B) coaching in football - my journey

Last year, I was fortunate to be accepted onto the UEFA B course in my county FA. This (after the piloted version the year before) was the first time it had been run since the changes to the course had been made. Having now completed the course, I feel I am in a good place to give an overview of what the course now entails and what I have taken out of it.

It is very important to recognise that these are my own reflections, charting my own journey on the course. I'm sure that other candidates on the course will have made other reflections and taken different things from the course to those that I did. 

The course itself

Having completed the FA Youth Award (read my blog on that here) April last year, my next aim was to be accepted onto the UEFA B course, which I knew was going to be rolled out across County FA's in the coming season. 

I had previously visited a UEFA B assessment day, in 2015, as I sought to see what the standard was like and what I might come to expect when I eventually enrolled on the course. This was the first of the set days for the assessment on the course. I arrived in the morning to find a lot of nervous faces. Speaking to several people, they did not feel exactly ready and were dreading potentially being one of the first to be assessed. 

In total that day there were six or seven sessions, all different topics with different standards across them. However, you could see the limitations placed on the coaches during the day. While it's a good experience to coach under the lens of several highly qualified tutors and your peers, the scenarios can never be truly realistic. The coaches were nervous not just for being watched but because they were coaching in a completely different environment to the one that they work in. It was clear to me that the course needed to be adapted to support the needs of the coaches and challenge them in a healthier way. The result was a newly launched UEFA B that combined the strong points of the previous course with new ways of learning and developing. 

The FA Level 3/UEFA B course 2017/18 took place over four 'blocks' consisting of nine days in total. Across those nine days were several workshops each day, which included group tasks, analysis, session planning, presentations and practical delivery by both tutors and candidates! 

I think it is fair to say, the standard of the delivery from candidates grew across the duration of the course. There were lots of good ideas that the tutors fine tuned and turned that creativity into effective sessions that were game realistic too. That brings me to one of my first key parts of what I took from the course; the planning process.

I am someone who across my coaching journey has tried to place more and more time into my planning and evaluating of sessions (and now more so, match days). For your UEFA B project, you need to evidence your planning around eighteen match days, or twelve if you have completed the FA Youth Award. I thought I was in a pretty good place regarding this, but I soon realised that the process and way I plan was going to need to improve. Quite often, we can be guilty of starting our planning with a practice in mind, but I began to saw the benefits of stripping it right back and becoming more detail in my planning. 

One of the tutors gave us a great way to approach it, in stages almost. These stages were; the theme, the topic, your philosophy, the formation, the starting point, the design (ie. phase of play), the technical detail and then design the practice itself. That framework gave me a platform to work on every time I planned something, starting with the important details, how that impacted my playing philosophy and how it could help my players. I was also able to use this in conjunction with video analysis (which I will come to, and is displayed in my project as well), to support the needs of the team, units and individuals. This also helped us to consider how me and the other coach could work together which leads me to another key area of the course, blended practice.

Blended practice was introduced to us as "all things to all players". This got us as coaches thinking about how we manage sessions, and the outcomes of it. The tutors demonstrated this to us through practical delivery, in which they worked at the same time trying to achieve outcomes for their team within the session, but with the aim of also increase the challenge for the opposition in achieving theirs. At different points in the practice, they acted as the lead coach for the session while the other acted as an 'assistant'. We were also asked to deliver sessions like this in pairs, where we could see how we can achieve more within one session. For example, if you are leading a session with your team working out of possession on 'pressing in the final third' the other coach may work with the team in possession to play out from the back, thus making it more challenging for the lead coach's group and making the session relevant to the other players who are not being directly coached by that person. 

Within blended practice, we also looked at how constraints based coaching can aid player development. A key focus being the three Rs to constrain players; Restrict, Relate and Reward. These different mechanisms can be implemented into our planning process in order to help challenge players further and guide them towards the learning outcomes of the practice. This should not be done on the whim however, think about how these different constraints can really be applied to your players to help them! 

I was fortunate to have a really good coach working alongside me with my group this season, but the workshops on blended practice gave me some real food for thought. As with everything, we need to add more detail to what we are doing; plan our interventions, decide who will work with which team, what the objectives will be to enable the session to be as challenging as possible. In games, could one of us focus on the team in possession and the other out of possession? This would have allowed us to be more effective in what we were trying to achieve, alongside some of the good work we were already doing. 

Another workshop that I really took a lot from (as I did all of the workshops) was units within units and linking units. I have previously paid attention to 'traditional' units; defence, midfield and attack, trying to link them in with the principles of play, following what I had learnt on the FA Youth Award. What we were challenged to do on the UEFA B is link those units, understand how the roles and responsibilities relate to other positions and also consider units within units.

This also reminded me of something I witnessed when I visited AFC Ajax a couple of years, where Sonny Silooy mentioned a player needing to be able to understand and experience playing in positions around where they might consider themselves strongest. For example, for their development a right back may need to experience playing in different position on the right side, such as right midfield and right of a midfield three, a unit within itself you might say! 

This is something I tried to take on board and implement into the learning for the players and to help improve their performance. In one game, I concentrated on the area around the right back, focusing on the #2 (right back), #5 (right centre back), #4 (right centre midfielder) and #7 (right winger) and how we support that player to not be isolated one versus one or overloaded. Within the units, we had a primary player being the #2, who needed to be able to defend effectively, and the secondary players being the other players within the unit who needed to provide support. Considering these factors has allowed me to improve my own technical and tactical detail, and the level of information I can provide to my players. 

In situ learning

This is probably one of the biggest changes to the UEFA B in the eyes of many. As mentioned, the UEFA B experience before we often defined by the outcome of the final assessment at the end of the course whereas the in situ visits reflect the more holistic approach to the course, based upon the competencies of the coach. 

These visits are a great opportunity for your tutor to see you in your environment. With there being twenty four candidates, we were split into three groups with three different tutors, so that they could come and visit us on three occasions. I am very grateful for this part of the course because I know how much time the tutors are giving up in order to make this work, but I hope they think it is worth it because I know I do! 

I was fortunate in the sense that for my FA Youth Award assessment, the very same tutor had visited me (albeit with a different group). It had been an unusual experience having a microphone attached to me while I coached but it prepared me for the in situ visits and when I delivered on the course itself. 

Not only is it a good chance to see a coach delivering in a realistic environment but it's a good way to make sure they practice what they preach! It's not simply about your ability to coach, but your ability to translate what you believe in into a reality. If something in your session, or the way you set up your team is not consistent with your playing or coaching philosophy, you will be questioned. If you can justify it great, but you can not blag your way past this one! 

In my two in situs for my training sessions, I was able to showcase what I was trying to do but also get quality feedback for what I can do a lot better. I was able to start to consider more pictures, the 'what ifs' but also my coaching style and how I can increase the intensity and competitiveness within my practices - which will then translate to performances in matches.

The in situ on a match day was a new experience for me, where we looked at different aspects. One was the type of information I give (positive/negative, feedback, instruction/command, questioning etc) but also WHO I give it to. Predictably, the person who received the most information from me during the half that we concentrated on this aspect was the full back on my side of the pitch! I always try to take a step back, be as objective as possible and be considered in the information I give during a game but it just shows there is a lot more I can improve on. 

To me (having seen both sides of it), this approach to coach development is a far more effective and enjoyable one. It is not simply being observed and then given bog standard feedback after. You are tested before, during and after the session. Mine was filmed with audio of me on the microphone. After getting used to the sound of my own voice, this is a great reflection tool where you can really question yourself and how you do things. 

My project (my journey)

As my presentation of my project was split into five sections, that is how I will break it down in this part of the blog! We presented on block four of the course, and it was great to see everyone's work with their clubs and the different ways they do things. There is a lot we can learn from each other, another key element of this course. We were told we would get twenty minutes to present (with a further ten minutes for questions). I stretched this to the limit as my presentation, including a four minute video, lasted 28 minutes so a reflection for me might be to be more concise and use my time effectively!

Who we are

It is fitting that this is the first section I come to as I think previously this was an area that I had previously under appreciated. In the past year or so, I have become increasingly interested in how we can create an 'identity'.  

Equally, it is also important to understand the club you are working for, and what their aims are. This is the starting point that can allow you to consider how you will coach, how you will play, what the profile of a player at the club should be and finally, how you can support them. 

At my club, there was a clear remit to create a pathway for players to be able to progress from the under eighteens, through the development squad and into the first team. How I wanted to help that process in my role as the manager of the under eighteens was more down to me and what I believed was the best way to develop the players. This was good for me to allow me to learn more about myself and commit to words in my project what I believed in. 

How we coach

This is a tricky thing to articulate for a lot of people I feel, including myself. I decided to start with my values, mainly in life and how this translates into my coaching. I have a firm belief that 'not every player becomes a footballer, but every single one of them becomes a member of society'. I want to be able to develop the person as well as the player! We wanted to make players accountable and take responsibility so we tried to do this in different ways (player feedback to inform learning, players decide how they set up for set pieces, player-led warm up - prepare the right way) and I think I can continue to think of more ways in which players begin to be more proactive to help themselves and the team. 

Additionally, I considered how I plan sessions and what practices I use to help enable learning. I am very big on relating my practices as closely to the game as possible. Even if it is working on patterns, I want them to replicate whatever it is I am trying to achieve when we play on the weekend. That is where I will use formats such as whole-part-whole, with phases of play or functional practices within that structure. 

Finally, I also wanted to formalise how we use video analysis to inform our training sessions and preparations for games (as well as supporting the players individually). Within my project I detailed an example of how we used footage from a previous game to consider what we had done well, and what we could do better in the future within that topic area. In this example, it was about how we attack across the width of the pitch, which also fits into our playing philosophy of having a player inside each of the five 'channels' of the pitch. When we were able to do this in greater detail, I felt we saw the benefits and effects of our work as a coaching team. 

How we play

For this part of my presentation I showed a four minute video, from clips of the team this season, to try and demonstrate the way we attempted to play this season. My own playing beliefs are something I am fairly confident about, but I know that I will be constantly tweaking. For example, where previously I may have asked my team to press high in the opposition's defensive third, on reflection it suited our team and the individuals within it to set up a mid-press. 

Other tweaks we made during the season were with the system we used. We began the season with a 1-4-3-3, but having struggled with our build up play from the back we changed to a 1-3-4-3. Once we felt we had progressed in that area we moved back to the 1-4-3-3. Later in the season, when we felt the defence needed more protection we altered the shape of the midfield to two holding midfielders. 

An area I feel I could have done better in was working on transitions (attack to defence + defence to attack). My idea initially when creating the 'How we play' section of my project was to have transition embedded into our in possession and out of possession principles. However, if I am to stress how important these moments in the game are, and I truly believe they are the most important moments, then I think I need to make that more explicit. I attempted to remedy this during the season by creating position specific player cards for the players, to help them understands their roles and responsibilities in possession, out of possession and during transitions. 

The future player

To link with 'how we coach' something I wanted to do to make players more accountable was make them more involved in their player profiling, which makes up part of this project. On a weekend when we did not have a game we got the players to come in and create the profiles, starting with selecting key areas of their game based on their position and themselves as a player. Then they gave themselves scores out of three (1 - striving to keep up, 2 - managing, 3 - forging ahead) for those attributes. Myself and the other coach looked at these, considered if we agreed or disagreed with these and then used them to help inform our training sessions. I also put these into radars (using the four corner model colour scheme) to give the players and ourselves a visual of where that player is and identify which areas of the four corner model they may need support in most. 

On reflection, I felt we could have reviewed this more. Doing so more regularly could have had more impact and given the players themselves more reflection time too. We did this informally, at training sessions, games and social activities but by formalising the process too it might strengthen the messages we are trying to give the players. We were somewhat hamstrung come the end of the season as we had several games in a short amount of time for a few weeks which meant we lacked the time to do this during this period. Therefore, in the future I want to plan better for these situations as time is a precious commodity when you coach at this level! 

How we support

The four previous sections all culminate with this one I feel. Everything you do should build towards how you are supporting the player and the team. I focused on four key areas that we tried to support the players through in this section; video analysis, social activities, training sessions and matchdays. 

We were fortunate to have a volunteer, a student from the university I was also studying at, keen to gain experience filming and putting together clips for analysis. We would borrow a camera from the university for each game and ask permission to film the games (and happily share the footage with the opposition). As well as supporting players, I also feel it is important to support those who are giving up their time for free. In this case, I sold this as an opportunity to develop skills in a pressure-free environment, and that I am always someone who can give my opinion or advice at any time. At the end of the year, this person got a year internship with a Premier League football club as a recruitment analyst! 

Our players bought into looking back at the footage, I think even at a basic level it was a bonus for anyone to simply watch the game and even if they aren't consciously reflecting on their performance, they may take something from it. We would also put together shorter highlights, and bring clips to training sessions as an aid for practices or to demonstrate something that went wrong or that we did well. This is something that I will continue doing in my coaching, and try to invest even more time to help give everything I do justification, which can make the way I support players more effective. We also had a team meeting on a couple of occasions in which we reviewed footage in preparation for the game that day. Getting sixteen and seventeen year olds to come in even earlier is a tricky one however! 

We were also conscious of trying to strengthen the relationships between players and get to know them better away from football. You can learn a lot about people with the use of social activities, such as team building and competitions, which can aid how you tailor your coaching towards them in training and on matchdays. You can also develop them in the 'social corner' in a way which you may not always be able to do in a standard training session, so this was a good use of our time and I was able to understand my players greater through informal moments like this.

In my project document, you will find twenty four sessions and twelve games (as I had previously completed the FA Youth Award). They cover all of those within the timespan of the UEFA B course, which fit nicely in with my own work. I hope that people will see a genuine development in my planning and reflections from the beginning to the last game. Due to the weather, we had a lot of training sessions between two of the games and then  a very tough cycle in which we had a lot of games and very few training sessions! I certainly learnt a lot from both experiences. When we had the period of just training, I saw the benefit of having more time to work with players on a certain area, and how I can break down a topic over multiple sessions. Equally, I realised how I may need to prioritise certain things and manage my players over a busy schedule as a lot of my players regularly featured for the development squad and first team. 

How do I know I am being effective?

This was a question posed to us towards the end of our course, on an extra support evening we had available to us if we had any questions or issues. It really resonated with me. What am I measuring myself again? Did I have a specific target at the start of the season, should I? What is success to me, and the club?

My thoughts are that through understanding the 'who we are' part and putting that first I can created a measure for myself. What is the club's playing and coaching philosophy? Do they have one? At my club last season I had a blank canvas to work with, which helped me learn a lot about myself and gave me a lot of freedom.

Ultimately, in this instance it was about the pathway to the first team as I mentioned earlier. In the development squad, we had 147 appearances and in importantly in the first team, we had 101. I consider that to be a good number for sixteen and seventeen year olds playing first team football! 

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I'd like to thank the tutors of my course for what was a fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable course. We were constantly challenged to better ourselves and they provided us with fantastic support on the course and in our in situs. Also the other candidates on the course, were a real pleasure to learn alongside, I learnt just as much from working within them in pairs and groups on different tasks. 

If you would like to see my project, which is 162 pages long with nearly 45,000 words (!) or my presentation, I would be more than happy to send this out to coaches. As I said at the beginning of the blog, this was my journey and I did things on the basis of knowing my players and trying to meet their needs. Please comment below with your name, email and where/who you coach with (just because I am nosey!) or you can email me at louiesilvani@hotmail.co.uk. If you have any questions about the course or my project, do not hesitate to ask below or via email.