Mandating coach certification.....

When we wanted to teach our son Oliver to swim, we decided to take him along to our local recreation centre where a certified swimming instructor taught him to swim.  I can swim and so can my wife but we decided that it was best to let someone who has a little more knowledge in swimming instruction take the lead. I don’t think he is ever going to be the next Michael Phelps but we want him to enjoy swimming and I believe if you do something well you will do it more often.

Oliver also wanted to learn Kung Fu, now he will never be Bruce Lee and neither will his father, so it was a no brainer to sign him up for Kung Fu lessons from a certified martial arts instructor.

When we first moved to Canada our daughter Hope wanted to try gymnastics so we sent her along to the gymnastics centre in Kelowna where she was instructed by certified coaches.

Do you see where I am going with this… if it’s an acceptable practice in swimming, gymnastics and Kung Fu, then why is it not the same for soccer. Both Hope and Oliver have been involved in recreational soccer, and neither of them will ever play for Canada but their level of interest in soccer was the same as it was for the other activities.

Now, I have never coached my own children, soccer is my job and I have not had the time to be involved with their teams. Our experience with recreational soccer is no different to any other family in Canada; we rely on the luck of the draw when it comes to coaching.

Hope has been very lucky and has had some great coaches. Their technical knowledge has been of the standard expected and nothing more, but the experience has been a positive one because of how the information has been communicated to her. The coaches that she has played for have been great role models for her and I am sure at she will play soccer into her adult life. Oliver on the other hand has not been so lucky. His coaches ‘knowledge’ of the game has been no less than Hope’s coaches, the problem has been in the delivery. The outcome of this is that Oliver is still not sure about soccer as a sport that he is interested in and a as a sport we may lose a player. Maybe it’s not the end of the world for soccer and it certainly isn’t for Oliver, as a proud parent I hope he is destined for great things; it just won’t be in soccer.

Although it’s not the end of the world, its is a problem for me as I know that there are many similar stories in families across Canada

So what to do? For me it’s a simple answer to a simple question. Our number one priority has to be coach certification and, more importantly, continued coach education so that we can retain the good ones and work with the keeners who need help and support.

Coach education does many things;

It shows that the coach is interested in improving their skills

It shows that the club is committed to providing their players with a qualified instructor

It shows prospective new players and parents that the sport is serious about development

It provides opportunities for dialogue between coaches

It raises the bar, and in time will improve the level of play

It helps coach retention

It gives a club a measure of credibility

All of these are positives that our game needs right now. The impact of mandatory certification won’t be seen overnight and in the short term we may lose some coaches but in time it will become an acceptable part of the process, just like getting a criminal records check.

In my last blog I mentioned the thought of mandatory certification and I received more feedback on that topic than anything else. I agree that you don’t become a better coach just be attending courses, however it is a step in the process. The vast majority of clubs pay for their coaches to be certified so why wouldn’t you take a course.

In the Lower Island district we have certified over 350 coaches over the last three years which is just over  half of the 600 coaches in our area. I would like to think that we can have a fully certified district by 2015 but that is only half the battle. The real challenge is to then get a coach to stay involved after the first year and come back and take another course!

Having said all that there is still a nagging problem that exists.  It’s not just about the information that a coach provides, it’s the way that it is delivered that is the key. I once heard someone say, and I wish it was me as it is a great little phrase “people don’t care what you know, until they know you care” and it is so true.  Communicating our message to the players, and in turn, their parents must improve. For the vast majority of our players soccer is a recreational activity just as it is for my children.

Our challenge is to turn it from a recreational activity into a passion and we do that player by player, family by family and coach by coach. How many potential national team players do we lose each year before we ever get a chance to really work with them?  That thought is something that should keep us all up at night. Mandating coach certification increases our chances of providing a better experience for the players and in turn keeping them involved in the game for a longer period of time.

On a final note its soccer camp season and the great game of sharks and minnows has undergone a radical change on Mayne Island: it’s now called Deatheaters and Wizards, thanks to JK Rowling!

A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall.......

Bob Dylan once sang ‘A hard rains a-gonna fall’ and he was right. June was a long month of hard rain for Soccer in Canada with our teams crashing out of the Gold Cup, U17 Men’s World Cup and Women’s World Cup all at the group stages. The difference between winning and losing at that level is narrow, a goal against Rwanda and a bounce or two against Panama and we would have had two of our teams in the last 8 of both tournaments, but although the difference is narrow we may as well have missed by a million miles as we judge top level sport on results not performance.

Now we have lost who can we blame? Fans and millionaire chairmen across the world always look for scapegoats when there team doesn’t get the results they need or want. Coaches are fired and programs are ripped up for the promise of something new. We very rarely fire soccer coaches in Canada, which may be a blessing is disguise this time around. Coaches and their players don’t plan and prepare their teams to lose, they spend every waking minute of every day with the players thinking and re-thinking their plans and looking for any extra edge. At the end of the day, it’s up to the players on the pitch to decide the outcome of the game and as I have mentioned before our lack of success this past month comes back to our lack of technique, rather than our lack of effort or spirit. Before I go on, let me be clear: I’m not saying our players lack technique; I am saying that our technical ability is not at the level of our opponents. I believe we are going in the right direction, just not as quickly as we would like.

We struggle to keep the ball when we are pressured and we don’t have the cutting edge to create enough chances in a game. Our teams are organised and, in my opinion, regularly punch above their weight, but when the margins are so tight it is technical ability that wins the day. Technical excellence shouldn’t be our goal; our target should be technical perfection!

We can all look at the situation and try to apportion blame as there are plenty of targets, coaches, players, CSA, provinces, districts, clubs, lack of money, too many games, not enough games, the list is endless. However playing the blame game won’t help or change things in the short term or the long term.

As coaches and administrators we need to start asking ourselves a simple question. How can I make this situation better? I would like to say that I have all the answers, but I don’t. Having said that I do know where we won’t find the answers, not in board meetings, or conference calls, or executive meetings and certainly not on internet forums. The answer is to be found on the field working with players and teaching them correct technique and in time teaching them the finer points of our game.

The answer in short, is that we ALL need to do a better job with the players we work with.

I dislike the use of the word ’mandatory’ however I see no other way forward for us. Its time to make coach certification, and more importantly, continued education a mandatory requirement across the country. In order to do this we will of course need a grace period to allow clubs and coaches to comply but in a short space of time, say 2 years, we need to educate and support our coaches. When we show up at practice we ask our players to improve, why shouldn’t we ask that of our coaches?

I like to think that Lower Island Soccer Association is a supporter of coach certification and continued education, and over the past three years we have received tremendous support from Rob Csabai at BC Soccer. He has worked with us on changing the way we deliver the courses so that we are able make them ‘more user friendly’ and we have been able to certify a good number of coaches over the past few years. However there are still too many coaches out there without any level of certification at all coaching our players.  Coach certification doesn’t make you a soccer genius overnight, but it does show that you are committed to self improvement and are willing to spend some time to improve your skill set. A good coach has a combination of certification, experience and good communication skills. Getting certified is the easiest part so why the reluctance?

Mandatory coach education won’t be an easy sell but nothing easy is usually worth anything anyway.

In closing, thanks to everyone who attended the Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting last week at Lakehill Soccer associations Braefoot field and special thank to Dominic Butcher who gave us an interesting insight to fundamental movement skills. Our next meeting will be in August

…going back to Bob Dylan, I am not a big fan of cover versions but if you have time check out Bryan Ferry’s version of my blog title.

Have a great summer.