Why I Write
And Why You Should Listen to Me…
“I’m no innovator. I’m an ideas thief.”
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola’s quote captures something I think is true about coaching and learning: very little of what we do comes from nowhere. Most good ideas are borrowed, adapted, tested and refined through experience, conversation and reflection. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably asked a fair question: Why should I listen to this person? Football is full of opinions and it seems that every player, coach and supporter has a different answer to the same question. The internet has made it easier than ever to share ideas but it has also made it harder to know whose ideas are worth listening to. Before I begin sharing my thoughts on coaching, player development and football, I think it’s only fair that I explain who I am, why I write and what I hope you’ll gain from reading my work.
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Football has been a constant throughout my life. Like many people, I started as a grassroots player simply because I loved the game. A desire to spread my love of the game eventually led me into coaching. Over time, I’ve found myself becoming just as interested in understanding football as I playing in it. I wanted to know why certain teams consistently performed well, why some players developed faster than others and what separates good coaches from great ones. A lesson I’ve discovered during this journey is that asking good questions was more valuable than having quick answers.
Over the past eight years, I’ve coached players across the grassroots game while continuing to develop my own understanding of football. I’ve completed Football Australia’s C Diploma which gave me the chance to connect with other coaches and receive feedback on my practice. Alongside coaching, I also completed a Master of Teaching in Secondary Education which fundamentally changed the way I think about learning. What isn’t captured by those qualifications or experience is the countless hours of independent research I’ve done in an effort to deepen my understanding of the game. While football coaching and classroom teaching are different environments, they share the same challenge: helping people understand, improve and become more independent learners. Together, these experiences have shaped the way I approach both coaching and teaching.
At the same time, I’m very aware of what my experience doesn’t include. I’ve never played professional football or competed at the highest levels of the game and I don’t pretend otherwise. That is a real limitation but it’s one I’ve worked hard to address by seeking out the insights of top players and coaches in the game and learning from their experiences. I don’t think creditability comes from pretending to know everything; I think it comes from being honest about your limitations while working relentlessly to reduce them through study, observation, reflection and experience.
So why write? The simplest answer is that I write for myself before I write for anyone else. Writing forces me to organise my thoughts, challenge my assumptions and expose weaknesses in my own understanding. It’s easy to convince yourself that you understand an idea until you try to explain it clearly to someone else. Every article I write is an opportunity to deepen my own learning before it becomes something that might help another coach.
Coaching courses, online webinars and conference presentations can be incredibly valuable but a lot of the time they can leave coaches with the impression they have learned something meaningful when in reality, they have only scratched the surface. At first glance, a drill, a clip or a coaching point can look useful because it is clear, simple and easy to copy. But when you look more closely, there is often very little explanation of why it works, what problem it is actually solving or how it should change when the context changes. That is where I have found you have to go deeper to find the real information. The most valuable conversations are the ones about why an idea works, what assumptions sit underneath it and how it should be adapted when the context changes. It’s those sorts of ideas that I want to explain more clearly in my writing.
I also believe that good ideas become better when they’re shared. Writing allows me to contribute to a much larger conversation within the coaching community knowing full well that my perspective is only one among many. I don’t expect readers to agree with everything I write and I certainly don’t expect my ideas to be the final word on any topic. In fact, I hope people challenge my thinking because those conversations help everyone improve. If an article prompts someone to think differently, ask a better question or reconsider an assumption then it has already achieved more than simply presenting information.
Not every article I write will be directly about football. While football will always be the main lens through which I see the world, I am interested in a wide range of subjects that shape how people learn, think and grow. That might mean writing about teaching, leadership, communication, habits or even ideas that sit outside sport altogether. I don’t want to force every thought back into football if it belongs somewhere else. Sometimes the most useful ideas come from outside the game and I want the freedom to explore them honestly.
Many of the coaches who have influenced my practice so far have shaped the way I think about the game in different ways. Paul McGuinness, Glen Hicks, Mike Phelan, Peter Sturgess, Jonathan Allpress, Dick Bate, Don Howe, Dave Sexton, Tony Carr, Glenn Hoddle and Terry Venables are all English coaches whose work has influenced my understanding of clarity, structure and player development. Victor and Sebastian Chappuis are French coaches whose ideas have helped shape the way I think about technique, detail and the relationship between skill and decision-making. Coach Luca, Tom Perry, Tom Byers, Joe Dennison, Adam Davidson and Nick Smallridge all grounded in grassroots football and their influence has helped keep my coaching connected to the realities of everyday players and everyday environments. The others, including Umir Irfan, Saundzo, Roman Quane, Karl Marius Aksum, Paul Barry, Sammy Lander and Thomas Gronnemark, are experts in specific fields of the game and each has added a different layer to my understanding through tactical insight, technical detail, specialist knowledge or a perspective I would not have developed on my own.
While I’ve been influenced by the people mentioned above, I can’t help but be inspired by the optimistic ideals represented in the media by characters such as Ted Lasso or John Keating. Ted Lasso reminds me that coaching should begin with belief in people even when the situation is difficult or uncertain. John Keating (Dead Poets Society) represents the kind of teacher who encourages curiosity, challenges convention and helps others see the world differently. Together, they reflect the kind of coach and educator I aspire to be: someone who values people, inspires growth and approachs learning with optimism.
As you read future articles, you’ll probably notice that I’m less interested in providing simple answers than I am in exploring difficult questions. I enjoy breaking down tactical concepts, analysing coaching decisions, thinking about player development and searching for the details that often go unnoticed. Whenever possible, I’ll try to explain not just what I believe but why I believe it. If my thinking changes because I’ve learned something new, I’ll happily admit it. I’d much rather be someone who keeps learning than someone who is afraid to change their mind.
Ultimately, I don’t expect you to read my work because of my qualifications or my coaching experiences. I hope you’ll read because you find value in the way I think, the questions I ask and the conversations I want to have. If something I write helps you see football differently, improve your coaching or simply encourages you to think a little bit more deeply about the game then every hour spent writing will have been worthwhile. I’m still learning and I suspect I always will be. I hope you do too.
