Three years ago I spoke to Ben Trinder about his blueprint for the game. At the time he was still relatively early in his coaching journey but had delivered an important tool to coaches worldwide with the establishment of the Coaching Family twitter feed. That is still going strong (there are now more than 50,000 followers) and, happily, so too is Ben himself although time and experience have helped shape his views even further.
Blueprint for Football: A little bit more than three years ago we spoke about your Blueprint. What has changed since?
Ben Trinder: I like to think I’ve evolved and progressed with my coaching. I passed my UEFA B Licence in 2014 on a reassessment. The course was brilliant but if I’m being totally honest I wasn’t ready for the assessment days when they arrived, I hadn’t been able to practice enough with the players I was coaching. Ben Bartlett and Ted Dale did my reassessment and their support gave me great confidence to put over my ideas in my session.
I listen to more coaching themed podcasts and audiobooks in my car. I’m not a fan of sitting and reading a book and don’t get much free time to do so, so audiobooks are a blessing. I’ve also recently started my own business, LTG Technical Football Coaching. I’m focusing on delivering 1 on 1 and small group technical coaching to kids aged 5-11 years old in my area, it’s an area we don’t pay anywhere near enough attention as a nation. Away from football, I got married in summer 2014.
The following year my wife gave birth to our little boy, who is now 18 months old. Being a dad is the most amazing feeling and I try to make the most of every minute I get to spend with him.
BfF: How has your philosophy for the game developed since then?
BT: I am more focused on individual development rather than the team. I plan my sessions to challenge the different personalities and abilities I’m working with, whether that’s a hyperactive 6 year old who loves to run and dribble the ball or his lazy friend who needs a lot of personality and encouragement from me to get him engaged.
I’ve developed a passion for technical coaching and believe this has to be the foundation for any young player wanting to play professional football in the future. That belief is based on my experiences coaching and watching youth football for the last 10 years. In England, too often we throw kids into kits, arrange them on a pitch and expect them to know how to play the game, poor kids. It’s setting them up to fail. Kids that young need a balance of free play (no instructions) and technical unopposed coaching. If a child cannot pass the ball against a wall from 5-10 yards how will they pass or share the ball in an opposed game situation?
I’ve spent time researching the benefits of technical coaching, speaking to coaches from different nations and reading up on different ideas from the likes of Ricardo Moniz (ex-Spurs), Rene Meulensteen and Pepijn Lijnders among others. It’s a culture topic for me but I do feel like more coaches are coming round to the idea. I’ve also taken a keen interest in street and playground football.
I’ve even done a few of my 1 on 1 sessions on those concrete basketball/football courts you see everywhere these days. Players need a mix of environments and as many different experiences of football as they can get.
BfF: At the time, you mentioned Michael Beale as one of your mentors. At the time few people knew about him yet he has just joined Sao Paolo as assistant coach. How closely have you followed his career since then?
BT: You can only admire what Mick is doing in the game, he’s an inspiration to hundreds of coaches, including myself. We first met in 2011 when he invited me in to Cobham to watch some sessions at Chelsea’s Academy. I put a tweet out about going to observe coaches and luckily he responded. Mick got me involved in the pre academy development centres there just before he left for Liverpool’s academy in 2012.
I’ve kept in touch with him since then and went up to Liverpool in 2013 to catch up with him and watch him coach. He’s one of the good guys in football, Mick is really genuine, honest and very supportive of my coaching and ideas, when we speak or swap messages it feels like he always has time for you. It’s great to see him doing so well out in Sao Paulo after such a successful spell at Liverpool. I’d recommend his “Just Kickin It” podcast as well as his “Inspire Coach Education” presentation to all coaches. Mick’s experience and knowledge is phenomenal – he’s probably forgot more than I know.
BfF: How hopeful does it make you feel to see someone develop like that?
BT: It’s massively positive and inspiring for all of us but I don’t think people fully appreciate the commitment, risks and hours on hours of hard work it has taken Mick and his family. He’s created his own pathway from putting out the cones at Chelsea all the way through to coaching the first team at Sao Paulo. For me it sends a positive message to youth coaches, hard work combined with networking and taking your chances can lead to fantastic opportunities.
We’ve seen the likes of Brendan Rodgers and Paul Clement, who both coached in the academy at Chelsea, step up to do first team duties. It’s great to see Mick following a similar pathway and I hope it inspires other coaches to take the step up. We’d all like to see more British coaches working in the Premier League.
BfF: Are there more people who have played an influential role since then?
BT: In the last few years I’ve started to build my own opinions and views based around my research into technical coaching. I speak to Louis Lancaster now and again, he always inspires me to think away from the conventional routes. His ideas, his innovation and his enthusiasm for youth development really rubs off on you when you speak to him.
Another big influence in terms of setting up my business is Saul Isaksson-Hurst from my personal football coach. He’s an experienced, inspirational and very knowledgeable coach, he has been very supportive of what I am trying to do.
To be honest, I take little snippets from everyone I speak to either face to face, on the phone, via email or on twitter. I enjoy meeting new people and I’m big believer in talking, engaging and networking with as many different coaches at different levels of the game as possible.
BfF: You have become a big advocate for 1 on 1 coaching. What do you think is the special benefit of this approach?
BT: The benefits cannot be ignored for me, both with beginners and advanced players. Technical sessions allow young players to develop their technical confidence on the ball away from chaotic opposed practices where they might only touch the ball a few times in a 10 minute practice. The 1 on 1 coaching helps players learn at their own pace and also allows for 100% attention from the coach. Intensity of a session is a big thing for me, once a player has got the basics embedded it’s so important to try and stress him and test his technique.
I focus my 1 on 1 sessions around building the player and the person on and off the pitch. Building the player is something they can see and identify with on the pitch. Building the person is an area I try to hide within my sessions, this takes time and creating good people has to happen in the right environment with a good role model or coach leading the way. As I have said previously, for me, too often coaches ask kids to play in opposed game situations where they often struggle to thrive. You see it all the time, a player receives the ball and can’t control it so it runs away from them. Or a player dribbles and overruns the ball, or worse a player goes missing in a game because they lack confidence and are over run by more advanced players.
Young players, 5-11 especially, need to be working on ball mastery, dribbling, passing, turning and striking the ball from a young age. I see some 1 on 1 coaches running kids through speed ladders and jumping into hoops which has it’s uses but I prefer to do everything with the ball. People in the game don’t always appreciate that ball mastery also works to build ABC’s as well as the various other technical benefits.
BfF: It is an approach that encourages individual development of technical skills. Do you think attitudes towards such skills is changing in England?
BT: I’ve definitely seen a positive change towards unopposed coaching and ball mastery lately, more coaches are embracing and recognising the benefits of technical unopposed coaching. I’d never say it’s THE way to do things, it’s another form of coaching to run alongside opposed practices, game based practices, strength and conditioning, movement coaching and so on.
I’ve looked into and researched coaching methods in Spain, Holland and Portugal, they do a lot more unopposed technical work with their young players. Particularly in Holland, they aren’t afraid to spend a 20-30 minute block of their sessions on ball mastery/unopposed work. They’ll do it in their sessions, after their sessions, individually away from a group or even a coach. I honestly believe if you have got 11 technically gifted players at 16 and older then tactics, game plans and so on become a whole lot easier to coach.
It’s a shame the Football Association don’t cover the technical area of the game in detail on their coaching courses, if coaches were educated on the different topics like ball mastery, unopposed technical practice, 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v3 etcetera then I’m convinced we would have a bigger talent pool coming through our academy system in this country.
BfF: You work a lot with young children. What is your views around kids specialising in one sport against them being able to play a number of sports?
BT: I am a believer in helping young players gain as many different experiences as possible as they are developing their skills and techniques. Playing different sports and physical activities is a great way to challenge a young person both mentally and physically. In my experience, I think early specialisation is often parent led, which can be unfortunate and counter-productive for the child.
That said, I know of several local players who have gone through the academy system having been solely focused on playing football. Playing multiple sports develops more creative players, better sports confidence and improves cognitive/decision making skills in my opinion. I wouldn’t advise a young players to specialise in football at 7 or 8 years old.
BfF: You were the founder of Coaching Family. How has the environment around social media - Twitter in particular - changed since then? Do you still find it useful?
BT: It’s changed slightly. These days, people are a bit more wary of what they post knowing that potential employers may be watching. Back in 2010, when we started The Coaching Family, we helped to encourage a sharing culture on Twitter where coaches and people in the game could share their sessions, blogs, articles and ideas. We try to encourage coaches to take what’s relevant to them and build on it. For example, a coach sees a great 1v1 practice and screenshots it on their phone. We say, instead of just using that session as it is – can you add something, even if it’s a simple progression.
I see Twitter and The Coaching Family account as a place to help make people think and not just become robots who clone the same sessions they see online, that would be a waste of time. Twitter is still and always will be massively beneficial to coaches at all levels of the game. There is something for everyone on there. Coaches need to follow the right accounts on there to access what is most relevant to them.
BfF: What do you do to get new ideas? Where do you look?
BT: For me, my own coaching has become less about what I coach and more about how I deliver my sessions. I often use YouTube to aid my session planning for a technical coaching session. As an example, if I want to pin down the technical detail for teaching a young player to turn with the ball I’ll sit with my notepad making notes on videos of Scholes, Iniesta or Messi.
Mainly I listen to coaching podcasts and audiobooks, I use youtube for TedTalks and research on different academies/coaches. Coaching websites like Player Development Project and Inspire The Game have been very useful in my coaching too.
For me though, there’s nothing more useful than watching another coach work and speaking to different people in the game.
BfF: Do you follow what happens in other sports, coaching wise?
BT: I’m into my Rugby Union and follow the English and Welsh national teams. One of my earliest coaching inspirations was Sir Clive Woodward who won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003. I have a DVD at home showing all his team meetings, interviews and behind the scenes footage from their 2003 six nations’ grand slam. The overriding message I took from researching his ideas was the level of detail he would go into to plan for every eventuality. His book called Winning is one I’d recommend to all coaches. I also enjoyed listening to, and reading up on, Sir Dave Brailsford from Team Sky and British Cycling. There are lots of transferable messages from coaches in different sports and we’d be foolish not to ask questions and learn from these inspirational people. It’s great to see England manager Gareth Southgate in the papers recently when he visited England Rugby headquarters to speak with Eddie Jones. There is lots to be learned from other sports for sure!
BfF: How important is it to look at what is happening overseas and in different footballing cultures?
BT: It’s very important. Recently, I’ve been looking at player development in countries like Chile, Uruguay and Argentina and how street footballers like Alexis Sanchez, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez develop and learn their skills. It’s not always to do with the coaching these guys have received. We can learn lots from the culture and environments these boys grow up in.
I have strong views on the crazy amounts of technology kids play with in the UK. Kids aren’t kids long nowadays; they soon have Facebook on their iPhone while they listen to music on an iPad while they play FIFA on their playstations. It’s a parenting problem for me as well as a “keeping up with the Jones’” attitude to Christmas and birthday presents.
Technology is fantastic but not when it’s stopping kids playing world cup doubles, climbing trees, building dens and so on. Kids in this country are getting lazier and lazier but as coaches we have to inspire them to get out and play with friends again.
BfF: Do you feel the urge to test yourself in a different environment?
BT: I always want to test myself and do things that challenge me. My wife and I have been speaking about moving to different countries for a while now. It’s a dream of ours to have a taste of American life at some point in the future. We spent 3 weeks in Florida on honeymoon a couple of years ago and loved everything about the area. I like meeting new people, learning new things and travelling to different places so I’ll never rule out a new challenge in a new country at some stage in my career. I’ve been learning Spanish for the past 6 months and would encourage every coach to learn a new language
BfF: What are three books that you think any coach should read?
BT: James Kerr - Legacy
Carlo Ancelotti – Quiet Leadership
Mathew Syed – Black box thinking
BfF: What do you want to achieve in the future to be happy with what you've achieved?
BT: I used to be focused on the next coaching course but these days my priorities have shifted. I am enjoying what I do. I love working with the under 6’s and 7’s at the development centre, I’m learning about myself and the age group with every single session. Long term, I want to grow LTG Technical Coaching enough so that I can go full time. That’s my dream, to concentrate almost all my energy on improving the technical ability of the very youngest players in the area, and then on to the rest of the country.
Ultimately, I want to see the boys I work with go on to do well in the game at whatever level they can progress to.
For more coaching tips from Ben, make sure you follow him on his Learning The Game twitter feed.
Want to hear what fellow coaches think about football, how they learn and build their philosophy? Check out our Blueprint According To... series of e-books here (and here for US readers).
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