Leadership In Coaching: An Interview with Futacademy’s coach William Wilson

This piece has been taken from an interview I was asked to partake in for a group of students at Anahuac University in Mexico City. It is from their work on leadership, and I felt very privileged to help, and very thankful they are letting me keep the content.

Here we have the presentation itself, as well as the whole project, the interview transcript, and for your enjoyment, the actual interviews conducted.

ABOUT WILLIAM WILSON

William Wilson was born on May 7th 1989 in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. William loved playing football since he could walk, and only ever dreamt of becoming a player. When he was sixteen, it was apparent that this dream would not become a reality. Through a chance encounter at college, he discovered a degree course at Southampton Solent University, which was entirely football. In 2012, William graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Football Studies.

While obtaining his degree, William started volunteering and part time work at local clubs and football organisations, beginning to learn the trade of coaching. To become a coach in Europe, it is necessary to obtain licenses and qualifications from the footballing governing bodies. In William’s case, he worked very hard to obtain as many qualifications and as much knowledge as possible from a young age. Working with all ages, both genders, and a range of abilities, William gained a lot of experience in many areas of coaching, being able to put into practise the leadership skills he learnt through the man management techniques taught on these courses. His most notable teams back home in his native England are Winchester City Women’s Football Club, and Portsmouth University Ladies.

It was a great desire of William’s to begin coaching abroad, and he was first handed a chance to work in California, but had to turn it down. There are many more opportunities in other countries than there are in the United Kingdom, and the possibilities of exploring and learning new cultures are a huge draw. His first job abroad was in Alberta, Canada, working for a club in a small town called Cardston Soccer Club. After his time was complete there, he had the opportunity to travel all around Western Canada, something he values nearly as much as the work itself.

In Canada, due to the weather, football cannot be played all year round, and so at the completion of his contract, William was looking to move elsewhere. This took him to Singapore, but unfortunately the job was not as advertised, and he returned to England after only five days. William spent a few months in England, gaining more qualifications and experience, but always looking for more opportunities overseas. This time he was in higher demand, and there were many offers on the table, but William wanted what he called his dream opportunity, to work in New Jersey. Being so close to New York and all that entails made it very difficult for him to even consider another offer. The five months spent in New Jersey gave William a great chance to see how American youth soccer works, an area that is rapidly expanding, and recruits heavily from abroad. Living in a house with ten people and the feeling of being treated at best, like a number, and at worst, like a slave, the time in New Jersey came to an end.

This was quite a disillusioning time for William, who began to question himself and his ability, and if coaching was really for him. He was home again for two months with no work, before he found another opportunity, this time in the Middle East, working for Arsenal in Kuwait. The job in Kuwait had the potential to be very financially rewarding, as there is no tax, and the Kuwaiti Dinar is the strongest currency in the world. William was to complete three months, then begin negotiations for a year long contract after Christmas. It was a great chance to learn about Arabic culture first hand, but ultimately, William was unhappy and could see no long-term future there for himself. It was at this time he decided to search elsewhere, and was offered a job in Mexico. When the three months ended, William went home for Christmas, and then began his new life in yet another new country.

Forever looking to improve his ability and his worth as a coach, refining his leadership skills, just last week William went to North Carolina during his vacation to complete the National Diploma, with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. His next step in his education is to begin studying for a Master’s Degree, currently applying for a position on the Coaches Education course at Ohio University.

WHY IS HE A LEADER?

He is responsible for a large group of people within his control, and he has to make decisions that will affect the future and development of his players. The players he coaches, look up to him as a role model. As a leader, he is a management position of the teams, having to decide the best way forward and making tough decisions in regards player selection, discipline, and training programmes for the team.

The diplomatic answer to why William was chosen as our leader would be because anyone could be a leader. The truth is that his knowledge and ability to talk to people makes him an effective manager. He has a great ability to pull a group together, create a sense of cohesion, and have them working hard to achieve a common goal.

ABOUT THE FUTACADEMY

·  English Company that operates within Mexico.

·  They run an academy programme at three clubs; Reforma Athletic Club, Club Irlandés de Raqueta, and Zona Esmeralda.

·  They run a successful summer camp programme.

·  They recruit qualified British coaches, who promote the well being of players as well as develop their skills to their highest potential.

·  The coaches teach in English, which the Company uses as a selling point.

·  The coaches have qualifications from The Football Association, the governing body of English Football.

·  They have a specially designed academy curriculum.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Interviewer: Hi Will, how are you?

William Wilson: I’m very well, thank you, how are you?

Interviewer: I’m fine, thank you. Well, we wanted to interview you because we found a deep connection between leadership and coaching. So, we are going to start this interview, okay?

William Wilson: Yes.

Interviewer: Okay. How long have you been coaching?

William Wilson: I’ve been coaching for about six years. Starting…roughly about this time in 2008.

Interviewer: Okay and when did you know you wanted to be a coach?

William Wilson: Well…I’ve always, always in my entire life been a fan of football and like most boys back home, all I wanted to do was play football. And when that became a reality that I wasn’t going to make it as a player, I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do in life and so went to career fairs, people tried to give me advice but nothing would appeal like football would. And then, one day, I went to college and I found a prospectus catalogue from a university which, in there, it advertised a degree in Football Studies. I did not realise this, I just picked one up and took it home to show my mum and say, “Hey look, I’ve been looking at universities”. I hadn’t, I just wanted the catalogue to make her think I’ve been looking at universities. She picks it up and she reads through it and finds this degree all about football and I couldn’t think of anything better and that’s when I realised there’s a path into the game without being a player; you’ve still got the same competition; the same excitement and you can go much more in depth from being in control of every aspect; and coaches do not lose it with age. If we consider the best coaches, the most successful coaches ever, they continue well into their seventies and you have to stop playing at a top level when you’re in your thirties, so this keeps you going for life.

Interviewer: Can you tell us what are the differences between coaching abroad and back in your hometown?

William Wilson: It depends on which country you go to, and it depends on the level, but there’s many different factors that you don’t necessarily take into account, things that are normal in one place which are not necessarily normal back home. For instance, until last year, I never ever thought I’d coach beside a mosque, and would have to worry about the prayers going off during my session. At that point, the prayers got so loud that the players couldn’t hear a word you were saying. On top of that you’ve got players who have to leave a session for twenty minutes to go and pray and then come back and as their coach you’ve got to adapt to that. We definitely do not have that problem home. There’s other things like the attitudes. Back home, we get quite a lot of rain and I’ve noticed there’s a lot of rain in Mexico, but we have a different attitude to it than some other countries. If it rains in England, you only stop the game if the field is too wet for the ball to move, whereas some parts in the United States, if they see a cloud, they cancel the game because the parents are so protective of their children that they don’t want them getting pneumonia, colds, flu, and…it’s just a bit of rain, that’s how we see it. Here, I’ve played in, well, I’ve coached in games where we’ve had puddles on the field, you could certainly swim from one side of the field to the other, and they are not cancelling the game, and that’s dangerous but people are looking at me like I’m an idiot and I’m thinking “well, you’re all idiots”, that’s just how they view the world and that’s a very different application of the rules. Then you’ve got the seriousness and the drive and motivation of the players. For instance, in the U.S., where soccer is probably the most, well, the fifth most watched sport on television, but it’s the most participated in youth because it’s cheap, because it’s easy, they don’t need tons of cunning and they don’t see it as dangerous. You get a lot of young kids who will play the game but their parents don’t understand it, so when you tell them to pass the ball, they’ll pick it up with their hands and throw it to you and you say “no no no, we use our feet here,” and yet in other countries that’s not an issue because they know football is with the feet. Here, you’ve got a lot of people who are…they are often late for things, which we don’t have that really as a problem back home. If we say ten o’clock, people are there at ten o’clock. Here, it’s when they feel like it, it’s the attitude that “everyone else will wait for me” rather than “I need to be there for the team” and it is not necessarily a bad thing but it’s very frustrating for me, being from a different culture, trying to adapt to that and trying to manage that. Some of my colleagues will actually lie about the time so that their players are not late. They will add minutes to it and people end up arriving on time. On top of that, one of my main personal frustrations is that, when people are late, they don’t say sorry…it’s not a big deal here to be late and for us it is, it’s a massive display of disrespect to your coach, to your team and even to yourself. If you’re late, you’ve got to have a good reason; traffic is not a good reason, because there is traffic everywhere. If you make the same journey twice a week, every week, you know there’s going to be traffic. Adjust.

Interviewer: Yeah. In another aspect, is a leader different than a boss? And how?

William Wilson: In a lot of ways a leader is different to a boss. If we were to give the example of war, you could imagine a leader is there, fighting in the trenches, shoulder to shoulder with his men whereas a boss is in a ballroom somewhere, making the decisions that don’t necessarily affect him. A leader is very much well respected and has a natural sense of authority that comes from that respect, whereas a boss…it’s more power than respect. You do what your boss tells you because you get in trouble if you don’t, and that’s negative reinforcement. The leader gives positive reinforcement, I’ll do what the leader says because I know it’s right or I know this is a direction…I have trust, I have faith in a leader, this leader will often speak with confidence and will bring out confidence in others. Particularly, thinking in the sense of football, a leader can inspire the players when they’re on there performing, when they’re playing against the odds, when it seems like, as we say back home “you’re playing uphill”, the wind is against you, the rain is against you, the referee underneath his shirt has one of their shirts. The leader will pick his players up emotionally, physically and will say “right, we are in this together, and we’ll all give it our best together”, whereas a boss is much more instructive, the finger comes out and starts wagging is usually plain, whereas a leader has responsibility. A boss, in a sense is responsible for the whole operation, but it’s more of an authoritarian figure whereas the leader is very much more…I don’t know how to describe it. The leader is more on level terms and yet is promoted from within, promoted by the people, almost chosen. In a lot of ways, like if I’m coaching a team I’m looking for a captain, I’m going to choose the captain because he’s someone who I know can lead the team, someone with confidence, someone who is loud, someone who is passionate, someone who will give it their all and who will inspire these actions, these outcomes in their teammates.

Interviewer: And do you consider yourself a boss or a leader?

William Wilson: I think I’m very much a leader. I can’t tell other people what to do without there being a reason for it. I’ve got to show them the way, I’ve got to help people understand what I’m trying to achieve, whereas a boss is “do this and don’t question it.” I’m very much “this is the way because…” “This is how, this is why, this is what we’re going to do…because of these reasons this is what I’ve looked at, this is what I thought.” A leader will also, at times, include some feedback, some thoughts and input from those below. A leader is more open to suggestions, whereas a boss would become a bit hostile towards any suggestions, almost like it’s a threat to their power. A leader looks very much towards the overall success of the group, and a good leader knows when to step back and let someone else take charge. If you recognise in yourself that this is not your area of expertise and someone else can do a better job than you, let them take the stage. A leader can guide; a leader can show. When you’re trying to coach, when you’re trying to…especially here in a new culture, you have to lead by example, which means that I want my players to do this, I have to do it too. If I want my players to be respectful, I have to show respect. If I want my players to be disciplined, I have to be disciplined. If I want my players to dress appropriately, I have to dress appropriately. If I want my players to be fit, I’ve got to be fit…I can’t have them doing fitness exercises while I’m there eating a cheeseburger. I have to show them the way; I’ve got to be there with them. I’ve got to lead by example.

Interviewer: What makes you a leader?

William Wilson: Firstly, the job itself…being put into that position where I am responsible for a group of people. There are people that have to look to me for my guidance, for my instructions, but I don’t think it’s necessarily something that I was born with. Typically I’ve usually been quite a quiet and reserved person. In coaching I had to develop these leadership skills and become more outgoing, more approachable, more…to have better interpersonal skills and doing this has helped me in other areas of my life. Before…it’s quite British to be reserved and if there’s a problem, you hope it goes away, whereas now I can…it’s not necessarily standing up to yourself but it’s more…you can take care of yourself better, speak louder, be more assertive without being rude, but be more assertive…take charge of things. Here in Mexico, I’ve got three teams of players that are different ages, different stages of their football development but also different stages of their life development, and in each of these scenarios there’s different circumstances at play and, again, by showing them the way and leading by example, the effects of the teachings you give to these players at these ages can have effects on the rest of their life, especially those who are under the age of eight years old, they’re like sponges, they can absorb so much information and you are going to have a very big impact so you’ve got to know what you’re doing, you’ve got to be responsible, you’ve got to be honest, hard-working, you’ve got to have integrity and having these things won’t necessarily make you a leader, but I think it’s imperative to good leaders, especially those with kids, to have these things. Can you trust your leader? Can you talk to your leader? Does your leader care about you? Is your leader firm? Are they disciplined? And I’ve had to learn all these skills over the years and I’ve become a leader in this field, in this area, I’ve learnt how to lead teams, I’ve learnt how to inspire and motivate my players. You learn individually. There’s many groups of people, different personalities…what’s going to work on this person? Now, they’ve had a bad performance, how can I pick them up? What works with one person might not work with another person, so what’s the best approach to get the best out of this player? And a good leader can recognise that. I’ve done lots of studies on psychology, lots of reading, I’ve got lots of practical experiences as well…the trial and error of actually going out and coaching. Did what I said have an effect? It didn’t, maybe I should try something else; or it did I might use it again, I’ll try it with another person and see if it has an effect on them, and you realise with the different personality types what you can and can’t say, what does and doesn’t work.

Interviewer: What type of leader do you consider yourself to be?

William Wilson: It depends on the situation because you’ve got to have, as we say back home, “you got to have different hats.” I’m working with a group of five girls today that have never kicked a ball in their life. I can’t talk to them how I would talk to my later session of eighteen year olds who are very good…it’s a completely different leadership style. There are some common denominators within them but with the five year olds, for example, you’ve got to be a lot more friendly and happy and smiley and bouncy and…it’s more for fun, whereas with the much better team, that’s on a higher level, it’s more about competition and therefore your goals are different, your outcomes are different, how you achieve those goals are very different, so your approach has to be different, or how you would treat men and women in sports is different than how you would treat kids to adults, how you would even treat recreational players to competitive players, and then within new countries there’s differences. Just to clarify, when I’m talking about differences between male and female, I don’t necessarily mean that one is better that the other in terms of football, but personality wise there’s a big difference. You could shout at a man and get a reaction and he will say “alright, coach is telling me off today, I need to be better,” you could, perhaps, shout at a woman and she might think “oh, you don’t need to be so mean, why are you doing that?” And so, because of those personalities, you have to be different with them and coaching in different places with different teams has given me this experience. I’m not perfect, but I’m a lot better at it than I was, and it has, again, like before, it’s helped me in other areas of life. But with a competitive team, with an adult team, you’re more, more authoritarian in your leadership style, because once you get to the age of eighteen you’re not going to develop much more technically it’s more about tactics, decision making, this kind of stuff. You can try to get a bunch of good players to yell and form a cohesive unit. Then there is your way, they way you wanted done, and then you are going to show them the way and they are going to adapt to that way. Whereas other groups it might be more democratic if it’s more of a recreational team, they are not going to tolerate you being on top of them the whole time, saying “This is the way to do it”, they’d appreciate, this is the thing with women, they would appreciate more of a democracy, right, this is the problem, this is the challenge, this is what we want to achieve, how do you think we should do that, take on board some of their ideas, obviously have your own, and one way to get people to agree with you, is to make them think it’s their idea, so if someone suggests what you have in your head, “oh! Brilliant, I like that a lot, we are going to do that”, and now they think they have the ownership, if you can give someone ownership they are more likely to go the extra mile for you, more likely to put it in, because they think is more down to them and always have a back up plan too, like with kids, just yesterday, my kids went crazy chasing each other, fighting, squirting water at each other, laughing, rolling around the floor… What can I do there? What I had planned it’s no longer applicable, I’ve got to figure out something else, and it is no use on the spot going “Right, give me a second”, you can’t do that, because then things get worse, “Okay, right, we are going to do this, everyone over”. You have to be enthusiastic, because kids respond to that enthusiasm, adults still need that enthusiasm, but with kids is very much your tone of voice, your facial expression, and that’s how they respond to, if you did it with an adult, it would be quite patronising “Hi! How are you today? Are you ready top lay football?”, I’m not doing it with men’s teams because you are going to get a slap, you've got to be careful.

Interviewer: Can you tell us, who do you look up to as a leader, and why?

William Wilson: From the world of football there is many, I have tried to learn a lot from them, hopefully he never sees this but I would have to admit I have learnt from my dad in terms of my ethics and I don’t accept cheating, I don’t encourage any kind of that stuff, I want to say that I value hard work above all else, I definitely think I got that from him and my mom as well. When it comes to interpersonal skills I was fortunate enough to learn about Walt Disney and everything he does. He can make anyone feel important, he makes everyone feel like they are part of the team, like they have got a role to play, and they’ve got and important job to do and every person on your team has to feel important, whether it’s your star player, who scores all the goals, or whether it is the player who is always on the bench and only comes on occasionally, they have to feel important, they have to know that their job it worth doing and that you respect them, and that you want them. And so, a lot of leaders will encourage you, and they say it differently and they say “Imagine when every person they’ve got ‘make me feel important’ written on their head” and you look at this person, and you think “how can I make you feel valued? How can I make you feel like you are part of the team?”, there is many different techniques and ways of doing that. I have learnt from watching football, from supporting my teams, the players who stand out most to me, from being a fan, are the ones who have given everything to achieve the success that they have achieved. Varying levels of success, but they give everything they have to get there. For instance I will reel of some names: Robbie Savage, before he played for the team I support, he was one of the most hated players on the league, because he annoys everybody, within two games of playing for our team, the fans had fallen in love with him because, as we say “He ran his socks off” every single game. Kind of person that, when he was eighteen, he was about six foot tall and then finished his career around five foot five, because he ran so much and wore his legs out. Another hero of mine would be Ryan Nelsen, who was captain of the team I support for a number of years, he recently retired and went into coaching and was doing quite a good job in Toronto, then he lost his job, which I think might have been circumstances away from football, but when he was playing you felt as if the ball was a bullet, he would take it in the chest to stop a goal from being scored, and that determination and commitment, it would bring the best out of the players around him, and it would get the fans off their seats, because, they may be highly paid millionaires, who you will never meet in your life, but as a fan who pays a lot of money to see his team perform, and you think “Wow, this guy cares about this team as much as I do, that’s fantastic” you can identify with that, and everyone around you can identify with that and you all respect him and have that, in a lot of ways, you have that love and admiration for that player. When it comes to coaching, there is the obvious geniuses that are out there; Pep Guardiola revolutionized football over the last few years then you’ve got Jose Mourinho with his tactics, they’re meticulous planning, it’s a marvel to me and to all the coaches because they put in so much time and dedication. As you learn more and go on these education courses, you learn more about coaching, about the management, about leadership, about tactics, you always think “Wow, I’ve just taken on board a lot of knowledge”, and then you see someone like them and think “Wow, I’ve got a very long way to go before I’m at that level”. On top of them, you’ve got people who aren’t necessarily the best tacticians, but those who are fantastic in their ability to motivate and inspire their players. Someone back home called Harry Redknapp, not known for his ability to pick a good team, or to pick a good strategy, but someone who is very much known for his approach to hi players. He makes them feel like a million dollars. And they want to give everything to him, and do everything they can to impress him, and to be in his team, and to work their hardest, for his team. And then from personal favourites you’ve got Mark Hughes who played at Blackburn for a while. He was a player who gave everything. He had been all around the world at top teams; Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, then came to us to retire, and came back as a coach a few years later. And he turned a team with very little talent into one of the most difficult teams to beat, and that was his idea; “We’re not likely to win, so we’re going to make ourselves very difficult to beat”. And from nineteen games at home, ten of them, we did not concede a single goal, because he made the defence rock solid. He then worked on the rest of the team, and over time, the attack and midfield became a lot better. But he got that defence right, and that shows a vision. To start off with, it was reported on the news that he came into the team and said “You’re not tough enough, you don’t try enough, you don’t work hard enough” and he made them do rugby training, and essentially they had to beat up dummies, and had to dodge challenges from these big pads coming to hit them. They had to learn how to brace themselves for impact, so then they play without fear. Teams hated coming to play against us because they knew they were in for a fight. At the time, it literally was a fight, because we thought that the best we could do is give everything we have, and I expect nothing less. I have a similar approach. I’m not encouraging my players to start punching, but leave nothing on the field. Don’t come off with any regrets. If you try your best, I’m happy with that, but if you don’t try your best, we’re always going to look to what could have been if you’d done more. Another one being Sam Allardyce, who a lot of people say he plays an unattractive style of football. To me, it’s not unattractive at all because he’s got his players working hard, they’re committed, and that’s what I want as a fan. And when he came to our team, again, the same thing as before, very difficult to beat, very hard working, and as a working man that pays a lot of money to see my team, you identify with that. You think “I’m driving five hours across the country to sit in the rain, and watch these guys play, they better give it everything; blood, sweat, and tears” and they did. And that is what I try to encourage from my teams, and I’m not happy with anything less than that.

Interviewer: Leaders find themselves taking big decisions. What is the biggest decision you have ever made?

William Wilson: When it comes to coaching, I’ve not held a high enough job yet for the decisions to be particularly financial, which is what a lot of the big clubs in the world are worried about. If you don’t achieve a certain position, you lose sponsorship; you lose your big players. Most of the clubs I’m at, or that I’ve worked at, the players are there because they sign up to that club, they want to be there, and therefore we’re not making decisions that will affect lives, we’re not making decisions that will affect families. If they don’t want to play football anymore, they don’t play football anymore. They’re not earning millions. We’ve not got, like at the World Cup, the whole country is behind us, and so in that respect I’ve not had to make too many Earth shattering decisions that keep me up at night. What I have had to make, because of the lifestyle I have, is more the personal things. Like getting on a plane and going to a country thousands of miles away, I leave behind families, friends, food, cats, all that sort of stuff. I leave behind memories, places, customs, you have to adapt. That can be difficult. If I’m going to a country that is more similar to home, it’s a lot easier for me. If I’m going to a country that I’ve been to before, it’s a lot easier, but going somewhere like here, I’ve never been here before, I don’t speak the language. The same as in Kuwait and Singapore, they’re very different countries, and it can be scary, you don’t know anyone there, and you’re almost blindly jumping into the abyss because you don’t know what can happen. Sometimes you do get your fingers burnt, and it’s not always sunshine and rainbows and lollipops. It can sometimes be quite hard. It can sometimes be quite lonely. I’ve had to make some very tough decisions when it comes to relationships. Being a young man, I’ve always taken the decision that my career is more important, now, because I’ve got to work hard for it. When I’m older, got a bit more commitment, maybe a family, then I might have to start thinking the other way, but while I’m young, I’ve got to think more for myself. How often will I get the opportunity to come and coach in Mexico? How often will I get the opportunity to go work for Arsenal in the Middle East? These things don’t happen every day, and it’s not as if you find these adverts in the newspaper. You’ve got to be good at what you do and you’ve got to impress people to get these positions. And so I’m not going to work hard, and then throw this decision away. I’m going to make the most of every opportunity that comes my way. It can be hard. There’s been a lot of tears, there’s been a lot of heart break, and a lot of pain, but I don’t regret that because I think so far, I’ve got every decision right. And it’s very difficult, as I’m sure you know, to get every decision right in life, but you’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons, and think about what you’re gaining compared to what you’re losing. My friends and family will always be there. England will always be the same; it’s not going to move anywhere. Continental drift is about a couple inches a year. It will still be in the same place when I go back to it. But like I said, I might not get the opportunity to come to Mexico again. I’ve got to take this when I get the opportunity to go to Canada, anywhere, right there and then, take it. And if these people are worth keeping in your life, if they’re worth being there in your life, they will stay, regardless of your choice.

Interviewer: Why did you take the job in Mexico City?

William Wilson: Well about this time last year, I was working in Kuwait, not the most friendly of places. It’s okay if you’re English because everyone likes football, and so as soon as they find out you’re English, you’re they’re best friend, and they will all tell you “I support Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid. They’re my four favourite teams”. It’s a very different culture to us, I mean back home you only have one team. You certainly don’t like two teams in the same country, but that’s how they deal with it. The job itself, it was more like a school than a club, in that Kuwait does not have an infrastructure for youth development, for youth teams, and so the games we played were friendlies, against other teams. There was no league. The players become demotivated by that. You’ve not got an end goal you can achieve, and you’re just working through a curriculum. Here we’ve got teams, we can achieve something. We can go on a journey with our teams, we can win stuff, we can make them better, we can experience the highs and lows, the roller coaster that is being part of a football team. Out there we couldn’t really do that, and we were trying hard to create a league with some of the other people who felt the same way, but it was going to be difficult. Kuwait is a place where it is difficult to make friends because they are very family orientated, and although they’re friendly, everyone I met was friendly, you’re not going to get invited to many family events because you’re simply not family. And so who you can associate with outside of work is quite limited in that sense. There’s a lot of things out there you can’t get. For me particularly I struggled with not having real bacon. I had to put up with turkey bacon for three months, and it was a nice attempt, but you know you’re lying to yourself. But what really got me, and this is where it comes into leadership, was that I could not tolerate my… she was a boss… I had to say there was four of us coaches there. There was the head coach; the boss, and then there was a guy who thought he was the boss. Completely insufferable. They were aggressive, they were racist, at times they were really actually quite racist. They would make people feel terrible about themselves. We’re talking about the kids, talking about the parents, talking about the staff, talking about admin staff and fellow coaches. They were absolutely horrible to us. I remember once instance where the boss actually shouted at a parent, belittled her in front of the kids. And anywhere else you’d lose your job. If you’re rude to a parent, if you belittle a parent, you’re gone. They were two very intense people that had no friends. All they had was the job. And they became unbearable to be around. This isn’t just me. I can bring up contacts to testify that. They’ve got a very high turnover of staff. People would go to Kuwait “Oh it’s not too bad” spend a week with them and go “I need to get out of here, I cannot tolerate these people anymore”. They’re completely unfriendly, you have no respect for them, they give you no respect, and they won’t change. I was on three months, and after that three months we were going to readdress the situation and discuss a potential contract extension. It would have been a lot of money. About three or four times what I can earn in Mexico. But money is not more important than happiness. I could not tolerate another twelve months of that, regardless of how much I was earning. Being unhappy, not wanting to go to work. I mean this is a job that I absolutely love, the sacrifices I’ve mad to be here, I love it, and they made me not want to do it. They made me reconsider, and then I found a way out. I would try to see what else was available. I found a job in Mexico, thought “I want to go try something different, learn a new language” that was a big part of it. My Spanish has been going very well, it’s a lot easier than Arabic. It’s the same way as English, so you’re reading it from left to right, so that helps. A lot of the words are the same, just with an “o” on the end. “Sarcástico”. I like that. But being English, we don’t know many languages other than our own. We might know the odd phrase like “bonjour”. That’s about it. It’s a very English thing to expect everyone else to speak our language. I don’t really want to be that. I want to learn and discover and explore, and improve myself as a person, and I’m hoping I can do that here. So I saw the job in Mexico, I applied for it, had a couple interviews, and I got it. And not my proudest moment, but when I finished in Kuwait, and knowing full well that I’d got this job in Mexico, they said “So Will, what are you going to do when you leave Kuwait?”. “Oh I don’t know. Might spend some time with family, friends, maybe travel a bit round Europe. I don’t know”. Because I wanted them to think that I would rather go home and be unemployed than work for them, which is a bit petty and childish, but that’s how I felt about them. I didn’t want them thinking “Well he’s leaving us to go onto better things”. I wanted them thinking “He’s going home to do nothing, because he’d rather do nothing than be with us”. That’s how I wanted the to feel.

Interviewer: And when taking this job, did you have to reject other options?

William Wilson: Yeah, there were some other opportunities. Around the time I was going to Kuwait, there was the potential to work in Russia, in Moscow. I looked at that, and they were doing interviews when I went to Poland for a week, so I couldn’t do the interview. The job seemed to be more like working in schools, and I wan to work with teams. I don’t want to be a teacher, I don’t want to be a clown. I’m a coach. It would be a step backwards. Although it would be fantastic to explore a new country. But now, a year on, Russia’s not the safest place in the world at the moment. So, you win some, you lose some. There were also opportunities in China, I think it was in Beijing. Again, it would be in schools, doing classes. And I have no idea what China would be like. It would be fascinating to find out one day, but talking to the company a little bit, you’ve got to be careful if they can’t always give you straight answers. If they’re not clear on what they say. Especially if you’re going to spend a few thousand pounds on a flight to get over there, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. One thing I look for, one thing my family always looks for, is the quality of the website. If it hasn’t been updated for three years, then what are you getting into? I’ve lived in houses with ten people, where you share two or three people in a bedroom. I don’t want that. I’m an adult. I want my own space. I’m not travelling the world to live in student dorms. I want a life outside of work, and you need to have your own space. Mexico offered that, our own room. You realise as you’re doing these things what you come to appreciate in life, and it’s that little bit of privacy, that little bit of “me time” sometimes you can’t often get. And if you’re working from nine in the morning until seven at night, and then you’ve got to sleep in the same room as the guy you’ve been working with all day, if you don’t like him, where do you go? How do you get away from that? If you want to complain, you can’t complain to him about him. You can’t hide that, and so there’s no space for yourself. You need that time to unwind and to clear your head. There was also the opportunity to go back into the States again. I got in contact with a few companies about a few opportunities, but they would have been starting in February, March, or April, and I wanted to get straight back into work. There was another opportunity in Hungary, which was volunteering. It looked fantastic, but I can’t afford to be a volunteer for a few months. Not at this stage of my life anyway, I can’t afford that, and plus when you’ve finished, you’ve got to look for another job again. But to come here, learn a new language, and experience this new culture, it was too good to put down.

Interviewer: Here comes an interesting question; what do you think is wrong with the way Mexicans lead?

William Wilson: Looking at coaching, it is too hard to know where to start. This is an area which causes me a lot of frustration and I can spend hours talking about the topic. I’ll start with the respect. I’ve seen Mexican coaches scream and shout at seven year olds. How is that going to improve their performance in any way? It’s going to make them cry, it’s going to make them nervous. No one wants to be shouted at. The reason why kids play football, kids at that age are not playing for money, they’re not playing for glory. They are playing because they are with their friends, they want to kick a ball, they want to run around and have fun. Why would you shout at someone who is doing that? You’re just going to turn them away from it. “I don’t like the coach. I don’t want to play any more. I don’t want to go to football because all that happens is I cry when I come home”. They don’t want that. There’s a great quote, I think it’s from the manager of Burnley, his name is Sean Dysche. He says “Why would you shout at kids playing football, if you wouldn’t shout at them when they’re trying to read?” It’s the same thing. You’re trying to learn. You’re using your brain. You’re trying to experience it. Could you imagine how successful you would have been at school, you’re doing your exam, your teacher is leaning over you, shouting at you “Do it better, do it quicker, answer this”. You can’t focus, you can’t concentrate. It’s completely unhelpful. They think they’re helping, but they’re really not. Another way is that on top of the shouting, you’ve also got them telling the kids every single decision to make. “Pass to him, shoot, run there, go there, do this and do that”. Pick up a controller and play the Xbox. You’re supposed to guide kids. You’re supposed to present them with challenges and problems and let them overcome it. If you tell a kid to pass to his teammate, well why? You say to a kid “When you’ve got the ball, it will be really good if you could pass to someone. Why do you think that is?” “Er… because he’s nearer the goal?” “Yeah, that’s great. So we’re in a game, if you see that opportunity, could you take it?”. “Yeah, I can do that” and now they feel like they’re achieving something. And you’re not dictating it to them, you’re presenting it to them, and they themselves are the ones that are figuring it out, they themselves are the ones that are doing it. Like for instance, when you’re defending, you could say “Take this player, go there, and do that” or you could say, just simple, during a game, a nice little expression, not as long as this “What do we need to do in order to stop them scoring?”. Simple phrases like; “Who can you cover?” “Who can you mark?” “Where can you go?”. They’re figuring it out for themselves. They know what they’re supposed to do. They know they’ve got to cover a player, but you’re not barking orders at them “GO OVER HERE!”, you’re not doing that, you’re saying “Where can you go?” and they figure it out for themselves, they learn better from doing that, and they remember it better. And when they achieve success, they feel better because they did it, not you telling them how to do it. There’s a much, much better feeling of self-efficacy from players that experience things like this. Mexican coaches here, they’re not focused on development of players at all. Not on development. They’re focused on winning. Got to win the game. Because it’s about credibility. If you lose, you look stupid, you look like an idiot. I don’t want to look like I’m an idiot, so I’m going to pick my best players. I’m going to tell my bad players to only pass to the good players. And so if you’ve got some kid who’s not particularly good at football, who’s sitting on the bench doing absolutely nothing, how is he going to improve? You’ve got to give him time on the field. You’ve got to give him attention. Mexican coaches don’t do that, and it’s really frustrating. And they only look at the short term; they don’t look at the long term. Another thing is there’s no strategy, from the coaches as individuals, from the teams, the philosophy, there’s no… there appears to be no guidance from the football federation itself. Back home we’ve got it, in the United States we’ve got it, in Europe they’ve got it. Everyone knows what they’re doing and how to adhere to this, and everyone feels like they’re a part of the jigsaw, everyone feels like they are part of the whole picture together. And from this, comes goal setting. The Mexican approach is very much “now”. “We have to win the game now. Today”. Whereas I’m looking at creating players who are going to be good when they’re older. When you’re eighteen, you’re not going to care too much about what you did when you were seven. You probably won’t even remember it very much. And if you don’t learn the skills, by the time you become eighteen you’re going to be useless. And so, we look in terms of steps. Can we achieve a little bit each week, do a bit more, can we be better than we were in the previous game, can we learn from our mistakes, can we improve these areas. And now for kids you look at your fundamentals; your passing, shooting, dribbling, ball skills, all that stuff. Can we improve them? You improve those, one by one; the rest will fall into place.

 If you were to create a solution what would that look like?

My solution to Mexican youth football is changing the entire system from top to bottom. There needs to be a national game strategy for the development of players, just like every country in Europe, and also the USA has. This has to be detailed, precise, but above all, carried out by everyone within the nation. No longer is it about one coach trying to beat the team of another coach, but about a group of people trying to educate, inspire and create a fun environment for young footballers. We’re all on the same page, and we’re all pulling in the same direction. A lot of problems I believe are down to lack of education. In most other countries, a coach, particularly an employed coach, has to have a license to be able to practise as a coach. The license involves a test which demonstrates a basic understanding of coaching. These emphasise coaching styles, player development, communication skills, and how to reach and inspire your players. The higher you progress, the more it becomes in depth about football. The understanding is that anyone becoming a coach has a decent level of football knowledge to begin with, and thus the more basic initial licenses are actually about coaching and leadership skills.

What are the characteristics that define a leader?

To me, a leader in football has to have a clear idea of what they want to achieve,

and how they will achieve it. Each of the top coaches are very different as people, and have different philosophies, but there are some common themes amongst them all. They have great communication skills, can easily build a rapport with their players, have a clear and defined ideology, an abundance of communication, the ability to still operate and perform at a high capacity in the face of adversity, can be self reflective and utilise other solutions when it becomes apparent that the current path will not lead to success. Within their communication skills is the ability to read each individual and determine the best and most appropriate way to converse, instruct, and criticise them. After all the leadership skills are in place, there comes the actual talent of the job. In football it would be recognising the solution to defeat your opponent, and recognising talent, ability, and the comprehension of a task within a certain player, identifying strengths, weaknesses, the best way to improve the player, and the best way to utilise them within the team. The best football coaches are often described as both stern and empathetic. Players know where the boundaries are, and are not tempted to cross them as they may fear the consequences, but conversely also have a trust and an understanding that their coach will provide for them, will always do what is best for them, and will be willing to help them through any problems. This is very much akin to the relationship of a parent and a child. One phrase I will always take with me is that great leaders look at someone within their command, and will visualise the words “make me feel important” on their forehead. The players of the best coaches always remark about how the coach made them feel special and valued.

  Is a leader different than a boss? How?

A leader is different to a boss, though there is some overlap. Both have to make

tough decisions, and both will at times feel overworked and under appreciated. The

standout difference is that you have the impression from a leader that it is a passion

or a cause, whereas with a boss it is just something they have to do in order to make

money. I imagine a leader to be fighting alongside those in his command in the trenches, much like the kings of old, whereas a boss is more like a war pig general, treating those below them as pawns, making decisions from afar as if not to get their hands dirty.

Do you consider yourself a boss or a leader? Why?

I very much consider myself as a leader because I put my heart and soul into what I am doing. To me, coaching is not just a job, it is a passion, it is something I have invested a lot of time, effort, money, and emotion into. When we as a team suffer something traumatic, I believe I feel it worse than my players do, because not only am I upset about the outcome, but also how it has affected each one of my players as individuals. If we lose, the players may feel sad. I will feel sad as a result of the loss, but then it hits harder when I think about how sad my players are. There is definitely a very special bond when it comes to being part of a team. As the coach, I am in a very privileged position, but it is also one that comes with very high stakes. To be in this position you have to be prepared to take the full brunt of the bad times as well as the good times. It is something you learn how to deal with better with experience.

Who or what influenced you to become a leader in your field of work?

My whole life I have had a love and passion for football. It consumes me. As I mentioned earlier, I was never going to make it as a player. Being a teenage dirtbag with not much of a future, I had never really given a career in anything much thought. By pure chance, it was my mum who discovered the Football Studies degree that I eventually enrolled in. It was at that moment that I saw a career in the only industry I could imagine myself working in. Suddenly I saw a purpose and something to achieve. Although I spend a lot of my free time complaining and pulling my hair out due to the stress and frustration that comes with it, I love what I am doing, and I am very privileged that my biggest passion and source of enjoyment has not only become my source of income, but also allows me to get caught up and emotionally invested.

 Does your team admire you as a coach? Why?

In all honesty, I don´t believe that my teams admire me as much as I would like them. If I were to start caring about admiration from the players, then I would be in this business for egotistical gain, which is something we need to stay away from. It is my opinion that a lot of this comes from us trying to change the way things are done in Mexico. I think the parents appreciate it a lot more than the players as they can see the bigger picture in what we are doing. The players probably just see us as people that make them do stuff, and keep using alien words and expressions such as “hard work” and “commitment”. Every time I see a coach from an opposing team walk on the pitch, scream at the players, and abuse the referee, I think we gain some respect. Every time we go the extra mile for our players, some of them, not all of them, realise this and show their appreciation. Whenever we make one of the weaker players in the team feel like a rockstar rather than insulting them and calling them names, people come round to our philosophy and understand a bit more what we are about. The goal is not to be admired and respected, but instead if we do everything in the right way with the best of intentions, we will earn that admiration and respect as a side product of our success.

What is your style of play? What system do you use?

I have three different teams, as well as a club philosophy to adhere to. This framework is very much in alignment with my own ideas as a coach and as a person. With the younger players, they are still at the age where they can be molded and shaped in any way. They have a lot to learn, so I try to create an environment in which they can play and experiment without pressure. This means equal paying time, rotating positions, heaps of praise, and an attitude of fun above all else. It is more guided discovery, where I become more of a facilitator, and my role is more like an older sibling where we can have fun, I can teach them some cool things, and I can be firm with them when they need to be disciplined. With the older teams, we get more into the roles and responsibilities within the game. I like to play a 4-2-3-1 formation in quite a fluid system. It converts into a 4-5-1 when defending, and a 3-4-3 when attacking, allowing us to create strength in numbers in the appropriate areas, responding to the demands of the game. I try to develop creative and intelligent players. A lot of players have been pigeonholed or typecast into a position, which then stunts their development. I´m not happy with a player just doing a task and not understanding why. I hate seeing defenders kick the ball really far up the field, giving it back to the other team, and not even question whether that was the right move. They would have been told that they are not good enough to do anything else from a young age, whereas until they are much older, we can still affect their learning. As age increases, it is difficult to change or improve technique, and so bad habits will most likely remain, but what we can do is affect decision making. Recognising when and where to do certain things within a game is football intelligence. I try to model my teams on the passing of Barcelona, the counter attack of the Germans, and the rock solid defending of the stereotypical English teams. A lot of players do not understand how important it is to keep the ball. It is precious. If we have it, we control the game. If we have it, the other team can´t score. It is also vitally important that when we don´t have the ball, we win it back as quickly as possible. Trying to illicit a counter attack is quite difficult in Mexico as no one is ever in a hurry. It´s quite a shame, particularly with my older girls, as we have deadly pace in attack. If we were better at recognising opportunities to go for the kill, we’d have a lethal force going forward. Unstoppable. Much like a hawk or an eagle swooping for a mouse.

 What is your major strength (as a coach and as a human being)?

My major strength is my honesty. A phrase I will never forget is “always tell the truth, as it is the easiest thing to remember”. We come under a lot of criticism in this job as everyone has an opinion and everyone thinks they can do it better. Ultimately, none of that is relevant, and all should be disregarded if you want to keep your head clear. I hate cheaters. My players know from early on that I will accept none of that. No cheating, no foul play, no disrespectful behaviour. Nothing. I hate losing to cheats and to bad winners, so I will not be one of them. If we win, it is because we earned it through our ability. As coaches, we have a responsibility to create the best possible players we can. If we resort to cheating, we are doing them a disservice, as we are no longer showing them how to be better footballers, but instead how to cut corners and bend rules, essentially saying to them that they are not good enough, and we have no faith in them. Another strength of mine is that I have a great ability to understand and to see things from the other point of view. This is why I never get into discussions or resort to blaming the referee. Referees are human, just like we are, and we make mistakes too. As a coach I should be focused on the mistakes I can rectify, not those that are out of my control. Understanding your players is important as it helps you best learn how to motivate and inspire them. From here, you can work on how to achieve your common goal. Everyone has a different reason for playing football, but we all have the same desire, which is to win or compete. How can you then use the player´s internal motives to help them best perform with their teammates? One more strength of mine is complete calmness. Anyone who claims to have seen me angry probably caught me when I thought nobody was looking. I can be firm, stern, strict, hard, but never aggressive, intimidating, spiteful or angry. Having a player understand the seriousness of the point I am trying to make can be made by a change of voice, a facial expression, or by body language. There is no need to shout or make them feel bad, but they also have to understand that I mean business and will not be messed with. There is a sympathetic and understanding side of me that appeals to players, particularly kids and female players, as it allows them to feel they can trust and confide in me. That trust is very important to the relationship and can never be underestimated.

What are some of your flaws when it comes to coaching?

As a coach I should always be self-aware, analysing and reflecting on everything I do. We must strive to make the weaknesses we possess become strengths of ours. It can be quite humbling to recognise your own faults, but then it quickly becomes exhilarating as you look to see what can be done to improve that aspect of your coaching. Initially, as a young coach and a young man, over confidence was a problem. Like everyone, I went through a phase where I thought I knew everything. The more I learnt the more I realised there was to learn, and the more I realised how untrue that previously held belief was. I was at one point I was not the best at speaking to large groups of people. Since then, I have been on television, in the newspaper, and presented in front of large groups. Looking at the coaching side of things, I was often too scared and too cautious to make interventions within practise sessions and try to alter a player´s learning. This is vitally important as the best time to affect their learning is within a game situation. By stopping the game, recreating the scenario, and then coaching them, your impact on their development is huge. A lot of that was down to lack of confidence and perhaps at times, lack of knowledge. This year I have noticed, as it has been tested so much more, that I need to improve my ability to uphold discipline. I have taken steps to improve this, and believe I am now much better at it. It is not that the kids back home or in other countries are complete angels, they all provide a different set of problems, but in Mexico we have encountered so many discipline problems that I suppose we have taken it for granted. I have learnt that the best way is to deal with it early, rather than to just hope it goes away. In future I will be quicker to anticipate and quicker to deal with any such problems. Just because you only see them for only a few hours a week, does not mean that it is not your problem. If you think the parents are doing a bad job, that may be so, but if a player is being disruptive within your sessions, it does become your problem, and you do need to deal with it. I have spent a lot of time reading on different management techniques, from the philosophies to the one to one management of a situation. I have put them into practise and seen that they do indeed work. It is now my task to make it a regular fixture in my coaching, eradicating any such problems, and allowing me to coach more freely.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND GRAPHICS

SESSION PLANNING

Good coaches should know how important it is that the sessions they deliver are being structured and appropriately planned. By pre planning the session the coach ensures an increased level of organisation, knowing exactly what to set up and when. There are a number of consistent principles the coach must consider for every session:

1.   When:  at what time of the day, week or year is the session. This will affect the intensity, volume and type of the session.

2.   Where:  what is the location of the session. Different surfaces will place some restrictions on sessions.

3.   Who:  the players that are to be coached are crucial in the planning stage to ensure the session is as appropriate as possible.

4.   What & Why:  what will the session focus on and why these areas. Most players respond best when they are involved and understand why they are undertaking an activity.

Once all the principles have been considered the coach is then ready to break the session down into its separate components and plan appropriately. A well-structured and organised session follows:

1. Warm up: Prepare the entire body for the demands it is about to encounter. The focus should not be totally based on preparing the muscles but the mind as well.

2. Activity: The purpose of the main content of the session is to focus upon the topic or area the coach wishes to improve on.

3. Conditioned Game: Where the players can put what they have just learnt into a realistic match situation. Games generally should be small sided so that all players get as many touches and are involved as much as possible. During the initial free play the coach should assess the organisation and restrictions to ensure it is appropriate, and that it will provide the correct level of difficulty, realism and results.

4. Warm Down: Undertaken to aid muscle recovery, it can also help the development of flexibility and lengthen the muscles. Coach can also use this period to recap on everything done during the session and ask players questions relating to what they have just learnt.

Graphic 1: Coaching Session Plan Sheet

Coaching Session Plan Sheet courtesy of Futacademy (2014).

MATCH REVIEW SHEET

The match review sheet allows the coach to make notes and record data relevant to the game. It covers the following three aspects;

1. Individual performance.
2. Team performance.
3. The performance of our opposition.

Collecting information about our opponents allows the coach to compare previous performances against them, and to also formulate strategies to nullify their threat and penetrate their defences, leading to the 'Eureka moment' of "This is how we can win".

The coach measures the goals and outcomes based on key performance indicators. This allows him to keep track of their progress. Each player will receive a score out of ten, which will provide him with a quantifiable number to indicate their form over a determined period of time.

Match Review Sheet courtesy of Futacademy (2014).

CONCLUSION

After all the information provided in the other sections, we can say that we have critically analysed William’s leadership situation as a football coach. Throughout the project, we were able to find the relationship between leadership and coaching. Coaches act as role models to their players, demonstrating the level of commitment and hard work they wish to see, while at the same time adhering to the organisational and behavioural standards that they set. A good coach will not expect or demand of something from their players that they would not do themselves. Leading by example and showing the way will have the players behind the coach as they are guided to where they wish to go. A coach has to enforce discipline, devise strategies, maintain cohesion, delegate appropriate decisions, recruit the right people for the right places, as well as much, more, that is all common with leaders within any industry.

William’s leadership style is varied because it is dependent upon the group, the players available to him, the motivation of that group, and the tasks they wish to achieve. When working with a higher performing team, usually adults, William adopts a more authoritarian type of leadership style. In an environment where results must be seen and achieved, the coach will develop a strategy that must be adhered to. Players at the higher end will already posses a much greater understanding of the game, as well as more complete technical skills. The tolerance for errors is low, and thus demands quick and sometimes difficult decisions. In the football industry, it is much easier to replace a coach than an entire squad of players when the team is under performing, and when bad results come, the coach is the first one in the firing line. This means that the coach lives and dies by their decisions. Often as a result, it will mean that they do not delegate much responsibility to others. Better and more senior players will have their own opinions on the way forward, and sometimes hesitation from the coach can be viewed as weakness. This perceived weakness might lead to diminishing respect for the coach, which is a destructive force, forming cracks in the team that ultimately lessens the effectiveness of the coach’s leadership. The coach is tasked with selecting the right personnel in the appropriate roles in order to achieve their common goal, whether it is a championship, an improved league position, or winning the game. Not everyone can be selected, meaning that although authoritarian, good people skills are essential for dealing with the inevitable disappointment of not being in the team.

In the presence of younger players, depending on their ability and motivation, it is common to see a coaching style that elicits guided discovery. This is because the players within this group will be learning new skills and ideas, and thus making a lot of mistakes. Such mistakes are absolutely fine, and in a non-pressure environment, these will provide learning opportunities. The players, particularly if they are new to the game, will not respond well to an aggressive or commanding style. That is why, with groups like these, it is best to set the boundaries and provide a gentle push in the right direction. The outcomes that the coach is trying to achieve is that each player improves in the desired areas of their game, looking more at the needs of the individual, rather than the team.

Additionally, with this project we have learnt that there needs to be leadership in coaching in order to both motivate the players and help them grow sports wise and in their personal life. The importance of leadership in coaching resides in that leadership skills are of paramount importance to coaching. Success, in whichever way you define it, will not be achieved without leadership skills. The knowledge of football, as well as the knowledge of teaching, is useless without the ability to lead. These are the three components that make a good coach. A coach must be able to inspire and motivate their players, as well as form a plan of action, and take those players down that path, making difficult decisions and adapting to changes along the way.

Finally, we found that William is a true leader because he serves as a guide to his players at the same time that he establishes empathetic and respectful relationships with them.