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The Boot Room Issue 15<br />
April 2016<br />
26 | 27<br />
HOLDING A<br />
MIRROR<br />
TO YOUR<br />
WORK<br />
Nick Levett, FA Talent identification manager,<br />
looks back over his varied coaching experiences<br />
highlighting the key lessons learned so far.<br />
The beauty of holding a mirror, consistently, to the work you<br />
do enables you to move forwards and progress. It allows you to<br />
shape existing ideas and see the new ones possible. However, this<br />
takes bravery to recognise that everything you do is not right or<br />
there are improvements to be made. This article is going to look<br />
at five mistakes I’ve made within coaching, the lessons I learned<br />
and therefore areas you could reflect on in your own practice.<br />
1<br />
The way you engage with children<br />
One of my early roles was at a girl’s Centre of Excellence<br />
and it was a great opportunity for me to coach some<br />
talented U12 players. I was a young coach and had the<br />
chance to work alongside two very good coaches in<br />
Mike Dove, now Academy Manager at MK Dons, and<br />
Kevin England, now an FA Regional Mentor. An amazing<br />
grounding for me as a young coach.<br />
I vividly remember delivering a session, everything had<br />
gone great, the practices had really flowed and in my mind<br />
had been a great success. Walking off the pitch at the end<br />
one of the players, Soniya, came over to me. As clear as<br />
anything I can still remember her saying “Nick, I really<br />
enjoyed the games today but you were really sarcastic<br />
when you spoke to me and I didn’t like it”. I was devastated<br />
and this one line has stayed with me for the last 15 years.<br />
The fact that I had made a young person feel this way, and<br />
possibly not want to play football again, is a horrendous<br />
feeling to have.<br />
Track down what other options<br />
there might be in the coaching<br />
world, different ways to deliver<br />
and what makes a good<br />
learning experience<br />
for players<br />
LESSON<br />
Consider carefully the words you use, it’s one of<br />
the only things you can control in the delivery<br />
of a coaching session, and they can have a big<br />
impact with young people.<br />
Nick Levett, centre, speaks with The FA's Jack Walton and Matt Crocker.