A Year in the VFL

COBURG TIGERS FOOTBALL CLUB A Year in the VFL An Assistant Coaches View of the Season and On Coaching [Type the author name] 2010 S TEVEN B A L L A Year in the VFL The Coburg Tigers Football Club 2010 An Assistant Coaches View On the Season and Coaching Steven Ball Introduction At the end of last season, having coached largely the same group of boys for five years, I decided my time was up. Most of the boys were moving up to the Under 18s which is the senior part of the club or trying out for the Cannons or other sports. I was still enjoying coaching and felt I was still impactual (my own word). However, l thought it was time for the boys to experience other coaching styles and approaches. As fate would have it David Newett, who had been a friend for a few years, was leaving the Kangaroos and had taken a developmental role at Richmond Football Club which included coaching the affiliated side, the Coburg Tigers. Dave wanted to know if I would be his assistant and forward line coach. My role would include; being involved in the process of developing the team’s trademarks, leadership development, overseeing the cultural change process and the players’ goal setting. Thought provoking and challenging. I hadn’t coached adults for some years, other than a cameo role as a defensive coach, but had been running seminars at a few AFL clubs. Dave sold it well on the basis that; I would be exposed to all that goes with the elite and sub elite of football, l would learn a tremendous amount about strategy, game plans and high performance, would be able interact with the RFC coaching group, coach RFC listed players when they were playing at Coburg, and we would train regularly at Punt Rd. I pondered it and discussed it with Sarina, particularly the increased time commitment (which as it turned out I underestimated by tenfold). It was obvious that I was being offered a fantastic personal development opportunity and access to information and thinking that most of us could only dream about. I rang back. I am in. ( The timeline between being asked and agreeing was quite short which was very similar in length to a phone call from a client asking whether it would be possible to run a leadership seminar in Fiji. I replied I would check my availability and went through the motions of flicking the pages of my diary for effect before saying it was ‘doable’ provided I could move a few things.) About half way through the season as I started to become more comfortable, and developed some strategic clarity I decided to write an account outlining what I had learnt, the challenges that I, the team and coaches faced, and the ebb and flow of the season. For those who read my recollections of coaching an U12 side I have written this with more technical and tactical insights so that coaches could get ideas that would be applicable at all levels and have again included sections on leadership, efficacy, culture and used the issues that arose in our club or within the football community to branch off to reflect on those issues to hopefully generate reflection by the reader too. My real hope was to write a book that might be used by coaches to refer back to when they get stuck or are in need of ideas. I still, after twenty years, refer now and again to David Parkin’s book, “Preparing the Australian Footballer”, (which I think came out in 1981).It is now coffee stained and dog eared and still my ‘go to book’. For those who are familiar with “A season of Achievement “ it will come as no surprise that that the principles of achievement thinking , which Dave Newett and I both believe in, permeated all aspects of our thinking and approaches and became the foundation for our training, leadership, goal setting, performance feedback and culture. The season provided a great opportunity to embed the concepts into the club’s culture. The whole season was a steep learning curve requiring me to unlearn some of the basics I had held as true, and allow myself to be educated in a new game plan. Going from coaching juniors to listed players was initially somewhat intimidating. Did I have the skills and credibility? Would they listen to me? I ran those concerns past a mentor who advised me to make myself someone they would listen to. Good advice .I also knew that doubt brings on hesitation and hesitation brings on failure.# I hope you find these reflections engaging and of value. As the season unfolds junior coaches in particular will observe that the jump from coaching effectively in the juniors to the sub elite level is a surprisingly small one in terms of approach and philosophy .* ## See Appendix Six for a summary of Achievement Thinking #”There is nothing wrong with being intimidated but there is something wrong with staying intimidated. We have to decide whether the challenge facing us is bigger than us or are we bigger than it. If we decide it is bigger than us than we will withdraw but if we decide we are bigger than the challenge we will come out on top. ..We make a choice... grow into the opportunity or let the opportunity go.” (Lou Tice, Investment in Excellence used by the Alabama Crimson Tide.) *After our first game against reigning premiers North Ballarat the trainers moved amongst the players handing out icy poles and offering snakes from a plastic container. That picture looked familiar. I was however bright enough not to verbalise my thought that every junior coach knows to be true ie that there is no loss so bad that a can of solo and hotdog can’t overcome. I wisely decided to keep that gem to myself. “... in terms of this players longtermgevity...” (David Swartz making up his own word too on SEN 1116) “We are leaderful.” (Ric Charlesworth getting in on the trend to make up your own words while commenting on the way he wanted the hockey team to function). The First Meeting Late October Our first meeting for the coaches, fitness staff and others was held in a pub in Fitzroy. I was initially surprised by the number of people who sat down at the long table. We were informed that not all could make it however there were still five or six coaches, the same number of fitness staff, a couple of support staff and Peter, the club’s chaplain. We were informed also that a club doctor, more trainers (6 to 8), a physio, a couple more line coaches, five stats people, boardmen (2), team manager and a scribe for the coach during games were yet to be appointed. (As it turned out the Reserves coach and the Reserves line coaches left the next week for another VFL club so the vacancy list increased). We went around the room giving a quick overview of who we were and what we had been doing lately. I don’t think I blushed when I mentioned I was a junior coach at Moonee Valley but I might have. Dave spoke about his goals for the year, what his approach would be in terms of player development and that we would be using the Richmond game plan for consistency and because it was a good plan. We should expect to have, depending on injuries, around 12 to 16 RFC listed players in the seniors each week and a few rookies in the reserves. The goals and approach to training were discussed with Dave outlining that we would use a game based approach and that there will be very few occasions when we will be running sets of 400s.The fitness /training staff would assess the level of exertion of each drill by surveying the players at the end of each drill and asking for a rating from 1 to 10 with a ten being that the drill was that hard “I am lucky to be alive” would be the player assessment. There was a set points target each week ie 300 and if these were achieved there would be no need to do additional running but that option was there as a top up if required. This process would require honest feedback from the players to work and running calculations by the fitness staff to ensure we remained on track. (The club purchased four laptops to use on the spot at training to upload the data and monitor this issue and a range of other things such as injury management). Not surprisingly as the year progressed we, at times, questioned the accuracy of some players’ rating of an exercise particularly if they rated it a seven and we thought they were not pushing through hard enough. This process was to be part of a very scientific approach to training as players were weighed before training and games to see who dehydrated more quickly and so would be sought out by the “water boys” first using a prioritised list. We also talked about our development needs as coaches and the importance of our own growth from not only a credibility point of view but also because we expect the players to set goals to improve so we should do the same. We would train at Punt Rd. three times a week and then once a week at the new facility at Craigieburn before returning to our home ground in late March when the turf cricket was finished.

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