EDGECOACHING |DEVELOPING TALENT|

he reality of most sport is thatmassive focus is now given tothe development of sidessometimes years before

players emerge at senior level. Nowadaysmuch greater resources are devoted topreparing shadow teams below the elite,so that the transition for individuals is asstraightforward as possible and they arebetter prepared for the ultimate step-up in class.

Planning the formation of future teams both in theshort and long term has become one of the greatchallenges for our sporting bodies – with style ofplay, tactics and technique all in focus well inadvance, in readiness for the step up.

Here three men currently attempting to influenceprospective England and Great Britain starsdiscuss their remits...

David Parsons, the England and WalesCricket Board’s performance director:

‘Our job at the national academy inLoughborough is to supply players that AndyFlower and the other England selectors can callupon to perform at world-class level, while themore developmental objective is to take playersthree or four years away from the England teamand improve their skills and attributes. So we areabout the balance of having the players ready togo now if the call comes and others who are afew years further back but will benefit from beingexposed to the next level.

‘For example, this winter we have selected DannyBriggs, the Hampshire spinner, and all-rounderBen Stokes, from Durham, who have ostensiblyhad one year of first-class cricket, for theperformance squad in Australia.

‘But we have also learned from experience not tomake too many distinctions between categorieswhen we are developing players.

A couple of years ago we estimated that AmjadKhan, Michael Carberry and James Tredwellwere within 12 months of playing for England.We were right but then again, we also hadSteven Finn, Ajmal Shahzad and CraigKieswetter come through the performanceprogramme, and such was the progress theymade that their time came sooner, so we aretrying not to be too prescriptive in terms of howfar away people are.

T

Selecting teams is easy, right? You simplychoose the most in-form individuals andpitch them together – supporting themwith the most up-to-date coachingmethods and state-of-the-artpreparation. But beneath the glamour ofthe first-team lies a huge world ofpreparation, thought and theory, asRichard Gibson reveals...

EMERGINGFROM THESHADOWS

EDGECOACHING|DEVELOPING TALENT|

‘When we are composing England Lions teams(formerly England A) we are always trying to putsides together to win matches, because that is theultimate aim for any team. It is effectively our nextbest team but we then have the dilemma of what“next best” means. It can mean second bestpresently or it can mean future best. For example,there might be a player you are confident will bein the future England team but is not currently in the second-best XI on merit, so that can complicate things.

‘In general, however, we are trying to create anenvironment so that they play cricket in a certainway – the way we want them to play when theyreach the England side.

‘The best example of preparing players for the fullside was last year before England Lions went outto Abu Dhabi. It was made clear to me that Andy

Flower and the selectors wanted to be able topick a wicketkeeper who could hit boundaries atthe top of the order, particularly with Twenty20cricket in mind. We compromised our selection toinclude both Steven Davies and Craig Kieswetterin reacting to that request.’

Warwick Cann, British Basketball’s head of performance:

‘Our main approach to developing playersbelow the Great Britain team is through a depthchart – whereby we rank our athletes in the fivepositions on their competency levels. We have apecking order from the top down to 17 year olds,which hopefully shows us where certain peoplewill be in a few years’ time.

We analyse the current senior group we areworking with, the players who are knocking on

the door and the third generation players, andbasically work in Olympic cycles in terms of thatdevelopment. So as well as preparing the currentteam, we are formulating thoughts on the 2012and 2016 versions.

‘What we have done in recent times is to createa Futures team – which primarily constitutesplayers under 23 – because we found thatbetween the under-20s and the senior Britishteam there was too big a gap. Chris Finch, thenational coach, was then brought in to work withthis squad, so he was aware of the nextgeneration, whereas previously he was relying onothers to relay the information.

‘We have already seen a huge positive from thiswith four of the Futures squad moving up this yearand Ogo Adegboye going from an unknown tothe starting five for Britain.

‘Within British basketball we have a hugechallenge because we are undoubtedly playingcatch-up, and one of our major current focuses islooking after our up-and-coming athletes andproviding them with high-quality coaching andgood preparation. The budget allocationbetween the under-20 team and the seniors isdisproportionate, of course, but we have tried togive a greater emphasis to emerging players withthe establishment of the Futures team and weneeded to produce a statement of how importantthey are to us.

‘Pinpointing which guys are ready for the step upcan be difficult because of the nature of our sport– there are five men on court but you use aconstant rotation system. For example, if you werepicking a team in a football code you might wantto pick someone with certain attributes similar toa current player who is doing well – someone ofthe same type – but in basketball the planninghas to be different.

‘Different guys can bring different things to thetable and with the amount of interchange thatgoes on – you have a primary group of eight –you do not try to replicate a starting five man forman. One potential point guard will havedifferent attributes to the next and it is aboutgetting enough of a variety of attributes acrossthe whole team.’

England’s Ajmal Shahzad was a crucialmember of the Ashes squad and readyto step into the starting attack

‘In general,however, we aretrying to create anenvironment so thatthey play cricket ina certain way.’

John Peacock, head coach of EnglandUnder-17s, football’s reigning European champions:

‘We prepare our players at international levelfrom Under-16 with Kenny Swain as theirmanager; he runs that team for a year and thenbecomes my assistant when they move to Under-17 level.

‘We work with them on what Kenny has donewith them previously – our philosophy of how thegame should be played – and push towardsgetting to the latter stages of the EuropeanChampionship finals, because it is importantwhen you are dealing with the elite that you testthem as much as possible.

‘Earlier this year (2010) we produced the FutureGame document, which was some 200 pageslong. The first 60–70 pages are just about howwe see the game moving forward. With Spain’srecent track record, football has become verymuch a possession-based game, and if you aregoing to win anything at international level youneed to be able to play out from the back,through the middle third and have that abilitywithin the team to be unorthodox on occasion inthe final third of the pitch. Those are the keyingredients of the teams we are trying to build now.

‘This is how we want the England team to play inthe future and winning the EuropeanChampionships will hopefully have a positiveknock-on effect. We had been knocking on thedoor for 10 years, so from a psychological point of view it was excellent to get over that final hurdle.

‘The nature of development means some playerscome through later than others, but the way theEngland Under-21 set-up is now, a good numberare a lot closer to the senior environment and wehave seen shadow-squad players – AndyCarroll, Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshereare recent examples – coming through.

‘The last group that got to the Under-17 finalbefore this year’s win was the 1993 squad thathad players like David Beckham, Paul Scholesand Gary Neville in it and they obviously wenton to become senior international players. Thatcannot happen in every year group and doesn’t.

‘But hopefully this team – they were all born in1993 ironically – will get a few through.

‘Players develop at different rates, of course, andthere will be some that do not emerge until intotheir 20s. By the same token when you aredealing with 17–19 year olds, we are nodifferent to any other nation, and that means that

two or three years further on when they reach the Under-21age group there will be a 50% drop out.’

Further Reading

Charlesworth, R. (2004) Shakespeare theCoach. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia.ISBN: 978-0-330364-78-2.

Charlesworth, R. (2001) The Coach:Managing for Success. Sydney: PanMacmillan Australia. ISBN: 978-0-732911-06-5

Woodward, C. (2005) Winning!London: Hodder Paperbacks. ISBN: 978-0-340836-30-9.

John Peacock issuinginstructions to hisEngland Under-17s

EDGECOACHING |DEVELOPING TALENT|

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When working with reserve or youth teams, communication with the first-teamcoach is vital: liaising on tactics and style should help players’ pathway to ahigher level. What is the vision on how your teams should play?

Remember that as a coach, you are playing a part within the greater scheme ofthings, not just for your direct team. Guard against any ‘them and us’ scenarioswhen feeding players to senior sides.

Be proactive in discussing future targets for team development – acknowledgewhere the gaps might appear higher up or which of your players could forceopenings by the sheer strength of their performances.

Try to replicate the full team not just in unit play but also in preparation andpractice methods – is it viable to set up the same procedures?

Think about ways to make the transition between back-up player to the front lineas seamless as possible.

Exposure to a better standard is crucial in development – are there opportunitiesfor your team to be tested at a higher level? If so, note who copes best as rates ofdevelopment differ from player to player.

‘The last group thatgot to the Under-17final before thisyear’s win was the1993 squad thathad players likeDavid Beckham,and Gary Neville.’

This article is taken from edition 22 of Coaching Edge, the subscription magazine of sports coach UK. Covering the latest methods and techniques, and featuring interviews with some ofsport’s leading figures, Coaching Edge is a must read.

Subscription costs only £18 a year (£13.75 for students) and includes four issues of the magazine. Further details and an application form can be found at: www.sportscoachuk.org