The Way Forward | The FA's Licensed Coaches Club?

A few weeks ago I attended a CPD event in order to keep my Licensed Coaches Club membership up to date. You are to have a minimum of 5 hours CPD from the FA each year. CPD meaning continued professional development. For any coach this is an important part of developing your knowledge and understanding and yet it doesn’t always mean attending FA courses. 

Now sometimes the best CPD could be reading a book, watching a clip on YouTube or attending a conference. What I mean is that the FA's CPD programme should not be seen as the only thing. The FA expect you to attend one of their courses, and in fairness in the past it has not always been a great experience, more a feeling of doing it because you have to. But when I saw there was an event titled “Tactical evolvement in the modern game”  I felt it was one worth attending. And I was right. I have to say that I found it informative, progressive and well…modern.

My problem with FA coaching courses in the past has been a sense of either a ‘command’ philosophy without the sense of inclusion or the opposite, a sense of fear to ‘tell’ coaches what to do as to not be guilty of another ‘Charles Hughes’ type error. The FA have therefore been in a kind of limbo with their delivery and curriculum. It has meant the FA have lacked direction, philosophy and conviction in their beliefs and delivery. 

I have also found their courses too much about the practice drill and the key factors involved over the other key aspects of coaching; such as communication and creating a high quality environment. Pleasingly the youth modules however have sought to address these failings and pointed to a new direction and era for the FA, especially at youth level. 

Imagine my surprise when at the event I attended there were terms used such as ‘gegenpressing’ and ‘verticality’ and a long discussion on the tactical trends in the game. The key message being that if we know what is happening and where the game is going, then we should be able to develop players and teams to suit the needs of the future game. Was this really the FA? 

A new era

Now it is clear that we are seeing a new era for England’s Football Association. And this can be seen with their online resource for coaches, the FA Licensed Coaches Club. 

The LCC offers a lot of online material, especially the tri-annual magazine of the LCC The Boot Room which provides ‘expert coaching content to members’ which is very good and informative and is a big help for coaches looking to learn more. 

The LCC is growing and improving and in fairness to the FA (people will know I have not been too positive of all their moves) they have done a great job with this resource. Last week it came to my attention that it became officially the biggest football membership scheme in the world, reaching 30,000 members in April. A very impressive achievement.

Head of FA Learning, and founder of The FA Licensed Coaches’ Club, Jamie Houchen, is confident the club can now help develop a new culture of English football coaching, 

“It is a process which is fundamental to developing more innovative, creative and forward-thinking coaches. We want to develop a culture of lifelong learning where coaches don’t only complete their qualifications and the minimum amount of professional development, but continue to be inquisitive and find out the very best ways to work effectively with their group of players. Now we are the largest football coaches club in the world we want to ensure we can support all coaches with their continued development through coaching.”

So the FA wish to develop more intelligent coaches, finally! Yet the words creative and innovative has been somewhat ignored or neglected by the FA in the past few decades. Skill has been a dangerous word. Are they genuine with that they seek to achieve?

One does look at the progress made at the FA, especially since Dan Ashworth arrived and sought to implement the new DNA. There have been many conferences, events and seminars which have sought to market the new way forward for the FA. It is all very glamorous and impressive yet does it have any substance? Will it make the difference?

The improvements in the CPD programme has been a significant step forward by the FA who have invested in new regional coach educators and coach development officers. It has shown an investment in online resources and people which intends to help coaches in the regions. 

What this blog is happy about is that the key of this initiative is that they are seeking to educate coaches on the modern trends of the game. For too often the FA have seemingly neglected or ignored the key trends of the game, developing coaches who then develop players of that level. 

Resources yet enough talent?

The concern however is that if the majority of these 30,000 coaches are of a level below what is required then how can we improve the pool of talent in England’s youth ranks? The LCC is seeking to help this quality improve yet is 3-5 hours of CPD a year enough? These coaches need more support, guidance and feedback. Reaching 30,000 members it is certainly a step forward for English football, yet the FA now needs to go further. 

If we break down the numbers we have roughly 40,000 qualified coaches in England. The majority of course being Level 1 coaches. As the levels of qualification rises we see a very reduced number of top level coaches in the game; Pro Licence coaches is roughly 250, with 1500 A licence coaches. This seems tragically low.

Compare this to Spain which has almost 15,000 Uefa A and Pro Licence coaches (and this was in 2008, six years ago!). These numbers are more than double the number of any other European nation. 

If we add in the expectation that coaches seeking to attain their Pro Licence need to rack up an impressive 750 study hours to acquire the Pro Licence (compared with just 245 in England) then you see a case of quantity and quality emerging. 

And one only has to look at Spain’s success to show how important a large force of top qualified coaches brings a period of success. They are simply developing great coaches who in turn develop great players.

Now if England wishes to really compete with the like of Spain than the LCC is merely a start. 30,000 members is great yet what is more important is a higher number of coaches attaining A and Pro Licence qualifications. The level between Uefa B and A is vast and yet we don’t have enough of this quality across the levels. The issue is twofold; too many are content with a Level 1, seemingly thinking that this qualifies you as a coach. Unfortunately this is just not the case and for those wanting to go higher up the coaching ladder they are restrained from exceedingly high costs. The A licence is now upwards of £5000. How can we expect more coaches of this level if we price the majority out of it?

As well as courses the mentor scheme introduced this season saw 48 FA mentors to help work and support chartered standard clubs and coaches. Yet were this 48 the best the FA could provide? They weren't full time coaches who could help support clubs like Academies have received with coach developers. If the FA wish to enhance coaches and players at grassroots, to improve the talent pool, then this would need to be the next step. A full time coach educator in every chartered standard club? Now that could be seen as progress.

Ultimately it is a great achievement for the English FA to be regarded at the forefront of coaching support in terms of the LCC. As a resource it is excellent, and it is a step forward, yet it is not enough to help make English youth development competitive with other nations across Europe and the world. More investment in coaches, for courses and more CPD events will help improve the quality of coaching and ultimately enhance the players. The FA are making good steps forward, they now need to continue this further. 

The Whitehouse Address @The_W_Address

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