Temisan Williams - Premier League Youth Academy Coach

In this episode of the CoachCraft Podcast, Temisan Williams shares his journey from a young football enthusiast to a dedicated coach. He discusses the importance of grassroots football, the differences between coaching at grassroots and academy levels, and the significance of effective communication and structured training. Temisan emphasizes the need for patience and the power of silence in coaching, advocating for a coaching philosophy that allows players to learn and develop through experience. In this conversation, Temisan Williams shares insights on coaching youth football, emphasizing the importance of understanding players' emotional states, the role of competition in development, and the necessity of community and networking for coaches. He discusses how empathy can enhance coaching effectiveness and the need for coaches to focus on player development over mere winning. Temisan also introduces his Coach Accelerator Masterclass, aimed at helping coaches navigate their careers in the professional game.

For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Journey Begins: Temisan's Football Origins
• 4:56 Transitioning to Coaching: A Methodical Approach
• 8:01 Grassroots vs. Academy: Key Differences in Coaching
• 10:44 Structuring Training: Similarities Across Levels
• 13:46 Effective Communication: Tips for Coaches
• 19:49 The Power of Silence in Coaching
• 23:37 Letting Sessions BREATHE: A Coaching Philosophy
• 25:52 Understanding Players' Emotional Landscapes
• 30:23 The Role of Competition in Player Development
• 35:32 Empowering Coaches Through Community
• 44:53 Rapid Fire Insights
• 48:18 Episode Summary and Key Takeaways

Transcript

Alf Gracombe
Okay, Temisan Williams, welcome to the CoachCraft podcast. Great to have you here.

Temisan Williams
It's an honor to be here with you, Alf, and I'm really looking forward to diving into all things coaching.

Alf Gracombe
Fantastic. Well, Temisan, let's go ahead and just kick it off. I asked this question of most of my guests. I'd just love to hear a little bit of the origin story of how did young Temisan come to the beautiful game of football.

Temisan Williams
Sure, my earliest memory was five years of age where I watched Man United play and you had the likes of Cantona, the Cole and York partnership and you Paul Ince and Ian Rush for Liverpool. My mum's a Liverpool fan and my dad's a Nottingham Forest fan from the days of Nigel Clough.

He's obviously very happy after how long it's Exactly. And so that's where it really started. And from there, I just fell in love with it, played football at school, played on the streets with friends. And also I was a big what's now called Football Manager. And it was Championship Manager when I first started out, fan from about the age of 10. And I was I was on

Alf Gracombe
Yeah, they're having a great season.

Temisan Williams
I was involved in that management simulation game for quite a number of years. Before then, coming to the point where you realize, okay, I'm not going to make it as a professional football player. And I think where I really realized it was there was Joga Benita in the UK and I was in my teenage years and you had to go 3v3, you went to play against other teams and when you realize the level...

Alf Gracombe
So what were these? These were

like competitions. Yeah.

Temisan Williams
Competitions, yes.

Yeah, so 3v3 competitions and it was highlighted from, so who promoted it? People like Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Henry know, those were the types of players who promoted it on TV. It was Nike who did it. And after playing with some of the players there, I knew, yeah, don't think I'm quite at this level.

And so after a couple of years, obviously I continued to enjoy playing football and I said, what's the next best thing I could do, which is actually help other players who want to make it in the Premier League and at the top end of the game, I can help them as a coach.

Alf Gracombe
And so that's what, when you began your transition into coaching, did Football Manager perhaps play a role in that for you?

Temisan Williams
It played a huge role because at the time I was actually studying biomedical science at university and I was on the journey to be a doctor. going through the degree, I realized I don't want to do this. Plus, I was still playing Football Manager even into my third year. So, you know, it could have derailed me. And so I thought, look, let me just actually focus on this. And I set myself a 10 year plan when I finished at 21.

to be at certain level in terms of coaching. I also did a Masters in Sports Science as well so that I could give myself a bit more detail and background around the biomechanics of sports and the body and how it interacts physically in sport. And that was really good for me to understand and have a bit of that grounding when going into my coaching. And then it went into the...

the years I ended up spending most of my time in Academy football.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah, and so I came to know, learn about you through your work and we'll get to this a little bit later in the conversation, but with the Coach Accelerator Masterclass. you know, kind of what's striking about you and interesting is that you think about coaching as a career and you mentioned like a 10-year plan. Like you seem to have a very kind of...

methodical approach and long-term thinking about your own coach development and then how you build and kind of live your career in the game. But, you know, here you are today, but maybe take us back a little bit when you first had that aspiration to work in a professional club academy. Is that fair to say?

Temisan Williams
Hmm.

Yes, that's correct.

So initially I did want to go all the way to, when I say all the way to what would be the first team level. And I was very much influenced by Jose Mourinho and André Villas-Boas. So I would try to find every piece of information I could about them. I bought all their books. I read all their books. I tried to download.

scouting reports that they did. for example, André Villas-Boas, I remember he did a scouting report for Chelsea versus Newcastle and that was one of the things that got him noticed and I managed to get hold of that somehow as well and that really encouraged me to really go for it because I thought to myself here are two individuals who didn't have a professional career of course to anything like the others.

Alf Gracombe
Neither one of them played professionally,

that right?

Temisan Williams
So Mourinho I think he played, but maybe what we would call the equivalent of National League, potentially played a little bit. AVB, no, he was in the Chelsea set up, I think at about 25. And so they, of course, influenced me to say, I can do it because they've been able to do it. And so what I decided to say to myself firstly is, and as I mentioned around the 10-year plan,

I was watching players like Henry, Lampard, Gerrard, who of course have gone into management and coaching as we've seen in recent years. And I thought to myself, well, if I'm going to be a coach as high as possible in terms of the game, then I need to be ready to stand next to people of this ilk who have obviously played hundreds of games at the top level. And so that's why I set myself a long term plan to develop the expertise.

that required to do so. And the first opportunity I had was, and I didn't quite know what I was doing because there was no one else around me who was following that route. Imagine someone who's going down the route of being a doctor and that's what everyone wants to do and then you go into football coaching. You don't have many people there, if at all. Exactly. So I went on what's called the FA website.

Alf Gracombe
There's no real template for that necessarily.

Temisan Williams
to find clubs and there was a club who was attached to a church team and they took me on and I was able in my first two years to be able to get some of my Even though I volunteered there, they paid for my badges up to my what's called a UEFA C license now or Level 2 back then and they also gave me the opportunity to go to South Africa and I led on a coach education.

program for South African coaches, which was a phenomenal experience. And alongside that, also worked within what was called Fulham's Foundation, which is their charity side of Fulham. And so I did a lot of grassroots coaching. And from there, that allowed me to build up my, if you like, my coaching hours to then be able to progress forwards, where I then spent most of my time in Academy football. So I went firstly into a girls...

in a girls academy called Cambridge Centre of Excellence for Girls. And then from there I went to Tottenham for a year which was a phenomenal experience especially with the coaches who were there at the time who many are now working in the pro game. And then I went to Southend for two and a half seasons before Fulham for two seasons and then Arsenal where I spent five years.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah, fantastic. And so, you I love that you had this pathway that really began at the grassroots level. It's fair to say, And you've made your way and then, you know, find your way up to a professional academy.

Temisan Williams
Yeah.

Alf Gracombe
You know, so I'd love to actually hear because a lot of our listeners, you know, many of them are coaching at the grassroots level. Maybe they aspire, you know, to join the Academy and coach at that level. But, you know, a lot of our listeners are grassroots coaches. And, you know, I'd love to hear just a little bit of since you've coached at both of these levels, you know, really, they probably Arsenal maybe the pinnacle of your kind of professional Academy.

Temisan Williams
Yes.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Alf Gracombe
Drawing some comparisons or connections between these professional academies and then football at the grassroots level. What are some key differences that you've observed? And kind of can you speak to that a little bit?

Temisan Williams
Sure. So the first thing I want to say is without grassroots, we don't really have a game because ultimately that's where the majority of players are going to play in their younger years and hopefully as they take it into their older years as well. So I I want to take my hat off to everyone who's given years and years of time to grassroots football and making sure that kids enjoy it. Now, when it comes to the differences,

Of course, the first thing that I noticed was the technical proficiencies of the players. Undoubtedly, they are able to do things and now even at a younger age, from a technical perspective, whether it be ball juggling, individual skills, technical execution of a pass as an example, they're just able to do that very quickly.

And of course, they're around players who are at similar levels at that technical proficiency. So there's that aspect. You can't get away from the volume of time they spend. So whenever, as an example, I've gone back to coach in a grassroots team and the players ask me, Temisan how can I get to academies? The first thing I always ask them, Alf, is...

How many hours are you training? Because ultimately, if you are training as a grassroots player, maybe four hours a week, and then you've got a game, your counterpart in the Academy system could be training as much as 16 hours plus a game. So they are doing four times the amount of you every single week. And now when you compound that over months, years, there's just no comparison in the end because they've done the volume.

So that's always the other thing I would say. Then, and I've helped grassroots coaches who just want to develop their skill sets. One of the things I say to them is you have to maximize your time. And when I say you have to maximize your time, even down to drinks breaks, you will see it and it may seem like it's something that is very small, but every moment counts. So we even do this in academies whereby

If the players are taking longer than a minute to have their drinks, we will pull them up and say, that's not good enough. Why? And then we will extrapolate it out for them to say, well, if you're not, if you're taking now an extra minute each time with a drinks break, which is then maybe, and you have maybe four drinks breaks, that's four minutes. And then as we extrapolate it out, you could end up missing out on months, a year worth of, of training over the years because of those poor habits. And so that's something I always say to

grassroots coaches is when it comes to time, you have to really make sure that you are being as accurate as possible and helping the players to understand how they maintain and they maximize their time within grassroots football so that they get the most out of it, especially because grassroots coaches who want to help their players who want to go into Academy football, you only have them for a certain amount of time.

and like i mentioned earlier if you're only training them for four hours you've got to get the most out of those four hours so every minute actually counts

Alf Gracombe
Yep.

So, you know, looking at these two different sort of systems, the grassroots, limited playing hours a week, let's say, and then the academy programs. And let's, I don't know, let's take a U11, U12 age group. At the end of the day, like, you, do you still look at kind of the structure of a practice, the same between a grassroots and a professional academy practice, like?

Are you working on the same concepts? Would you still structure a training session similarly at those two levels? And yeah, I guess I'm looking for similarities, right? Like these are at the end of the day, these are kids still. are, you know, an 11 year old kid is an 11 year old kid, regardless of, you know, maybe their soccer talent and ability. But is there, are there similarities in how you would structure training?

Temisan Williams
Yeah, exactly.

So firstly, what does every kid want to do? They want to just play the game. So whether it's grassroots, whether it's academy, if you say to them, now we're going to play a 6v6 game, great. Everyone understands what they're going to do. One goal, you'll go there, and we're going to play. So that's the first thing. There are definitely similarities. Now, what I'd always say is keep it simple. That's most important thing.

if it's taken you two minutes to explain the practice, the 11-year-olds already forgot what you've said in the first minute, after 30 seconds, after 60 seconds. So it's really important that you keep it simple. And that's something that is really focused on as well. Now, when it comes to the detail, probably within the practice of what's expected from the players, that, course, within Academy football is higher because ultimately,

they have the technical proficiencies to do certain things. And so that expectation cannot be required of those within grassroots football, whereas in Academy football, they're able to do so. Now, it also depends on the philosophy of the club. Of course, within Academy football, the philosophy comes from the top down. So this would be from what's called your SLT. So your Academy manager, your head of coaching.

There would also be maybe your lead phase coaches who would be involved in it as well. And so this is something that's put together that every age group understands. of course, the younger age groups, it's in a more bite size version, but it's something that they understand, okay, this is what I need to do. And then when they get to under 10s, under 11s, then it just extrapolates out with having maybe two extra players on the pitch, four extra players on the pitch. And then the principles become more detailed from there.

Whereas grassroots, I think, and I know we're talking about similarities here, but I think it's something that can happen, but I don't see happen enough where there's actually a structured syllabus and a structured philosophy that the players understand. It doesn't need to be in much detail, but at least the coaches are singing off the same hymn sheet. so whenever a player may move across a group, an age group,

Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.

Temisan Williams
they know exactly what is expected of them and how the team are aiming to try to play as an example. So that's something that I would say. But also when it comes to individual development, because ultimately you're not within academies, you're not creating teams to go up to the first team. It's ultimately just going to be individuals. So you want to also make sure ultimately that your program is harnessed towards and is anchored on

the individual development of each player. And that's something, of course, that you can replicate within grassroots football. One of the things that I think can definitely help for grassroots football, where possible, and I understand, of course, there's much volunteering that happens, but where possible, having something as simple as what's called an individual development plan. And it could be just two things that you have for that player, but at least have something for them that they can focus on in terms of, okay, this is my strength that can be stronger.

And now this is one of the areas that I need to improve on that I'm going to focus on. And just having that can really help players in terms of when they come to training and they have a bit more intentionality, which of course happens within Academy football.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah, I want to come back to something you touched on just a moment ago. Communication and. You know with kids and kind of how much information can be delivered and how do you go about doing that and how do you think about, you know, I mean, as you said earlier, like it's so important as a coach that you're organized that you're managing your time that you're maximizing player time on the ball. You're maximizing.

play, you know, the game that's that's where the kids are learning. But as a coach and you're thinking about how you actually impart information to your players, what are some tips that you'd recommend or ways to think about communication to players as a coach?

Temisan Williams
Good question. So the first thing I would say is keep it simple. And what does that look like? If you're explaining it for longer than 30 seconds, I would challenge you that it's too long. Even for an adult. If you're explaining to an adult for even a minute, they can, they may ask you, can you just repeat the first bit again? So for a child, just imagine what it may be like for them, especially when their mind is probably just looking at thinking about the ball or getting onto the pitch.

So try to keep to 30 seconds. That's something I do with coaches when I work with them. I time them and as soon as 30 seconds up, I say, right, time's done. Oh, wow. Yep. So you've got to be really concise, really short with what you're going to say to the players. Simple language as well. Unless you have an agreed language throughout the club that players understand. So as an example,

Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.

Temisan Williams
I was at a club and one of the languages that they use for a defender when you're in possession, maybe a centre-back moving closer to the byline, they say, can you roll out? Now, that's a particular language and football jargon that they understand in their academy. If that's something that you don't typically use, then of course you're going to confuse the players.

So make sure that whatever language you use is simple and also it's language that is commonplace within your environment. And then what I would say to coaches is to consider a scaffolding approach. So you need to understand the complexities of where and the objectives of where you would like the players to be able to get to. But you don't need to tell them all at once. Those steps may be nine steps, but you can tell them one step one.

If they do it and you see they're doing it within the first two, three minutes of the practice and actually maybe it's a bit too easy for them and they need a bit more information, okay, then you can give them maybe step two, step three for what they need to consider. But don't try and give them all at the same time and expect that they're going to do all of it. Sometimes, and this is one of the things that I learned as a coach, especially in the later years of my coaching journey, is that something that you

we're trying to teach the players in week one, they may not actually get into week six, even though you're on a different topic. So you've got to remember what you've told them before so that you're recognizing that because the learning doesn't mean that they've just, okay, I've learned week one, now let's move on to the next thing. So that's really important to recognize as well. And then the last thing I would say is around communication is knowing when not to say something that is just as important. And

Alf Gracombe
Hmm.

Temisan Williams
Helping a player to problem solve themselves and saying, do you know what? Okay, it's not after the first time they don't do it that I step in. And I've been guilty of this many times, especially early in my journey. Yeah, it's not right. Stop everyone. Nope, that's not how it is. Don't do that. So refrain from doing that. It might take them actually the fourth time and compare from the first time did to the fourth time.

Alf Gracombe
I think we all have, yeah.

Yeah.

Temisan Williams
Have they gotten even 1 % better? If they have, okay, they're starting to learn. And so it's really important to also recognize when not to say something. And I always remember Albert Capellas who he came onto one of my courses, he was a speaker, and he coached Messi, Iniesta and Xavi And he said, when they came to him, his role was to just not make them worse. Which is why he ended up coaching in the silence.

Alf Gracombe
Okay.

Temisan Williams
That's what he did. He coached in the silence.

Alf Gracombe
I love

it. Yeah. And I think, you know, for all grassroots coaches out there, that is a maxim worth reflecting on for sure. And yeah, so maybe if you can talk a little bit about this role of, of, of silence, right. You, you, you, I think as a coach, you may feel inclined to be an active speaker, to be conveying a lot of information, to be giving a lot of feedback oftentimes in real time, but

Temisan Williams
Yes.

Alf Gracombe
As a coach watching players play, right? How do you think about what to look for and what problems are you identifying? And then how does that inform what you're going to do? You know, maybe later in the season with these, with the kids, with your team.

Temisan Williams
So.

So Alf, there's something that I came up with in my journey, which I use and I hope that coaches will benefit from. So I say, let your session breathe and B.R.E.A.T.H.E. There are seven things. So the first thing, be patient. So as the session begins, you need to remember this may be the first time the players have done this session and it may be the first time that you've delivered it. So don't expect them to replicate what you've envisaged in your mind.

R is respect the process. So even if it doesn't start as you think it should start, just trust the structure and design you have. E, evaluate calmly. So once the session is underway, just observe the player's responses in the practice and assess where potentially there may need to be modifications. A is accept changes. So where you need to accept to change maybe the dimensions or even moving a goal, do so to help the players

practice more game realistic movements and situations. And the players themselves will know as well. And then the last three, T, trust your players. As you deliver the session, trust your players to problem solve. H is hold back. So we mentioned it earlier. Don't step in. Don't give in to the temptation. You can give three, four minutes and see how they critically think and see what decision making they do. And lastly, E, which I think

Alf Gracombe
Yeah.

Temisan Williams
us as coaches sometimes really forget is enjoy learning. You're learning just as much as the coach, as the players are. So take it in for yourself. Take notes, see what you're learning and enjoy the process of that development.

Alf Gracombe
I love that. And I'll certainly put a link to in the show notes to this B.R.E.A.T.H.E. concept because I've read this and on some of your social posts before, you know, another thing related in the I think you got a recent post where you talked about more the emotional and the psychological side of the game and how children.

maybe arriving at practice and there's other things going on in their lives. think the post you was a child whose parents were going through a divorce. So obviously a very traumatic situation, family situation. As a coach, how do you orient yourself around your players and where they are emotionally and kind of how do you understand that and then incorporate that into, into coaching?

Temisan Williams
Yeah. Yeah.

So this is a really interesting part of coaching, which I think probably needs a lot more support, especially for coaches on to be able to support players more. And the post, you alluded to, which I mentioned, was around a player who his parents were going through a divorce and it was the psychologist

within the academy who made me aware of the fact that the age group that I'm coaching, usually around that time, something like this can happen. And it happened then the next year of the next group I was coaching. So the first thing is just the awareness of all the things that could be happening with the particular age group where who you're coaching. So at that time I was coaching on 12s and during that time they're going from primary school through to secondary school. Some of them may be

start going to school by themselves, whereas before they used to have their parents and maybe even training, they may start going training by themselves. They, of course, as I mentioned around the divorce as well, as well as trying to obviously make new friends in a new school, all of that. And so the first thing is to be aware as a coach and then to be very empathetic about it. So when players then come to training, the first thing you don't have to talk about is the game.

on the weekend or this is what we're doing at training. Actually, hey, what's what's happening? How's your maybe younger sister who's just been born? Or what would you do at school? I didn't like this at school. Tell me what happened. The teacher did this and this and this. And so just have that conversation with them and try to get involved in their world and see what actually they they are really thinking about, what they're really going through. Of course, if there's something that is

a safeguarding issue, then that's where as a coach, your duty of care is to share that with a safeguarding officer within the club and making sure the player is aware of that. But I think it's firstly taking that empathetic approach with them. And when you actually get to know the individual, it then helps you to actually coach better because you're not just coaching a player, you're coaching an individual. And so you know some of the things that will help that individual to engage more.

So you might say to one of the individuals, are you sure that was the right type of turn, et cetera? And you can have that bit of banter with them. Say, I think he got you there. And then someone else, you give them a lot of encouragement and say in a different way and say, that was a fantastic. And you'd maybe highlight them and point them out because they don't usually get pointed out potentially. And you know that maybe they're one of six kids and maybe it's a bit difficult for the parents to then give their attention to them.

Alf Gracombe
You

Temisan Williams
I think that's really key to help you ultimately within what you do on the pitch in relation to coaching them. And it's just remembering that the coaching starts off the pitch before it then continues on the pitch.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah, no, that's really, really insightful. you know, think we've all, anyone who's coached kids like you see, you know, the same kid may show up, you know, differently at different training sessions, even just, you know, had a bad day at school or maybe, you know, didn't get a good night of sleep, didn't get a good meal in her before showing up to practice. And so, yeah, just tuning into the individuals, I completely agree with you. It's critical as a coach.

Temisan Williams
Yeah.

Definitely. I know I've had,

you know, under 15 players who would all of a sudden they're just, they just cry. And you know, and you think, I didn't, I'm thinking of the session that I'm about to deliver. I wasn't thinking about this, but they just start crying and that the session doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter. It's about, okay. No, exactly. Exactly.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah.

All of a sudden, this is not a football situation, right?

so a little bit of a pivot here. and, I think I'd be curious to hear how this plays out at the professional club level as well. At the end of the day, we all agree youth football is developmental and it's a competitive game. Of course, that's part of why we love it, but you train during the week. Maybe you've got your game on the weekend. how do you look at.

games and competition in the context of player development and do you see the same, I don't want to ask a loaded question here, but do you see the same themes and approaches at the professional academy level and at the grassroots level? So if you can, just talk a little bit about how you look at competition, game day in the context of player development.

Temisan Williams
Mm-hmm.

So our first talk in relation to what's the Arsenal, one of the things we said to the players is Arsenal v Arsenal has to be the hardest game that you play every single week. So that meant that for us, training needed to be harder than the game. So when they got to the game, actually, it was easier. And that definitely was reflected, especially in the third age group I ended up coaching, who ended up

becoming national champions twice, so twice in a row, but they were also very talented, very talented young players. But when it comes to games, ultimately, no one's going to remember the game that you lost as an under 10 in November of 2017. And what's really important is to be clear on

What do I want to see this individual develop now? Because if they don't develop it, they're not going to survive when it comes to under 18s football. So I would rather them, I'd rather try to make sure that they have an understanding of how to open up on their non-dominant foot to play a pass and it go so-called wrong 20 times in a game, then

they get to under 18s and actually they can't get to pro football because they just can't open up and play a pass with their non-dominant foot accurately. So in games, it's way of, of course, helping players to understand how to still take the risks that we want them to take when they're training. And then one of the things that as I've gone through my coaching journey, my perspective has changed on this where

before you, and you'd still hear coaches say today, it's not about the winning, it's not about the winning. And I used to subscribe to that, but I don't anymore because ultimately the players don't step onto the pitch to lose. They want to win. And it's about development through winning as well. It's not just, it's not about the winning. Of course it is for them. Otherwise they wouldn't, that's why we play games. And so go ahead.

Alf Gracombe
Hmm.

Well, one of my favorite sayings or something I say just to myself to remind me is, know, there's the cliche, right? Winning isn't everything. But I like to say winning isn't everything, but it's something right. Like it does. It does matter. It may not be the most important thing, but it is certainly, you know, any player wants to win. Plain and simple.

Temisan Williams
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, exactly,

exactly. And the reality is that some of the players, as we've seen, for example, recently with Arsenal, you've seen Ethan Nwaneri make his debut at 15. If he doesn't have an understanding of how to win a cup competition, then when he goes to first team, he can't just make continual mistakes and mistakes. Of course, he's developing, but at end of the day, they need to win games.

And so we need to help players and prepare players for that reality that, okay, can you win 14 games in a row? Cause guess what? Those 14 games in a row could be the difference between you winning and losing the league. And it's helping players to able to understand that. When they get to under 18s, is there a relegation, relegation and promotion? I don't know if there is, but I would say that probably this is something that needs to be considered.

because that's going to be the reality when they go into the first team. There's going to be promotion and going to be relegation. And so I think it's really important to recognise that. And of course, we want to see our style, our style of play. Is this a Arsenal team? Is this a Man City team? Is this a Aston Villa team? And that's something that is really critical because the players then know as they progress through the age groups or if they then play, as I mentioned, age groups.

Alf Gracombe
Mm-hmm.

Temisan Williams
they understand what their roles are whenever they play in the team in this position, what is expected whilst they also express their individuality ultimately.

Alf Gracombe
this is great. And, and we've talked a lot about player development and your role as a coach and coaching, coaching young players. I'd love to change course just a little bit and hear about what you're doing now, because you're a big focus of what you do now is around, helping coaches, develop their, their careers. And you've started, something you call the Coach Accelerator Masterclass tell us, tell us about that.

Temisan Williams
Sure. you know, coaching is a, it's an enjoyable, but it can also be very, very tough. It can be very tough. And one of the things I realized only recently of last year is I did some back of the, back of the napkin maths where I said, okay, in terms of the UK, how many football coaches are there? But then how many coaches are in Academy football? And when I did the statistics, there was

It came out as approximately 0.12 % of coaches in this country are in academy academies. so. Under nines right the way through. Yeah, professional club, one of the one of the academies from under nines right the way through to under 18s, under 21s. And when I realized that and I spoke to people over and over again and they said, I just don't know how to get into this system.

Alf Gracombe
And when you say academies, you mean professional club, academy,

Temisan Williams
and obviously realizing that I've been able to be at four clubs and I had an idea how to do so. I decided that I want to help coaches to achieve that dream because that's a dream of coaches to work within many coaches to work within the professional game and whether that's academy football or the elite level. so through the Coach Accelerator Masterclass community, that's what I help coaches do to navigate the industry.

beyond just their badges because unfortunately, Alf, what's been told to coaches is that your badges and your CV will get you there. But that's not the reality. And the reason why I started to realize that even more. Firstly, I know from my journey that wasn't the reality because my first three opportunities that I got, I didn't need to apply for. It was because of networking and relationships. And then I started interviewing professionals in the game right away from pre-academy through to the first team level. And

That's where, again, it was highlighted to me that 98 % of those individuals had networking as a core part of their journey, their mentorship. it just reiterated to me that we're doing things the other way around. We're telling coaches to do things the opposite way around. And this is the reality of our industry. So that's what I help coaches to be able to do. And how I do it is through an online community where I...

mentor them, I have regular sessions. I also take coaches to Insight Days at football clubs as well, help them build their network, as well as of course, help them to understand how they can reflect on their coaching, as well as ensure that they are developing, of course, as a coach, because ultimately, when you get to that level, you need to be able to know what you're doing to a degree and be able to coach at a certain level for the players who you'll be supporting.

Alf Gracombe
and you touched on, know, this is a, this is a course you offer, but it's really a community of coaches. And when you, when you boil it down and you know, part of, know, how I learned about you was, was through the knowledge sharing that you do a lot through social media channels, specifically LinkedIn, which is I think where I've, you know, first came across you and you know, almost, think every day you're posting something and not just like to do it. You're

Temisan Williams
Yeah.

Alf Gracombe
putting good information out. It's useful. It's practical. Sometimes it's very, you know, action oriented information and I think it's great. And so thank you for that. And I know a lot of other coaches would say the same thing, but

Talk a little bit more about the importance of community and of coaches and networking and knowledge sharing. Because you do it particularly well and I think it's been a big part of your own coach development. And I'm seeing that myself. But yeah, I'd love to just hear more thoughts on that because I think it's such an important part of the profession and just the act of coaching, not even the profession.

Temisan Williams
Well firstly,

thank you and thank you for following and giving me feedback because ultimately if it doesn't have value then I would know from the community. as you said, in terms of building a community, it's absolutely critical because I find that the majority of coaches, whether they are at the top end of the game or they're just starting out, they very quickly find themselves on an island where they just don't know where they're going.

They don't have, they hardly have any feedback. They don't have any mentorship. And so for me, I'm just trying to give coaches actionable steps that they can take to be able to have a journey, which they can see the trajectory. They can see the steps. And if they take the steps, then they can see the fruit of their, of their labor. And so in terms of social media, and this is something I say to all coaches now is

you have to be on LinkedIn and X because that's where the coach in community who you want to be a part of, especially in terms of the pro game, that's where they really are. And so hence why I post regularly, because I know that's where the community are. I know they will give me that feedback. I know if what I'm saying is accurate to their experience and it just helps to add better value. And so

I would just encourage coaches who are listening to this, that they have to make sure that they at least start connecting with people. You don't necessarily have to share regularly, although I would encourage coaches to share even if you can do something once every week. Coaches may think to themselves, well, what am I going to say? Just start with your story. That's what I did. I started with my story. And sometimes because we've lived our story more than anyone else, we can think that

Our story is not something that others want to hear, but actually they do because you have a unique experience. And so I just say to coaches, start with your story, share that, and you'll be surprised at how many people will actually give you that feedback, those comments, and actually a community that you can have together of coaches who are working alongside each other. And that's, of course, in terms of Coach Accelerator Masterclass, that's whole purpose of it, is to have a driven community of coaches together.

who are able to grow as one and ultimately 10 years down the line when one's maybe ahead of coach and then the other is a lead phase somewhere else, you don't know if eventually they may, you would have to connect and potentially there's an opportunity for you guys to work together in whatever game, female or the men's game. for me, that's the whole purpose of it. And I hope that coaches do.

understand how critical it can be for their journey as well. And that's why I just share as transparently as possible. And also, Alf, if I'm honest, I just noticed on LinkedIn, there wasn't really much around the coaches journey or coaching in general. And so I thought, well, let's just share.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah.

Yeah. yeah. mean, I, I could not agree more. And, and, and, know, I, you know, my story just a little bit is, know, I recently kind of left a career and I'm moving into coaching, which I've been doing at the grassroots level on a volunteer basis for a long time, but I could not agree with you more. very quickly, I was able to, you know, connect with folks through LinkedIn. You're a perfect example of that. Just.

see and explore. There's a lot of great content out there, a lot of really, really thoughtful, smart people who are in the coaching profession, or not even the profession, who are out there, they're sharing, and you can be a part of that ecosystem of knowledge exchange. And it's great. And relationship building. And I've been just amazed by how kind of quickly and substantively you can forge connections with people.

Temisan Williams
Hmm.

Exactly.

It's a brilliant platform. you know, one of the things that really, it both saddened me, but hopefully they do, you know, they're able to get an opportunity. I saw, for example, yesterday, a first team league manager who posted, I'm ready to now get back in football. Here's my CV. You know, I think to myself, someone at that level needs to do that.

It just goes to show how disconnected things are and how it's so important to have communities and people working together in the world.

Alf Gracombe
Yeah.

Yeah, never assume the connection is already there or that this has been done or it's been talked about. Just dive in and start to participate. think that's critical. Well, Temisan, this has been a fantastic conversation. I really appreciate your time. Just before we hit the record button, I mentioned this to you. So I'm trying something new here at the very end of the episode.

Temisan Williams
Exactly.

My pleasure.

I look forward to it.

Alf Gracombe
Alright, it's rapid fire, rapid fire questions. So you don't need to give long answers here. And

Temisan Williams
Let's go, let's go.

Alf Gracombe
so let's go. I've got got four quick questions for you. Take it from the top. We're going to add that in the post production. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. So Temisan, what is one training activity or exercise that you find yourself returning to consistently and why?

Temisan Williams
Have we got any music, Alf?

It's a 1v1 practice, sorry 2v2 practice, whereby you have the mini goals at corners. So you've got a square and then you've got a mini goal here, mini goal there. And the reason why is because it helps players to understand around pressing high. So the whole aim of it is that you cannot score until you've won possession and it's in your attacking half. And it helps players to understand around their body position defending in pairs.

Alf Gracombe
Excellent. Love it. Next question. What's the best piece of advice or one of the best pieces of advice you've ever received as a coach?

Temisan Williams
So apart from Albert Capellas one which I mentioned, probably the second one is, do not stop the practice when a player is about to score. You will frustrate the life out of the attacking team and they're just not going to listen to what you're going to say next.

Alf Gracombe
Perfect golden rule. love it.

All right, next question. If you could change one thing about youth football development, what would it be?

Temisan Williams
I would put them more on concrete to be able to play. I'd put them in the streets. Yeah.

Alf Gracombe
yeah,

great. Love it. All right. And this is a question I ask of everyone here at the very end. If you could share a coaching resource with our listeners, either something that serves as a touchstone for you or something maybe you've come across recently that you've found very valuable.

Temisan Williams
Yeah.

So apart from obviously the Coach Accelerator Master Class Community, I would say the FIFA Technical, or the FIFA Training Center, that's what it's called, FIFA Training Center. I don't think many coaches actually look at it, but it has incredible amounts of information. Technical reports as well, trends for the game, it's brilliant. So I can't speak highly enough of it.

Alf Gracombe
goes without saying, yep.

Excellent. will, I will put it in the show notes. well, Temisan, I really enjoyed this. And as I said before, really grateful for your time. I'm really glad that we've connected. It's, been great to get to know you and just see the work that you're doing. it's really important. A lot of coaches are tuning into, to the signals that you're putting out. And I think it's just, just really valuable. And I know listeners here, are just really appreciative of you, of you being on the podcast and, just want to thank you very much.

Temisan Williams
Thank you.

Alf, thank you very much. It's been an absolute pleasure as well, being able to be on here and I hope that the listeners and all coaches who are listening into this, they're able to pick up even just one thing. So keep doing what you're doing. You're doing some fantastic work and look forward to a round two as well, especially with the World Cup coming up. Alf, not long away. So we have to do another one before then.

Alf Gracombe
Love it. yeah. Well, it's going to be here in North America. So,

yes, for sure. will. Temisan it's been awesome. really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. All right. Take care.

Temisan Williams
Thanks Alf, you too. You too.