The evolution of S&C through my eyes, from player to coach.

Growing up, preseason meant running.? Large parts of it just running towards the open field in front without any apparent link to the game that we were getting fit to play. I can’t say I enjoyed it but I did it.? I remember talking to my dad about one of the coaches I had going through the academy at Clyde, a coach that loved wall-to-walls (20yds back and forth for 60 seconds, target: 15 reps).? He explained that the coach’s focus on fitness was because he wanted us to get as fit as possible between July and December and then maintain fitness until the end of the season.

I do remember playing games, passing patterns, some crossing and some pass-set-shot finishing exercises but the thing that stands out most was the running.? I moved to Clyde at U12 and played my first game in Albion Rovers stadium.? It was the biggest pitch in the world to me at that time and I played left or right back, I honest can’t remember but, it did include a huge amount of running.? It’s funny, I once spoke to former Rangers player Charlie Miller about his time in Norway and he told me how physical and fit the players were there.? It got me thinking, we (Scots) were never the best teams physically, we weren’t the best technically nor were we the best tactically.? What exactly were the coaches trying to achieve?

Derek Steel My father didn’t mind bring up odd ideas to include in his training sessions and he was the one who introduced me and a number of players and coaches at the club to the training methods of Roger Spry.? Movements performed with rhythm and timing to get the body ready to perform at high intensity and/or speed - Dynamic stretches.? Common place now but the ‘flair’ factor to these was that they were often accompanied by music.? Watching players, you will pick who can move properly and who can’t quite quickly.? I believe these Spry exercises helped players move with a good amount of coordination and fluidity, I’m sure that the very nature of the exercises included some injury prevention benefits too.

The contrast of someone like my father, growing up in Glasgow in the 60’s and 70’s with the authoritarian father he had somewhat contradicted the way he approach things in life.? “Tell me why it can’t work?” was a question he asked in business and football on more occasions than I can remember.? Throw out an idea, why can’t it work, how can we find a way to a solution?? The curiosity he had learning about Spry’s work, learning French, moving into different areas of business and visiting the coaching courses I attended to pick up information has certainly rubbed off on me.

As A Player

I vividly remember a day in pre-season with Falkirk.? We had a session in the morning with the 18’s coach and then were back out in the afternoon for round 2.? The finale of the session was led by the First Team Manager, Ian McCall.? 10 x 100m sprints.? Sprint to the end of the pitch, jog back, sprint again.? I can’t remember being told how long we had to get back to the start, nothing was recorded in terms or individual times or finishing places for each rep, it was just ‘Run!’? We also had to complete 10 laps of Brockville’s gravel track in less than 10 minutes more times than I want to remember.? If anyone in the squad didn’t complete the task, there was, of course, a punishment.? This was always after the day’s training too.

We had a competition to see who could do the most push ups, sit ups and longest wall sit…all on the same day.

During my short time at university in America, I was part of a squad that regularly had to do punishment runs due to poor performances during games.? For anyone that doesn’t know, university squads are often very large; this can be illustrated when one uni plays another in two games, Saturday and Sunday, and you can see two different sets of players playing.? However, it also means that players can get little to no game time.? The most ridiculous substitution in the history of the game might include yours truly.? I was subbed on in order to allow a player to TIE HIS SHOELACE only to be subbed off 20 seconds later.? This type of behaviour along with the punishment runs made me question the coach one day.? “Why are we all running when most of us didn’t play?”? “You win as a team and lose as a team” This answer made me resent the players who got game time and underperformed and fuelled a disdain for both Head and Assistant coach.? We certainly didn’t play as a team and the results proved that.

I had more respect and time for coaches that put effort into recording and calculating S&C plans and results.? The S&C coach at the American university had the same work out plan for every player.? You were allowed to change the weight but the exercise, sets and reps were set for everyone.? That includes first year Freshman to fourth year Seniors.? Ludicrous.

As A Coach I am thankful that I have worked with guys like Alex Kotovic, who spent hours and hours talking with me about the plan he had and how we could make it work in our training session for Rockdale U18’s.? He wanted position specific training, we broke down the needs of each position in the formation to create a plan based on the needs of each position technically, tactically and physically.? We had the players for 3 x 2 hour training sessions per week so we couldn’t do completely individualised but this was definitely deeper and more comprehensive thinking than I had see during my own playing days.? He also had a great little psychological tool that he used.? He gave players 1 lap of the pitch to talk.? Fast or slow it was up to them but when they arrived back at the start point, that’s it, tune in, the nonsense of the day is out your head and we are here to work.? I hate seeing players do laps in a warm up but this wasn’t the physical warm up, it was the mental one and I grew to love the thought behind this tiny, seemingly, inconsequential couple of minutes.

In the years since, I have often made an agreement with any team that I coach.? We will only do on-pitch fitness work with a ball unless you don’t give 100%.? If the effort isn’t put in, then the balls go away and it’s straight up running.

Going through coaching courses, moving to different countries and continents has allowed me to cherry pick the best I’ve seen from different levels, cultures and environments and what I did as a coach 22 years ago is definitely different to what I do today.? The thing that has remained is the curiosity I learned from my father.

I was fortunate enough to spend time with Cercle Brugge in Belgium last month and their methodology of training is something I have never seen before.? The Head Coach, Miron Muslic, has a very specific plan for how he wants the team to play and that plan shapes training in a way I never experienced as a player or have seen as a coach.? He told me that 90 seconds is the longest they will play any game.? This includes rondos, where the same players will remain in the middle no matter how many times they win the ball.? The coaching staff reduce the time players work in order to increase the intensity at which they work.? I’m sure we have all done 4 reps of 4 minutes games in the past.? The staff at Cercle might do 16 reps at 1 minute to hit the same time or 12 reps at 90 seconds to push the players.? 100% intensity is expected, demanded and given.? It was a fascinating week to watch.

The Future I’m fortunate to have two good friends that are very high level S&C coaches.? I often bug them with my questions and thoughts on physical related matters and their insight has helped guide me to being a more educated coach when it comes to how and when to push players or why they shouldn’t be pushed.

Even though these two coaches have never met, worked at different clubs, confederations and even in different sports at times, they have mentioned the same word to me numerous times over the last few years.? Robust.? “90% of our changes (transfers) last season were made based on player availability.”? Players are playing more games, especially those at the highest level, and the demands on their bodies are going up too.? The only thing that is going down is the amount of recovery available in between matches.

The focus, from what I’ve been told, is making players robust enough to handle the match load in order to be available for as many match days as possible.

This idea may not be brand new and indeed it is something that Raymond Verheijen has spoken about at length.? He wrote that in his time working with Barcelona, they did the fewest number of training sessions in La Liga because the focus was on having players fresh for games.

There was a point in time where S&C seemed to be creeping more and more into the forefront and at times leading the conversation with what could and should go on in training sessions and the amount of information collected and the amount of terminology thrown around can be confusing and intimidating but I like that fact that the two guys I know at the top of the tree are making sure that their work is based on making sure players are fit enough to be available to play as much as they can.