How To Deliver Your Message?

Back in the early 90's I decided Japan needed to focus on individual technical skills development. I introduced the concept based on the work of the great Dutchman, Wiel Coerver and set up the first ever technical skill development school in Japan. We started inside Tokyo first with a small school which would serve as the training ground for coaches to expand to other areas. The concept was modeled after Japanese "Juku", which is the term used for Cram Schools. My belief was that regardless where someone lived, they were always dependent upon the quality of coaching that would be available for their child. Technical Skills being at the heart of Football Development, especially at the early ages 6-12, there wasn't enough Technical training going on at most individual clubs. These Schools would therefore supply a solution to a problem which was, Kids practiced a couple of times a week with their Football Teams but still lacked technical ability. As the saying goes, "build it and they will come." Well, they sure did and fast forward now nearly 30 years later, and what we started has turned out to be both a huge contribution to Japanese Football along with perhaps the largest commercial football school business in the world that employees over 200 full time staff and accommodates over 25,000 players throughout it's 138 facilities all over Japan. These schools have also graduated many Japan National Team Members, both Men's and Women's Teams. Of note, currently on the Men's side there are 3 regular members that attended these schools. Takumi Minamino, Ritsu Doan, Wataru Endo. I led this Technical Skill development movement along with working for the company I co-founded that developed this School business for 15 years. I left the organization 12yrs ago to pursue other interests that I had. If I hadn't left this organization I would have never developed the Football Starts at Home? concept. How did we create this movement which convinced parents to focus on Technical Skill development? Here's how we did it! A strong Media component! Without it, it would have been too difficult to create a movement of this magnitude!

BOOM! Focusing on Technical Development traveling throughout Japan holding large Events throughout Japan's 47 Prefectural States. Building advocacy is the first step when introducing a new concept. I personally conducted over 2000 events for more than 500,000 Kids, Parents and Coaches. This gave us the opportunity to deliver our message, which was, if you want to be a good Football Player, you must have good Technical Skills.

These Events were organized by the local Clubs and State Associations and were completely free of charge which meant we were building relationships built on TRUST and LOYALTY. When you offer something free which has value, this will normally create trust and loyalty, which it did. What kind of trust and loyalty? The opportunity to continue to return to these same 47 States every year for over 20yrs. We were always welcomed back because of the relationships that we built. There is nothing that can replace old fashioned face to face human contact. People meeting people will always remain the most natural way to build relationships built on Trust and Loyalty! These are large Events often anticipated one year before the visit. The hospitality was second to none with lavish dinners, karaoke, and the eating of Ramen noodles before heading back to the Hotel the night before the Event. This was my life for over 30 plus years here in Japan.

We convinced Soccer Digest, Japan's number one Soccer Magazine for Soccer Coaches, Players and Fans, to give us 2 full pages each issue so we could talk about the importance of Technical Skill development. These corners lasted nearly 20 years and were extremely popular. We designed exercises and wrote columns, all centered around Technical Skill Development.

We were the first movers, or leaders, in this space and would later be copied by many of the other Football Magazines in Japan. We had created a movement between all of the other competitors which is a good thing. A good thing because, when you have many organizations moving in the same direction, agreeing that Technical Skill development is an important pillar in any Countries development, you are now operating from a different level of penetration. You are able to speak to the masses, not the hundreds but the thousands!

We would also work with Japan's number one Comic Book for Children which gave us 2 pages in their Monthly Magazine for young Boys with a circulation of 1.3 million copies per month. This Magazine is known to be passed around to multiple friends which gave us even bigger reach for 14 years. Now we've entered into Japanese Pop Culture and we're communicating and promoting our program to ALL Children, not just target Football people like the above Magazine's. We are coming in contact with Kids that have never played any sports or who play multiple sports. That's a good thing!

In 1998, I would be approached about developing a Nationwide Television Corner for the popular Kid's Television Show, "Ohasuta." This was a new show born out of the POKEMON Craze. This was Japan's number one morning show for children and this corner would be the first corner for the Show each weekday morning. Little did we know it would continue on for 14 seasons and reach millions of households each day. The timing also was perfect because Japan's Men's Team had qualified for their first ever World Cup Tournament in France!

On average we had a 5% viewer audience which meant 5 million households per day. So now, instead of only being in Football Magazines, Comic Books, Events, and much more, we were reaching millions of households throughout the Country on all weekday mornings. This supercharged our movement and sent us into a different stratosphere all together.

After Japan won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2011, I decided to put the new Captain of the National Team, Aya Miyama, onto the show for a full year so we could promote Women's Football. Aya is one of the Stars who played on the Championship Team which beat the US in that historical final after Japan had been devastated by an Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown. I remember watching the Final at home in the wee hours of the morning and the tears running down my face after Japan had won. I had worked with many of the players when they were young girls so it was an emotional moment for me, even though I am American.

I have had a strong link to the Women's game here in Japan having mentored several former players who have gone on to become Japan National Team Head Coaches like this photo above. This is a photo of myself and Asako Takakura, appointed U17 National Team Head Coach when Japan won the World Cup in Costa Rica. Asako would go on to be appointed Head Coach of the Senior team for both the World Cup and Olympic Tournaments.

We also created lots of content through DVD's Books, continuing the same relentless message of, if you want to be a good Football Player it all starts with the Technical Component.

This is just a glimpse into how we created a movement here in Japan. We took a problem and created a solution through a simple message that resonated with so many families, which later, became word of mouth. This spread like a wild fire throughout the entire country. Culture, is creating a community of groups, people and organizations, that share the same beliefs and values. This time, the belief which had value was that Technical Skills formed the Foundation upon which we build all of the other Components of the game around! These decades of experience and knowledge would shape my own belief that, Football Starts at Home? and the importance of an early head start and the role that parents play.

Of note, we are considering having an online Event Presentation of, Football Starts at Home in the very near future. I posted something about this on my page yesterday. If you are interested to attend online please hit the Like Button as I am trying assess the best timezone to set it to and can do so after seeing where most of the interest is coming from. Thank you!