ECB Coaches Association links Coaching Insight 2019 | Page 46

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It’s all in the DNA
IT’S ALL IN
THE DNA
In the spirit of sharing best coaching practice, we
spent some time with Pete Sturgess, FA Technical Lead
for players aged 5–11, whose innovative approach to
children’s football has begun to reap rewards.
I
n an extraordinary six months,
between May and October 2017,
England’s four youth sides – from
under-17s to under-21s – reached
a semi-final and two finals in three
European Championships, and won
two World Cups, at under-20 and
under-17 levels.
Add to that the under-21 side’s run
of 35 qualifying matches without
defeat, and a youthful senior side’s
impressive run to a World Cup
semi-final, and all signs suggest
that the Football Association – after
strong criticism in the 2000s – has
got its junior set-up locked in.
Pete Sturgess became Lead National
Coach for the Foundation Phase in
2008, and has remained a key figure
in that area of The FA, overseeing
significant changes in approach and
philosophy, a revamp which he says
wasn’t a simple, quick fix.
“What coaches might not be aware
of when they look at the successes
that we’ve had at The FA recently
at youth level,” begins Pete, “is the
subtle changes that have taken place
over the years to get us to this point.
“It’s never a case of one sport being
able to say to another ‘we know
better than you’, it’s more about
understanding where that sport
has gone, and why, then looking at
what points of connection there are
between those sports.”
With football then, where has it come
from and where is it now, in terms of
an understanding of how to bring the
best out of young players?
“Not that long ago our level 2 course
would say: ‘To send the ball from here
to there your standing foot must be
here, your knee must be here, your
arm must be doing this, etc.’