Giffnock SC Football Development

Hello and belated welcome to this week's slightly later blog. There's been so much going behind the scenes that I found it difficult to come up with a topic for the blog. Thankfully some of the other committee members came up with some great ideas, which you'll be reading over the next few weeks, but this week's comes from Martin Jack (Jacky) who is Head Coach of the Giffnock SC Amateurs and expert in the world of business. Here's what Jacky has to say on similarities between the worlds of sport and business:

Sport and business

As volunteer coaches we all have a day job and a love of football which brings us together at Giffnock Soccer Centre come rain hail or shine. We’re encouraged to attend Scottish FA courses and our own CPD nights to make us better as coaches, improve the quality of coaching of the young people under our wing and take the club forward. However, we bring a great deal of experience from our day job too and if we can channel that into our coaching then we can all become better as a club.

I set up in business almost eight years ago and, as a small business, have had a fair share of ups and downs during that time. If anything, I’ve learned more from the bumps and bruises along the way than the successes, and managed to evolve the business to meet the challenges faced as a result.

I’ve also been a football coach for the past eighteen years with The Giffnock Soccer Centre, starting with boys when they were 6 years old until this season when we kicked off in the amateur leagues.

When you’re running a youth or amateur team you don’t have the luxury to buy in big name stars to fill in gaps in your squad. If you’re lucky some of the team will know some mates who are interested in coming along. As a coach you have to look at the talent you have and blend it into the 11 key positions that any team requires. 

Square peg

Goalkeepers are specialists and generally it’s difficult to transform an outfield player into a good goalkeeper and I’ve yet to experience a good goalkeeper I’d prefer to have somewhere out on the pitch.

In business there are some skill sets you just can’t ask either yourself, if you are a sole trader, or your staff to undertake because basically it’s counter productive to the objectives of the company. So in this instance businesses need to consider outsourcing the ‘goalie’ duties.

For the outfield positions you have defenders, midfielders and attackers. Some defenders can easily play in midfield, midfielders may be attack minded or defensive in nature and attackers are generally selfish buggers who want the glory of scoring the goals and won’t play anywhere else.

In business you may have to look at the balance of the workload ahead of you and blend the current team into the tasks required. These can change on a regular basis so you may have to use the substitutes or move people about. Whatever the solution, those performing the tasks need to feel comfortable. Stretched yes, but not to the point where they are scared to do something in case it’s wrong.

You may need to be more aggressive in your sales campaign and this is where you need some of the selfish mentality that goes with good forwards. They may not score every time but as long as they continue to knock on the door and make themselves available the goals will eventually come along.

The midfield is the engine room of the team offering one part creativity, one part energy. Maximising the opportunities available while making sure the defensive line is holding out. Without the creativity the chances won’t come along for the attackers; without the defensive cover the foundations of the team may well fall apart.

Without a good defence a team is nothing. If you don’t concede goals, chances are one of the opportunities created during the game will be taken and the team can go away with a winning bonus. But good defence isn’t just about the back three or four. It’s about the whole team defending right across the park. Knowing where they should be when they have lost possession, tracking the runs, making sure there are no gaps for the opposition to get into, keeping a clean sheet.

Good companies have staff who will defend their every action knowing it’s best for the long term objectives of the company. They know that everyone else want the company to succeed. They know they sometimes have to make sacrifices to guarantee the long term goals.

Giffnock Amateurs

From a business perspective that’s about doing your research, giving everybody the tools to work to their capability and knowing what the opposition is doing and counteracting any moves they make with your own. Also helps if the manager looks at the bigger picture ahead rather than worry about what went on a few minutes earlier. The past as they say is history. Learn from it quickly and move on.

As a football team we just don’t walk onto the park and play ninety minutes of kick ball.

We train hard before the start of the season. 

We play friendlies to iron out the cob-webs and to try out players in different positions, shape the team differently and find out who has the bottle for the matches ahead. 

All season long we train each week and coach players to make them that little bit better. We don't rely on the pre-season work several months earlier.

Small steps which when taken over the course of the season will add maybe 10% to each player’s performance.

There is so much sport can learn from business. However, there is also an awful lot that business can learn from sport, even at an amateur level too.