At the start of an Academy, there are many challenges, without a doubt.

However, once you completed the stage of understanding the Vision, Values and Objectives your Value Proposition is very clear now (or should).

One of the crucial elements for the success of this journey is the Coach Development. Having Coaches that embrace the Vision, Values and Objectives of your Academy will save you a tremendous amount of work. 

Once the core (or hard) skills are there, everything else is teachable!

However, there’s a crucial element that needs to be rooted within the Academy’s Culture: to be ambitious and create objectives. To complement this, I would add that creating a clear Coaches Path within the Academy is as important as to have a clear Player Path.

Why?

Well, to answer that I would get another question: how do we measure the success of a given Coach or a Methodology?

Although the answer to this question is complex and profound, both rely on one simple (and again complex) element: Time.

However, imagine that you go around the great majority of the Youth Academies Coaches and ask them if they would be able to be at that (or another) Academy for, at least, a continuous 8 years (!) What would be their answer?

Hard to imagine?
I’m sure the great majority (not to say 100%) would say: “Absolutely not!”
For sure!

Well, but that should be just the amount of time, if not more, that any kid will spend at the Academy from the 1st day to reaching the 1st Team.

Once the core (or hard) skills are there, everything else is teachable!

Therefore, the questions restart with: will any Coach commit to 8 years with you and your Academy, or Club?
I seriously doubt.
Why should he/she commit 8 years of their life with you?

Secondly, is the time the only way to measure the success of the Coach or the Methodology?
If a Coach is very good, within that timeframe of 8 years, wouldn’t he be tempted to try another level of competition?

Because, most likely, there will always be a bigger Club, another age group, another competition, etc.
Now, the question is: if the talent, values, ambition is there, what can you offer to retain your best Coaches?

I’m sure there should be a ton of questions we could add here, or even scenarios that we cannot control.

However, I’m here to focus on you, on your Academy.

What can you offer different, that other can’t?

To answer this important question I need to go back in time (as you should do) and think about what was there on your best years Coaching, on the teams or Clubs where you actually enjoyed working the most. 

What elements were there?

For me, there were a few, from:

• Clear chain of command
• Support
• Accountability 
• Frequent Meetings
• Continuous Learning
• Equipment
• Ambition
• Competition
• Open discussions
• Knowledge about other Club Teams
• Activities outside the Club

These ones were very important for me and made me want to spend more time in the Club, to create friendships, to understand my role and the expectations around me. And, more importantly, made me ambitious, have that unstoppable desire to be successful and progress. 

And, true to be said, we can never guarantee that someone will be with us for 2, 5 or 8 years, but we must do our part and let everyone fly when the opportunity comes.

Hope this helped you to think about your Program and how Coaches play a crucial role in your Organization!

If you have more ideas, share them with me!
A good conversation automatically increases our understanding of the community we’re surrounded by.
Let me know your thoughts!