Courtesy: The FA.com

Pooling our resources

By Graeme Dell

Monday, 23 April 2007

Graeme has been a busy man since last writing

But from watching games to swimming with his clothes on, it's always varied! Here's his latest column...

Hi again.

One fortnight seems to run into the next at the moment but it’s been a manic couple of weeks since I last wrote, with some CPD (Continuing Professional Development) thrown in too!

Watching matches is essential in order to find the players we need and it’s purely a numbers game - the more you watch the more chance you have of uncovering the talent. At this time of the year I always find I’m chasing the clock as the seasons end gets closer. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been to games at York, Gainsborough, Sutton United, Aldershot, King's Lynn and Maidenhead as well as some of the five-a-side leagues thrown in too.

As a National Coach the job is never complete and neither is your education cycle so my own CPD was high on last week's agenda.

When the group is away on international duty, either at home or abroad, much of the technical work we do with the players ends up being back to back. This can be physically demanding on the players.

My intensity philosophy of ‘train as you play’ can have a fatiguing effect over time on the lads and consequently we aim to include pool recovery sessions, provided of course that we can access a good facility although that tends to be one of our prerequisites.

Work where water’s involved brings with it a series of health and safety issues which come under my remit as the National Coach when we’re away and which needs covering in our risk assessments. We have to ensure that the players are always in the best possible care and Gary Phillips and I spent last week undertaking our Lifesaving Award at Lilleshall and it’s local pools.

We weren’t alone though and in our group were Under-21 physio Dave Galley, senior women’s physio Tracey Lewis and Simon Spencer, our U16s physio, so we had a real mixture of shapes and sizes to contend with!

Its amazing how many issues you have to review but nonetheless essential for player safety and ensures that we are always able to look after the players' best interests and have safety at the forefront of what we do.

As long as time permits I aim to get involved with all the sessions the squad does, whether it’s technical, fitness, active recovery, weights or R&R as I like to see how the players interact and how applied they are to new ideas and their own physical recovery discipline. This always gives you an idea of what they might be like when they’re back in their own comfort zones.

We usually travel with a smaller staff group than most squads which consequently means we all have to multi-task, and yes, the men can do that!

Having a number of us suitably qualified therefore gives us better cover and means one can take part in the pool whilst the others ensure and enforce the safety aspects.

I’ve come across quite a number of players who can’t swim, yet are sometimes embarrassed to say so amongst their peer group so knowing your players is essential and acting on their limitations before they get in is key.

Mind you, at times I was wondering if we were training to save people or drown each other and I didn’t realise how hard it was to tread water whilst splitting your sides with laughter and swallowing most of the pool.

Although a very serious course which we were fully applied to we also had great fun doing it, the vision of swimming halfway up a pool fully clothed trying to keep a manikin’s head above water while you talk to it will stay with me for a long time.

I try and swim most days anyway so I’d like to think I’m a reasonably strong swimmer but it’s a whole new challenge when you introduce another body reliant upon you.

I just hope I never have to use what I’ve learnt but if I need to at least I have the confidence that I know what to do.

I’m pleased to say that we all passed and our England teams remain in safe, knowledgeable and capable hands.

We now know our opponents for the World University Games in Thailand where the draw was made in Bangkok last week. We’ll face Morocco, Mexico and Kazakhstan so it’s a real international mixture although I’ll go into that quite blind as to what we’re up against.

In the meantime I’m concentrating on planning the preparation already so that we set up in a way that will make life hard for our opponents, whatever system or style they play.

Having spent a lot of time watching the non-league it’s pleasing to see Dagenham & Redbridge have at long last earned promotion to the Football League. John Still is one of the icons of the non-League game and in the few dealings I’ve had with him he’s always been fair and reasonable. That’s reflected in the way his players have reacted to him and his philosophies which has worked so well for him this year.

The FA Umbro Futsal Cup qualification stages are about to kick off and I’m excited about that with a great deal of miles ahead of me over the coming two months to get to see as many of them as I can. Whilst the successful teams will reach the Finals weekend in Sheffield in July there will be many who don’t and indeed there will be talent in those non-qualifiers we need to get to see.

This year, as there is such an increase in participation and more ground to cover, I’ve also invited each league organiser to select their own player of each regional tournament. We’ll be inviting those players to come to an assessment day later in the year so that we can see what they’ve got that might benefit the F30 Programme.

I’ve also done an extensive interview with Manchester Futsal Club which was enjoyable and helped me find out at first hand some of the queries the clubs have. Hopefully, like many other new clubs around the country, my responses and ideas will help them develop and grow in an informed manner.

This coming weekend I’m off to Murcia for the UEFA Futsal Cup Final which is the Futsal equivalent of the Champions League Final so I’m excited about seeing the top club teams in Europe and watching the way they play.

It’s a new format this year which sees all four teams play Semis and the Final in one venue over a couple of days at the impressive Palacia de Desportes de Murcia arena. This will give home side El Pozo Murcia a clear advantage over their other Final Four rivals - Action 21 Charleroi of Belgium, MFK Dinamo Moscow of Russia and Spain's second offering, Boomerang Interviu.

I’ll tell you how I got on next time. Until then, take care.

Graeme



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com