By Kevin McShane
Editor's Note: The following article is reprinted from the March/April 2000 issue of Soccer Journal. It is provided here are a reference for an article from McShane that will be included in the May/June 2002 issue. The boys varsity soccer coach at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., McShane holds the USSF "A" License. His coaching resume includes work at all levels of youth, recreational, ODP, CYO, middle school and high school soccer.
Prague, Czech Republic — The fireworks exploded over the stadium after the Czech Republic defeated the Faroe Islands. The sellout crowd sang and bounced up and down in unison.
In the midst of the excitement, I felt that my decision to come to Prague to study for a soccer coach’s license and live in a real soccer culture seemed like a good one. The Czech National Team had just become the first team in the history of the European Championships to qualify with a perfect record. The team finished this feat just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, when the country gained its freedom from the Soviet Union. Even as they sang their National Anthem before the match, I could sense the pride that the Czechs felt in the success of their National Team — currently ranked second in the world, for whatever the rankings are worth.
My family and I are living in Prague for a year while I am on sabbatical from my job as teacher and soccer coach at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. It has not been easy. The language is very difficult. I thought everything was arranged for my study stay when I left Washington, but when I arrived, it took a lot of letter writing and telephoning before I was able to get started with my studies.
I came to the Czech Republic as a result of my meeting Dr. Zdenek Sivek, the technical director of the Czech Football Association, at one of the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association’s International Weeks. When I asked him about doing a study stay, he explained to me how it might be possible. My studies here fall into three main categories: studying for the CMFS "A" license, attending professional and youth matches and attending professional and youth training sessions.
In the spring, I am planning to visit several clubs outside the Czech Republic for one-week stays to observe their youth programs. I have plans to visit FC Barcelona, Munich 1860, Glasgow Celtic and Newcastle United.
The CMFS has only three levels of coaching courses: "B," "A" and Professional. The "B" is a 50-hour course taught over one week, much like USSF national license courses or the NSCAA National Diploma. The "A" license course contains 150 hours and is taught in three one-week increments (it also is recognized throughout UEFA as its Level 2 license). The Professional license course (or UEFA Level 1) lasts 450 hours and is taught over nine weeks, one week per month through the season. The Professional license is an absolute requirement to be the head coach of a professional team in Europe. Real Mallorca in Spain had to release its head coach earlier this season because he had not attained it.
The CMFS "A" license course, which I am taking, is taught at the Charles University Sports Department here in Prague. Essentially, the CMFS contracts out the course to the university. Holding the course in a university setting seems like a good idea because of the access it brings, not only to facilities but also to experts in sport psychology, sport pedagogy, sport physiology and other areas. In other words, there is easy access to expertise that impacts one’s coaching. Because the sports department has many foreign students, I am able to take my classes in English (although it means that my 150 hours will take more than three weeks as the English-speaking professor’s time is not always available during the other weeks of the course). There are 30 other coaches in the course, all Czech and all men. There are a number of former professional players in the course and even a few current second- and third-division pros who take a week off from training with their teams and train on their own when the course is meeting.
The areas of concentration in the course include practical sessions on the field, soccer theory, observation of individual and team performance in matches, sport pedagogy, teaching of soccer, physiology and fitness (both in general and specific to soccer) and psychology. Included have been sessions with the track coach, the gymnastics coach and the swimming coach. They have addressed such topics as fitness training, regeneration after a match, running technique and flexibility.
We have also visited a training session of the second division club Neratovice and discussed their weekly training cycle and spent an afternoon at Slavia Prague to observe their youth team’s training. The Neratovice assistant coach also addressed the coaches in the course on the subject of what the professional teams do during their three-month winter break.
As can be seen from the course content, I am studying a lot of topics that are not part of the coaching courses in the United States. It is important to state what is not included here. There are no sections on laws of the game, anatomy or care and prevention of injuries. My opinion is that these omissions are good; after all, if someone taking the "A" course doesn’t know the laws of the game, how well informed are they about the game? There is very little practice coaching in the course. Only five of the enrolled coaches taught sessions, which the class then discussed in terms of effectiveness. Finally, there is no discussion of the coaching methodology. Such techniques involving stopping the play, making a coaching point and then resuming the game are not covered. It seems coaches here are seen mostly as organizers rather than hands-on teachers.
In no particular order of significance, I would like to mention a few interesting ideas I have learned in the course:
- Keeping the ankle open when chipping the ball keeps it from curving (I feel like I should have known that already).
- Aerobic fitness tends to stay stable during a season, but anaerobic fitness (speed and power) declines if not maintained regularly. From the studies researchers at Charles University have done, 5 percent or more of every practice should be dedicated to speed and power maintenance and improvement.
- If you want players to give their maximum effort in repetitions, the work to rest ratio must be in the range of 1:10. In other words, if they work for 10 seconds, they must rest for 100 seconds for their muscles to be totally regenerated. Of course, there may be situations when you want your players to operate in a condition of fatigue, especially for technical mastery. For example, one of the best shooting exercises I have seen here involves shooting after doing a number of exercises. The shooter and the winger play a wall pass at the penalty arc and then the winger carries the ball out to the corner. While he is doing that, the coach gives the shooter a number of somersaults, rolls, push-ups, etc. and then gives him the command to get up, find the cross (which is rolling along the ground) and shoot first time. The lines in this exercise were long enough that the player got his needed 1:10 work to rest ratio.
- The instructors in the course placed an emphasis on pattern play or shadow play. They play 11 against an opposing goalkeeper (sometimes with two defenders) and the coach has them follow a certain passing pattern as they move down the field. A variation of this is that the team must stay within 25 meters from front to back as they work the pattern. One instructor told me his players liked this form of training as it gave them a feeling of confidence in the match as to what types of team movements can be successful. Another instructor told me that players did not like this training because they found it boring. It seems to me that its best use is for timing of runs off the ball.
From the other parts of my study stay, watching training and matches of professional and youth teams, I have made some general observations about the soccer here. Czech players, as a rule, are very sound technically. In all of the professional matches I have seen, I have yet to see a player badly mis-hit a ball. They might make the wrong decision, but I haven’t seen anybody spin a ball off his foot out of bounds. One reason I can identify for this skill is a total emphasis on technical repetition in training. In fact, at all the training sessions I have observed of Sparta’s first team (which won the first round group in the Champions League), the vast majority of training is dedicated to technical training. Another reason is that at every level balls are inflated to absolute rock hardness. Players of every age refuse to use a ball unless it is fully inflated. Fully inflated balls require that a player’s first touch and striking of the ball be perfect.
Czech teams tend to play a very "German" system with a deep sweeper, two marking backs, five midfielders and two forwards. When asked, Czechs say there are really four at the back. As they explain, the responsibilities of the flank midfielders are such that one is nominally a defender and the other a midfielder. The difference with the typical German system is that there is one defensive midfielder/stopper and two attacking midfielders (in other words, the central midfield triangle is upside down). Only one team, Baník Ostrava, plays with a flat back four zonal system (their youth team does also). The better teams, like Slavia and Sparta, have a back three with a lot of zonal qualities. Essentially they pass opposing forwards who cross the field to one another, although the sweeper is always free.
There also are common sense ideas that help the game here. Up to 12 years of age, players take corner kicks from the spot where the penalty area boundary meets the end line. Goals have a large net behind them (about 15 yards high by 25 yards wide) suspended on four poles. The net helps keep the game moving and saves balls from being lost in the woods.
There also are national U-18 and U-16 leagues. This is manageable here because the country is roughly the size, shape and population of Ohio (about 10 million inhabitants, with 1 million in Prague). The youth leagues use the standard international substitution rule and the keeper with no re-entry. While the size of the United States may make a national league impossible, surely regional leagues on a similar geographic size would provide consistent high level play. I think the substitution rule also helps because a majority of the players must play the whole game, so they are forced to be fit and to think about pacing themselves. Also, without substitutes running in and out of the game, teams don’t suffer a lack of continuity and they are forced to slow down and think.
The play, both in the professional league and in the national youth leagues, is slower than what one might see in the United States. However, it is also much more thoughtful. Even watching the U-16s, one can see there is some thought going into what they are doing. It is not the helter-skelter, mindless running that I usually see among elite youth teams in the United States.
Women’s soccer is developing here but currently stands well behind the women’s game in the United States. There is a national women’s league with first and second divisions. There also are local leagues for girls. The level of play is not nearly as high as that in the United States. When I asked if any women would be taking the professional coaching license course, the person I asked scoffed and said no. The Czechs have a long way to go in terms of quality of play by their women, as well as overcoming male dominance of the sport.
As I finished writing this article, I went to watch the 248th meeting of Slavia and Sparta. It was an excellent game, with back and forth action and an ebbing and flowing momentum for each team. The game also was marked by technical precision, interesting tactical ideas, well-organized defenses, a nasty broken leg for one player and a late game-winning goal for Slavia. The atmosphere was electric as the chuliganz (czechization of "hooligans") of each team set off smoke bombs, flares and fireworks and tore down the restraining fences at their respective ends. The riot police and their dogs in massive numbers did not seem too bothered by this. Nobody got arrested, although the police videotaped a lot. While I could have done without all of the hooligan nonsense, the match was everything I had hoped I would see on this stay in the Czech Republic.
At times, the amount of soccer knowledge I am absorbing is overwhelming. I am maintaining three different notebooks in which I am trying to keep everything straight. This is a fantastic experience and I am looking forward to sharing it not only with my own players but also with other coaches when I return to the United States next year.