Soccerscene the only online publication dedicated to the Australian and international football industry. It serves as a practical guide for those involved in the business of running a football club and bringing readers up-to-date research and development across all football matters providing insights, discussion and information related to topics that matter.
Psychologist Christopher Shen: Tips to bolster and improve your mental health
The current COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of the soccer community. Players, coaches, decision-makers, administrators, and supporters have all been impacted by the coronavirus, which can cause anxiety, distress, fatigue, a diminished ability to perform, and burnout. Scientific research has revealed several evidence-based techniques which can help Soccerscene readers bolster our mental health, during this challenging time.
Here are some tips for readers to help improve and master our mental health:
1.Savouring
Please identify ways to create savouring experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Savouring refers to strategies we can use to create, maintain, and share positive experiences.
Tips:
Please use mannerisms and gestures, such as smiling, and greeting each other.
Please celebrate and acknowledge positive events and moments with others.
Please write and read affirmations, and positive words and quotes.
Please create and listen to playlists of music and sounds which are uplifting and inspiring.
Each night with a beloved person, please identify three positive events that transpired during the day, as well as the causes of these events.
2.Gratitude
Please adopt a positive attitude of gratitude and appreciation towards yourself and others.
When we are grateful and express gratitude to others, we create positive thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and decrease negativity. A helpful practice is to show gratitude towards our family members, teammates, coaches, staff, and loved ones. When we show gratitude and compassion towards ourselves, we can often withstand challenges and frustrations.
Tips:
Please write a positive message to someone important in your life, expressing gratitude. Send this message, or deliver this message directly to the important person.
Please identify a regret in your life. Please write a reassuring message to yourself, expressing compassion and understanding towards yourself about this regret.
Please identify an opportunity to offer kindness and assistance to someone in need. What can you do to help someone else – especially during this Covid-19 pandemic?
3.Mindfulness
Mindfulness refers to a psychological state in which individuals experience an awareness of objects in their immediate environment, as well as their current thoughts and feelings.
Individuals who demonstrate mindfulness direct their attention to their present surroundings and their psychological state, but engage in experiential rather than analytical processing. That is, mindfulness refers to sustained or frequent awareness and attention to current and ongoing experiences. People who practice mindfulness develop greater self-esteem, concentration, emotional intelligence, and resilience.
Tips:
Every hour or so, please sit quietly for a few minutes with your eyes closed and focus your attention on your breath.
Then, direct your attention towards your surroundings – What you hear, what you smell, what you can taste, and how your body feels.
Then focus on your emotions, and thoughts.
Mindfulness practice can be used by Soccerscene readers in your pre-game preparations to develop focus, reduce anxiety, and build resilience.
Christopher Shen is a Psychologist, based in Melbourne, Australia. He can be contacted at: www.christophershen.com.au
The Professional Footballers Association (PFA) and La Trobe University have confirmed a partnership that will see the University open up an amazing opportunity for students to take part in a course regarding the development of women’s football domestically.
It will be awarded to an exceptional applicant with an interest in the development and success of female footballers in Australia.
Applicants should have a passion for skill development, women’s sports, and a desire to understand the factors contributing to success in sports. The research will add value to the player members of Professional Footballers Australia.
PFA released a statement on social media about this offer:
“The unique PhD opportunity will focus on advancing the development and professionalisation of women’s football in Australia and will be based near the Home of the Matildas.”
Here are the details of the course: La Trobe Industry Research Scholarship (LTIRS): The Development and Professionalisation of Women’s Football in Australia.
Scholarship Amount: $34,000 per annum, for three and a half years. Additional fee relief included.
Opening Date: 25/09/2024
Closing Date: 21/10/2024
Who is Eligible: Future PhD candidates, Australian citizens, International students, Permanent residents and New Zealand citizens.
Location: Melbourne Campus
Payment Method: Fortnightly stipend
To be eligible for this scholarship, applicants must:
Meet the entrance requirements for the proposed PhD course.
Not be receiving another scholarship worth more than 75% of the stipend rate for the same purpose.
Have an academic background relevant to the project, such as sport science or performance psychology.
Preferred Qualifications:
Have experience working in professional or organised sports.
Are familiar with relevant research methods, including qualitative approaches such as interviews, focus groups, and concept mapping.
Will be enrolled full-time and conducting research at a La Trobe University campus.
Have completed a Masters by Research or have a significant body of research, such as an honours research thesis or lead authorship of a peer-reviewed publication, assessed at a La Trobe Masters by research standard of 75 or above.
Important Notes:
The supervisors for this project are A/Prof Clare MacMahon (LTU), Dr. Luke Wilkins (LTU), and Brett Taylor (PFA).
Applicants must submit a 1-page cover letter outlining their interest and suitability for the project, along with a brief CV.
A Working With Children Check is required before commencing the position (the applicant is responsible for the cost).
Selection Process:
Applications will be reviewed carefully by the University.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview with representatives from La Trobe University and Professional Footballers Australia.
Final decisions will be based on the application and interview.
Successful candidates will be notified in December 2024 with an offer for both candidature and scholarship.
Conclusion:
The PFA Matildas report released after the 2023 Women’s World Cup suggested that the PFA were going to aggressively push for professionalisation in the Ninja A-League following damning numbers showing most of the league is required to work a second job whilst also committing themselves to almost 30 weeks a year of training and matches.
Every single Matildas player in that World Cup squad started their career at the A-League and the lack of funding and help has led the league to be so far behind its international counterparts, with almost all top Australian talents choosing to move abroad.
This PhD course is a big first step in understanding what steps are required to take the domestic women’s first division to a suitable standard and will do so by involving more young, intelligent minds outside of the PFA to gain an outside perspective.
The Association of Football Coaches and Scouts (AFCAS) have recently undergone its first recruitment and player scouting workshop, focusing on creating scouting reports while also learning footballing scouting skills and techniques to assess players.
These online workshops are taught by AFCAS Managing Director Ged Searson, who has 15 years of experience to his name as a football scout and almost 30 years of experience as a football coach.
Throughout his footballing journey, Searson got an incredible opportunity to work alongside legendary manager Sir Bobby Robson, while also working in the English Premier League with West Ham United and most recently with the Malawi national team during the 2022 African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
In an interview with Soccerscene, Searson reflects on his experiences as a football scout, what it was like to learn from Sir Bobby Robson, the creation of AFCAS and how he is trying to improve football scouting not only in Europe, but in Australia as well.
How did you start working as a football coach and scout?
Ged Searson: I started coaching when I was 19 due to injury, I wanted to learn and study and hopefully make a career working in football.
I went to monthly coaching seminars across the UK and Europe and I met up with different coaches at different levels. I just went in with an open book and thought I’m going to learn.
At the same time, I had my own academy in Essex across the road from West Ham’s training ground, working with six-year-olds up to the age of 16. I did that for 13 years, built the program and I had about 350 players a week coming to training at one point.
Later on, I started to work in non-league and semi-professional football. Any club that didn’t have money and was struggling in the relegation zones would ring me up and I would try to get them out of trouble, which was a learning experience.
I didn’t want to continue down the academy coaching route anymore because it wasn’t financially viable for me at the time and then I ended up becoming an opposition scout.
However, I will say to become a scout you must learn and then develop the rest of your career. You must go the extra mile, get off your back and try to learn.
My first opposition report was about Brentford, back when they were in League Two. My friend was working for Barnet and he was doing video analysis and he said can we see your report?
I said I’ll send it over but I’m sure your scouts can do it far better than me and he replied we haven’t got any scouts.
Ian Hendon was the manager at the time at Barnet and just started his coaching career. He said he liked the report and asked me if I could do this every week and that was how I started my career as a football scout.
What were some of the highlights throughout your football career?
Ged Searson: Ian Hendon got his big break where he was asked to become the assistant manager at West Ham United to work under his old manager, Sam Allardyce, and recommended me to the club.
The funny thing was that West Ham was my team as a kid and it was a pure coincidence that I got to work for my own club. I worked as an opposition scout and also did recruitment scouting.
In my first year we got promoted from the Championship, winning the playoffs at Wembley. When you think about it, I won a trophy with the team I support, how good is that?
I spent the next two years in the Premier League which was great and I absolutely loved it.
I left West Ham after three years and was offered to become the chief scout of Grimsby Town. I did the opposition scout reports and the recruitment which I’d learned through my time in the Premier League.
We broke the points tally with the most points in the club’s history within one season and had the best away record of any team in the country. We got to the playoffs finals but lost when it went to penalties, which was hard to take.
In regards to my international career, I got a phone call from the technical director of Malawi at the time, Mario Marinica, who I’ve worked with in the past. He asked if I could come over and do your opposition scouting and create a recruitment and scouting team for us.
Heading into AFCON in Cameroon, we were complete and total outsiders. But because we had put together this recruitment team of the guys I’ve worked with and an analysis team with the scouts that I taught, we had a secret weapon.
We were more organised than any other team going into the tournament and we made history. We beat Zimbabwe and we drew with Senegal, who actually won the tournament that year.
We went through to the last 16 and faced Morocco who beat us 2-1, but it was overall a really good experience.
Ged Searson at Leyton Orient F.C. team photo. (Images supplied by Ged Searson).
What was it like learning from Sir Bobby Robson?
Ged Searson: I was very fortunate to be able to go to PSV Eindhoven when Sir Bobby Robson was coach.
I just contacted him and said, can I come and study with you and learn from you?
He said absolutely, you’re more than welcome to come over and that was it.
I was 24 at the time and was a young coach. He just took me under his wing.
I was on the training ground with him every day and he had me on the pitch next to him when he was doing his sessions. The supporters thought I was his son or something and they couldn’t work out who this young lad was next to him.
He looked after me and had quite a few visits there and really got to understand more about the game.
He was very old fashioned, a true gentleman and a football enthusiast.
There’s lots of lovely tales about him being a nice guy and giving his time to people. I hear those stories and I know they’re true because he did exactly the same as me.
How was AFCAS created and what made you lean into teaching football coaching and scouting to others?
Ged Searson: The English FA started to bring out their Talent ID courses and I saw it advertised and thought I better go and do it. They were doing a scouting course and I was interested.
However, I spent three days on a scouting course that had no scouting on it. It was mainly regulations and safeguarding but there wasn’t any technical scouting in any form. Of course, I learnt some things, but it wasn’t a scouting course.
There was a small section on opposition scouting, but the guy teaching hadn’t really done any opposition scouting and I think I’d done about 650 games as an opposition scout.
Then there was something setting in motion and in the back of my mind I was thinking, I could write something here that could be helpful for scouts.
It was maybe two or three years later I decided to put something together that was technical and could teach the skills that scouts do need.
I thought I’m going to teach this from a chief scout’s view and we started off at Emirates Stadium in London, where I taught my first class.
I had 15-16 people there; whether that would be coaches, agents, scouts or anyone who’s just interested in football.
I started teaching tactical scouting, then was asked to teach recruitment scouting and that’s where it took off.
Ged Searson and the coaches winning an award. (Images Supplied by Ged Searson).
What made you decide to provide these online workshops for people in Australia?
Ged Searson: I did a few morning sessions during lockdown and there seemed to be an awful lot of coaches that were quite interested in the Melbourne area.
The guys seemed desperate to do something and they thought coming to do a workshop seemed to be appropriate.
I met a really good group of guys and they did about three levels with me as well.
For whatever reason, I drifted away and I didn’t do the UK morning workshops. Then recently, I had a few people asking if I would do those workshops again and it was actually agents from Australia.
I said I was happy to do that and so I started lining up the morning sessions again.
From conversations I’ve had with agents, there seems to be players at the moment that are slipping through the net and are being missed out.
They said there’s a need for scouting here to help players get identified and move them into clubs and progress from there.
That’s why I’m trying to help scouting develop in Australia and maybe clubs could use scouts more to try and make sure players don’t slip through the net and help those guys get an opportunity with clubs.
What will we see next from AFCAS moving forward and will we see you make an appearance in Australia?
Ged Searson: The next stage for AFCAS is to now get these courses across the world.
We’ve created an interactive course where you are learning the necessary skills to observe techniques and assess performances as a scout and a coach.
It would be nice to go over to Australia and do a workshop there if there was any interest by a club. It would be a fantastic opportunity.
