Carl (or as his friends call him, Carlos) has always been involved in or around football. He starting playing in the U8s in Canberra with Weston Creek, and then began refereeing for pocket money as well as falling into coaching at the age of 12. He was lucky enough to coach the same U8 boys team all the way through to U12 Division 1, even managing to win a Kanga Cup with them. After that he moved onto coaching U16 and women’s reserve grade teams.
“I’ve been lucky that football has been such a strong part of my life. It provided me with a lot of confidence and the ability to communicate at all ages to different types of people.”
After moving to Sydney, Carl lost contact with the coaching aspect, but recently he became re-engaged again as both his children started playing at Seaforth in the U7 and U10 age groups. Currently he coaches the U10 Lions and is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of players.
“I’ve always enjoyed the preparation behind each training session. I started collecting training ideas back when there were some programs available on VHS and found them to be a great resource at that time. Obviously these days there is a wealth of information on social media and YouTube, but what is applicable and how could I make use of this was my thought. Then Eugene from MWFA came down to mentor me at my training session last year and he helped me answers those questions.”
In the past year Carl has completed the Skill Training Certificate, as well as joining the Future Coaches Program.
“Both of these programs have allowed me to understand the way that kids learn. I realised that by having a strong focus on engaging the kids through asking questions, getting them to demonstrate for each other, and tailoring the session to their level makes a world of difference. In the past I would have also been a reactive coach i.e. what went wrong on the weekend and how could we rectify that through training. Now I have fundamentally changed the way that I think about my preparation, whether for pre-season or during the season.
Having a strong set of mentors and other great coaches to network and collaborate with from the Future Coaches Program has allowed Carl to reflect on all the different ways he and all others coaches can help bridge the gap between the development of players in our country and our own clubs and teams, with what happens in other parts of the world such as South America and Europe.
“I am now looking forward to the 2023 season with a sense of excitement. I feel far more prepared and have put together a training program that aligns with the FFA National Curriculum. Each session is now more ‘game based’ so the kids spend more time in game-like situations. It also gives me more time to apply my coaching points. I strongly suggest any new coach look at the coaching section on the MWFA website.”
MWFA is looking forward to seeing Carl inspire his players, as well as applying all of his new learnings and making a big difference to their development in the coming seasons.
Look out for more articles on other MWFA Future Coaches over the coming months.
