E49 | Exklusive Einblicke bei PSV Eindhoven | Mitch van Gellekom {Englisch} - Podcast Fußballtrainer

[Applause] the kind podcast from advaned football English Mitch days show uh Eng hi Mitch nice of you to take the time why don't you give us a brief insight into everyday life and your position at PSV thank you first of all for having me um my everyday life is super simple I'm a a nice guy that lives in aov and works for PSV so I'm basically doing the dream life being manager of the coaching Academy and soccer school um so my my daily job is here at the PSV Academy making sure we do cool things we create cool things um similar to what you guys do we also record our sessions now and then and we uh just um share the knowledge that we have within our Academy for players and and coaches can you can you tell us um how you've become this kind of in this kind of position like do you coach yourself or your ex football player what is it I need to disappoint you there I'm not a football player I like to play football but I'm not good enough to become a to be well to became a football player in the past so I always try to um to still kind of create a job out of my passion so years ago years ago I started with a different football club called Fortuna sit in the south of the country it's it's my hometown team so the team I always supported as a kid I basically started there with doing some marketing and stuff because the this is a very small club that just got promoted when I got in and they had no budget only 12 people working there so um yeah I just started doing some marketing some videos to kind of help them building up their brand a little bit uh and eventually there was a position after four years of fortuna there was a position here at PSV and I just enrolled in it and I was lucky enough to um to be cool enough to uh to become part of this of this wonderful Club um yeah and now it's been three years here building from scratch this whole International Department that we have with the coaching Academy with the soccer school that was already there um creating a small Empire of PSV in the world nice okay then let's just uh dive right into it for for our listeners who may not be as familiar can you briefly explain what like the PSV interest days are and why there a unique opportunity for coaches and trainers uh to looking up their skills yeah of course um I think the interest days are a unique product within the world of football because we actually open up the doors of our Academy for every coach that wants to learn and to develop them themselves into the next step app we always talk about creating stars together and this is one of the pillars right create new coaches all together or develop the skills of of of those coaches that come and visit us but in the meantime also develop the skills of our own coaches because we truly believe that everyone has their own opinion and their own background in football that's why the game is so fun that's why we can talk about it every day because everyone have their own vision and within the interest days we open up the academy for two days um and it's not just a classroom thing where we do some presentations you need to listen listen to it and eventually you leave we try to really integrate everyone for two days in our Academy U we always start by explaining what the PSV DNA or at least the PSV Academy DNA is combined with our football principles and then after that we go to the pitch to to observe the training sessions to see if it all makes sense if it's all connected to what we said in the presentations we observe a match in the night and analyze this one as well to see again if that's connected to the the things we do and then after those two days we really hope that people felt for two days that they belong within the academy and that they were part of an ongoing process here at the Academy so I think that's something that is really unique that all our coaches participant all our coaches share their opinion um they're open to to basically everyone's questions even though when you stop them in the hallway and ask them like why did you do it this way in the training session they will always explain it to you so I think that's why it's a unique experience for every coach that really wants to develop himself or herself uh we already been to PSV early this year and and Saku and I we we often talk about it here in the podcast but as well on on LinkedIn um can you for for coaches who are not that familiar with like how is well PV is knowing for thinking in indidual career path and using idps like something like individual development plans can you tell us more about how this philosophy is implemented in your daily work with the with the players of course so the idps is basically the whole red line of the academy and of the Journey of a player which then again is combined to the Five Pillars that we have in the uh in the academy and the main pillar that is connected to the IDP I would say is the outstanding ability so we really focus on the outstanding ability of a player so what is his super strength that's basically the word we use to those to those players when they're eight 9 years old what eventually can bring him or her to the first team and then let's try to focus on this let's say it's an eight now and try to make it a 10 so he can actually be in the first team and get that transfer to Sevilla or Chelsea or Liverpool or wherever um because that's the main thing of our Academy right we need to sell players to eventually live um so this whole IDP plan focuses on that and then every week an individual pathway for every player is created so where should he train is he trading today with the u12s is he trading with the u10s as a u11 player for instance is he playing his matches on on Saturday or the match the upcoming Saturday with u21 or is he u131 or is he playing with U1 to be be the best player on the pitch do we need to challenge him more and basically the main focus of this whole plan is to keep the best players in the u12s the best players when they're in the u18s because what we saw in the past is that that the best player in the u12s eventually might get lazy and then the second best and third best player develop themselves way more because they want to be the best um they develop themselves and eventually kind of overtake him uh and become the best so then you lose a lot of talent a l of a lot of potential so that's why we created this whole IDP program combined with the outstanding ability combined on the other hand also with ownership because the kids need to decide what type of skill they want to train in which week obviously together with the coach but they are deciding what they want to train to again create a specific feeling and a specific idea in their head that their own career is in their hands uh early this year I also had a podcast with Vincent your 9 head coach for for all the the German listeners it's uh in in German so I will put it in the show notes um and he's like exceptional like I think as a coach on the pitch but also as a person we we met him at the the first round of the interest days um another highlight of your work is the clear expectations of the coaches how does PSV ensure that all coaches like internalize and implement the Phil philosophy and goals of the of the club how is it how is it possible how is it working well for the coaches we have a very clear structured game plan um with let's say 70% structure 30% freedom to kind of let them do what they want to do but then also for them there is a specific pathway also individualized pathway what's the best plan for them what is what are their goals some guys tell us like we want I want to be the best you 13 coach of the country and they might stay eight years nine years a you 13 Coach and become better and better some guys want to be assistant coach of the first team or want to be head coach of the first first team so there's also a pathway for them so um looking at like Vincent who had his own story right that he shared in the podcast and I I'm pretty sure everyone should listen that podcast because it's a very interesting and inspiring story being a player getting injured becoming a coach and eventually you're a first team coach in wolburg uh when you're 23 24 so I think that's an amazing story as well but we have more of those coaches that are highly talented um within our Academy um an example could be Vincent's assistant Colin um he came in when he was 17 been with the club now for nine 10 years came up with the PSV skillbook developed himself from a soccer school coach doing commercial camps to now being assistant with the 19s and individual coach with the first team so yeah there's a lot of freedom for those guys to develop themselves to develop their own game plan to develop their own ideas about football but then again there is still the structure of the club with the playing principles that they kind of need to fit in if that makes sense some of some of some of the skillbox videos You'll also find at our platform so make sure to uh check them out um it is often said that at PSV individual Excellence kind of leads to team success like how do you manage to ensure that the focus on the individual players also leads to a team to a successful team how do you manage well that's also a vision of the club so the club believes that when you create another pillar adaptability and adaptable players they always know what to do so again there is the structure of their player profile there is the structure of what they need to do and of the the game principles so every player knows what they need to do and uses their outstanding ability to be best in what they do but eventually that is combined um with the adaptability that we create so in the younger age groups for instance like I said the players never know where they're training so it can be that on Monday they're training with one team the day often they have uh 12 different teammates and a different coach in their training session but then again on the Saturday we mix up all these kids that we have over the country and different Development Centers in different teams with a different coach again who has his own 30% of freedom and and and vision so those players become adaptable again So eventually we believe that if you put the best individual players together with with their outstanding ability if you combine their player profiles the right way they should be adaptable enough to become a good team and eventually win prices and thank God we see that throughout the whole Academy that we still compete for tournaments uh International and National ones the leagues we we kind of still win every season we have multiple team becoming Champion as well so we do win thank God although we still focus on the individual because those three four individuals every year that make step to the first team is like I said before where where the money is and where we kind of um well make the next step in development MH let's let's dive into the the interest days um a little deeper um something that like really impresses me and also the other guys from from the team um was the the the PV campus what what is it what makes it so special to to train and also to to visit as a as a um as a coach like something like the the PSV campus the the backdrop here is amazing right so you walk through a forest you can hear the birds in the morning even in the winter uh we have amazing pitches so the views are incredible facility wise incredible we have everything and what we always say is indivi focusing on individual development is like you need to focus on the tree instead of the Forest right so that's why we build our whole campus in the forest so we can focus on the trees on the pitch um we have an amazing atmosphere it's calm it's quite quite close still to the city and and connected to the city itself the building itself on the academy is still inspired by by Phillips the company that founded us back in 1913 so you have the indust industrial look and feel um to kind of stay connected with the Heritage but then all the modern facilities uh the gym the gymnastics Hall I hope everyone will come and visit us at the interest day so they can experience it themselves because it's quite hard to explain how unique this feels and then while you saw it yourself if you are looking at a a training session or a match and you see the the forest it's it's something magical last year I think we had a match in the winter and then in this environment it started to snow during the match it looks incredible right so um yeah maybe you should explain as a as a visitor you came over for two days how what what's so special on this campus it's it's uh it's like uh it's like Hogwarts for for football um you know like you just said you you drive through through through the forest a little then you come on this uh on this campus and it's not like that it's it looks like a closed job and you're not allowed to to look uh nowhere because most of of the materials are like glass and you can see through even through the through the head coaches uh offices you can see them sit together and uh talk about things in in um in bigger groups and everyone and that that's really something that that struck me because in Germany in general it's it's different like the first person you meet I'm not sure who who it was um like at the at the entrance is like so much more friendlier than than German uh most of the German nlet uh like um employees are um and you feel like you feel very welcome it Everything feels warm at the compass and but but it still is this this Thrive to to Excellence and to to develop the players to develop the coaches you can feel it every every second and there are small gimmicks like at the at the at the Cen where you can see how to fuel during a rest day how to fuel and eat uh to after a game or what what to eat on a on a game day and it's it's it's really special and really makes you think like okay this is like a a dream place to work as a coach but also develop as a as a player yeah and I think like you said with the glass that kind of um is deeply connected to what we want to do right share everything be open um that's why we created this event be open it's just a game of football eventually everyone knows that everyone wants to play the same way nowadays with a high press attractive football so we are not scared to share our game principles and the way we train them because we truly believe that eventually the coach and the players will make the difference um that's why this building is so transparent like also like you said every office has glass so everyone always knows what everyone is doing not to check up on everybody and say like hey you're doing this wrong but mainly to get inspired and to see like ah if the un9 head coach is putting in this much effort and this much hours of work to become where he is right now same with u23s then me as a new you3 coach for instance should do the same because they're all working their ass off to become eventually on the spots that they are so it's more to inspire than to also check up each other and I think that's the strength of this region of the country but also the strength of this club and the people that work within this club they truly believe that they they want to help each other there is of course there is competition and every coach want to be wants to be on a specific position and wants to be better than the other coach but it won't be in a in a dirty way if you if you know what I mean and it will be open and let me just help you there shouldn't be a difference that I played 100 games for the national team and you came through uh as a PA teacher that became a football coach we're here on the same goal we have the same goal that's developing talent and we have the same vision so let's just work together and help each other so that's I think an Incredible strength that we have within our club during the the interest day days there's also the opportunity to observe a lot of Youth trainings uh on the campus what can participants like expect from this experience and how is training at PSV different from maybe other other clubs uh we we used to know yeah so looking at the structure usually have a Monday and a Tuesday session with the interest days right so the Monday afternoon is when we have the first sessions of the week so those are more I think the oldfashioned team training sessions looking back on Saturday's game um also a bit training on the things that went wrong in the Saturday game to to help out and to build then on the Tuesday we start with the individual trading sessions those are twice a week Tuesday and Thursday so with the U13 14 15 16 we have combined training sessions with lots of coaches on the pitch lots of different stations and like I said in the beginning the kids kind of can choose their own outstanding ability they want to work on so if someone wants to work on uh the end phase and scoring goals uh he will be more in a shooting drill or like a end phase drill where I don't know someone that wants to be in a positional game can focus on that so you have lots of small groups of kids with two or three coaches getting a lot of individual um focus and individual feedback so I think the Tuesday training sessions kind of outline the whole idea okay you have the ownership with the kid that decides I need to develop this skill this week then you have the facility that kind of facilities every everything with a good exercise and enough coaches to give you the individual feedback and then we have enough time to do it so those sessions are an hour and a half um before that they even have some gym or uh motor skill development also again focused on what they need in a specific type of their growth phase etc etc so those sessions are a bit more structured like that obviously um it can always be a bit different with the u19s since they they participate in the youth league so their sessions can look a bit different on a Monday or a Tuesday if they have either the game for the Youth League on the Tuesday or the Wednesday but if that happens in in the upcoming interest days week that could be a very interesting thing to see again as well because that's more like a first team training session preparing for a matet a minus one or two depending on the day of the week so also very interesting to see like uh coaches that participate will also have the chance to learn from PCV experts we already talked about it um in different areas such as match analys analysis scouting something about the the game and individual principles what are the most important insights they can take away from these presentations in in your words um I think mainly again how the PSV DNA and the way of working influences all the specific groups and all the specific uh specialist that we have so how is everything again connected to that one one individual player how does the guy that does the video is connected to helping out that one individual player with his outstanding ability with his Focus points how is the mental support helping out um how does cognitive development we didn't even talk about it yet how is the whole cognitive part being influenced but also being trained and coached because this is something we work on already for the last nine 10 years developed our own whole philosophy on cognitive development and I truly believe we are leading in that in the world at the moment how we train those players with their own programs both on a PC but also on the pitch and then combine even those things so how are all the different aspects combined to developing a player and then eventually you get the chance to ask all these Specialists how they see it um and a lot of those things are not even just presentations we tried to make it a bit interactive and make it a bit Workshop wise so with the motor skills uh workshop for instance uh he has some exercise that the coaches eventually have to do themselves in the gymnastics hallway to make it a bit more fun to make it a bit more light but also to make it more understandable in instead of just a presentation so I think that's kind of a long answer to your question get get it get it like you you just talked about it the the very Innovative approaches uh at PSV and something I'm not sure who was it uh told us last time we've been there uh something about the the work spaces for parents um um can you explain what it is and why it also makes the campus so special it's nice because now we can take away another uh one of our pillars which is dedication um and we always we have the five pillars and dedication is also one of them and besides the obvious ones the dedication of the player and the coach we also need the parents to be on board because Foundation phase training starts every day at 5 the players will arrive around 4: they can come from quite far let's say an hour drive so that means their parents already need to leave work at maybe 2:30 be home at 3: to pick up the kid from school and drive up to the campus to eventually arrive So within our Cen we have lots of desks lots of tables where all the parents can sit and work um to finish up their jobs as well because the kid is not making any Millions yet so the parents still need to work right so we what we see on on those daily well basically on daily basis a lot of parents doing the final phone calls for work doing final Zoom meetings or answering emails working on projects from all over our campus um and I think that as a club if you demand the kids to be there at a specific time and you want to have talents all over the world or all over the country you have to facilitate something for the parents to eventually make it happen because those kids need to train those parents need to work um so that's why we always make sure that there is enough working spaces that the Wi-Fi is strong enough that there is coffee or water whatever they need and that that they can can work on their normal lives and their normal day jobs because eventually well we all know that most of those kids won't make it to the first team and make millions so it's just a normal life that needs to continue Mitch two last uh questions like uh the last one is for coaches who are now considering attending the interest days like from all you just said and all that that Saku and I said in previous podcast what would you tell them to convince them that this event is a like a must for them development but also like for Curious coaches who just want to see excellence in work I think that after all the information you guys shared and all the things we talked about now if you're still doubting you shouldn't come um because then you're not open to to get inspired um but Jokes Aside uh I would say it's just an amazing opportunity to kind of have a look around in uh one of the best cies of Europe um okay our first team is not Manchester City Barcelona but that also makes it easier for us to be one of the bestm in the world because we really know that we are a development country as the Netherlands we don't have Dortmund or B Munich we are a Development Club so we know that we are let's say the the third step in a six layer football career or a five layer career and then our club would be in step three Financial wise budget wise but we are number one in developing talents that are going to the top clubs in Europe at the moment so if you want to have a look on how we do it and and and get inspired a bit and we know that we have a big budget with the academy we have top facilities and we know that lots of coaches that visit us are in smaller clubs and don't have the possibilities to do the things we do basically just because of the budget and the facilities we always try to make it smaller and if you as a coach can eventually take two or three small things out that you can Implement in your own work that would be that would be it we don't say we're we're not the Arrogant Dutch guys that say okay this is the golden egg and this is the only way to do it we always say we want to inspire you and just share the story that we have and show you how we do it also with the online courses that we do just it's an inspiration and not like this is how you need to do it and I think that is what this event is next to that I think for every coach it's an amazing opportunity to also talk with like-minded people I think you guys do an amazing event with the day before as well you mix up a lot of coaches that don't know each other um to kind of see what happens there so networking Wise It's also an amazing opportunity to meet like-minded people we we only have a few spots left but we we Al also want to give it a to a broader audience um like the the experience in the chance and there was one question already from some coach who just uh register h himself is it possible to get tickets for the Ajax PSV game that is on the weekend before the interest days I know it's super hard because I know it's at Ajax so you're not uh into it with the connections do you see any chance or do coaches just have to book them by the themselves yeah for us it's it's it's probably impossible because um a lot of things happen the last years um so we're not even bringing away fans this this this time out same like last year um that's something the mayor decided so I can't really de Deep dive into that because I don't know what the conversation was so via US it's hardly impossible we have no staff going there we have no fans going there so it it's almost impossible so every coach that wants to go I would recommend to go online to the Ajax ticket website and try to get their way in um it's probably it's a top top game so it's probably hard to get tickets but I think it's worth it because even though a is struggling the last two seasons this is a game that is always special and always is is a big one um but short answer it's impossible for us to arrange and help out with those for everyone who is like but still want to be in the Netherlands for the game uh einthoven has a I don't know what is the street called where all the bars and all the uh drinking spots at once if you still want to have the the Dutch feeling and uh watch the PSV Ajax game there's there are plenty of opportunities like with sports boss so I would recommend to go there 100% more than go to Amsterdam for the game itself of course a live game in the stadium is something special but I'm pretty sure that that street will be packed um we had amazing parties there as well when we became champion last last May so the street will be packed all bars will be shown it it's a cool way to blend in with the locals have a beer and just scream at a at a TV screen right so why not nice Mitch then uh thank you very much for your time uh thanks for the insights uh you just just gave us and uh really looking forward to see see you in November and if there's anything else uh for you coaches now uh just hit me or Sak up and we will answer your questions and if there are any questions we can't answer I will forward them to to Mitch thank you very much Mitch feeling DK feeling d [Applause]