Coaching students hear Schaaf's advice

Thomas Schaaf advised UEFA Pro licence students "to stay faithful to yourself and stick to your principles" at the House of European Football in Nyon.

Speaking to coaches from Belgium, Cyprus, Finland and Ukraine, the former SV Werder Bremen coach reflected on 14 years in charge at the club and gave an insight into the changes in the profession and how the role has evolved in European football.

"In football, you have to become closer to people and to create an environment of trust, being proactive to improve professionalism and helping colleagues to make decisions for themselves," said Schaaf. "There are so many areas to grasp in the role of the coach – the list is endless. You need to handle injuries to your players, the situation in the game and deal with the press. At the same time, you have to convince people in your team that you're asking for the right things.

"I want to encourage you to remain authentic and individual in your work and to create your own philosophies. You have different experiences in football and can maybe adapt different exercises that you've seen to make your own and to add extra improvements. You must always enjoy training and working with the team."

Participants on each coach education exchange course come from three or four European associations and are accompanied by their respective coach education directors. UEFA appoints experienced tutors/coach educators to work with UEFA's football education services at each event, with members of the UEFA Jira Panel also actively involved. Tutors Howard Wilkinson (England), Jacques Crevoisier (France), Nico Romeijn (Netherlands), Dany Ryser (Switzerland) and Peter Rudbæk (Denmark) led last week's studies, passing on a wealth of information and advice.

"You're here to learn, exchange views, gather information, test ideas, make contacts, think football and pose questions," UEFA's chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu told the participants. "We think this course will be very useful for you for your future careers," added UEFA head of football education services Frank Ludolph, who stressed UEFA's unbending commitment to improving coaching standards at all levels through its comprehensive activities in this area.

Wilkinson said that for the course to be successful, it had to be interactive and focus on exchange, and the technical leaders for the course from each country – Kristiaan Van Der Haegen (Belgium), Stavros Stylianou (Cyprus), Kari Ukkonen (Finland) and Anatoliy Buznik (Ukraine) – joined him on the first day to speak about coach education activities and philosophies in their respective associations, in particular learning and teaching aspects, and the qualities required to be a good coach – including leadership, decision-making, management and psychological skills.

Crevoisier examined the profile needed by the modern-day coach. Particular personal qualities would be essential in this constantly changing, high-pressure environment – courage, dedication, decision-making and management skills, loyalty, honesty and fairness, hard work, humility, mental strength and the ability to communicate. All of this is in addition to the ability to mould a winning team and to satisfy the demands of one's employers and the club's supporters. Defeats require the ability to overcome such setbacks, and a positive attitude, sense of humour and openness to criticism are other assets.

UEFA Champions League matches also gave an ideal opportunity for analysis, with Rudbæk guiding each delegation through specific tactical and technical examinations of several teams playing in games last Tuesday and Wednesday.

The session was concluded by Packie Bonner stressing the importance of the work of the goalkeeper coach in modern football. "It is important that we look at goalkeepers not apart from the team but as a part of the team," the former Republic of Ireland custodian said. "You have to know what the role of your goalkeeper coach is, what you expect of him and how well equipped he is to carry it out, and it is important that the goalkeeper coach is part of the coaching team with a specialism for goalkeeping but an understanding of how the whole team works."

"This week here empowers the coaches," said UEFA Development and Technical Assistance Committee member Jerzy Engel. "There's a lot of fresh blood and we have seen their many emotions about their future work."