- Jed identifies the lack of volume, variation, and variety in games as a significant challenge, especially in youth player development. He discusses his experience in Ottawa, Canada, where the club was not part of the national talent pathway, making it tough to find adequate competition for player development.

- To counteract this, they tried various approaches, including altering player numbers, pitch dimensions, and tactics. They also traveled to compete against top-flight teams to provide a diverse and challenging experience.

- Jed talks about how his own values can be a challenge in his coaching career. He can be triggered by people who don't share the same core values of humility, respect, and commitment to excellence.

- He emphasizes the importance of creating a shared value system with the team to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.

Jed acknowledges that the world is changing, and coaches must adapt to the evolving nature of player needs and expectations.

- The discussion brings up the concern that current youth development systems might not adequately prepare players for the challenges of professional football.

- Jed believes in providing "patches" of intense competitive experiences to young players to simulate the real pressures of professional soccer.

- Antoine Coupland: Became the youngest Canadian professional player, overcoming rejection from an MLS Academy six months prior.

- Benedict Florent and Elage: Signed by the Vancouver Whitecaps during the COVID-19 pandemic when most sports activities were suspended.

- Sadie Sider: Rose from regional-level talent to a professional player in France's top women's division.

Unrecognized Talent: Many of the players Jed coached were not initially recognized by established systems like Team Ontario or Canada Soccer, challenging conventional talent identification processes.

Personal Growth: In the case of Sadie Sider, overcoming adversity—such as a foot injury—through sheer determination and self-discipline was transformative.

- Antoine: Impenetrable confidence and the ability to turn doubt into motivation.

- Benedict and Elage: Physical dominance from a young age and the need for support to deal with inconsistencies.

- Sadie: A high-performance mindset fueled by a clear vision and commitment.

Malleable Talent: Jed believes in the "late bloomer" concept, where a player may not show exceptional skills at an early age but can still achieve significant growth and success.

The Role of the Coach: Jed acknowledges that while he played a part in these success stories, ultimately, the drive must come from the players themselves. He sees his role as facilitating rather than dictating their development.

Holistic Development: The podcast emphasizes the need for a broader perspective in coaching that goes beyond game wins to consider the long-term development and well-being of players.

Influence from Other Coaches: Jed drew inspiration from Tim Lees and Pepijn Lijnders, who had developed curriculums for unopposed technical work.

Technique Filming and Analysis: Jed became interested in the detailed breakdown of players' kicking techniques, thanks in part to insights from another coach, Bartek, who specialized in free kicks.

Personal Growth as a Coach: The constraints of COVID-19 made Jed more detailed in his coaching approach, making him realize the benefits of individual technique-based coaching.

Five Components of Striking the Ball: Jed mentions breaking down the technique of striking the ball into five components, emphasizing the benefits of using video analysis to fine-tune these techniques.

Managing Player Expectations: Discusses the challenge of managing a diverse squad where not everyone is satisfied with their role or game-time, especially during the season.

Setting Professional Boundaries: He admits to mistakes in setting boundaries early in his coaching career and says that it is crucial for maintaining trust, especially in a professional setting.

Graham Potter’s Challenge at Chelsea: Jed reflects on the difficulty of managing a large squad, like Graham Potter did at Chelsea, noting that keeping everyone engaged and valued is an uphill task.

Learning from Mistakes: Jed shares a specific instance where he failed to understand the social dynamics of a training exercise, leading to a strained relationship with a senior player. This served as a learning experience on the importance of observing and understanding team culture before making changes.

Importance of Preparation: If he could go back, Jed would have asked for video footage of training sessions and spent a week observing the team before jumping into active coaching.

Introduction to Ottawa Futuro: James Nash, who was then the MK Dons U14 coach, introduced Jed to Ottawa Futuro. Nash's connection to both clubs facilitated the eventual meeting between Jed and Dan Micciche.

Dan Micciche's Influence: When Dan finally came to Ottawa Futuro, he served as Jed's assistant in a game against Montreal Impact. Dan had a meticulous approach to creativity and insisted that it should permeate every aspect of coaching and training.

Creative Training Environments: Dan critiqued the way the youth were organized during summer camps, arguing that if the club is about creativity, the kids should be engaged in activities that foster it, not sitting in straight lines.

Aligned Philosophies: Because Jed had studied Dan Micciche's work closely prior to meeting him, their eventual collaboration seemed almost predestined. Their philosophies were aligned, particularly around the importance of creativity in youth development.

Jed acknowledges the significant influence Dan Micciche has had on his coaching career, particularly in emphasizing the importance of creativity in all aspects of training and player development.

High Pressure Situation: With full stadiums and strong community support, the lack of wins was particularly agonizing. The stretch of eight winless games was the longest in Jed's professional career, amplifying the pressure on him.

Strategic Changes: Realizing that his existing forward, Aiden Daniels, was more of a 'number 10' who wanted to create rather than run in behind, Jed decided to focus on developing a young striker, Tiago Coimbra, who had "unlimited energy" but inconsistent performance. Jed spent an entire week coaching Tiago intensively.

Influences and Role Models: Using players like Patrick Bamford as role models, Jed helped Tiago understand how to make intelligent runs, create space, and be effective in the air. This individual coaching was instrumental in Tiago's remarkable performance in game nine, earning him 'team of the week' honors twice and making him a fan favorite.

Tactical Adjustments: Despite dominating possession with skilled players like Lorenzo Caligari, the team had been struggling to make runs behind the opposition defense. Tiago’s newly honed skills provided the missing layer, helping to balance the team’s attack and stretch the opposition backline.

Emotional Satisfaction: For Jed, the most rewarding aspect was his belief in Tiago's potential and seeing that faith validated. Tiago not only helped the team win but also embodied values like humility, hard work, and respect.

Sticking to the Plan: Despite the mounting pressure, Jed remained committed to his core strategies. He focused on adding a layer to his tactics, rather than making drastic changes, proving successful in the end.

The ninth game served as a turning point, validating Jed's coaching strategies and providing immense personal and professional satisfaction. It was a defining moment that underscored the importance of tactical nuance, player development, and holding one’s nerve under pressure.

1. A visible pathway for players' development and future.

2. A focus on holistic player development, encompassing values and behaviors.

3. A true sense of belonging within the club.

4. The use of ritualistic behaviors, like slogans or handshakes, to cement the culture.

Jed stresses the importance of connection before correction, suggesting that building relationships with players is a critical first step for any coach.

Jed's one piece of advice for aspiring soccer coaches is to "connect before correct." He emphasizes the importance of forming genuine connections with players before diving into tactical corrections.

I think with most coaches that there's normally a standout team that you watch as a fan. So for me that team was Barcelona 2011, a team with Messi, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Dani Alves, Pique - you remember, you go through that team, you remember that team. It is the team that played the Champions League final against Man United. And I think that with all great teams, teams tend to play through their best players. And what struck me about that team was how the four players got on the ball more often than others. So Iniesta on the left, Xavi had a bit of a free role, Busquets holding, and Messi was a false nine at the time. So I think my interest was all about how do I develop those players because clearly the best players in that style were all about they weren't, I don't feel they were the best players, but the most rounded players and being able to play through those players was always a starting point I had in my mind of how I wanted to play football, or how I want a football to be played. I wanted to watch that football. And I think that developing those players, obviously it doesn't happen by chance - Barcelona have recruited Messi, and they have had a very calculated approach to developing those four players. So my interest initially was just about that Barcelona team. It wasn't even about Spanish football, it was about how did Barcelona do what they did. And that that interest took me, that was more of a passionate at the beginning, it took me to meet John Collins, who was Oxford University's head coach, it had meeting with Chris Davies, who at the time was working for Brendan Rodgers at Swansea, and had me watching Swansea more than I would have liked to have as a Cardiff fan. Same sort of period, I think Rodgers was Swansea 2009 - 2011 something like that, he became Liverpool coach in 2012. So that whole period and I remember there was a player at Oxford University and he came up to me, I think I did the best job I could possibly could have done at the time. But the biggest compliment I got off one of our players was your passion is infectious. We all back you, we all buy into it. And I think that I learned it was the player's game and you have to take that chase that vision. So you know, with all that coming together my first influences and early moments to influence my style were the Barcelona team, Brendan Rodgers and then there's different people I was meeting who have a vested interest in developing individuals was James Nash, who was at MK Dons, Tim Lees, who was at Wigan did an amazing job and then went to Liverpool and Louis Lancaster at the time, I think was at Watford when we first met. So those people I think taught me the most, that's better than any course I could have taken - speaking to those people on a daily basis and driving across the country to meet James Nash to sit spend six hours and Starbucks talking about player development.

in chapter two, Jed discusses challenging moments in his career. He begins by showing the time that his team faced a major challenge, and how he guided them to overcome it.

The biggest challenge I've had to deal with most is the lack of volume, variation, and variety in games. So, you know, I'm talking really about player development. Youth player development, everyone always says, oh the competition's not good enough, the best needs to play, the best need to play with the best, you know, and you go to some countries and that just isn't the case. In England, I think that is the case now with EPP when it came in a number of years ago, but it was around getting the best resources, playing against the best resources, the best with the best. And even when it gets to that stage, there's still somebody there that goes, hey, we have to travel to find competition. So I think that's been the biggest challenge. I worked at a club in Ottawa in Canada, where we were not on the national teams talent pathway. So what that means is they have a league structure here, it was called Ontario Provincial development league, starts at 13. And if you're not in those leagues, then it's very hard to play against those teams, because they're quite guarded. Your players can no longer get selected for provincial teams, well you can but they're told, hey, within 12 months, you need to leave and join an OPDL club. And obviously, the players were at our club to be developed, they didn't believe that our 13 that was about winning, our players. So there was a lot of challenges that came with that. And one of them was how do we get competition. So we did everything possible - play games with less players, played in tighter spaces, played up age groups. We had an 03 team at the age of 16 playing lower league men's football, not even the top flight of men's football, in Ottawa and losing more games than we've ever lost in in their lives in that season, the first year. Different grounds, we played a man-marking approach one season and the next suppose you play zonal, we just keep giving them different changes and trying to make that the challenge. The youngest ages, we even give them constraints before they can score goals. We do travel, we played Montreal Impact was two hour drive, which is probably the closest team, are are called FC Montreal, Toronto FC, New York City, New York Red bulls, and then we come to England played Arsenal, Fulham, Leicester, we played a number of top teams and I'm forgetting some, Swansea, Bristol City. We got to play them and and in their environments as well, so that gave us a different challenge. But that's been the biggest challenge - how do we overcome the idea that we don't have enough competition, you can make internal competition of course, but in terms of the actual games themselves being hard enough that you lose 30% of your games. I think that the key is you get 30% of your games can be easy, 30% are going to be matched, and then 30%, you're not quite good enough to be on that field, but you're gonna compete with them. If you can get that then you get a lot of things, right. So that's been one of the challenges. 

I think in terms of like a personal challenge, my own personal challenges have been a conscious understanding that I get triggered by people that don't share the same values as me. And that took me a long while to to understand why I was angry in a number of situations or why I would behave in a way that then later I would sit down and I don't agree with what I just did, or what I just said, or if I was just a bit more clear about what my values were and figuring out how to develop a shared value system, I think that would have avoided a lot of problems I've had in the last 10 years of coaching. And some of the solutions I came up with were things like when someone else does something that represents one of the values that I think one of the core values I have then rewarding them and letting them know, catching them doing things well. So that's one, another might be to outline the expectations every year when when you come into a team and actually looking like what those values look like. So for example, the values that are currently outline right now are humility, respect and then commitment to excellence. So when I look at those three things, I think quite often when I've, for lack of better words lost my head is because one of those three values hasn't been demonstrated by players. And I assume that's how everyone lives and it's not. So yeah, I have to do a better job as well as role modelling those things, role modelling, being a humble person, and being more committed to excellence in every part of my life, not just football, and also portraying respect in places and respect looks different to different people as well. It means eye contact for some people, and in some cultures, it means not making eye contact, if someone's an authority figure, so yeah, just that holistic player development bit and me being a bit more holistic on what football looks like.

So just going back to what you said, then about kind of commitment to excellence, would you say then that you have a really high threshold for, high bar for what you believe, kind of for work rate and commitment to the game? So if we look at Roy Keane, for example, I think there's been an interview in the past where he said that he's got such high values and such high expectations that when he was a manager and players didn't live up to that, then that kind of caused issues with him because he was getting frustrated because it wasn't what he was used to as a player at Man United being the captain, being a leader as he is, is that's the type of thing you're talking about that then? 

Yeah,I think what commitment to excellence, what I'm talking about is, is having a high performance mindset. Having someone who wakes up every day, and if they don't do something that's making them better, they feel like they've not done something that day. I think it's that never ending ascension to always wanting to be better about but I understand that the Roy Keane scenario you've given I always wondered if players are quite like, you know, I've just said I wasn't aware for a number of years that those were the things that trigged me. If players who have been in that Man Utd locker room were consciously aware of how this locker room works and the culture works here because of X Y Z, obviously Roy Keane was a part of that but it wasn't just Roy Keane it was Roy Keane, Alex Ferguson, Gary Neville, everyone was in there, Beckham and I wondered the bit that Roy Keane bought to that team maybe was balanced off by other players. Ultimately I know enough about Roy Keane's story and Man United to say it didn't work out in the end. I think Rene Meulensteen and him fell out - no, Carlos Queiroz and Ferguson and Roy Keane didn't share an understanding of how they were going to work together and it didn't work out. So I have worked under a head coach before who I think struggled with that as well. Things were a certain way when he was a player, and they weren't anymore. And the world's changing as we both know, you know, just in the last five years, the world has changed. So people need to keep updating themselves and keep updating what the world actually looks like for a 15, 16 year old, if that's what you're working with. And even now working with professional game, a 23 year old now is different to a 23 year old when I was 23. So, yeah, you need to keep updating yourself, I think.

And again, going back to something you said previously, as well, so developing players, but I'm just gonna read you a quote now from the Training Ground Guru. This is an interview then with Ian Evatt, who's the Bolton manager, and he said, "I was a centre back, and it's the most difficult position to develop for these big category one teams. They never have to defend. They're always dominating the ball. They never have to head the ball. We were watching a loan centre back. And we really liked him. We watched him what must have been about a dozen times in the Premier League two, and no joke we didn't see him have one contested aerial duel". So are we or are clubs really developing with the kind of the Premier League two and I know, Brentford scrapped their under 23s a few years ago, and they just have a B team, don't they? And they get players in for that. So are players really being developed for first team football in the Premier League and then lower down the level as well?

I think I see two things. One is, I can't remember who said it, someone was talking about the Italian strikers of the late 90s. We had of such a long list of world class players. And also at the same time a long list of world class centre backs. And then in what someone asked the footballer what's changed, or coach, what has changed in Italian football, he said all we do now is produce midfielders. So there's this utopian idea that when you develop good football, more touches of the ball and more possession, we develop better players and I do believe in that. I think that what's missing is you know, that gap, minding the gap between you know whether it's 17, 18, 19 or 20 to first team football. And I think that that changes when winning is all that matters and the pressure is real and we always talk about it - preseason is the happiest place in the world at a professional club. And you have to be really careful that you don't slip into informal relationships with players because everyone's happy. You know, it's the best, everyone's sharing minutes on the field. There's no pressure and I've been at a club before where preseason, the goalkeeper played out the back all preseason, we get to the first game of the year against New York City, in the old NASL and every time it's gone back to the goalkeeper he has smashed it. It's just the the pressure of really winning does change things. And I think that that's what's missing, that that's the bit that needs understanding, I think when we're bridging the gap what does that pressure really look and feel like? And, you know, what does it really mean to win. And sometimes you do experience that in a youth team when you go to a cup competition, because at the end of the day, one of the reasons you would enter a cup competition is to win. And you get to final and you're playing against a team that are better than you and you find yourself 1-0 up with 10 minutes left. And then most teams change their style at that point, bunker in, clear everything at all costs, and then a win and celebrate and there's not a defeat to the football soul in that moment, because you've won the cup. So I think one of the ways around that and we talked about the games programming a minute ago is just to make sure that it within their development, as they get older, there's more and more patches of cup final, semifinals, where we're winning really does matter, and that pressure really does matter. I think that's one of the things that I've tried to make sure that some of my youth players have had over the last 10 years is that we play in front of fans, we play in front of 400 or 500 people all their friends all their family, and it's a cup knockout match. So yeah, I think that's one of the things that maybe, you know, Ian Evatt you said? 

Yeah, that's right. At Bolton, yeah. 

I remember him being a centre back, he was someone that was good in the air. So I'm sure that he can see what's missing. But again, I think the ball starts going in the air a lot more on winning matters, for a lot of people.

In chapter three, Jed talks about his triumphant moments, he begins by talking about his most memorable victory as a coach.

I think, just given the nature of where I've worked and where I've been at, like, if I think about my career, for six years, I worked at a youth team where the mission statement of that club was to produce international, university and professional level players. So in terms of what a victory looks like, it wouldn't have been a single game. It would have been players that then go on to a university, international, professional level. So I think that, you know, you asked me about the biggest victory, I think there's probably four examples of players that went on to become professionals, against all odds. So one would have been Antoine Copeland, who became the youngest ever Canadian professional player at Ottawa Fury. I don't think he had turned 16, I think he was still 15. But what people don't know is six months before he'd been rejected from an MLS Academy. And I remember really trying to support him in those six months. That was a tough job. So for him to within six months turn around and step foot in a USL game. That was an amazing moment. He's gone on and got signed by a club in Croatia, and he's currently on loan with an MLS team in Vancouver Whitecaps, so Antoine Coupland was a huge victory, I guess, in my coaching career as one. And one of the reasons it was huge victory is that he was probably about five foot five when he made his professional debut. You know, everyone was saying he's too small and he was small, he was very small, but he was so explosive. So when you might have lost a bit of weight, but he definitely had strength and explosive power. So if it was odd because his strengths, or his x factor was his physicality, it just was just in a different way. Antoine Coupland is one and the other two, I think Benedict Florent and Elage, who both play for the Whitecaps now. They got signed in the middle of COVID. It was March I can't remember what year COVID was now but it was a time where you couldn't play games anymore, you couldn't train and it had been long enough into COVID that I recognised that some of our kids are going to be hurt, you know, not hurt but they're going to have their development affected because they're spending a long time not playing football, you can't play football. I'm sure they were going out. Benedict would have been going out with his brother still. But the day that they got signed by the Whitecaps was just such a, I cried like I remember being so happy for those two lads because the teams that were still playing were the professional youth academies. So you know, we got two the boys into that environment and that was a huge win for me because when I look back now that they're both on a great pathway still to play the career and fulfil their dreams that they have. All those players that his named they were part of one team - that 03/04/05 age group which is one training group really, for the most part, certainly 04/03. There were eight of them. More than 8, 9 of them had gone on and have had professional careers from one team. And again, not one of them played team Ontario, not one of them, recognised by Canada soccer. And I would hate to call them late developers, because I just told you Antoine made his debut at 15 in the professional game, but, you know, aged 11 Antoine was on our second team at the club. So in a weird way, he was a late developer, but I guess it depends what lens you've got it set to. But that for me, it's been the biggest win I've had in my career is that that group of players, those three age groups, you know, and part of it was having all five trained with 03s and 03s trained with 05s, and there were girls in that group as well. I think the biggest a single biggest victory I've been involved with was during COVID. Obviously, couldn't work with a team anymore. My bubble consisted of two players that I was coaching. I think had like three people in my, it was called a bubble. I don't know if you'd call it that but yeah. And one of the players had was suffering in terms of she had a family member that was sick, and I've been through something similar. And I think that player developed a lot of strength to commit to want to become the best something and football happened to be that thing. And that player ended up going on, you know, from the age of 14 being an okay player in terms of regional, 16 being a player that people were talking about going, hey, how does she get so good. And I can't take credit at all for it, I was there, but the player drives that whole process. A lot of it was accidental in a way, in terms of how we made that player make the steps to become a better player. And by the age of 17/18 is being called out for national teams and going on to be a trialist and NWSL club and then play professionally in the French top division, which is the same as they're playing in the Premier League in the men's game, the French top division is one of the best divisions in women's football. So again, it's a huge victory to be a part of that journey.

And for those players you've just spoken about. So what was it that kind of led them to exceed the expectations? Was there like quality, they all had which is something they had in common?

All very different, Antoine had a confidence that was impenetrable. You know, if someone was gonna say you're too small to play, or, you know, you can't do this or that he was going out of his way to make sure he could do it. The challenge I gave him, he didn't love to defend and I gave him a challenge. I said, hey, man, if you can get to 10 games in a row, where you can give yourself a 10 out of 10 effort in terms of how well you defended, I will make sure you get an opportunity at a pro club. And I already had something lined up of course. But he got to game eight and no kidding, the kid wasn't very good. And I remember thinking, how much do I stick by this? And then that moment, I told him that okay, we're starting again. The kid was devastated. And obviously, I already had this opportunity lined up to train with Ottawa Fury. What I knew drove Antoine was doubt. Elage and Benedict, they were both very good when they were 8,9, 10 years old, relatively good, and they were both physically very dominant. Elijah could knuckleballer a ball from 30 yards at the age of 10. And to knuckleball a ball, you need a lot of strength, and your kicking technique and they both still have that now. So they both shared physical qualities, and both of them actually needed a lot of support around I don't think either of them would mind me saying around dealing with inconsistencies and mistakes. You know, Ben, he won't mind me saying, used to, hit one switch, it'd be great if won't be clapping or wow, what a ball. And then he'd mishit it the next one, he wouldn't try it again for us again. So that was who Benedict was. And then Sadie Sider was the female player I'm talking about who now plays was playing professionally last year in the French top Division I talked about it earlier, that high performance mindset where you've developed a passion and a vision for something. So her vision was I'm going to play for Barcelona, and says it was such conviction that you can't laugh. I think that every morning, that individual wakes up if they don't do something to make them better, they've got a sense of they've missed out that day. They've lost a day. This is a player that had a serious injury to her right foot. What the injury was exactly, it's like a bone in the foot. And the doctor said, hey, you can't play for next two or three months, and she didn't really report that back to me, she just told me the doctor said she couldn't use her right foot. So for three months, I told her she could only use a left foot. If you used a right foot training or games, it was a free kick. And she became two footed in those three months completely two footed to the point now where you hear commentators when she's playing now go and say Sadie Sider what a wonderfully left footed player, and I'm like, these guys have no idea. Yeah, and that, that came about from her telling me she couldn't use her right foot. I don't think that was quite what the doctors actually told her.

In chapter four, we talk about unexpected moments. Jed begins by talking about off field incidents that significantly impacted his coaching or teams performance.

Yeah, I think again, I'd have to talk about COVID. You had to adapt during that time, you had to find a way to help players get better doing unopposed work, for the most part, that was the constraint that was given to us some doing work at home.

and remind us what was your job at this point.

I was at Ottawa Futuro, the youth academy the pro team. But then, obviously, there was no job during COVID, there was hey man like, we can't train for the next. I don't know how many months it was but I still tried to help as many players as I could. And I turned to previous work that I'd seen by Tim Lee's and Pepijn Lijnders who had spent a lot of their time or they'd literally developed a technical curriculum for unopposed technical development as part of a wider curriculum. So I used that time because before I think, work before, that would have been very much around, you know, developing the best decision makers, trying to keep the sessions as rich as possible so it always looks like the game. And this gave me sort of a fork in the side and say, hey, you have to work a different way now. You have to support players through unopposed work, through individual development planning, and it added maybe an extra 30/40% onto the way a coach now. So when I look now at how I coach it is certainly different to before. Because I saw the benefits of filming someone's kicking technique. There was a coach called Bartek. And I can't remember his last name he worked for Brentford he was a free kick specialist. And he'd worked with a player called Ryan Williams who I worked with, who had played for Brentford before he came to Ottawa Fury. So I speak to Ryan Williams a lot to try and get an insight into how Bartek helped him learn how to strike a ball so well, a lot of it was done from sort of video feedback, filming the kicking techniques, breaking the kicking techniques down into five different components and just wasn't aware that it worked before. I didn't know I had that interest in me to want to break something down to that degree of detail and actually coach it. So I think that that's where COVID helped me develop as a coach and give me more structure and more detail. And, you know, and also got to fall in love with Bielsa again, and look at his training methodology, which is largely technique based, individual based. So that gave me a real push in the right direction. I always thought of myself as an individual development coach, but really did push me in that direction of how can I actually make every individual better, with everything considered not just the game itself?

Okay. And going back to what you just mentioned, then about the five different components then about striking the ball, was it? Yeah, yeah. Would you would you like to share that with us?

The five being the way you approach the ball, your run up, how your foot plants next to the ball, the way your foot makes contact with the ball, if it's a knuckleball with a slightly different contact, the way your swing is through the ball. So it's just about breaking it down. And when you film something, and you slow mo it down, and you want to repeat a technique, you really do get that detail out. So the topspin free kick, which is a free kick that Juninho Pernambucano the one that played for Lyon he'd masted over the years, it is a really hard technique to get right, and you have to break it down into that sort of approach.

Chapter Five focuses on lessons learned. I asked Jed if there was a decision or strategy that he'd used in his coaching career that he would change if given the chance.

Not that I would change I think when I look back on things I've learned, and lessons that I've taken and now do differently. I think the biggest one is connecting with each player differently. As I said, a second ago, preseason in a professional team is an interesting time, you know, your year with a player because everyone's happy. And then as you get to the season where only 11 players are selected for game day, three are probably happened to be on a bench, five are really unhappy about being on the bench. There's probably even someone in the first 11 that's unhappy about the role they're being asked to play. And then there's maybe another six players who weren't even selected for the bench and misery finds misery and if you want to focus in certain areas, you could be in quite a dark place at that point of being a coach because you're surrounded by people who are unhappy. I think that what I would change is and I've taken this from a coach called Dan Micciche - I will always try and connect with an individual before looking to correct a behaviour, and Dan has this expression which is 'connect before, correct'. And I think that pro players when they have insecurities about not looking good in front of people, or they don't share your values, some of them don't. And they're brilliant because they don't. As I said earlier was different meanings for respect and some cultures eye contact as a sign and others it's not. There's different reasons why people play, some players really do play for financial gain, which isn't something that, you know, I've necessarily had in my worldview of why you play football. You never know what a person's going through. If you're not having conversations with them. Footballers, I think human beings but especially footballers, and coaches are normally poor communicators of how they feel, and they show it rather than tell you and they're not able to express it, or they haven't got space to show that they're unhappy. So they express it for lack of effort or express it through a lack of respect. And just the nature of a locker room, like I said, misery finds misery. So I think what I would change is I'd have that all encompassing idea of what you're navigating and what you're putting in. The first time I went to Ottawa Fury, preseason was the happiest time I became everyone's friend. You know, players, there was never a reason to have a bad conversation with a player. And then as the season comes around, I quickly realised I put myself in situations where players where I didn't have a professional boundary. So that's what I have changed and what I would change going back, and I was 27, when I first started coaching pros, which I wasn't ready, I certainly wasn't ready to from a human perspective. Again, that bit, you know, when it comes to disciplining a player or player not playing or trying to set a cultural boundary in place, it can be so hard to rebuild trust once you've lost it. So I think I'd be much more calculated around how I would deliver those boundaries as a professional coach with professional players.

And then if we look at, you know, in the professional game, then in the UK and in England, with Chelsea, for example, looking at Graham Potter last season, and then Lampard taking over with this big, big squad of maybe 30 plus professional players. With everything you've just described there, are they almost set up to fail like? They've really trimmed that squad down, haven't they? But was Potter kind of set up to fail, then really with that massive squad? How could he have managed all, everything you've spoken? How can he manage that?

I really don't know, I look at that challenge. I already think there's a challenge in the Canadian Premier League you sign. I think it's 23 players under contract, get roster spots. And there already is a challenge throughout the year to make sure everyone feels valued, to make sure that everyone has their own development plan. The players that are older that don't think they're developing anymore, are they given the respect of you know, they've got a responsibility to behave a certain way but maybe they don't want to hear how they can improve every two minutes. I really don't know how I would manage the squad of 35 unless there's like a reserve team element to that and people accept that they're not part of the first team. Because like I said, already with 23 players and you take 18 - five not selected and this is assuming no injuries. it's an impossible situation and I don't have any injuries Chelsea had that time, injuries itself is an interesting challenge because I've seen a coach before I won't name who it was but a player came into a locker room before and he was crying and he said hey man, like you haven't acknowledged me for four months, the player been injured. And it was a moment for me and this wasn't someone, everyone cries but I wouldn't associate this person with crying. And it really struck me, I was like wow that if I ever become a head coach or I can take this moment back I would make sure that had a connection with that player over the last four months because they'd been coming in earlier and seeing the physio and staying longer, it was just the culture it used to be you're the first one in and the last one out when you're injured. I really don't know how Graham Potter did and I think it certainly makes your job harder.

And is there an example specifically you could think of where there's an instance where a mistake turns into a learning experience for you as a coach?

Yeah, you know with this I could I could name my first day at Ottawa Fury and I've already touched on it, my first day at Ottawa Fury the head coach has gone to me hey, man, make sure you drive intensity in the Rondo's as you get out. What I didn't realise is the rondo's at Ottawa Fury, if I if I had to just spend a week observing training first I would have realised that that was a salt a social moment, for them. It wasn't a learning opportunity or a competition element or it was a social, we've just got out in the field, we want to do the rondo's together. And the head coach had a different idea, the head coach wanted me to drive intensity. So I'm they're firing balls in, telling players to be quicker, like press press. And one of the more senior players turned around and went, who is this guy, like what you're doing, and I hadn't connected with the player yet. I don't think I ever really regained any sort of relationship with that player. And I knew that player for two more years. And looking back, he was older than me as well, the player and I think he saw me as this young new coach who barely been introduced to him, telling them to press more in a rondo which was a social exercise, it was the player space, it wasn't. I just didn't know that. And I think that being really eager to want to jump in and be a coach was a huge mistake.

So knowing what you know, now, what you've just explained, how would you if you could go back and do that again? What would you do differently then?

As I said, I think I would have stood my ground a bit more with the head coach. I wasn't to know though the head coach was the one that had been there for a number of years and set the culture so I'm there. But I think going back, I would have stood my ground and said, Hey, I'm gonna spend the first week for sure, I'm gonna set boundaries in place and become a professional coach. But seeing how things are before I even think to make any sort of change. I might have asked for video footage or training sessions before I got there, which I don't think I did. I think I did a lot of research on the players in games, but I didn't ask to see the training methodology before that might have been another solution.

In chapter six, Jed discusses influential figures. He talks about his relationship and mentorship with Dan Micciche.

So you just kind of fell into that relationship with Dan Micciche rather than approaching his and going will you please be my mentor?

So I met James Nash, he was the MK Dons coach and he was working with the U14 age group at MK Dons and Dan Micciche at the time was like a an untouchable youth coach MK Dons, I couldn't meet with him, he wasn't someone I could get introduced to. Nashy was the one who introduced me to Ottawa Futuro because he'd been out. So my interests with Dan Micciche continued because I was in an environment where we'd always talk about what MK Dons did, how MK Dons developed players on smaller fields and there were individual development plans and what they did for Dele Alli to make sure he retained his creativity and his development. And then finally we got Dan Micciche out to Futoro. So that's how I met him. He became my assistant in a game against Montreal Impact. And he was great. He'd do things like he'd walk into our summer camps and go hey this club's about creativity right? So why have you got kids sat down and straight lines? What you mean? He was like, they could be in groups around, we had these blackboards around the room, with the blackboards and chalk in the hands doing activities, being creative and you've got them sat down in a straight line waiting for you to make sure everyone's there, okay bang on. He'd go into every detail, creativity had to be a string across every part of what you were doing. So yeah, I'm really fortunate to have cross paths with Dan, when I did, that was more or less structured like it was a path that will come in together eventually, because I'd studied his work so much and taken such an interest in what he'd been doing.

Chapter Seven is about crowning moments. Jed describes the moment that he felt he had achieved significant success as a coach.

The first thing that comes to mind, I'm obviously with Halifax Wanderers now in the Canadian Premier League and our first eight games of the season, we didn't win - it's the longest stretch of professional games, I've been involved with where we've not won a game. A lot of them were away from home. And we have the craziest travel schedule in world football. We just couldn't buy a win, we'd outpossess teams, we'd get the build up right. And we had like Aiden Daniels, who's a player that plays attacker mid for us who is more of a classic number 10. Doesn't really want to run him behind, but will create everything for your team will come and collect the ball, turn, beat players, beat pressure, he enjoys receiving the ball with a player on his back, because he knows he can solve that pressure. So I think that one of the things that I did in the lead up to that game nine, which was a big game, I don't want to think about it, but I imagine you get to 12 games without a win and there's conversations that start to happen in professional clubs. And I think we are a team that sell out a stadium, every game you get 100% attendance in our stadium. The city loves the football club, you go downtown, and I'm being asked to sign autographs as a coach. And I don't have the courage to say hey, I'm not player, I'm sure they know. But just sign it and have give a good chat with them. And you're in a hotel or you're coming back from Calgary on a plane and there's people coming back to Halifax and they're Halifax fans and their kids come up to you. So it's a real football culture, the city and when you're not winning, and it's eight games in a row. And every now and again. I know they're telling you what to do. I'd go check social media to see what the fans were saying. It wasn't good. So anyway, game nine lots of pressure, it's probably the most pressure I've put myself under and I had an idea that the head coach, I said, Hey, we're not playing the striker right now. His name's Tiago Coimbra, he's 18/19 years old. He'd had inconsistent performances, technically, in terms of receiving the ball and making things happen. But he had unlimited energy with pressing, run all day. He's one of those people you meet them every now and again, they just seem to not run out of batteries when they're sprinting. And I said, Hey, I've got a vision for how we can use Tiago Coimbra. And that vision happened to be Patrick Bamford, as a role model - someone that used to run in behind and constantly press and be good in the air. He said go on and you've got this week. You're just coaching him the whole week. You don't do anyone else. You coach him every session, you stood by him and he joked, heI said your three yards away from him at any moment. But I was able to develop a development plan of Tiago, show him video clips of Patrick Bamford, and we looked at his starting position and the way he makes runs in behind and how he opens up space for the 10s that played underneath him. We looked at how Edinson Cavani used to attack a cross how Mario Gomez would attack the box. And then game nine, I can't remember this game or not but game nine, I can't remember he got team of the week this week or not, but game that was the starting point, we won that game. There's a goal we scored, sorry a chance we have where the goalkeeper makes us save, where he's made 12 runs in the space of the possessions and it keeps taking the backline back and we end up on the edge of the box. He was instrumental in the win that day. And he got into team, he stayed in the team. He got team of the week twice, he scored goals and the fans love Tiago Coimbra. For the same reasons I love him, you know, he shares all the same values we spoke about earlier. He's humble, he's hard working. He is highly respectful as an individual, always wants feedback. And is just a wonderful footballer to work with and he turned the season around. And I would say that the feeling I had that week working Tiago, I believe we were going to win it and I believe that Tiago was going to be the reason we're going to win. And that for me was the most rewarding, or crowning moment. Is the crown a moment recently, I think I've had. Yeah, just preparing him for that role in the team and looking at his attributes and characteristics and try and get the best out for the team.

So he came into the team. He was playing before?

Yeah, he was in and out. He was maybe getting 20 minutes a game before - the league has a requirement that you have to play 2000 minutes of under 21 minutes. He's an under 21 player so he was coming in and out 10/20/30 minutes a game. And he just wasn't clicking. It wasn't working for him. It wasn't working for the team and the team wasn't making enough runs in behind so he was the catalyst for the change.

And after so many losses then and pressure's building and building and building, you're sticking to the plan? You're altering the plan?

Yeah, I think the build up got left alone as it was because we were out possessing teams and dominating games. We have a player called Lorenzo Caligari used to play for PSG he's played and in Serie A in Italy, probably the most talented footballer I've ever worked with, and he was making 100 passes a game in some games with 100% pass completion rate and not the safe types of passes, the types of passes where he splits three lines and hits a man's feet our 10s weren't running and behind and I'm looking at our 10s, and I'm like, that's not who they are. They're more 8s, they're more players that want to get involved. So we needed to find a way to get the balance, right, with stretching the back line back and getting between lines. So it was adding a layer, adding a layer of how can we hurt the opposition back 4.

Chapter Eight is entitled closing thoughts. Jed shares one piece of advice with aspiring Soccer Coaches based on his personal experience.

The thing that embodies being the soccer coach, everyone thinks it's about tactics, you come in, everyone has a starting point with formations and putting players in positions and a certain rotation you might have an idea of and I still love that part of the game, and everyone does. But that's not truly what coaching is, when I look at what coaching is, it's developing a culture for the team. There's that saying, I can't remember who said it was his culture eats strategy for breakfast. And I think that when I look at that, and I look at what culture actually is, and one of the places we got that right was the youth club I worked for in Ottawa. And I think that when I've stepped back into how do we do what we did? The first thing we did was everyone had a visible pathway and a vision for where they wanted to go, did that statement - everyone wants to be a university, professional, international footballer. And then within that, you're also seeing other players achieve that who are older that you or the same age. And that one team that I just said produced nine players, it was not nine at once was one then six months, then another than a year, then another. And you would never see the other one coming. It was always this one's going to make it. So step one is a visible pathway. Step two is to celebrate more of a holistic player development idea where values are encompassed. We talked about values and behaviours all the time, but do people really put them in place and have ways to measure whether they're in place or not? Dan Micciche has been a great influence on that, because I think he does a great job at that. Then step three is a sense of belonging, seems like it's a soft topic and everyone does it. Truly, is there a sense of belonging at your club? Or is it just a team thing, is it like a our team's the best team at the club, because a sense of belonging is different. A sense of belonging is and there's an expression that if you put these players in different coloured jerseys, you still know they play for us. And that was always what we did. And the sense of belonging was when I look at how you develop a sense of belonging. It's small things like physical contact with a player, you shake their hand, or fist bump, eye contact for me, you know, is one of the things when they come in. In some way saying, I'm really happy you've turned up today, wherever that is, like, you know, John, you've turned up and I'me lik John, and we're celebrating your arrival as you walk to the field. It doesn't have to be the words, I'm glad you're here. It's just a way to express that. And then some sort of ritualistic behaviours, whether it's a handshake, a slogan, your team has, a motto. I think James Kerr who worked at Legacy calls it ritualise to actualise. And I think that those those four things come together and that's developing a culture which keeps on going. I look at what we did it for Futoro - the kids would do classroom sessions and above the TV in the classrooms was Carmin Marin's jersey who played for Costa Rica. She was the first player that went to a an international team from the club. So every day for 10 years people have been coming in sitting down looking at Carmin Marin's number 16 jersey. Then we made this big poster of all these players that have gone and that's all over the place. You know, they're see <?> who went to Lazio and Roma, they see Sadie Sider, Eric Lajeunesse, all these players have gone on to play professionally. There's that and then there's things like, you know, it's snowing, the field's covered in snow well, okay, we can cancel training, or we can text everyone and say, bring a shovel. And we've done that many times. And there's 80 kids on the field shovelling their own field and then we have the best time playing after. And then the last bit, the last one that comes to mind is over Christmas just gone before I left, I knew I was leaving the club and I hadn't told anyone yet. Normally at Christmas is an opportunity to go away recharge. And I thought this is the last time I'm going to see some of these people um, so it was an opportunity for me to, you know, you've coached a club for seven years, you've built long term relationships for me to have 3v3 tournaments with all the kids who have been here five years ago that are still here today. And the first one we had, I think we had 12 people turn out we have four, 3v3 teams in this this indoor facility, because when it's snowing, you can't be outdoors. And the amount of texts I got sent, Hey, man, why am I not invited from kids that are now 23/24 years old. And then by the last day of Christmas, we had, I don't know how many teams we had. We had like 16 players plus subs, and we were filming it making the whole Academy vote who's going to win, which age group was the best. I think all of that together, everything I've just said, along with the games programme, along with the training methodology, along with engaging players in, in whatever idea of football you have, that's more important than tactics. And that's the bit that, you know, if I was gonna leave a closing for it that most people skip and aren't interested in really when they become a coach, but it's the most important part.

So then coming to one piece of advice you would share with aspiring soccer coaches. And would you say it's kind of forming those connections then with with players?

Yeah, I think at the end of the day, that 'connect before correct' bit is a really healthy starting point. Whether it's professional players, you've players, with a club, your coach coming into a new team, maybe don't scream at them in the rondo's? I would say that that will be a really useful piece of advice for someone starting a new position as a coach.

I'd like to extend a huge thank you to our incredible guest today. Jed Davies, Jed. Your insights into soccer coaching, play development and club culture have been enlightening to say the least. I know our audience whether aspiring soccer players, coaches or just fans of the game will have gained a lot hearing from your perspective. If you want to dive even deeper, be sure to check out jets work and resources on x.com You'll find the links to jet social media in the show notes