Interview with Youth Acdemy coach, Matthew Genius

by Ayrton Galea - 7th February 2016

In this interview we will introduce the Academy Under-11's Team Coach, Mr. Matthew Genius, who also forms part of the staff of Coerver Coaching in Malta.

Who is Matthew Genuis?

I am a 31 year old guy, a father of a 3 year old son, a simple, normal guy and I am always willing to learn and set new challenges in my life.

How did your start your coaching career?

My coaching career started just after hanging my boots around 5 years ago due to knee injuries which I never recovered from. Around 5 years ago I was offered to start my coaching education by Mr Claude Chetcuti, the Director of Coerver Coaching Malta, by assisting him, and watching several Coerver coaching sessions. Also I started my coaching Education at the MFA Technical centre and currently I am still doing my badges at the MFA. The technical centre helps us to understand and watch the game better, in a way that we might not been used to. It is a good experience.

Why did you join the Birkirkara FC Youth Academy?

After 3 seasons with Sliema Wanderers Nursery I was offered the opportunity to form part of Birkirkara's Academy. When I met the Head Coach, Mr Mark Bondin, he explained to me the philosophy at the Academy, and I realized that I would move a step forward in my coaching career. I must say that I did the right decision.

What are the challenges and joys of coaching your age group?

Coaching youth football is very challenging and demanding. You have to consider that the group is still young, they are overloaded with work at school, some of which I doubt if they will ever use in their life. So you have to balance your training sessions, and make them fun and fruitful in learning to play the game better at the same time. The joy of watching my boys interested, involving themselves and looking forward for every training session makes me work harder and harder every single day.

Describe a typical week of coaching your team.

Since I coach 10 and 11 year old boys I focus mostly on small sided games, which are related to the football game. I try to put my boys in difficult situations where I leave them free to decide how they can solve the problem they are in at the moment. I try to make only a few interventions, and only when needed. Game situations is what I like to coach most, as every situation requires different decisions.

What are your priorities as a Coach and on which aspects you emphasis the most?

This depends on the age group that is being coached. At competitive level, mostly from Under 17 onwards, I think that you need to have a good balance. You need players to be good physically, technically, tactically and mentally. But if we are considering the younger development groups, I would choose technical abilities. I believe that the more that we as coaches produce good technical players, the more our football level will improve.

How did you get involved with Coerver Coaching?

I started my Coaching career at Coerver and from day one I believed in the method we use. Claude Chetcuti the Director of Coerver Coaching in Malta approached me to form part with his team. He believed in my abilities as he used to coach me in Senior Football in the past years. I never looked back and from day one in Coerver I got interested and was always willing to learn. I did my best to spread our methods around Malta and I must say the feedback Claude and I receive is very satisfying.

Can you explain what Coerver Coaching is all about?

The coerver coaching method was inspired by Wiel Coerver, a Dutch coach whom had won the UEFA CUP with Feyenoord ,Rotterdam in 1973 and 1974. In 1984 Alfred Galustian and ex Chelsea player Charlie Cooke created a global football coaching programme , Coerver Coaching.

Basically Coerver Coaching is a method that focuses on individual skills development and small group play. It teaches methods suited for all ages, but especially for players aged 5-16 years old of all abilities and their parents, coaches and teachers

Coerver Coaching is endorsed and recommended by the top federations, associations, legends/experts of the game, club teams and corporations including the French Football Federation, the Football Federation of Australia, the Chinese Football Association, the Japanese Football Association, Bayern Munich FC, Newcastle United FC, Arsenal FC, and the global partner Adidas.

How do you think Coerver Coaching improves players?

I believe that the Coerver Method is very important for today's game. This is because football nowadays requires great abilities of technique and mastery of the ball. If you capture a random screenshot from a football game, you find out that the 1 versus 1 situation is everywhere on the pitch. And Coerver coaching has the best method for teaching the 1 versus 1 situation. It has been doing so for the last 32 years around the world . Therefore I believe that Coerver Coaching does improve players.

What is the connection between Birkirkara FC Youth Academy and Coerver Coaching?

Basically Birkirkara FC Academy is offering Coerver Coaching to all the players whom are interested to experience Coerver Coaching and would like to improve their technique and mastery of the ball. Coerver Coaching holds three sessions a week at the Infetti grounds for different ages. For whoever is interested, we offer free trials before subscription.

What do you think are the biggest challenges in order to improve this type of youth development and what steps would you like to see in order to improve it?

It is very important that the Coerver Method is introduced to the players at a very young age. It is fundamental that the kids start to develop a good mastery of the ball as than it would be difficult to improve the technical abilities when you grow older. In my opinion, every football session for the small kids should include the ball rolling all the time. The Coerver Coaching Method is also included in the MFA Coaching Youth Football courses therefore all qualified coaches are experiencing practice and theory how to use the Coerver Method.

What are your comments about the importance that local clubs give to their nurseries or academies? Do you feel that Birkirkara FC gives the desired importance to its Academy?

In my opinion I think that the local clubs can give more to their nurseries or academies. The clubs are so focused and busy to think about how to win the next game that sometimes they forget about their home-grown future players. Even the fact that the number of foreigners is Increasing this might result in having less local talent in the line ups therefore less chance to play. A player in a nursery or an academy has to train hard and be versatile as much as possible so he or she might have more chance to play.

I think that Birkirkara FC do give the desired importance. The set up the Academy adapts is very professional, coaches are qualified and willing to learn. The academy also employs a physical trainer, a goalkeeper coach, a technical director, a physiotherapist, a kit manager and all groups have an assistant coach whom is also qualified.

What would you tell a child who is interested in starting to play football?

I think that every child who starts to play football would like to become Messi or Ronaldo. I would tell them to follow their dream.

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