My name is Gillen Reid and I am owner and writer for thecoachingcolumn.net
Tell us a bit more?
The idea was inspired by my own struggle, when I developed my interest in coaching alot of ideas and material to use wasn’t really readily available as it is now. All of it was kind of scattered all over the net without any sort of coherent structure or sources, more importantly signposted. So I decided to take advantage of some of the (at the time) cutting edge features that were available at the time. Tumblr and twitter were the key here. The idea was to combine spontaneous idea’s that went on in my head along with work I had done with other coaches, observed or tried out myself and in this case literally write them down. Gradually over time the posts began to catch on and I got more and more feedback on how it was a great thing I was doing, so I decided to make things a little more official and the column was born.
You mentioned coaching?
I remember my earliest memory of manager/coach related thoughts was Rangers European Cup run in the 1992/1993 season I found myself trying to predict subs, changes in shape and ideas, that’s when the likes of championship manager was at its height, being a computer geek and having a love for football it was the perfect fit. When I eventually got round to developing that interest further I made the decisions to spend some time in amateur football to gain the experience of the environment of football, different personalities and how the game looked from the sidelines. During that experience I was lucky enough to meet some good people in football, individuals who simply do what they do because they love football. My time was up however when I discovered that the manager of the team I had coached had been taking ideas from Alex Ferguson’s Biography…
I took a break from football, we all need it to recharge the batteries, I was lucky enough to get and insight into Glasgow City Ladies, this is thanks to the wonderfully talented Amy McDonald who published a sort of apprenticeship scheme type where she wanted to develop a coach. This is where I fell in love with coaching. Inspired me to dedicate more and more time to learning and developing all different dimensions of football and the intricate details that come with it.
An Idol?
Always loved Cruyff, a wonderful person, player and coach. Sadly im not old enough to have witnessed him on live television but done my own share of reading and research. How important it was to him for players and a team to have their own identity, style and to entertain. To prioritize developing technical ability and love for the game, to minimize the involvement of suits and commercial conversations. To sum it up with one of his most famous of quotes “Simple football is the most beautiful. But playing simple football is the hardest thing,”
So what next for the blog?
Genuinely just going to keep writing, something that I love doing and when an idea comes to mind I will always share this, always looking to add new and exciting things to the blog, some of them have took off others have failed miserably. A great addition has been my own personal blog which add an extra dimension, another being the great QA’s that have been done, some really interesting ideas and thoughts from a variety of people.
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