Fulham coach spends time at the Gazprom Academy

Tom Battley a coach with Fulham FC in West London, recently visited St.Petersburg and spent some time at the Gazprom Academy to see how we do things in Russia, we spoke to Tom about his trip.

Hello Tom, first can you tell us about yourself and your role at Fulham?

I worked with Fulham in their foundation for around 4 years doing community based programs and their development schools. This is my second season in their academy where I work as a support coach across all age groups. This means I will work when extra staffing is required within an age group, the need for extra focus on individual work or when a coach is unable to attend a session. It is a fantastic role for my development, it allows me to work with every academy player and across all forms of football – 7 a side, 9 a side and 11 a side. The role allows me to work with players at a personal level and individualizes their academy experience. Each player will have targets they need to achieve on a regular basis, my job is to ensure that these targets are met in order to maximize the development of a player. The role keeps me on my toes, one evening I could be training the under 9 and the next night the under 15. It is a challenge for my coaching style, how can I develop my skills in order to meet the needs of these different player profiles and ensure my sessions are age appropriate. I am also responsible for IT Analysis at the club and complete first team scout reports when required.

In my 8 years of coaching I have always worked in disability football as well as academy standards. I currently run my own charity called Surrey Blues which is centered on inclusion and allows anyone to play who has a disability, special needs or learning difficulties. Disability football has shaped me as a coach as it is primarily about identifying and nurturing a player’s ability as opposed to their disability. Learning how to Adapt and change the game to find the strengths of a player so he/she can participate in the sport, enjoy football and get better as a player. I feel if you can champion the art of disability football it is a tool not many coaches have, patience combined with fine technical details that can put you at the top of individualized player development when it comes to any academy.

And what made you decide to come to St.Petersburg and see how Zenit train young players?

I wanted to come and visit Zenit because coaches at Fulham often attend study visits to see experience other academies philosophies and techniques, however, I had not attended one before. My aim was to go to see Ajax in Holland but I was already visiting St Petersburg for a weekend break, when the penny dropped I realized I should go to see Zenit instead and decided to incorporate a visit to see your academy with my trip.

What did you think of the facilities and training you saw at the Gazprom Academy?

It was a nice surprise to come and see the new facilities, at Fulham we have recently had our own upgraded facilities which have been extremely exciting to use, so to come to Zenit and witness a similar experience where people are moving into the new buildings was nice. The new facility at Zenit looked state of the art , it was just a shame that the snow covered the outdoor pitches!

Were any of our methods surprising for you? Did you see anything that’s new to you and you will take back to England?

It was explained to me that the head of coaching has changed fairly recently, so a lot of the methods were currently being reviewed by the new boss. However, I did sit and talk with Dimitri, the U13 coach after his session to ask some questions as I was happy to see that the beginning of each session was purely left to the ownership of the players. It is very common that the attention of young players can be quite minimal when they attend training, usually because they are excited and perhaps after being at school all day. So to allow them the freedom to create their own game and play for a few minutes to engage them was nice to see, as the players were much more focused when Dimitri came in to coach for the rest of the session. This has been explored in recent years within English football, allowing the ownership to the players, but because it is a regular theme at Zenit where it happens every session for 15 minutes, you are more likely to get productive and progressive practice as the players will become accustomed to experimenting with ideas. If it happens once a month, it is less likely that players will be so imaginative as they are not given the opportunity for self-learning so often. This is important for the social development of the players.

I also noted that the beginning of the session Dimitri allowed every player to have a football. That is a funny thing to say when we are playing football but lots of clubs will miss out repetitive practice in favor for game related practices for the entire session. Zenit worked on football fundamentals, ball movement and ball manipulation. In this particular practice it was very repetitive, ensuring players practiced with both feet and had 100’s of touches of a ball before opposed practice started. I have found that it can be a controversial topic amongst coaches as it can be seen to not be so challenging. However, the time that each player spent with a football was maximized, they had regular repetitive practice to reinforce skills and technique and for me this is a key element of football. If Zenit produce players who do not have a weak foot, who do not have a preferred foot because they play with both feet, then it will show this method works, to me it looked evident that a high percentage of the group were able to use both feet with confidence. I will certainly consider using more ball manipulation within my academy sessions.

Do you follow Zenit and Russian football at all? What do you know about it?

My knowledge of Russian football is minimal, I must be honest. In recent years the Russian league has attracted big names such as Hulk, Axel Witsel and even Roberto Carlos at Anzhi, it has put the biggest Russian football teams on the map in Europe. The biggest and most talked about competition in England tends to be the Champions League. Every season it is possible English teams will face Russian opposition and it is always a trip that the English clubs do not want to make because they know it is a long way to go for a very hard game. The quality that teams like Zenit have on the pitch, plus the noisy passionate fans and of course – the cold weather, English teams will always want to avoid that trip!

And do you have a favourite Russian player?

Pavel Pogrebnyak is a familiar name at Fulham as he spent half a season with us, he was probably my favourite, he currently holds the record for being the quickest player to reach 5 goals in the Premier League. However, a very famous game in England was Liverpool 4 -4 Arsenal, when Andrey Arshavin scored 4 goals for Arsenal. That night, Arshavin made a mark on English football which those fans will talk about forever.

When you came to St.Petersburg, we experienced some real Russian winter weather with heavy snow and very cold temperatures, did you survive this ok? Have you seen weather like this before?

The weather in Russia was a popular comment from friends and family when we said “we are going to Russia” the first response was, “but it is so cold there at the moment”. We are lucky to have snow once a year in England and when we do, we are so unprepared, everything just stops. People will panic and the most normal routines will be cancelled due to 1cm of snow. What was new for me was that you have so much snow, but things continue as normal, everyone is prepared and the community come together to clear roads and allow everyday life to resume. It is probably the first time I’ve been somewhere to witness this much snow.

Did you get a chance to look around our city? What did you visit and what did you think?

Outside of Zenit’s Gazprom Academy we spent the entire weekend visiting all the biggest sights and trying as much food as possible! There were three places that stood out for us, the Cathedral of Spilled Blood was beautiful. The experience around Peter and Paul Fortress was also very entertaining and on our last night we visited a place called ‘Troika’, which did traditional Russian shows and food. They would be the places we recommend the most. What I like the most about St Petersburg was the cleanliness of the city and how well all the buildings are kept.

Thanks for your time Tom, do you have a message for our readers and will we see you again in St.Petersburg anytime soon?

You will certainly see me again soon as the Peterhof palace was closed from the snow!! We really wanted to see that haha! It came across to me that Zenit St Petersburg Academy is continually progressing, developing and currently within a transitional phase. New buildings, new staff, new facilities, it would be excellent to come over in 12 months to see the end result.