The modern football fitness coach and the importance of deep technical and tactical knowledge with Adam Owen (UEFA Pro Licence Coach & High Performance Director)

This week’s guest on the Pacey Performance Podcast is Adam Owen, a man who has had more experience than most as a coach, sports scientist, performance director and consultant at numerous football clubs around Europe and the rest of the world. Starting as a player at Wrexham, Adam has coached at Rangers, Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Servette, Lechia Gdansk, Benfica, Hebei Fortune and the Wales national team when they reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016.

With this experience, Adam gives us a superb overview of what it’s like to be a leading coach or assistant manager in professional football. Adam talks about the inner workings of coaching, such as man management, what a coaching qualification teaches us (and what it doesn’t), and how coaches can marry both the physical and technical side of the game. With several publications to his name, Adam explains how to take this profession beyond the academic. Simply hit the play button now to discover all this and much more.

On this week’s podcast:

• Why it benefits coaches and sports scientists to have a deeper understanding of football
• Why having a qualification in sports science or coaching isn’t always enough
• What the minimum coaching qualification is that can give you influence within a club
• Why it pays to know the physical side of football, not just the technical as a coach
• How coaches with a physical style can gain a technical side
• How to use experience gained in a pre-GPS time with that technology
• Common misunderstandings between the physical and technical sides
• Building rapport and trust with players by presenting a methodology
• How to extract the best information from the coaches available at a club
• How much a qualification, such as a UEFA A License, is dedicated to man management