Dribbling, passing, scoring goals and celebrating: that’s how football works – in America as well. To continuously nurture the potential of young boys and girls at Chattanooga FC, VfL Wolfsburg and its long-standing partner club in the US state of Tennessee have launched the ‘Coaching Education’ project. After all, the challenges of the future can only be mastered with competent and qualified coaches. For this reason, the Green-and-Whites are passing on their expertise and see themselves primarily as a source of fresh impetus. In order to convey a holistic approach not only in theory, Jan Twete, head of international marketing at VfL Wolfsburg Fußball-GmbH, and Johannes Meyer, team leader of children’s football at the Green-and-Whites, travelled to Chattanooga from 3 to 13 June, accompanied by their colleague Kwadwo Twumasi from play.advance.football. In this interview, Meyer explains how the exchange of expertise worked in practice and in which areas the club can develop further.
Wolves in the USA
Johannes Meyer, the partnership with Chattanooga FC has been going for a few years and has now been expanded with a new project. What exactly does it involve?
Johannes Meyer: “We visited the Chattanooga Academy, our partner’s youth academy for girls and boys, and worked with the coaches there and those at the football school. In the meantime, the local structures have become more professionalised, the club is now playing in the MLS Next Pro and the demands are thus also growing. Compared to two years ago when there were six full-time employees, now there are 30. We decided on the project with the new CEO Alton Byrd and have now been able to put it into practice with our visit on site to teach the basic principles of good training.”
Several thousand kilometres separate Wolfsburg and Chattanooga. How sustainable is this initiative?
Johannes: “Yes, that is a challenge, which is why we opted for an all-year approach. We’ll go there once a year for face-to-face training, and beyond that we’ll conduct online workshops with different areas of focus for the responsible coaches.”
What are the current topics on site?
Johannes: “We’ve introduced a video platform with the same exercise and training tool that we use here – only translated into English. Thanks to the support of Kwadwo Twumasi, everyone now has access and can use the exercises from VfL Wolfsburg, among others. Even when we’re not on site, this gives us the opportunity to continue working over there. In order to familiarise ourselves with this tool and all its features, for example, we marked content that our colleagues from Chattanooga implemented directly in a training session with an U12 team and an U14 team.”
Our training enables us to raise the work of coaches to a new level. In the best-case scenario, the children will receive a better education because the modern training content we teach will be taught in the future.Johannes Preis
How is youth football structured over there?
Johannes: “There are boys’ and girls’ teams. It starts at U8/U9 – then it goes all the way up to the women and men. A total of 35 coaches have now taken part in our programme. We wanted to teach them to train in a game-orientated way, with fun and intensity. This works best in small forms of play across multiple pitches and with football-specific drills – complex, but not complicated.”
Were there any other activities in addition to the typical training for the coaches?
Johannes: “Another highlight was the ‘CFC X VfL Wolfsburg Soccer Festival’ for the U9 and U10 year groups. Around 80 children in 14 teams took part in two mini tournaments, where they experienced new formats and competitive football. This festival not only provided the young footballers with valuable experiences, but also the coaches with the opportunity to further develop their skills in a dynamic environment. In addition to that, we put on a three-day camp for over 30 children aged six to 13 as well as an elite camp for ambitious youngsters from U10 to U18 level.”
What benefits does the project have for the young athletes?
Johannes: “Our training enables us to raise the work of coaches to a new level. In the best-case scenario, the children will receive a better education because the modern training content we teach will be taught in the future. They can only benefit from this. They’ve already had a lot of fun with the exercises, which they’ve asked for again and again.”
What have you found to be the biggest differences in training work between Chattanooga FC and VfL Wolfsburg so far?
Johannes: “Some coaches certainly lack experience. They’ve focused on the athleticism of the footballers, while the playing side has been rather neglected. Moreover, they often do technical training in isolation. Our approach is to encourage this in match form. They derive content from American football, but that’s a completely different game.”
What’s your overall summary?
Johannes: “Thoroughly positive. Overall, it was an extremely successful visit, which has further solidified and deepened the already strong and trusting partnership between the two clubs. The coaches were very open and interested. They immediately tried to accept our advice. They understand that the project provides added value for their work, so we’re looking forward to the continued cooperation and to supporting future developments. We’ll see each other again in mid-July for an online workshop.”