Playing the Full

By IAIN KING, Toronto, January 9, 2018

TEN MONTHS into this Canadian adventure, has the dream job of becoming a full-time coach been all it was cracked up to be?

I was asked that question as my family enjoyed a break together in the spectacular ice-box that was Niagara Falls at New Year.

The answer was a resounding YES.

Sure, there are frustrations coaching soccer in a country where ice hockey is king. At this time of year you can lose your best players from the program to the appeal of the rink or even the lure of the ski slopes.

You have to learn to adapt to that. I now live in a pulsing city of 2.8million people that is home to Toronto FC, the richly deserved MLS Cup champions.

For one memorable day last month downtown ground to a halt for the victory parade as Sebastian Giovinco and Co celebrated the historic 2-0 win over Seattle Sounders that brought the franchise its first ultimate prize.

Buses carried "Go TFC" messages instead of destinations, the 6ix was swept up in the euphoria.

Now, though, the focus is firmly back on Auston Matthews and hockey's Maple Leafs and DeMar DeRozan and basketball's Raptors.

JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS...enjoying my son Bruce's 21st birthday at the Raptors v the

Philadelphia 76ers. We won 102-86 and the team looks like a play-off franchise again

This is a multi-sport country and you have to live with that, part of the job here is to be a missionary for the Beautiful Game. To spread the gospel.

In Scotland I took it for granted that my players would be watching every SPFL, EPL and Champions League game with avid interest and we could discuss the merits of players or examine the tactics of coaches.

Here when Canada's men's national team played Scotland in a friendly last year there were players in our League One locker-room who didn't even know the game was on.

There is still a culture to establish for our sport here. You lose games at youth level to teams who hoof the ball long and it gnaws at you.

Yet you know by the time the players graduate to Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) that those with the proper technical foundation, who have been brought up to express themselves, to pass and move, will eventually shine.

Ontario Soccer take some flak within the game here, what ruling body doesn't? Over the piece, though, I have been very impressed by their passionate input.

This week I completed the final homework assignments as I work towards my Technical Director diploma, a qualification that doesn't exist in the pathway in my homeland.

My week-long course at OS HQ was an eye-opener from work on how to deal with the personalities in a boardroom, presented by the shrewd Paul Varian, to a thought-provoking workshop on youth development from the excellent Dr Tracy Vaillancourt.

We finished that week in TFC'S First Team Players' Lounge at the magnificent Kia Academy with a lecture from the club's Head of High Performance Michael Rabasca.

That gave us an insight into the edge they seek at the top level through gauging the mind-set of the players.

Brain monitors, meditation, it was fascinating to see the science used at the top level to gain that extra one per cent to become MLS champions - and how they adapt that to develop the best youth players in the Academy.

That course is the first in two decades of coaching that has been paid for me by my club.

It was done by North Toronto Nitros without hesitation, bettering yourself here is almost seen as a RIGHT not as something you desire as part of an egotistical journey.

In Scotland I chose to self-fund ALL of my coaching education. The truth is clubs either can't afford to fund it or they choose to see it as a low level priority.

I'm sure every Scottish coach reading this has either had to beg or badger a club to pay for even a percentage of their education. I was lucky enough at the time to have the wherewithal to decide it wasn't worth the grief.

That positivity, the WeCan attitude, is a major plus to coaching full-time in Canada.

THE OFFICE...with wind-chill it was -27 outside at Central Tech but inside the superb dome the heaters got cranked up, we went to work in a terrific coaching environment

Being full-time now has given me the chance to broaden my horizons and keep in touch with coaching contacts throughout the world.

Those from home often ask about the main benefits of working full-time after my lifetime previously spent juggling the demands of a high-pressure media job with coaching in Scotland's Lowland League.

These 10 months have made me a far better coach because I get the time to try to master my craft.

On a rough average I will coach 17 hours on the field and take charge of four matches every week.

Preparation time on sessions and games, administration, communication with parents and players, organising travel tournaments throughout Canada and the USA. It is hectic and varied, I love it.

All of it has made me a far more rounded coach than the one who arrived here filled with enthusiasm but also a little trepidation.

I have learned about coaching in stations, a method I don't like, to working with GAG (Game, Activity, Game) which has grown on me day by day as I have found ways to put my own stamp on it.

Ontario Soccer's curriculum of ProActive Defending, Running and Dribbling, Receiving and Turning and ProActive Passing - I'll always argue shooting or crossing and finishing should be a taught block - is delivered in our style.

Dedicated youngsters train four times a week and play their game and we are producing gifted players, on a par with if not better than at home, believe me.

The trick, though, is for Canada to find the right pathway when OPDL is over and players have not landed that craved for University or college scholarship. What happens to them then?

We will see if the mooted Canadian Premier League (CPL) is the answer but in a country that only has three pro franchises in TFC, Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact the next steps have to be taken carefully.

I have worked with players, male and female, from U10/U11 to the adults in League One and learned in an excellent environment at a club that has three of the 29 UEFA A Licence holders in the vast province of Ontario on its staff roster.

I feel it took guts - and the shock to the system of being denied the chance to develop the role of CEO at League One Airdrieonians - to embark on this Canadian venture.

This insight I hope shows why I feel I have become a far better coach on my travels.

I will always believe that my homeland, where I worked with so many ambitious and intelligent people at East Kilbride FC and BSC Glasgow, could find a way to create an environment where the coaches are given the same chance I have the privilege of here.

It requires some outside the box thinking, though, and leaders with the courage to break the mould. We should call it Project Bravery.

* Happy New Year to everyone who reads the blogs, apologies to all for no December offering but my son's 21st celebrations and my daughter's wedding here took precedence. And these days I don't have an Editor kicking my ass and saying: "What part of file now do you not understand!"

Keep looking out for the blog as I travel to Philadelphia on January 17 for the United Soccer Coaches Convention which will be an early highlight of my year.