Interview with David Coles - Portsmouth FC Goalkeeping Coach

David Coles (centre) with Alan Blayney, Scott Bevan and Paul Smith (left to right)

David Coles, Southampton Goalkeeping Coach, Interview

When you finished playing did you find coaching the natural progression?

Yeah I think so I Always enjoyed the coaching even when I was coaching for Sondico and then coach for Adidas, really enjoyed it

From reading your book you seem to really love goal keeping and coaching, how many hours a week do you spend coaching at all levels?

I work with 24 – 25 lads at different age levels. My daily routine is quite strenuous I work 2 sessions and sometimes evening sessions. I enjoy coaching, I enjoy improving my goalkeepers and improving people who trial with us.

What is the first team at Southampton 's training schedule? Do you train and coach most days

Between 40 minutes to an hour on their technical side and then we will go into phases of play/ game situations, 8 v 8's, then if we have got one spare goal keeper over then I will spend a bit of time with him drift back into the game and watch from the sideline and coach from their or behind the goal, look at their start positions, whether they could have called and given information??

Last season Southampton had a very successful season reaching the FA Cup Final was a massive achievement, you must have been very proud to have two top class keepers in Antti and Paul Jones (Jonah) who both had great seasons?

Obviously we have lost Jonah now and I was sad to lose him, I think he is a very, very good goalkeeper working with him has been a pleasure. Last year the biggest joy for me really was they both came on in the cup final, Jonah was quite down when he wasn't picked in front of Antti and it would have been the same if it was the opposite way. They have both got lovely personalities, fantastic people to work with and I have always said even Antti as you have seen this morning he dives around like a 16 year old he will work the hardest you want him to work and he is very responsive to all types of training.

What most do you work with on your keepers and why?

I think the big one is the physiological, dealing with mistakes especially when they have made a mistake in a major game or when they have made a mistake in training. I try to tackle the mistakes straight away I am a great believer in managing mistakes, if I can limit their mistakes in training it will show in their consistency in a premier league game and obviously their respective age groups i.e. Alan Blayney in the reserves and Andrew McNeil and Michael Poken in the Under-19's and 17's. Certainly shot stopping is the main one because it depends on what sort of theme is put on by the manager, what he requires from the goal keeper as in an 8 v 8 or a crossing phase. I mainly work to the manager but also at the same time work on strengths as well as weaknesses, building on strengths I mean you have seen Antti is a great shot stopper, very athletic, very quick to keep him that way you have to work on their strengths as well as their weaknesses.

Do you talk with other goal keeping coach's in the Premier League? Do you talk about training drills etc?

Always talk to other goal keeping coach's as everyone has got different ideas, everyone is trying to produce the same thing i.e. Consistency in your keepers and obviously having the best keepers in the premier league. Don't really get time to talk about drills and bits and pieces there has been coaching sessions that I have been on where they will say what do you do? ‘yeah I do it this way' etc you are all after the same thing whether it be handling, crossing, distribution, feeding with a back pass all those things you are all after that one -consistency.

How do you prepare keepers for a game?

Mentally and physically, mentally obviously before game and throughout the week, physically obviously the same way. Usually we will go out about 2.15 before the game and we will warm up, jog, stretch once we have done that, my favourite saying is the ‘lets go to work' and then its straight into the handling drills we do. Short distance volleys long distance volleys, half volleys balls at a dip a swerve really everything that might happen to them in a game. We will go onto some crossing & shooting from long angles and then long distance shooting as you have seen the premier league you have got the likes of Tuguy, the Beckham's, the Scholes and Van Nisterlrooy all can hit the ball from great distances. Then we will work on one touch, two touch, dealing with a back pass, half volleying and volleying. Mentally preparing, talking to them about the week they have had getting the positives into them I am not a negative person when it comes to goal keeping.

Since being involved at Southampton what would you say is the best performance one of your keepers have had?

We played Blackburn last year and we had been working on spinning off the post with Antti, if you can't come from the cross come from the by line dealing with the 2 nd ball that comes in from the 6 yard box or even the 2 nd 6 yard box and he made a fantastic save from Tuguy going across his line and unbelievably turned it around the post and the 1 st thing he said to me coming off the field he said we have been working on that this week and its happened so that for me that stands out in my mind.

There was a game about 2 or 3 years ago when we played up at Old Trafford and Paul Jones was in goal, probably the best save I have ever seen. We had been working on the week before: double saves, getting up, recovery, he mad a tremendous save from 1 st from Dwight York and then I think it was Teddy Sheringham and the ball eventually ended up in the net but that save always sticks in my mind. And the 1 st things he said to me was that I don't think the players realised that I actually stopped the ball and I said back that I thought the players all stood still and admired you. That save, in my mind surpassed Gordon Banks save.

What advice do you give young goal keepers trying to get into the game?

That's always a difficult one cause there is always so many goal keepers in the game desperate to play at this level. I think first things first work on sound technique, listen to all advice, certainly watch good practice so watch your premier league games. Analyze your own games, you have to look at yourself and see where your strengths and weaknesses lie but if you have got a goal keeping coach or manager they will obviously say well you need to work on this, I think you must work on your weaknesses but you must not ignore your strengths. The other thing is really speed and agility, personality comes into it, its how you deal with things and how you deal with mistakes. No one wants to see a goal keeper with his head down they want to see who is bright, walks with their shoulders up and enjoys playing in goal. If I go on scouting for keepers I will always watch them warming up and how he walks in the 6 yard box does he really enjoy going in that goal.

Do you do a lot of scouting ?

Yeah I go out quite a bit, up and down the country I watched Paul Smith 12 times before we bought him, The manager asked me yesterday about his two keepers: McCormack & Le Rue I gave him a profile on them. Yeah I enjoy going out and watching other keepers, because I think it also tells you what you have got at your club. I watched a boy this year they told me he was better than Alan Blayney I watched and said no, for me Alan Blayney is a good goal keeper and will get better as he gets older.

What is the highlight of your coaching career?

Well obviously the FA Cup final, that was the main one, getting two goal keepers to play at the Millennium Stadium that for me was the pinnacle of my coaching career so far. I go back to when Glen Hoddle was manager, we had 8 clean sheets with Paul Jones that was an achievement and I felt a great part of that and Jonah made me part of that. Really my enjoyment is going out every Saturday watching them make saves and come for crosses and do everything you have tried to coach and educate them throughout the week. Watching them doing that on a Saturday is really a pinnacle in itself every day especially at Premier League level.

What influences you and your coaching techniques?

I think if I played now I would be a totally different goal keeper I certainly was very hard on myself when I played, I wanted to know more and more about goal keeping. I had a few coaches who I learned from Bob Wilson, Alan Hodgkinson, and Mike Kelly, Len Bond goal keeper who used to play at Brentford and work for me when I was playing non-league at Yeovil, certainly learnt a lot from them.

Obviously over the years I have built up a repertoire, I am not one of those goal keeping coaches who just stands still and goes back to the old stuff all the time. You know you have to move with the time, plyometric stuff, agility stuff does change and I think that is important that you continue that and progress that. Certainly I don't like to do two sessions the same in a week so I try and change it. So what we have done today will be totally different tomorrow I think you end up training the mind and the body and to do certain things in certain ways.

To expand that you have to take it beyond that limit so in other words if I said to you look here's 20 sit ups we will do them this way and I did them a different way you would probably find them difficult. So its educating the muscles you can do it in a different way. And improve the mind the focus and concentration at the same time.

What gloves and boots do you regularly wear?

Adidas, you know that already, Adidas gloves, I have got a fantastic friend in Gary O'Reily who I used to play with at Crystal Palace in Brighton he was centre half then he works for Adidas. I have been wearing Adidas boots all my life so that has not changed. I did other sports and was a big Reusch fan, but now I am an Adidas fan. I worked for an Adidas GK1 goal keeping school with a Newcastle goal keeping coach who I am very good friends with Simon Smith we do a lot of work together and that is why I stay with Adidas. For a goal keeping coach as you can imagine these lads throw a ball at you when you are messing around with them and they protect my fingers and they have got a bit softer as I have got older.

As a young lad who were your heroes?

I had big admiration for the likes of Peter Shilton, and I enjoyed watching Ray Clemence, for his composure his calmness and Peter Shelton for his agility and his shot stopping. Joe Corrigon I remember Joe again good on crosses, good striker of the ball. Also I love watching and I have got video footage of Lev Yashin and Sepp Maier I can go on and on. Pat Jennings would come into that I actually watched him play as an 18 year old I was on the bench it was only at Aldershot it was only a testimonial game, I always remember this big hand coming out of a crowd of players catching it one handed and throwing it to the right hand side in one movement out to Charlie Nicolas who ran the length of the field and scored past the goal keeper whose testimonial it was - Glen Johnson who played for Aldershot and all I was doing was clapping the goal keeper. I liked all those type of goal keepers.

Excluding Antti who is your top premiership goal keeper?

Very difficult question, Antti is definitely up there I have had the pleasure of working with him and he has been very complementary in my coaching saying I have improved him and bits and pieces. I am a big fan of Friedel, I like Friedel I think he has been excellent; Cudicini certainly for his shot stoping exploits.

I like Howard since he has come on the scene, no one knew much about him apart from my good friend Tony Coton and he went on and signed him I think Tony has done excellent with him, he has certainly come in the premier league and looked good. Those types of keeper would be up there at the moment I think they have been one of the most consistent. When you look back over the last 10 years I don't think you would find a more consistent goal keeper than Dean Kiely, for me since the premier league he has been very, very consistent. He is certainly a goal keeper who if we ever wanted one and he was ever available I would consider because I think he has got everything.

Outside the premier league you are looking at someone like Marty Poom, Who's going to hopefully play at the Millennium stadium I am a big fan of Marty's.