Steve Rutter Interview

Leader Manager Coach Podcast

In today's episode of the Leader Manager Coach Podcast, Rob interviews professional coach, former player and current assistant manager at Luton Town, Steve Rutter. Steve talks about the 4 competencies in coaching and the two football coaches that he looks up to Brian Hall and Dick Bates. He recalls his time and experience with them and the learning he has taken from them as mentors.

Key Takeaways:

• Genetic predisposition for certain things. Some people are just born with it. And some people, no matter how much they try, they won't be an elite football player. For Steve, he was never going to be an elite football player, no matter how hard he tried. But he got some of the elements like the game understanding part. He had a good football brain, but he missed an early football technique. He was born with some of that genetic potential and having really good mentors like Brian and Dick help smooth my progression through.

• 4 Competencies:

• Emotional Intelligence. Look at great coaches. A lot of people would say that is one of their number one qualities. They can relate to people. They can engage with people, and they can inspire people.
• Organization. Logistical Skill. Managing Human and Physical Resources.
• Subject-specific Knowledge. Knowledge of football.
• Pedagogical skills. These skills to teach and communicate information to people so they can learn.
• The four competencies are pre-requisites. Whether you are coaching players or coaching coaches. If you haven't got one of them, you are dead.

• We're all based on pattern and recognition. The human brain is designed to recognize patterns quickly and efficiently and to ignore irrelevant cues.
• The art of being really good at something is you can take something that's complicated and present it in very simple terms.
• The key factors in people's achievement are qualities of resilience and a growth mindset.
• Tip: Be ambitious but don't delude yourself.
• You got to do the groundwork. If you really want to be really good at something, chances are you probably have a little bit of natural talent, but you got to invest an awful amount of time and effort to make yourself as good as you can be.

Best moments:

“There's always been lots of people that I've known much more about football than me. And it's not necessarily their football knowledge that attracts me to them, it's what they're like as people.”

“If you have a genetic predisposition for it, you might see 500 pictures and recognize it quickly. Somebody else can see 10,000 pictures and never see it ever. It will never make sense to them.”

“I think what my brain learnt to do within football context is to see the important triggers quickly, forget all the fluff and that helps you come to a really quick decision about things rather than people who can't really see the triggers, and so they have to count with 6 or 7 solutions before they get anywhere near the one that's actually gonna work.”

“Dick (Bate) had this brilliant way of doing things. His attention to detail... The man was an encyclopedia of football. And his passion was undimmed by the years. He was still the same as when I first met him.”

Valuable Resources:

Brian Hall

Dick Bate

About the host:

Rob Ryles is a UEFA qualified coach with a League Managers Association qualification and a science and medicine background. He has worked in the football industry in Europe, USA and Africa; at International, Premiership, League, Non-league and grassroots levels with both World Cup and European Championship experience.

Contact Method:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rob.ryles.14

LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robertryles

Music by Dewolf - www.dwolfmusic.com

ABOUT THE GUEST

Steve is an eminently respected coach in the professional game. As he freely admits his coaching expertise was born out of a playing career where he had to think about the game to compete. He developed a tactical understanding and desire to learn whilst playing and with the help of his mentors became an esteemed coach educator.

Heavily influenced by the late Dick Bate, in addition to leading coach education at The English FA Steve has managed and coached at Panathinaikos, Yeovil Town and is currently assistant manager at Luton Town.

LEARN MORE HERE Football, coach: https://www.patreon.com/robryles

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