In the latest of our coaches’ corner series, we caught up with a man who knows the Sussex grassroots coaching scene like the back of his hand, Steve Phythian.

For Steve, football came into his life at just the right time.

“Unlike a lot of other boys my age, I didn’t actually start playing club football until I was about 15 years old. I had just got into the school team as I was a late developer as far as football was concerned, although I had played for the house and school in basketball, athletics and cricket, but football was my passion, since England won the World Cup in 1966.” said Phythian.

“I played until I was 41, but I started my coaching journey a good few years earlier, when I was 34, and a couple of mates and I decided to head down to Sussex County FA to attend an introductory course tutored by Steve Avory.

“The Preliminary Coaching Award as it was called then, was a good balance between written exams on the laws of the game, which being a referee at the time, I didn’t have too much trouble with the theory of coaching, and then there was a practical exam.

“But once I had that. I was straight on to clubs to start, and thankfully Bognor Regis Town’s centre of excellence gave me just the opportunity I was looking for.”

After three years with the Rocks, Saltdean was the next stop on Steve’s coaching journey, joining as their reserve team manager, before then upping sticks once again to join Lewes, where he stayed for four years.

His first role as a first team manager was still a few years away however, with Lancing appointing him to the first team manager’s role in 1997.

However, for Phythian, life, or this case children, provided the deciding factor in the direction his coaching career took next.

“After a couple of years with Lancing, we’d just had our second child, and I felt that it was the right time to move into youth football, whilst continuing to take courses and developing off the pitch.”

“I spent some years at the Brighton & Hove Albion Centre of Excellence, before taking on roles at a number of other grassroots clubs in Sussex in various roles, but most commonly welfare officer, alongside some coaching.

“Meanwhile in my professional career, I’d been working in financial services for years, but then a role came up at the Sussex County FA in 2010 for an Education Development Officer, which was a job I then did for the next 10 years before retirement.

“Coincidentally, at the same time and after persuasion from Henry Millington who was County Development Manager, I applied for and was accepted by The FA as a tutor for the Level 1 and youth award introductory module and a bit later the Level 2 coaching courses.

“Paul Holder, Steve Avory and another coach-tutor, Ben Bartlett had massively influenced me as a coach, when I attended courses, they delivered and inspired me to want to become a tutor.

“I was also accepted as a part time Mentor when The FA launched its grassroots coach Mentoring Scheme a few years later.

“Over the years I’ve learned so much from lots of other FA Coach Educators I’ve had the privilege of interacting with including my good friend Mark Leigh, whom I met at a weekend prep course at Sittingbourne in 1992!

“Since retiring I’ve continued to stay involved in football at Saltdean United, where I’ve supported coaches as an assistant at U18, U13 and U16 age groups in 3 of the last 4 seasons, alongside being the club’s Welfare Officer and now this season working as part of a team with the new U6 group, our “Tiger Cubs”. I also offer my experience as a mentor to any of the coaches from any of the other teams should they need it.)

“So, it’s been a varied coaching career that’s for sure, but that’s what you get when, like me, you’re just obsessed with the game!”

For some players, moving into coaching is something that gets considered, along with other paths, once they retire, but for Phythian, he makes it clear that it was something he knew he wanted to move into long before jogging onto the pitch for the last time.

“For me, the real lightbulb moment actually came very early on in my playing career,” said Steve, “when I started my first job after leaving school, a few of the other employees played for the local club, Alpine Rovers, and they invited me down to play.

“All of a sudden, for the first time, I was being coached by two people, Frank Hinton and Pete Leaney who I would recognise as a qualified coach, who was putting in place sessions that were looking to develop us as players as well as a team.

“Before then, I’d only ever experienced coaching in the form of shouting on the sidelines and general advice, but from this point I understood that training wasn’t just about making you fitter for Saturday and Sunday afternoon but designed to make you a better player.

“So, I then started to think that this might be something I’d like to get into, but it still took me another 16 years to actually get around to applying for a course!”

Coaching, like so many other aspects of football, can only be taught so much in the classroom, and for Phythian, he started learning first when he got onto the grass for the first time.

“Looking back, I really wasn’t the most imaginative or innovative coach,” reflects Phythian, “I was very formulaic in those early years, and would tend to just steal the best bits from other coaches' sessions, and if they worked, I’d stick with them.

“But I also learned quickly what kind of coach I was, in terms of how hands on with players I would be during a session.

“I remember for example, Paul Holder, a coach who used to be involved with Brighton & Hove Albion, used to be big on helicopter coaching, so he’d always be wandering onto the pitch and having one-to-ones with players, but didn’t always stop the session right away if something wasn’t going to plan.

“At first I thought this was the best way to do things, but for me and my sessions, I soon realised that having a more hands off approach, and letting things flow tended to yield better results.”

As Steve developed as a coach, so did his coaching network and his involvement with this County FA.

“One person who had a huge influence on my coaching journey was Dennis Probee, who at the time, was the County coach with the Sussex County FA.

“Dennis was great at bringing coaches together for these “preparatory” courses, which were designed to give you a sense of what taking on a UEFA License would entail.

“Anyway, it was at one of those sessions that Steve Ford, who was another coach with Brighton and Steve Avory who had been my group coach on the Prelim, led the practical side of the course.

“At the end of the afternoon, I went to shake Avory’s hand and thank him for the course, only for him to invite me to another prep course, because he thought I had something about me.

“I was never really one to be super confident in my own abilities, so to get that vote of confidence and encouragement went a long way in giving me the belief that I was on the right path.”

That path took Phythian on many courses and sessions before he reached his goal of the UEFA A Licence in 1994.

However, it would be a case of second times the charm for Steve when it came to the small matter of actually passing the course.

“The first time I went for my A Licence, it was all going to plan until the final practical session,” said Phythian.

“The brief was to coach a session on defending from crosses in an 11v11, and as I used to play at centre-back, this seemed like a gift.

“When the day of the session came around, I focused attention on the full-backs so they could shut down the opposition and prevent them getting any crosses in.

“Anyway, after about three minutes I realised I’d blown it, because of course no crosses were coming in, which meant the defenders weren’t having to do any defending, and thus the tutor had nothing to judge me on!”

While such an experience might deter some coaches, Phythian was straight back the following year to finish the job.

“When I first took the course, I remember what they told us all on the first day, that some of us will pass, and some of us will fail, but what you can’t take away is the knowledge you’ll gain, and he was right.

“When I came back the next year, I came back a better coach and certainly better prepared to pass, and I also had a more open mind to the practices and how to adapt things, whereas before I’d have said I was certainly more rigid in my approach.”

Such is the nature of coaching courses though, that in all the ones Steve has either attended or hosted, he’s seen as much knowledge gained organically from the different attendees as from the PowerPoint on the screen or the session on the pitch.

“Every course I’ve been at, I’ve picked up something from the people attending, and that’s something people don’t realise about these courses,” said Phythian.

“If you take the Level 1 Coaching Course as an example, that’s a course you’re on with 18 other people, and if you take each one to have about 6 months or so of coaching experience, you’re in a room with a minimum of six years in total of experience.

“So, you learn so much from people just talking about problems they’ve had to overcome in their coaching and how they did that, and in my experience, you can learn as much from a novice coach as an experienced one.

“People also come into coaching from so many different walks of life, and again that brings a new and different dynamic to what they’re doing on the pitch that you can learn from.

“Recently there have been a lot of ex-pros and managers scoffing at courses like the Level 1 but forgetting that you get so much out of them away from just what’s on the course itself.”

Speaking to Steve, his passion for the game is without question, but where specifically would he say the enjoyment comes from in his coaching?

“I think it’s the relationships more than anything else that bring the enjoyment for me,” said Phythian.

“I remember one game when I was coaching at Lancing, where I decided to go out and really scout the opposition beforehand; and in doing so, I identified the need to press one of their players who was slow on the ball.

“Anyway, cut to the game, and after we worked on that plan in training, we scored the opener after winning the ball back off that player high up the pitch.

“We did go on to lose the game 3-1, but to see something I’d planned and worked on with the players come off, meant so much to me.”

Phythian went on to add: “Developing relationships with youth players and their parents is something that gives me real joy and sense of purpose.

“For me, I always like to establish what kind of player the child is, in terms of someone who wants to really be a footballer, or if they’re more of a social player, then I’ll adjust my approach with them and their parents accordingly.

“I’ll always try and educate parents accordingly, because it’s highly likely their child won’t go onto play professional football, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get so much out of coming down and playing in the team.”

As someone who’s been involved in coaching for over 30 years now, Phythian has seen many grassroots coaches come and go, but for the ones that last the course, the patterns are clear to see.

“From my experience, the best coaches are good with people, not just with tactics boards,” said Phythian, “I remember Nick Levett at The FA saying, ‘coaching isn’t about bibs and cones, it’s about people’ and that’s stuck with me over the years.

“The best coaches also tend to be the ones best placed to adapt to their players, be that an under-16s team or open age.

“But above all else, the coaches I’ve seen go the furthest in the game, are the ones who’ve been open to criticism, and as such, are always able to reflect and learn, and thus improve each time.”

With that in mind, what advice would Steve offer to the next generation of Sussex coaches?

“When I was starting out, I was always looking for that final piece of the jigsaw, for that perfect session, but what took me a long time to learn was that the perfect session doesn’t exist,” said Phythian.

“You’ll never know it all, or even come close, but that doesn’t mean you should stop trying and stop taking on more knowledge, because in any coaching situation, there’s always something to learn.”

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