After a playing career at the top level in the UK and Europe, including an appearance in the European Cup, David Coles switched to coaching, where he has spent a new lifetime.
Header Image: via Training Ground Guru
Coles was the goalkeeping coach for Southampton during their run to the 2003 FA Cup final, before moving to Portsmouth as part of the coaching staff during the most successful spell in their recent history.
He has worked with the likes of David James, Antti Niemi and Asmir Begovic during his career, having recently worked with PFA’s Out of Contract XI to help players without a club find a new deal. Goalkeeper.com caught up with David to gain his insight into life as a goalkeeper and top level coach.
Coles exudes a love of the art of goalkeeping and has a deep passion for the role. When his playing career came to an end, a move into coaching was the natural next step. He explained: “I started doing the goalkeeping camps when I went into non-league football with Mervyn Day, Martin Thomas, Simon Smith (all of whom have thousands of hours of playing and coaching at the top level under their belts). We did a lot of camps together for Sondico and Adidas so that's how I got into it.
“I was always self-teaching anyway because you know the mistakes that you're making and how you're going to rectify them and how you're going to improve yourself. I did anyway. So it was a natural progression for me.”
Coles believes that one of his strongest attributes as a coach is the connection he has to the position through his playing career. Having been a goalkeeper, he knows what his players are going through and this helps him connect as a coach.
He said: “I think being a goalkeeper has helped me in my coaching development because I feel what they feel. I see what they see. I listen to what they hear, you know, it goes back to the senses, see, feel, touch, smell, you smell danger.
“So all those things I can actually relate to with a goalkeeper. I think when you've played under a crossbar, it makes your job a lot easier.”
The Englishman has helped prepare goalkeepers for some of the biggest occasions in football and he gave an insight into how he gets the best out of his goalkeepers on the big stage. The key, Coles believes, is all in the planning:
“Your planning is important throughout the week, and depending on whether it's a big game, whether it's a Premier League game, or whether it's a Championship game, or a First Division game, or even a cup game” he explained.
“So if it was a normal week for me without a mid-week game, Monday would be a very hard day. I don’t believe you need two days recovery after a game on Saturday.”
“I'm not into that. I think goalkeepers come into work. So if you can manifest a session that's going to be 45 minutes to an hour long I think that's their hard work day. Tuesday is a lighter day, probably crossing, distribution. Wednesday, if Wednesday is off, Wednesday is off.
“And then Thursday and Friday is all around the preparation of the opposition. So that would be a little bit of video analysis, looking at strikers, whether they come inside, whether they use their left foot more frequently than their right foot, whether they head the ball, where do they position the ball.
“All that analytical stuff I usually put into the last two days so that the goalkeeper is well aware of what's going to happen on the Saturday. Same with penalties and stuff like that. And that helps to keep that fresh.”
Coles is a big advocate of the power of analysis, having previously worked with Michael Edwards, now Sporting Director at Liverpool, to revolutionise how he prepared his goalkeepers.
“We studied where goals were conceded in the Premier League. We did all the analytical bits and pieces for crosses, corners, everything. And I actually changed my training schedule.
“It changed my training techniques,” Coles stated “He was brilliant for me in terms of giving David James a new way of training different things. This is where goals are scored from, this is what Ronaldo does”
He added: “I think goalkeeping coaches, rather than just training for the sake of training, have got to look at their methodology and obviously the opposition in terms of developing the goalkeeper's mindset for the game day.”
However, Coles believes that his methods are applicable at all levels, whether working with a Premier League player, or a young teenager taking their first steps in the game. His principle for a session always remains the same.
“I think as a coach, wherever I go I'm going to be intense. I want to give them my best service, my best information, my best package so that they go away with one little golden nugget or something that they've learned.
“I think every session that I've done throughout my career I've always tried and strived to do that. It might be a saying, it might be a foot movement, it might be a handling shape, it might just give them something.
“So even going back to David James, who demanded a lot from the sessions, always got the most I could give him. It was the same with other goalkeepers like Antti Niemi, Paul Jones, Robert Green, they all demanded the top level of intensity in the sessions. It couldn't be watered down.”
Reflecting on his recent work with the PFA Out of Contract XI, Coles takes great pride in having been able to help players get back into the game at a low point in their careers. It is something he wishes was available during his career.
“I think the biggest thing is they bought into me and I bought into all of them because they're out of contract, they're desperate to keep fit, to stay sharp so that when that opportunity arises they can take it with both hands.
“I think that's a massive thing but I think the PFA have done something really tremendous because if that was around when I was out of contract that would have helped me no end.
“It's trying to get these goalkeepers back in. They don't deserve to be out of contract, it's just that someone doesn't fancy them. But you know, there's always someone around the corner. I do believe as one door closes, another one opens.”
The one thing which comes across strongest from Coles is his pure love of goalkeeping. He is someone who lives and breathes the position. Through his work, he hopes to help people reconnect with that love, formed in childhood when playing on muddy pitches.
“I think when we're growing up as kids, well certainly when I was, I played goal on every bit of grass in London, and it was fun and I used to have people taking shots at me and diving around in mud and everything else. I think that was fun.”
“And I've tried never, ever to take fun out of football because it is a fun sport, but you're getting paid for it, which makes it a seriously fun sport.
“And I think it's important that when goalkeepers turn up, especially at the PFA, I make them laugh, I make them smile, I make them enjoy it because it's not that bad really. They're doing something they really love doing and they have done and they will do it again.
“It's just being out of contract. It's not a problem, it's just that they have to believe in themselves again to get themselves going but someone has to believe in them and give them an opportunity.”
David Coles has coached goalkeepers at all levels of English football and abroad. He is currently open to new opportunities - you can find him on LinkedIn here.
