AheadAhead“Football is a science and it’s

treated as one across Europe, butthis country is 20 or 30 years be-

hind and we’re continually playing catch-up.Parents have come to this club, watched whatwe do and said: “you’re in the wrong coun-try, you should be in Holland, Sweden, Den-mark.””Not the words of Jose Mourinho, Arsene

Wenger or any other household name in theworld of football coaching, but the words ofTam Smith, club leader at Edinburgh youthclub Hutchison Vale.‘Hutchie,’ as they are fondly known over

the border, made headlines in 2012 when itwas reported that they had enlisted the helpof a sport psychologist to improve theirunder-12 boys team.“Under-12s side so serious about winning

they have called in sport psychologist,”screamed the Daily Record in Scotland, re-porting quotes from seemingly disgruntledparents.“This is typical Hutchie behaviour - they

think they’re better than everyone else,” onescorned, while another reflected: “I don’tknow what’s wrong with just letting thebairns go out and enjoy themselves.”But a visit to the Hutchison Vale club-

house, a small, run-down shack whichsprings up suddenly while exploring a resi-dential area of Slateford, a suburb of Edin-burgh, reveals that there is much, much moreto it all than simply ‘winning.’“The reaction was very favourable all-

round,” Smith explained of the decision tointroduce the use of sport psychology at theclub.

“People always seem to be trying to knocksuccess - that’s part of the psyche in this coun-try - and with the success Hutchison Vale hasgot over the years there was stuff out in thepress that was maybe put in without due dili-gence, without finding about it a little bitmore.“No parent disagreed to it [the sport psy-

chology] and if the parents didn’t want theirkids becoming involved, then we wouldn’teven have made an issue of it - the kids justwouldn’t have attended the sessions.“It’s an added extra but you’re always try-

ing to give the players an edge and that’spartly the reason why we introduced it. “We also wanted to give the kids an aware-

ness of themselves, too.“What we’re doing is introducing things

which give them a confident mindset, whichwill hopefully stand them in good stead intheir path through the game,” he added.“I don’t think its revolutionary, but it is in-

teresting.“Maybe it’s revolutionary in this country, I

don’t know, but I think it’s quite normal inother countries for young budding sports peo-ple to be introduced to these things.”So how exactly did Smith go about intro-

ducing it at the club and, perhaps more impor-tantly, was it successful?“Hutchison Vale are basically a develop-

ment club; no one gets paid here to play foot-ball,” he explained.“With that in mind, we’re always looking at

how we give our players an edge.“There are lots of different physical new

things that have been introduced in the lastfew years, such as pilates and yoga, andthere’s also some sports science that we’vegot involved with in the over the past year.“The brain is often overlooked and children

do have a fragile mind, so we’ve got to makesure that, if we’re going to foist somethingupon them like sport psychology, firstly theparents are in agreement – they all signed tosay they’re quite happy to do this.“Then we need a sport psychologist with

the relevant qualifications. The sport psychol-ogist we use, Tracy Donachie, actually playsfor our ladies team; we thought it was good totry and do things in-house and utilise the re-sources we’ve got at hand.“She ran the workshops between April and

August last year with two age groups – 10-year-olds to 12-year-olds – over a six-weekperiod, then waited six weeks and did anotherfour weeks with the kids, with an analysis atthe end of that.“It was very successful and we’re hopefully

going to roll it out again this year, with Tracy

coming in to teach another group and to alsore-visit the group she taught last year.“We’re looking for her to work with the

two age groups above, the 14s and the 15s,but last year she worked part-time and so wasin a position where she could do a lot ofcoaching, while her new full-time job meansthat reaching an agreement with us will beharder.“In terms of the success we had, I think

when the games were maybe a bit tighter, thepotential to beat the opposition was there.“The players found the answers from each

other and themselves, instead of arguing likesome players can do.“What’s noticeable is that they’ll keep

calm and get through it and be determined,and what we’re trying to teach them is, intimes like that, instead of panicking, the bestthing to do is to go back to basics and re-member what you were taught.“If you’re in trouble on the ball in a game,

maybe pass it at a higher tempo or improvethe tempo of the game. Don’t isolate some ofyour team-mates – involve the group so thatthey remain a unit to make you stronger.“If you can do that, keep the team playing

as a team at that wee bit higher tempo, youcan turn a tougher situation around and that’swhat’s happened a few times.“So I do think it’s been successful and I

think it’s a good thing to introduce kids tofrom a young age.“What’s important is that the leaders go to

these workshops as well,” he added, “becausethere’s no point doing something with thekids if the leaders don’t buy into it as well.”It’s beginning to sound less like a team

Hutchison Vale:a developmentclub in Edinburghinvesting in innovative methods at youth level

Pic: Liz Owen

Pic: youthfootballscotland.co.uk

Footballer and sport psychologist Tracy DonachieHutchison Vale club leader Tam Smith

10

obsessed with victory, as the press seemed tosuggest, and more like a team which sets anexample to others on how to look after thefuture of football.And Hutchie certainly have the results to

back it up.“We’ve been well-known over the years

for producing talent to the senior clubs andwe’ve won the Scottish Cup 65 times whenyou add all the age groups up, which is wellahead of the other clubs in Scotland,” saidSmith.“I personally get five or six phonecalls a

week from players who just want to come tothis club.“We don’t have to look for them – they

want to be here, because they know it’s agreat development club and that it’s got agreat track record.Referring to Scotland’s 2-1 World Cup

qualifying defeat to Wales the previous day,Smith added, “There were four Hutchie boysinvolved in Scotland’s game last night, butthat’s average and it’s been average for about20 years.“Goalkeeper Alan McGregor was here

from the age of six, Gary Caldwell was herefor a couple of years too, and there was alsoSteve Whittaker, who came on as a sub, andKenny Miller.“I always feel that at Hutchie, since I be-

came club leader in 1989, I’ve never lookedover my shoulder to see what everyone elseis doing.“I’ve always looked forward to see what

the next big thing is, how we can improveand making sure we never forget the basicsof the game.

“I wanted coaches here that were goodwith kids – I didn’t want coaches who wouldshout and scream.“More important than having a coach

that’s really good at coaching is that the at-mosphere is right for the kids to play theirfootball and my implication is that the wholething is conclusive to learning about them-selves and specifically how to play footballas a team.”Smith’s views on both coaching children

and the use of sport psychology in footballare crystal clear.“I’m a supporter of introducing sport psy-

chology as much as I’m a supporter of teach-ing kids yoga and pilates at a young age,” hesaid.“It’s a discipline of the mind but a lot of it

will be expanding childrens’ minds so thatthey can make informed choices as they getolder, giving them as much information aswe can.“The traditional football coach in Scotland

basically tells the kids what to do and whento do it.““Pass the ball! Stand here!” It’s like

sat-nav coaching. It’s better to teach them

how to make their own minds up, make deci-sions and give them strength of character andthe confidence to do that.“Anything to do with children is all to do

with education and yet when you do thesecourses for football there’s nothing at thevery start of them which should try and teachadults about how kids’ minds work.“It’s more important to understand chil-

dren than to understand the sport, and ifyou’ve got leaders that can understand both –hey presto, you’ve done well.Smith concluded by praising the FA and

the initiatives shown in England in terms ofusing sport psychology.“It’s good to hear that it seems to be the

future in England. I’ve heard that the FA arebehind it and I don’t think there’s enough ofthat in this country.“If you go into academies down there,

they have sayings up to make you stop andthink. They have them all up in the dressingroom and hallways for the kids to look at andlearn from. It’s good; what it’s doing is rein-forcing it visually.“I don’t think the Scottish game is quite

there yet. I’ve not seen anything like thathere yet. You’ve got lots of initiatives, like‘Show Racism the Red Card,’ but I’ve neverseen anything involving psychology assomething that’s considered important and tome it’s fundamental for children.”If Tam Smith was to have his way, perhaps

we would be talking about how Scotland, notEngland, is leading the way.One thing is certainly for sure - at Hutchi-

son Vale, the children, not the trophies, taketop priority.

of the Gameof the Game

11

Pic: Liz Owen

Hutchison Vale:a developmentclub in Edinburghinvesting in innovative methods at youth level