Scott West took part in Werribee Football Club’s “Coaching the Coaches” last week. 78657_17 Picture: EMILY LANE.
By LIAM TWOMEY
FOOTBALL coaches from Wyndham were given some of the best inside knowledge in the business last week by the Werribee Football Club.
Senior and junior coaches attended the ‘Coaching the Coaches’ week held by the Tigers, with Scott West on hand to give his insight into what they should be focusing on.
West took participants through some of the methods and philosophies he uses at Werribee as well as assisting with the challenges coaches face at local level.
“There were some coaches there who are coaching under 16s teams. The main issue there is keeping the guys motivated in regards to coming to training, playing and seeing that football is really good for them in their lives,” West said.
“As a coach I don’t really have to deal with that a lot because we are a semi-professional environment so for me to answer that was a little bit difficult. But the main part was to make it fun and make them want to come to training.”
The Tigers’ fitness and conditioning team were also on hand to go through player preparation, drills, rehab and recovery techniques.
“For me, coaching the coaches is really about coaching them in the way they go about it,” West said.
“I think there are a couple of basic philosophies of coaching that you can pass on that I’ve learnt along the way. My advice to them was to coach the way they want to coach, not the way someone else coaches.
“They will end up getting found out if they are trying to be someone they are not.”
With West having coached as an assistant at AFL level before joining the Tigers, he said there were a number of key differences between being professional and semi-professional.
“You really have to be specific with what you want to do at VFL level because you just don’t have the time to go and do everything,” he said.
“It’s better to pick five things you can really concentrate on and make sure you are 100 per cent over what you want to try and achieve as opposed to 30 per cent over more things.”
