By Doug Reed @DougReedFutsal

Milan will host the 3rd International Futsal Coaching Clinic in Milan with a fantastic line up of speakers. One of these will be Andrés Sanz, coach of recently crowned Women´s Spanish Champions Atletio Navalcarnero.

He has a long history of educating coaches, going back to 1989 and has seen futsal develop in Spain to become one of the most successful nations in the sport. His knowledge of teaching is complemented by his practical experience of coaching in both the men´s and women´s games.

This is now the 3rd edition of this international and highly regarded event for coaches with participants traveling from across the world to be a part of it. In this interview we cover his experiences, tactics and much more.

You are the coach of the Women’s Premier Division Champions in Spain, Atletico Madrid Navalcarnero. How is women’s futsal in Spain and what are the differences between coaching women and men?

Women’s’ futsal, as with men’s, is being affected a lot by the economic situation that we have been going through in Spain since. With the additional factor that women’s sport always has less help and promotion than men’s.

Unfortunately, in the last 3 years many historic teams have disappeared and it is possible that this year another one disappears. Many top level players have left for Italy so that the competition has gone down in terms of level. The positive aspect is that it has evened the strength of many teams and for that reason the league is more open and unpredictable.

The truth is that don’t notice great differences coaching men or women, or at least not so much as people say. In respect of management of the team, I do it the same for a man as a woman.
The physical aspect is where there is the most difference, overall with regard to speed and explosiveness of the actions, and this means that the tactical “tempo” is different. But is only a question of adapting the movements to their rhythm. Because I still have yet to find a system or movement that the girls can’t do.

A difference in favour for women is that the majority of the girls is that they get involved more in the tactical work than many boys.

How was your experience as assistant coach and goalkeeper coach of the Libyan national team. How did it help you develop as a coach?

Now, with the perspective of hindsight, I think that it was a very enriching experience as much for the good and the bad.

The best thing is that I had the opportunity to work with Pablo Prieto that is one of the most methodical and tireless in his daily work. Now, in my form of working I incorporate many elements about his way of planning and organising the daily work that we used there.

On the other side we had to adapt ourselves and have a lot of diplomacy because the ideas of the director responsible for futsal in Libya were, on most occasions, contrary to ours (to say in a gentle way). We had to improvise and reinvent ourselves continuously. But this helped me a lot, since then I have had more ability to adapt myself to adverse circumstances and to find a positive side to every situation.

Further, there is the personal perspective where I have great memories, the experience of living alongside my colleagues, to get to know places and a culture that are very different…

The truth is it was a phase very hard but now with time I am glad I have lived it, even if I would not repeat it.

You have been a coach educator in Spain since 1989. Since then Spanish futsal has grown to become one of the strongest in the world and their coaches are in demand worldwide. What is the secret of this success?

I believe there has been two fundamental pillars that are founded in the fact that in the training of Spanish coaches there is enormous differences in the education and a propensity to share knowledge and experience with other coaches.

The training that is provided in Spain is far superior to that in the rest of the world. Only in terms of onsite classes, they do more than 1200 hours over the 3 coaching levels. In other countries the coaching courses are completed in a weekend or a few hours as a compliment to a football coaching course. From this fact, any comparison is impossible.

On the other side, between Spanish coaches it is a culture to share openly your knowledge and discoveries to other coaches whether in courses, a clinic or having a beer together and using the bar’s serviettes as a tactic board. This has made us all grow.

However, in my trips to other countries giving courses and clinics, I have seen that the majority of coaches “protect” their knowledge and don’t share them with anyone. For me this is a sign of insecurity. If I share what I know with my rivals, I am forced to continue improving.

One of your topics in the clinic will be counter attacking. How important is this aspect in futsal?

Occasionally, they say futsal is a sport of transitions but I’m going to respond to you in a more “scientific” way. In our sport there are three ways to score goals; by means of a positional attack, by means of a counterattack and through set plays. You only have to look at the statistics of any competition and how many goals are scored from each of these three options.

We will see that in the majority of competitions the number of goals from counterattacks will be higher than those from positional attacks and set plays put together. I think that those numbers the importance of the counterattack is clearly shown.

In the lecture the first part will be an analysis of the technical-tactical actions that occur during counterattacks and progressions for their training. The second part will be more advanced exercises to train transitions.

The other subject you will cover is how to attack a closed defence with a 2-2 system. What are the most important points to do this well?

When a team plans to use a closed defence the first thing they try to have is the initiative over how the game is played (location on the court, game tempo) and the majority of times they don’t care more or less to have the ball.

The first for me is that you take the initiative by not allowing the opponent maintain their initial formation (system). After, to manage possession of the ball well, having patience and making effective movements so that if a shot doesn’t end in a goal, it doesn’t lead to a counterattack either. We will expand on these aspects in the lecture.

Finally, as one of the clinic organisers, why has the clinic had so much success and such a positive response from coaches since the first edition?

When something achieves success it is because various factors come together. One part is the location and environment. Milan is one of the most central and best linked cities in Europe. It has three airports with low cost flights from all airlines as well as good train, bus and road links. The Kick Off Centro Deportivo is in a very convenient and pleasant place that has all the conditions necessary together to put on this type of event.

Another factor is the guarantee and reassurance that the FutsalCoach brand offers in reference to coaching education.

Not forgetting, the most important of all is the human contribution. One part is the speakers at this clinic are coaches that are highly qualified and excellent teachers. This is very important and is the big difference with other clinics that have good coaches. To be a good coach does not mean you are able to know how to communicate well to an audience.

The other part is the personal attention given to the attendees by Riccardo Russo and Silvia in all the administrative topics. The organisation is excellent and they resolve any situation that the attendees might experience.

Also I don’t want to forget the excellent work done by the translators and the people who help with the delivery of the lectures to ensure everything goes well.

However, in the end what makes the event so special is the participants and their way of living the clinic 24 hours a day.

The clinic is still open for registrations though the last places are filling up fast. For more details CLICK HERE

Posted by Doug Reed -@DougReedFutsal --> info@futsalplanet.com