Alfred Galustian, International Director and Co-founder of Coerver Coaching
Coever Coaching have recently formed an alliance with Capital Football to develop young players through the 9-12 Capital Football/Coerver Academies.
Alfred Galustian, International Director and Co-founder of Coerver Coaching based in Japan, is in Canberra this week to discuss the roll-out of Coerver across Australia. We met for coffee at the Hyatt to talk football.
Coerver Coaching started when Galustian and former Scotland and Chelsea star Charlie Cooke asked Dutchman Wiel Coever if they could use his name and some of his ideas.
“A lot of people don’t know that Wiel Coever isn’t involved. He never has been,” said Galustian.
“Charlie and I were in the USA. I was coaching and Charlie was playing. We were at a Soccer convention in America and we saw an old guy in a room. There were only five people in the room. But this guy was just showing some one on one ball skills. We went in, sat at the back for an hour, and watched.
“I had never experienced it, one on one skills. I’d never seen anyone coaching one v one skills. Charlie played at a much higher level than I did, but Charlie had never seen it either. We introduced ourselves to Wiel. He can be a bit abrupt so he sort of dismissed us.
“Six months later I was doing my Coaching Certificate at Lilleshall in England. Wiel Coerver was there for the two weeks. Wiel remembered me and I watched him work for two weeks. And Charlie and I named our two football camps, Coerver Schools. We asked Wiel for the right to use his name and he transferred the name Coerver to us.
“Wiel is not part of Coever Coaching but Charlie and I were inspired by him. He’s 86 now and I keep in touch with him. He’s a wonderful coach but he’s never been involved.
“Our ideas have evolved. We had to adapt. To make it user friendly, and fun. We work at the grassroots level, and advanced level. We needed to develop the Coaching brand and that has become the backbone of the business.”
Coerver Coaching is now established in seventeen countries and continues to grow across the World.
“We started off with the idea that as a foundation we should be teaching individual skills and not team skills. Some people thought we were crazy saying football is a team game.
"But we got more and more big names thinking this may be the way to teach young players. Focusing on skill, reaction speed and co-ordination. When players have these skills they are more valuable to the team.
“As Coerver started working at the grassroots level we found when you focus on players skills, players start to get more confident. We’ve had significant reporting back that children have improved at school after working with Coerver Coaching.
"Not all of course, but significant numbers. When the kids work with a ball, or something individual, they have to concentrate. This has improved their ability to concentrate in school!” said Galustian.
Coerver hit on a niche. Increasingly parents are turning to individual tuition and coaching to improve children’s’ skills and confidence in a whole range of activities. Football is just one of many possibilities for children today.
“We had to make it fun. Football is just one other pursuit in modern life. So we had to make it attractive for kids. They’ll do it if they like it. The fundamental reason why professionals get into the game is because they love it. Jurgen Klinsman, Harry Kewell they all love it. We try and get that feeling into the kids through the activities we provide.
“We’ve had over a million kids go through our coaching courses. Many kids used to be coached by novice parents/coaches and often these Coaches weren’t into football, but they want their boys and girls to play football.
"At Coerver Coaching the technical programme as good for girls as for boys. Girls and boys are both suited to it as it’s purely based on skill development. And that is the same for both.”
While presently based in New South Wales, Coerver in Australia is changing.
It will have its new headquarters here in Canberra under, former Futsalroo and Canberran, Jason Lanscar, It will take its Coaching Schools across Australia in the coming months.
“We’ve had great success in New South Wales but we always wanted to be across the country. That is what we are now aiming to do, added Galustian.
Galustian is a busy man. From Canberra he’s off to Singapore, then drops into work with Gerard Houllier at the French Football Academy. He’s an advisor to the English FA and has also worked with AC Milan, Arsenal, Manchester United and Bayern Munich. He calls Japan home where he heads Coervers Asia Operations.
He’s spent his whole life in football. Why?
“When I started school, I was lonely. Someone threw a ball, a tennis ball to me. I started to play football with it and from that moment I had friends. I’ve tried to keep that feeling.
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