Lewis Vaughan-Jones: Challenge of taking on multiple teams

Lewis Vaughan-Jones finds himself in a position many coaches will be all too familiar with – working with multiple teams.

Lewis coaches the U8s, U9s and U14s at Notts County’s development centre, the goalkeepers at Notts County Girls, and a senior men’s team in tier 11 of the English football pyramid, Wollaton FC. 

It means the 22-year-old FA Level 2 coach is gaining lots of experience fast. But it also comes with its challenges.

SCW caught up with Lewis to talk about what his week looks like, the similarities and differences across the environments he works in, and what he has learned about himself from combining environments…

SCW: You coach a few teams. Give us an overview of what your week and those different environments looks like...

LV-J: "Week to week, it can be a bit different depending on what I’m doing. Usually I’ll work 7:30am to 4:30am, because I teach PE in a primary school as well.

"Mondays are my only evening off, so they’re quite chilled. Tuesdays can be an evening off - sometimes I might help out with the development centres if needed. 

“Wednesday is quite a full-on day. It can be at work all day, then I’ll be straight to Notts County, 5pm-8pm, then I’m straight to the [Wollaton] first-team’s training, 8.30pm-9.30pm, so that can be a near 14-hour day. 

"Thursday is work again, then I actually train myself in the evening, from 8.30pm-10pm because I’m still playing on a Sunday. Sometimes I’ll help cover sessions as well if I need to. 

“Fridays, [I’m at] work all day, and then I work with the goalkeepers at Notts County girls from 5.30pm until 6.45pm. Saturdays are full-on, all-day coaching. Then Sundays I play myself. It’s quite a full-on week."

SCW: How do you factor planning in?

LV-J: "I’ve moved away from traditional planning. When I’m working with grassroots teams, I kind of plan basics.

"[If] you plan for 16 kids, you might get 11 turn up. [If] you plan for x amount of space, that might end up changing. So I plan loosely based on the topic.

“Back when I used to coach an under-12s team, I’d have a rough idea of what I wanted to do scribbled down on paper. I’m not a fan of session plan templates, I like scribbled notes and then I’ll adapt from there.

"Mondays are my only evening off. Wednesday can be a near 14-hour day..."

“However, with the goalkeepers on a Friday night, I know roughly how many I’m going to have, I know specifics down to the space and what goals I have available, and, because it’s the girls’ academy, you’re getting written reports on what they need to work on.

“I would normally plan that from the Monday [after] I get the reports in from the games at the weekend.

"It’s the same with the development centres - you get the reports of what they might need to work on if they play for the academy side at the weekend, and then I can plan all that Monday.

“In terms of grassroots coaching, it’s kind of a loose plan. You have to adapt on the spot half the time."

SCW: Across those different environments, what about you as a coach stays the same? And what is different?

LV-J: "I did a bit of coaching for the Football Fun Factory. Their priorities were safety, fun and development - that’s kind of stuck for me.

"So, my [priorities in] sessions for any age group - whether it be U8s through to adults and open age - will always be safety, then fun, then development. Because if people are safe and having fun, that’s when they’ll develop. 

“I’m not trying to steal their priorities, but they really stuck with me. It’s something that really stood out and it’s something I’ve tried to adapt into all of my coaching. The main thing for me is making sure it’s fun. 

“No matter the age, if they’re not having fun, they’re not going to engage and they’re not going to be interested.

"With the men’s first team, we might just do a 7-a-side game, because the lads find it fun, they’re competitive, and then I can coach from that. So fun is my main thing as a coach.”