TEACHERS TAKE CLASS SKILLS TO THE FIELD
A NOTABLE trend in recent seasons in the AFL, local football clubs are also discovering how teachers often make outstanding coaches.
The training and basic principles of teaching clearly transfer well to sport.
Geelong West Giants GDFL side assistant coach Aaron O’Callaghan said the benefits of planning and routine make those who run the classroom well equipped to running the show at training.
“It helps because you have to put processes in place for learning and working to run a successful classroom,” he told Pulse FM’s The Sport Fix.
“You have those skills already and know how to help others learn and help them learn the game so it is sort of a natural transition.”
AFL clubs have recently bought into the idea of having teachers continue to teach young footballers, with Alistair Clarkson, Brendan Bolton and Chris Fagan all former schoolteachers now running senior sides.
Particularly in the professional system, football clubs can be like a university to young draftees fresh out of high school — a routine-filled finishing school for young adults.
Grovedale mentor Craig McCaughan is another local coach who spends his weekdays in front of a whiteboard.
The Tiger coach said he naturally leans towards development because of his day job.
“I classify myself more as a development coach of young players and that definitely ties into being a schoolteacher,” McCaughan said.
Football at all levels continues to head towards professionalism and employing those who know how to shape and develop young minds only makes more sense when shaping young men and women in football guernseys.
Laying out cones and working through defensive zones is undoubtedly similar to planning out lessons and helping with algebra.
Just try not to task too many local footballers with too much homework.