BRIAN’S A SAFE PAIR OF HANDS
Meetthemanwho’s inchargeofcoaching Accies’keepers..from U10stothefirstteam
For Brian Potter, pleasure in football is the little things; parts of the game that the average fan probably won’t even notice.
As goalkeeper coach at Hamilton Accies, Potter is responsible for every goalkeeper they have, in all the teams, and he also helps out at the academy.
That involves an incredible amount of work for Potter, who travels from and to Dunfermline every day, but it’s worth it just to see an improvement in performances.
Potter said: “The weeks can be quite varied and it depends on 20s games, first-team games, academy duties as well, and I look at gym sessions for the goalkeepers.
“We’ll look at pitch-based sessions, video analysis for the first-team, 20s and academy stuff as well, so the days can be long, and you’re not always physically working, but there’s always something to be done, in terms of preparation for the first-team, 20s or academy. It’s a busy job.
“I take an interest in the young goalkeepers. I do a couple of nights a week with them, ranging from nines and 10s, to 11s, 12s, right up to the 17s, then we bring in the fulltime boys from the 20s right up to the first-team – so you can see young ones coming through, and I get to see quite a few games at the weekend as well. That’s on Saturday mornings if we’re playing here, or Sundays every second or third week I’ll pick an age group and go and watch the goalkeepers. I get feedback from the academy coaches as well, so it’s good.
“I stay in Dunfermline, so I’ll usually leave at roughly 6.30am and, depending on traffic, I’m usually in here for about 7.30am-7.45am, something like that. I then get organised for the sessions for the day, maybe looking at a gym programme for the goalkeepers.
“If there are any problems, we’ll have a medical meeting in the morning, a session there, and if there is any afternoon work it will be the young goalkeepers who will do that, and we’ll look at analysis stuff in the afternoon.
“From there it’s really getting prepared for the night time, when the academy will kick in between 6pm-9pm, and I’ll have two sessions to do then. Usually at the back of 9pm I’ll leave, get in at about 10.30pm, and then go for a sleep, come back in and do it all again.
“I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t rewarding. Since Martin Canning took charge it has been two-and-a-half years since I’ve been back in full-time and I would rather be working long days than trying to juggle my normal job as well. I wouldn’t change it for the world, I love it.
“I’m still relatively young as a person. I’m only 40 now, but I’ve been coaching goalkeepers fulltime for 10 or 11 years now. I’ve worked with a lot of goalkeepers and you’re always learning.
“I have the benefit that I can try something out with the academy guys at night and something that I might see works well I can maybe use on the 20s and vice-versa.
“If something works well with the 20s or the first-team during the day I can try and transfer it a bit at night.
“The best part of my job is goalkeepers doing well! For the younger ones it’s seeing them develop, and it might just be something simple like their kicking gets better, or their handling is better, or they’re taking instruction better.
“For the first-team it’s resultsdriven, but you’re looking at the performance from the goalkeepers and it might be short-term gain – how’s he going from week to week – or longterm it might be one specific thing that he’s looking at to improve, or his overall game, and that’s something we would look at over a course of time.
“It’s an ongoing process, and selfishly it’s about the development of the goalkeeper. Obviously it’s a results business, but I try to look at ‘is my goalkeeper getting better, is he performing, how can I help him?’”