Make Smarter Coaching Decisions – With Less Trial and Error
As a football coach, you are constantly solving problems – from organisational challenges and staff dynamics to team performance and individual player development. Yet in today’s fast-paced, unpredictable football environment, relying solely on intuition often feels like guesswork.
This 5-day course is designed to help you become a more structured and effective decision-maker. You will learn how to replace trial-and-error approaches with more purposeful decisions based on 44 universal coaching principles developed by Louis van Gaal, the most successful coach in Dutch football history.
Over the past five years, Raymond Verheijen collaborated with coach Van Gaal in a series of 20 in-depth, 3-hour conversations to analyse and theorise the methods behind his success. The result: 44 objective and universally applicable coaching principles that every coach can use at any level, in any coaching situation.
These principles are categorised into six areas:
1. Coach development
2. Developing an Organisation
3. Staff development
4. Developing Squad Culture
5. Teambuilding
6. Player development
During the course, Raymond Verheijen will present each principle with clear, real-world examples from daily coaching practice, helping you connect theory to action immediately.
Program Monday June 1
02:00 – 04:00pm: COACH
Principle 1. Library of life of the coach
Principle 2. Coaching football is a knowledge profession
04:30 – 07:00pm
Principle 3. Unconscious head coach & conscious assistant coach
Principle 4. Reflecting ON Action: coach evolution by evaluation
08:00 – 10:00pm
Principle 5. Reflecting FOR Action: visualising the future
Principle 6. Reflecting IN Action: zooming out from a situation
Program Tuesday June 2
08:00 – 10:30am
Principle 7. Coach fitness
Principle 8. Always stay true to yourself (coach flow)
11:00 – 01:00pm: ORGANISATION
Principle 9. Collective intention (organisational thinking)
Principle 10. Choosing your battles
02:00 – 04:00pm
Principle 11. Collective unconscious: organisational culture
Principle 12. Organisational brain state (flow)
04:30 – 07:00pm: STAFF
Principle 13. Head contractor & sub-contractors
Principle 14. Delegating without gambling
Principle 15. Prove me wrong
08:00 – 10:00pm
Principle 16. Collective unconscious: best XI or XI best?
Principle 17. Staff brain state (flow)
Program Wednesday June 3
08:00 – 10:30am: SQUAD
Principle 18. High performance environment (squad thinking)
Principle 19. Controlling is not distrusting
11:00 – 01:00pm
Principle 20. If the hierarchy ain’t broken, break it!
Principle 21. Inside world versus outside world
02:00 – 04:00pm
Principle 22. Collective unconscious: social activities
Principle 23. Communicating relaxes brains (squad flow)
04:30 – 07:00pm: TEAM
Principle 24. Tactical teambuilding (team thinking)
Principle 25. Reference coaching team
08:00 – 10:00pm
Principle 26. Always change a winning team
Principle 27. Protecting team against individual
Program Thursday June 4
08:00 – 10:30am
Principle 28. Captain should think like the coach
Principle 29. Team improves individual
11:00 – 01:00pm
Principle 30. Periodisation: gradual natural selection
Principle 31. Always train at 100% for teammates
02:00 – 04:00pm
Principle 32. Only team coaching in team training
Principle 33. Uncomfortable in training, comfortable in game (team flow)
04:30 – 07:00pm: PLAYER
Principle 34. Coaching playing position (positional thinking)
Principle 35. An 8 for an 8
Principle 36. Relative freedom
08:00 – 10:00pm
Principle 37. Kicking is not passing
Principle 38. Toughening brains
Program Friday June 5
07:00 – 09:00am
Principle 39. Library of life of player
Principle 40. Relative incompetence
09:00 – 10:30am
Principle 41. Mutual unconscious coach-player
Principle 42. Relative empathy
11:00 – 01:00pm
Principle 43. Rewarding instead of punishing
Principle 44. Total human principle (player flow)
01:00pm Closing
Location
Park Plaza Amsterdam Airport
Melbournestraat 1,
1175 RM Lijnden
The Netherlands
Registration
To receive additional course information and/or to register, please send an email to info@fcevolution.com
