Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/62 I‘m currently at Aspire Academy, but I’ve previously worked for other academies in Chile, and Bilbao in Spain. I was thinking about this presentation about what I wanted to say, and I prepared some talking points. But in the end, I thought let’s talk about practice. I remembered about my first hiring when I was recruited. I remember the conversation with the person that was hiring me, both of us identified the same things. Of course, I did not have the experience, but I was curious. I knew what I wanted to obtain, what I wanted to achieve in my role. When we hired Nicolas Cordova, he was a professional, but we said to him, you need to accept the planning. We talked about the project plan. Do you want to invest in this? He said, yes, I want to try. I want to guide what we want as an academy. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want coaches who just think of themselves and their promotion. I don’t want coaches who don’t think of the long term. They can be good coaches, but I don’t want this kind of profile at this academy. I want curious coaches. I want coaches who will accept challenges. I want coaches who will be open to new things. I want coaches to question, to never find full satisfaction with what they do. This is the idea that we have at Aspire Academy. But I could never have worked this way if I hadn’t worked with Maria, the Lead of Neurophisiology at Aspire Academy. I’ve known her since 1995. When we started working together, we knew about the transformation in our organizations, the transformation of people, the change that was needed, and how we need to prepare ourselves from another point of view. Being present on the pitch every day, that’s our goal. The pitch is the office for all departments. The only way to learn is on the pitch. The only way to know about the project, the player histories, is on the pitch. The way we get to know the club. The methodology and spirit of the club is on the pitch. We need to challenge ourselves on the pitch. And we need to learn by debating amongst ourselves. At Aspire Academy the players train with us during the week, then compete with their clubs during the weekends. The clubs demand that the players prepare for the games. The academy is the place to train, to receive an education, and players learn from the best because they are chosen to compete at the top level. The most important thing is the players. You need to invest in players. These generations are the players that you need to improve for the future. That’s the legacy. You cannot prepare things based on the next opponent. We need to understand our role at an academy. I wouldn’t talk about the vision of a coach. You are not the one making decisions in the organization. You are the one who needs to develop the potential and the talent. As a coach, you need to grow. You need to develop yourself. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to understand, what is the identity behind what you want to look for? We live in a very immediate world. I don’t like this player, should I call him up or not? But you need to think behind all of this. Many times, we rotate coaches in the middle of the season because the work that we do is common. We have a common culture, following an educational plan. We follow a plan whereby everyone is working under the same umbrella. At the end of the day, when I finish my job at Aspire Academy, or when I finished with my job in Bilbao or in Chile, you need to think of your legacy towards people. What is your legacy? Do you want exercises? Let’s go for it. You want planning. Let’s go for it. Or do you want to see things beyond this? EdortaMurua AspireAcademy: Technical Director