Speaker 1: Time for a soccer down here one v one and
Speaker 1: for this when we go to the Children's Health Care
Speaker 1: of Atlanta training Ground to catch up with the Director
Speaker 1: of Methodology for Atlanta United, the first chance we've had
Speaker 1: to catch up with doctor Javier Pettis. Javier, thanks for
Speaker 1: dropping by for a one v one.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me John, It's a pleasure to be
Speaker 2: with you today.
Speaker 3: When you were given the idea of hey, come here
Speaker 3: to Atlanta United and become this newly created title of
Speaker 3: Director of Methodology, what was your initial reaction to coming
Speaker 3: down here to create something from scratch.
Speaker 4: Well, the first reaction was very, very much an excitement
Speaker 4: because I've been for fifteen sixteen years now in this
Speaker 4: country and obviously Alanta is, in my opinion, the biggest
Speaker 4: club in the country, and I think always I strive
Speaker 4: for these kind of challenges and opportunities.
Speaker 2: In the past.
Speaker 4: You can look with the clubs I work with, the organizations,
Speaker 4: they have been worldly in organizations in soccer, and Atlanta
Speaker 4: qualifies for that. So the excitement was massive, and for
Speaker 4: me it's a big challenge because he's a lot of
Speaker 4: work to do and expectations are high at this club,
Speaker 4: at this level.
Speaker 1: You started in late April, and my first question to
Speaker 1: that is, you hit the ground running probably at a
Speaker 1: good eighty miles an hour, maybe one hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Have you had the chance to catch your breath or
Speaker 1: has it been constant work, implementation, adjustment, implementation work. Has
Speaker 1: there been a pause or have you just been flying
Speaker 1: ever since you hit the ground.
Speaker 4: That's a great question, because you know, when I landed here,
Speaker 4: I had a lot of challenges. I had some time
Speaker 4: that I really appreciate they gave me to evaluate the
Speaker 4: club and particularly the academy and the second team. But
Speaker 4: I think it was a lot of demand and a
Speaker 4: lot of things to do and accomplished. And that's what
Speaker 4: is the experience for, right Instead of jumping on all
Speaker 4: of them at the same time, I was doing one
Speaker 4: thing at the time, and that's being very helpful, particularly
Speaker 4: at the beginning, to find kind of like a roadmap.
Speaker 1: So with this roadmap, you came in with an idea
Speaker 1: and it was a curriculum that was put together with
Speaker 1: your time at US Soccer. And it is not something
Speaker 1: I would imagine that took you a day and a
Speaker 1: half or something that you wrote after lunch because if
Speaker 1: you look at this curriculum and you go to the end,
Speaker 1: you sit there and go, this is one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty three pages of massive detail, from the general concept
Speaker 1: to the specific idea, to position to position to position
Speaker 1: and this curriculum. How long did it take you to
Speaker 1: come up from Oh, I have an idea, let me
Speaker 1: put it on paper to the one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: three page US Soccer coaching curriculum that exists.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, that curriculum was published I believe in twenty eleven,
Speaker 4: so that's a long time ago. And in order to
Speaker 4: get that curriculum completed, it was based on my experience
Speaker 4: as a coach previously in Real Madrid working with the
Speaker 4: Spanish Federation when I worked there implementing the coaching courses
Speaker 4: for professional coaches. That's something that it was adapted for
Speaker 4: the US market, and back in the day, I had
Speaker 4: the opportunity to have a meeting with Dan Flint, who
Speaker 4: was the CEO of US Soccer, and he wanted to
Speaker 4: bring that to the whole country, and that's when I
Speaker 4: worked with US Soccer for around two years as a
Speaker 4: consultant to develop that curriculum, and then US Soccer hired
Speaker 4: me full time as well, and we had the opportunity
Speaker 4: to implement that curriculum for all the youth national teams.
Speaker 2: So it's a living document. It's not something that.
Speaker 4: Was now transferred from US Soccer to Atlanta United. Because
Speaker 4: the demands of the game changed during the years. We
Speaker 4: have now a new curriculum here as well. I don't
Speaker 4: know if it's one hundred and twenty three pages, but
Speaker 4: it's a around that number of pages. But it's certainly
Speaker 4: different than the curriculum that I created for US Soccer.
Speaker 2: One because in the.
Speaker 4: Meantime I had a lot of experience with the US national.
Speaker 2: Team with.
Speaker 4: Two other clubs in MLS apart from Atlanta. This is
Speaker 4: my third club in MLS, and as well because of
Speaker 4: the different roles that I had been head coaching in
Speaker 4: the MLAs assistant coach and so on. So this new
Speaker 4: curriculum that we are now implementing here in Atlanta United
Speaker 4: is slightly different, but it's very exciting as well because
Speaker 4: I think has all the ingredients that they are necessary
Speaker 4: to produce first class players and developed the best academy
Speaker 4: in the country.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting that you used the
Speaker 1: word living that it's a living document, and by my
Speaker 1: interpretation of that, it would be something like where you
Speaker 1: take a legal pad or something like that, and a
Speaker 1: legal pad in and of the pieces of paper it bends.
Speaker 1: It's flexible, and you can work with that particular group
Speaker 1: of pages and have it as a document that can change,
Speaker 1: It can mold, it can blend. When it comes to
Speaker 1: the current Atlanta United version of it compared to your
Speaker 1: first version, how many different how many different incantations of
Speaker 1: it did you go from, say the US Soccer version.
Speaker 1: How different is that living document now than that first
Speaker 1: one you piece together?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 4: You mentioned about that document that is one hundred and
Speaker 4: twenty three pages, But there were other four documents that
Speaker 4: they were same length to implement that document that they were.
Speaker 2: Never published because.
Speaker 4: That was part of a process and then things were
Speaker 4: twikeed or changed. But one thing I realized it had
Speaker 4: to be one more practical, that's very theoretical document. Now,
Speaker 4: I think, like every coach, I'm more pragmatic and I
Speaker 4: think I can support more on that on that side
Speaker 4: to the coaches to be a little bit more pragmatic.
Speaker 4: So the new curriculum has more exercises that can give
Speaker 4: ideas to coaches. Has influences from the different clubs and
Speaker 4: trends that I work with. For instance, there are trends
Speaker 4: there from gald Madrid methodology, but also from the city
Speaker 4: group because I work for y c C and other
Speaker 4: top clubs in world soccer, you know, so I think
Speaker 4: is important that there is an influence from the main
Speaker 4: trends in soccer. And two, it can be adaptable to
Speaker 4: the level of the players and the market that we
Speaker 4: are working with, in this case the MLS market.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the implementation of it, and this
Speaker 1: is you're eventually going to touch each and every academy
Speaker 1: age group. But you wanted to choose a particular age
Speaker 1: group to start the use seventeens. If I'm not mistaken
Speaker 1: to start the process. Why that particular age group before
Speaker 1: you had the chance to have the Atlanta United too
Speaker 1: during an international break takeer pick at it. Why you seventeen?
Speaker 1: Why them first?
Speaker 4: Well, it was almost like hitting an emergency button, right
Speaker 4: and because we felt that that group wasn't having the
Speaker 4: performance that we were expecting. I wanted to have a
Speaker 4: better understanding what was the challenges that this team was facing.
Speaker 2: You know, I think.
Speaker 4: Once you start working is a little bit different because
Speaker 4: you want to focus on a long term program, particularly
Speaker 4: for the academy, and that's what we are doing right now.
Speaker 4: We are making sure that the base, the foundation, particularly
Speaker 4: for the you thirteens and your fourteens, is very strong.
Speaker 2: We focus on three things.
Speaker 4: We focus on the play profiles, the type of players
Speaker 4: that we want to select for the club, and we
Speaker 4: see the potential to develop that type of player. We
Speaker 4: know that Atlanta market is very athletic and as a
Speaker 4: plus for us, we want to make sure that we
Speaker 4: have these kind of players and we develop them in house.
Speaker 4: The second thing is the resources and and the coaching selections.
Speaker 4: So we need to make sure that the coaches that
Speaker 4: we have at the academy.
Speaker 2: They are highly qualified.
Speaker 4: And for instance, when I came, that was one of
Speaker 4: the parts of the the evaluation right when I did
Speaker 4: the audit of the of the academy is that we
Speaker 4: have one coach per team, and right now we have
Speaker 4: two coaches and a fitness coach for training sessions.
Speaker 2: So not only the amount of resources, but as well
Speaker 2: the quality of the resources.
Speaker 4: We have a couple of coaches that they were integrated
Speaker 4: into the into the academy. One came from Germany, another
Speaker 4: one came within market in the US. But I feel
Speaker 4: like we are a couple of steps ahead with these
Speaker 4: two coaches, that they have been integrated in the in
Speaker 4: the academy. And the third thing it would be the
Speaker 4: curriculum has to be a curriculum, that it has to
Speaker 4: be modern, focus on different areas that requires the modern game.
Speaker 4: For instance, back in the day, you remember when I
Speaker 4: published that US Socre curriculum, Spain was at the top
Speaker 4: of the crest with that very catchy possession style of game.
Speaker 4: But we know that these days that possession type of
Speaker 4: style of game doesn't take you to long. So what
Speaker 4: are the main principles that we are focusing So we we.
Speaker 2: Want to play fast and forward first and foremost, we.
Speaker 4: Want to be able to be compact when we defend
Speaker 4: number three. We want to play with intensity and for
Speaker 4: that we need to take the game into the into
Speaker 4: the attacking half. You know, I don't want to be
Speaker 4: sue technical or trusted specific because probably does not we
Speaker 4: appealing to your audience, but just to get them as
Speaker 4: well excited about what are the key elements of the
Speaker 4: development in the academy.
Speaker 1: We can go as deep as you want. It is
Speaker 1: not a concern on my part at all. You can
Speaker 1: hit me with anything, because you know, if I've got
Speaker 1: a question, I'm going to raise my hand and go, okay,
Speaker 1: I need to break that down for me. So don't
Speaker 1: worry about that at all.
Speaker 4: Look, and I think you made a great point, because
Speaker 4: I want to make things as simple as possible for
Speaker 4: the coaches to the point that they can sit down
Speaker 4: and when I explain things, they.
Speaker 2: Can say, well, I could come up with that idea.
Speaker 4: That means that that idea is simple enough for them
Speaker 4: to understand and a secut on the field.
Speaker 1: When it comes to evaluation of what you have tried
Speaker 1: to implement so far, I know that you like to
Speaker 1: do it in blocks. Basically, you want to look at
Speaker 1: it after thirty you want to look at it after
Speaker 1: sixty days, you want to look at it after ninety days.
Speaker 1: How has the progression gone with implementation of what you
Speaker 1: are looking at what you anticipated land United to be
Speaker 1: from the academy on up to the first team. How
Speaker 1: is it going. How is the pacing in your mind
Speaker 1: so far?
Speaker 2: It's very interesting.
Speaker 4: That's a that's a great question because you come with
Speaker 4: a preconception and idea that you think you can run,
Speaker 4: and sometimes that's being a learning experience as well. For
Speaker 4: me here in Atlanta, instead of running, sometimes you just
Speaker 4: have to walk and go with the pace that is.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of people, this is a big organization,
Speaker 4: and not everybody can go at the same pace. And
Speaker 4: if we need to take more time, we will take
Speaker 4: more time. And that's probably what is my adaptation. That
Speaker 4: has been probably my main focus, right because I thought
Speaker 4: at the beginning that we would come we this is
Speaker 4: what we do. But the experience was that we needed
Speaker 4: more time. And probably when we started Precision in the academy,
Speaker 4: it was a good learning process for the coaches, but
Speaker 4: as well I acknowledged that it was a lot to take.
Speaker 4: And now I'm giving a little bit more space so
Speaker 4: they have the time that they need to be part
Speaker 4: as well of the process, because in the end, this
Speaker 4: is not about me. It's about how we can do
Speaker 4: this together, you know. And once we are in the
Speaker 4: face now that they are experimenting and they are implementing
Speaker 4: their own ideas into the concept, and.
Speaker 2: It's taking a little bit longer, and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1: One be one here with director of methodology, howe your
Speaker 1: pet is for landing I did here on the SDH network.
Speaker 1: How difficult is it to be patient? Though, because I
Speaker 1: know that you look at the first team and there's
Speaker 1: always the anticipation that they should be compar eating for
Speaker 1: stars and trophies and crests, and there's a level of
Speaker 1: patients combined with immediate return these days where folks are
Speaker 1: sitting there and it's like it has to be an
Speaker 1: instant gratification at least from the outside of an organization.
Speaker 1: It's like, we want results now, results now, results now,
Speaker 1: we want trophies, wins, et cetera. How difficult is it
Speaker 1: to be patient knowing that the outside world is looking
Speaker 1: for something that's an entirely different pace to what you
Speaker 1: want to do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a that's a great comment. I think patience
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that you don't have results, right, because sometimes
Speaker 4: he is you can hide behind that excuse we need time,
Speaker 4: We need time, and sometimes you need time to build results.
Speaker 4: But he shouldn't be an excuse. And I think the
Speaker 4: answer is accountability. So in this case, we are all accountable,
Speaker 4: but we give freedom and with the freedom, conscious stability
Speaker 4: and with the responsiblity comes accountability. So if we give
Speaker 4: more responsibility to coaches, we look at the results and
Speaker 4: depending on these results, then we need probably to make
Speaker 4: a further evaluation and implement more Either results are going
Speaker 4: fine or okay, like the expectations that we have at
Speaker 4: the beginning, then we can follow the natural course. But
Speaker 4: I think the answer is their accountability. If we get
Speaker 4: the results, it would be more freedom. If we don't
Speaker 4: get the results, we will need to be a little
Speaker 4: bit more specific.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the talent base here in the Southeastern United
Speaker 1: States that Atlanta, United has access to visually, video, what
Speaker 1: have you. And I know that there's the idea of
Speaker 1: an analytics based to evaluate system to bring in players
Speaker 1: and talent and such. What I wanted to ask about
Speaker 1: wasn't intangible and it's not something that can be attached
Speaker 1: to an analytical equation or mathematics when it comes to
Speaker 1: bringing in a young player. How do you measure and
Speaker 1: how is it measured? How do you measure heart as
Speaker 1: a part of the equation and want to as we
Speaker 1: say in the South, the want to gene how does
Speaker 1: that apply to what you're looking for in an athlete
Speaker 1: that you think will benefit at Land United on the
Speaker 1: field as a they grow older and then be hopefully
Speaker 1: as a part of that first team. How do you
Speaker 1: measure heart and off the field stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a very very good question, and that's the
Speaker 4: million There are questions, you know, when you look across
Speaker 4: the board different clubs in the world.
Speaker 2: If someone has.
Speaker 4: The magic recipe to produce players, all players would come
Speaker 4: from Barcelona or Real Madrid or Manchester United, right, But
Speaker 4: we know that players come all over the place from
Speaker 4: different parts and even small clubs, so that formula.
Speaker 2: Doesn't really exist.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: What you can do is look have an eye for talent.
Speaker 4: And when we look at the talent here particularly, we
Speaker 4: know that the market where we are in we have
Speaker 4: very strong athletes.
Speaker 2: So that's our bed, that's our approach. So can we.
Speaker 4: Convince those players, or more than the players, those parents
Speaker 4: that at age nine to twelve instead going playing basketball
Speaker 4: or football or other sports that they are they have
Speaker 4: more influence in this country, can we convince them to
Speaker 4: play soccer?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: And I think we are We're in a good spot
Speaker 4: right now. I think we have a good examples here
Speaker 4: within the academy or those players that they are athletes
Speaker 4: that maybe they don't come from a history of a
Speaker 4: family that they are very familiar with soccer, but.
Speaker 2: They have the passion for sports, you know.
Speaker 4: And now it's becoming a nice blend this season to
Speaker 4: see some of these younger athletes that they are very,
Speaker 4: very exciting from the physical point of view, and now
Speaker 4: can we work with them on a daily basis.
Speaker 2: So one of the.
Speaker 4: Things that we implemented in the academy this year is
Speaker 4: having training on a daily basis, giving one day off
Speaker 4: a week, but minimizing them or restricting the time, having
Speaker 4: train sessions more intense, so give them more exposure to
Speaker 4: the training and to the game on a daily basis.
Speaker 4: And I and we can see right now, how is
Speaker 4: that pain of particularly when we go and we compete
Speaker 4: against other academies.
Speaker 1: What do you see as your biggest challenge once the
Speaker 1: first team season is completed whenever that is, and getting
Speaker 1: ready for the calendar year of twenty twenty five and
Speaker 1: what you want to accomplish in the second calendar year
Speaker 1: of your methodology.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the most important part is to get
Speaker 4: ready the second team. I think our second team has
Speaker 4: been a little bit of pending signature.
Speaker 2: You know that we need.
Speaker 4: Pending work that we need to excel and at least
Speaker 4: this next year, we need to get the right pieces
Speaker 4: in order to.
Speaker 2: Have the performance that we one for that team without
Speaker 2: redisrupting too much. The academy. We all know that we
Speaker 2: use that team to.
Speaker 4: Is kind of like a breage. The gap between the
Speaker 4: first team and the academy and some of the first
Speaker 4: team players they have the ability to complete their necessary
Speaker 4: play minutes with that team, and at the same time,
Speaker 4: some of the academy players they have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: compete a higher level, closer to a professional game.
Speaker 2: But we find a challenging in terms of creating a
Speaker 2: competitive roster.
Speaker 4: That's the first thing, and second to don't disrupt so
Speaker 4: much the under a team team and the under academy.
Speaker 4: You know. So I think that's the main focus in
Speaker 4: the next in the next few months.
Speaker 1: And we are looking forward to seeing how everything continues
Speaker 1: to grow and evolve. Jav here, thank you for taking
Speaker 1: time out of your incredibly busy schedule, because I know it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes trying to catch up with you is like trying
Speaker 1: to grab a comment by the tail or, trying to
Speaker 1: catch water in a rainstorm through your open hand. I
Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for taking the time here to
Speaker 1: hang out with us and explain what's going on here
Speaker 1: in the early stages with you as a director of
Speaker 1: Methodology for Atlanta I thanks for dropping by here the
Speaker 1: SDH Network. You know we're going to be knocking on
Speaker 1: your door a lot, but once again, thanks for dropping by.
Speaker 4: No, thank you, it's my pleasure on I really appreciate
Speaker 4: the interest in the club and the work that we
Speaker 4: do at Alanta United.
Speaker 2: Thank you.