Speaker 1: Welcome to a soccer down here one v one and
Speaker 1: for this one, we head to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we
Speaker 1: catch up with the newly appointed first full time technical
Speaker 1: director in club history for Chattanooga FC, doctor Sebastian Giraldo. Doc.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming by for a one v one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really excited. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Why why pull the trigger and sit there and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is something that I wanted to do. Why now?
Speaker 1: And I guess just why in general?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's deeply connected to my own personal
Speaker 2: why and my professional why, which is I would say
Speaker 2: probably ten years ago, made the decision that it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter what context of soccer that I'm working in. I
Speaker 2: view my role as one that I want to impact
Speaker 2: and change the community that I'm in. I think the
Speaker 2: why of this role is it allows me to play
Speaker 2: to my strengths, my experiences, my education, and connect pieces
Speaker 2: in a way that will probably progress soccer forward, not
Speaker 2: only in Chattanooga, which is part of our objective, but
Speaker 2: Tennessee and then really john to make an impact in
Speaker 2: player coach development nationally in the United States. When we
Speaker 2: get deep into my kind of methodology of why I
Speaker 2: view things. In this role, it allows me to obviously
Speaker 2: be at the head of a system and connect all
Speaker 2: those pieces together. And that is the goal, and that
Speaker 2: is really my personal and professional in Arbana to work
Speaker 2: in a place where the system is very interconnected throughout.
Speaker 1: Because if the messaging is even the slightest bid off
Speaker 1: in any aspect, men's, women's, whatever subsets you want to
Speaker 1: deal with, it might be close, but it's not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent. How different is that one percent, that two percent,
Speaker 1: that five percent in the messaging and in the deliverable
Speaker 1: to make sure that everything is going the same path?
Speaker 1: How different can that five percent really be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's actually a really good question. I would say
Speaker 2: there is obviously different nuances to the levels that we
Speaker 2: are dealing with. So when you think about our MLS
Speaker 2: next pro that is a full professional format, so that
Speaker 2: has its nuances. Are women's program plays in the WPSL,
Speaker 2: which has its own nuances. We also have our entry
Speaker 2: into the MLS next in our academy, but part of
Speaker 2: that is our general CFC Academy as well. What you
Speaker 2: will see very interconnected is the philosophies behind how we
Speaker 2: view people, how we view the development of humans, how
Speaker 2: we want people to engage soccer overall soccer has in
Speaker 2: their lives. Definitely at the youth levels, you will see
Speaker 2: deep connection in how we want to play the game,
Speaker 2: how we want to teach the game, and then you
Speaker 2: will see pieces of that in our women's and men's
Speaker 2: program but that also will be a little bit nuance
Speaker 2: on who the head coach is there, who leads those programs.
Speaker 2: So really what we are looking for is that throughout
Speaker 2: our programming, people can see a CFC identity, can see
Speaker 2: a CFC brand not only with our badge, our colors,
Speaker 2: but also what we are doing in terms of soccer
Speaker 2: and the reality is that is hard work. That is
Speaker 2: not something that is done overnight. That takes a lot
Speaker 2: of smart people, which we are lucky to have here,
Speaker 2: a lot of people that are very dedicated to their
Speaker 2: craft and this is obviously a long term project for
Speaker 2: us here.
Speaker 1: Before you took over this role as full time DT,
Speaker 1: you were CFC's Academy direct of Coaching. Yeah, what part
Speaker 1: of that is the biggest lesson as the director of
Speaker 1: Coaching that you can bring forward? I guess, So, what's
Speaker 1: the biggest lesson you learned in your previous job that
Speaker 1: you can bring forward that you think will help you
Speaker 1: the most. Now with the current business card being what
Speaker 1: it's going to.
Speaker 2: Be, Yeah, something that I think is staple of kind
Speaker 2: of how you development, how I view the game, which
Speaker 2: is it is extremely contextual. We cannot take a blueprint
Speaker 2: from a different area, from a different club and apply
Speaker 2: it here at CFC and hope to be successful. We
Speaker 2: can take pieces of that, but what we need to
Speaker 2: do is understand our community here, Understand our culture, Understand
Speaker 2: the players that we have in our environment, our coaches,
Speaker 2: and this really stems throughout all of our programming. But
Speaker 2: I think that is what's so special, which is everything
Speaker 2: that we're going to do is created for CFC, for Chattanooga,
Speaker 2: and while it might have components that you see very
Speaker 2: similar to other soccer systems, we are creating it here
Speaker 2: that has our DNA, that represents the people that we
Speaker 2: have in this community. So a very clear example is
Speaker 2: our players and our coaching STAFFNUE Academy. We want them
Speaker 2: one hundred percent to represent the community. We want them
Speaker 2: to be representative both in the way they act, but
Speaker 2: also in terms of ethnicity, in terms of history. Want
Speaker 2: us to be representative and you'll see that throughout.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the community in and of itself.
Speaker 1: How long did it take you to understand what that
Speaker 1: framework is, what the breakdown is. Okay, I know that
Speaker 1: they all of these different check marks that you've got
Speaker 1: to sit there and look at on that list. How
Speaker 1: long did it take you to understand all those different
Speaker 1: check marks, all those different columns that you had to
Speaker 1: consider when it came to the DNA.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'll be very vulnerable in saying that I
Speaker 2: have only been here in Chattanooga physically for three months.
Speaker 2: My parents moved into the area about four years ago,
Speaker 2: which gave me contact with the state and the community.
Speaker 2: But the reality is that there's been people here in
Speaker 2: our system that are from here, grew up here, played
Speaker 2: professionally here now on our coaching staff. So this is
Speaker 2: a very collaborative effort and what I would call probably
Speaker 2: residential experts that I have leaned on heavily to really
Speaker 2: understand the culture and the community that we're in. To
Speaker 2: answer your question, where I am I am still learning.
Speaker 2: I am still every day learning what Chattanooga looks like,
Speaker 2: what CFC the history, and we obviously have a very
Speaker 2: deep history with the community, but the technical framework, the
Speaker 2: game model itself, is a living document. It is constantly
Speaker 2: being refined. So as the city changes, because it is
Speaker 2: a very much growing city and community, then you will
Speaker 2: probably parallel see the changes in our technical plans and
Speaker 2: what we look like overall. So I am still learning,
Speaker 2: but in a very short period of time, and one
Speaker 2: of the reasons I decided to come here is I
Speaker 2: found very unique aspects of the intersection between soccer and
Speaker 2: community here that we could do something really unique.
Speaker 1: How much of that knowledge comes from where you were
Speaker 1: previously in Colorado? I guess in a compare contrast kind
Speaker 1: of a way, where with the time that you worked
Speaker 1: with Storm in the w League, the Rapids in the WPSL,
Speaker 1: obviously you get that knowledge base and understand that DNA
Speaker 1: and that part of the country. How much of that
Speaker 1: knowledge are you bringing forward to help you understand what's
Speaker 1: going on in the Southeastern United States, which is really
Speaker 1: growing by leaps and bounds when it comes to the sport, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Would say the part that is similar is the frameworks
Speaker 2: that we use either to assess the environment that we're
Speaker 2: in or to create our technical plans. Those frameworks stay
Speaker 2: pretty much similar because my background obviously is a very
Speaker 2: academic one. So really the hope is that everything that
Speaker 2: we do is evidence based. So the success in other areas,
Speaker 2: what you can translate is the processes and structures behind that.
Speaker 2: But I think the real hard work John is done
Speaker 2: in what are the nuances, how do we adapt that
Speaker 2: to the community that we're in, How do we adapt
Speaker 2: that to the people that we're already here at CFC,
Speaker 2: the new people that we bring along. So you will
Speaker 2: find parallels in what I did in different areas, but
Speaker 2: the difference is this will be a whole new project.
Speaker 2: This will be look and feel totally different than it
Speaker 2: did in other areas. And my real approach and the
Speaker 2: way I describe it in a very research is a
Speaker 2: holistic ecological approach, which is we need to understand the
Speaker 2: environments that we exist in as humans, and that's the community.
Speaker 2: But we're also talking about the bigger picture. We're talking
Speaker 2: about the culture nationally of soccer, of spore, the political
Speaker 2: climate of the country. Those are all things that we
Speaker 2: need to consider when we are talking about the development
Speaker 2: of coaches, players, recruitment, etc.
Speaker 1: How much of that when it comes to attacking methodology
Speaker 1: and understanding the context has changed even in the last
Speaker 1: say year or two years, because I know we can
Speaker 1: sit there and give a holistic decades long example, but
Speaker 1: I would think that because the sport is growing as
Speaker 1: rapidly as it is on a bunch of different fronts
Speaker 1: and a bunch of different levels, that it has probably
Speaker 1: changed even in the last year. How different is it,
Speaker 1: say the last year, two years compared to say even five.
Speaker 2: Almost exponential growth, I would say. And one of the
Speaker 2: reasons that you're seeing that is because the evidence in
Speaker 2: the science foundation of what we are doing in everyday
Speaker 2: soccer environments, and that's what we will do in the academy.
Speaker 2: I know Chris very well as the first team coach
Speaker 2: for the MLS Next Pro team that he is very
Speaker 2: inlign with that. But we have more resources now, we
Speaker 2: have better technology, so the way we assess and study
Speaker 2: players has improve the way that we play. We can
Speaker 2: have very objective evidence that tells us how are we
Speaker 2: scoring goals, how are we most likely to score goals?
Speaker 2: So I think that is actually really really exciting because
Speaker 2: just as we see in the other kind of areas
Speaker 2: of our society, technology is exponentially growing and the same
Speaker 2: thing is happening in soccer. Those resources are helping us
Speaker 2: better understand how humans learn, how humans develop, how humans perform.
Speaker 2: And then our job is to create the processes and
Speaker 2: systems that teach soccer teach a specific game model. So
Speaker 2: I would say every single day I engage material resources
Speaker 2: articles that kind of blow my mind in the areas
Speaker 2: that we're actually entering in terms of score development, athlete development.
Speaker 1: What was the last article you read that blew your mind?
Speaker 2: It wasn't an article, but actually this morning we had
Speaker 2: a guest here at CFC which basically gave us a
Speaker 2: presentation on the evidence behind and how goals are being
Speaker 2: scored at the highest levels of the game and the
Speaker 2: amount of detail. And I'll give you a very specific example.
Speaker 2: I receive the ball on the top of the A team.
Speaker 2: Depending on how many players defenders are actually in front
Speaker 2: of me, what are the percentages that I'm actually going
Speaker 2: to score from that area of the field, whether that's
Speaker 2: one defender, two defenders. That changed dramatically in terms of
Speaker 2: what the percentage is to score, and what we're doing
Speaker 2: in the academy and what you will see throughout our
Speaker 2: system hopefully as we move forward, is that the way
Speaker 2: that we teach players and our coaches is based on
Speaker 2: that evidence. So if we know we're not scoring goals
Speaker 2: from a specific area of the field, what does that
Speaker 2: mean on the field that we're probably telling the players
Speaker 2: this is a low percentage opportunity for us. There is
Speaker 2: a higher percentage opportunity in other areas. So likely the
Speaker 2: action is passed into that area and our ability to
Speaker 2: score goals goes way up. But the detail that we're
Speaker 2: getting in that information, it just keeps going up and
Speaker 2: up and up. And you've got to be careful obviously,
Speaker 2: because you can be overloaded with data and you've almost
Speaker 2: become paralyzed in what you can do. So we need
Speaker 2: to be careful that we're receiving data then we can
Speaker 2: actually apply in our teaching and learning environments.
Speaker 1: So how do you avoid paralysis with analysis with age
Speaker 1: groups and things like that, Because is it a case
Speaker 1: where younger individuals are more embracing of statistical analysis and
Speaker 1: that three dimensional approach, where other older players might be
Speaker 1: looking at things a different way, or how does this
Speaker 1: break down these days from your view?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what you're seeing too, Like I'm a
Speaker 2: little bit blown away I don't know if you have kids,
Speaker 2: but if you watch younger children engage in the iPad
Speaker 2: or an iPhone relative to how I, which I think
Speaker 2: I'm extremely competent in using those resources, it is mind
Speaker 2: blowing how quick they are in using that technology. I
Speaker 2: think what you're seeing in the younger generation, it's just
Speaker 2: been inherent in their development and their growth, so they
Speaker 2: accept that that is part of what we need to
Speaker 2: do in these environments. So what I think you're seeing
Speaker 2: is people that are more open minded to it and
Speaker 2: understand that we really need to engage that objective evidence
Speaker 2: that we get through technology to better teach, to be
Speaker 2: more impactful on the field. So I think what you're
Speaker 2: seeing is less resistance. The barriers are going down, which
Speaker 2: is then makes it facilitates, it makes it easier for
Speaker 2: us to actually use those resources in our environments.
Speaker 1: Doctor Sebastian Geralda, the first full time technical director in
Speaker 1: club history for chet New GEFC, hanging out with us
Speaker 1: here for a one v one. When it comes to
Speaker 1: looking at technology and understanding it, I know that there
Speaker 1: are folks like me that sit there and have a
Speaker 1: thumb that's entirely too large, being left handed on a
Speaker 1: right handed phone. I have problems and trying to adjust
Speaker 1: these kinds of things For someone who is out there
Speaker 1: that you are looking for to be a part of CFC,
Speaker 1: who isn't as a debt or hasn't been exposed to analytics,
Speaker 1: statistical analysis, all of the three dimensional approach and all
Speaker 1: the tools that's there. How do you bring them along
Speaker 1: knowing that the raw talent is there, how do you
Speaker 1: bring them along in the process to where they understand
Speaker 1: what you're trying to get them to say through their
Speaker 1: own expression on the field, with all of this analytics
Speaker 1: that you have going on around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are you talking more from a player perspective or
Speaker 2: a coach development perspective? Yes, okay, I'll engage the coach
Speaker 2: development one, which is essentially part of how we recruit
Speaker 2: our coaches here. It doesn't matter what your background has
Speaker 2: necessarily been. The people that we are trying to look
Speaker 2: for are value driven, whether that's coach or player. That
Speaker 2: they match our values, they match the culture that we
Speaker 2: want to have here. And then very very important is
Speaker 2: that they have a growth mindset. They want to enter
Speaker 2: a setting where they know are our focus is to
Speaker 2: facilitate their individual development. Again, I'm talking about coach or
Speaker 2: individual player. And if you get those type of people
Speaker 2: in an environment like ours, basically what you do to
Speaker 2: them is you ignite them. They become passionate about being
Speaker 2: in this type of environment. So I would say, whether
Speaker 2: you're a player, whether you're a coach, and you want
Speaker 2: to be in an environment where you're getting evidence to
Speaker 2: help in your development, sometimes those conversations can be more
Speaker 2: uncomfortable than other times. But what we know is that
Speaker 2: those uncomfortable settings oftentimes lead to rapid development. So if
Speaker 2: you are one of those people that wants to improve,
Speaker 2: you want to be in a tough setting where you're
Speaker 2: getting feedback. CFC is probably a good place for you
Speaker 2: as a player or a coach.
Speaker 1: How large if you were to put together your CFC
Speaker 1: booklet say this is the Way of CFC for lack
Speaker 1: of a better title, with your methodology and your ideas
Speaker 1: that you're bringing to the table, how large a book
Speaker 1: is this and is it a book that continues to
Speaker 1: add chapters or does it just add paragraphs? Or how
Speaker 1: do you view your book of the Way of CFC
Speaker 1: as it continues to grow or is it a set
Speaker 1: book that has a beginning and an end that you
Speaker 1: know the butler did it at the end of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say it's never beginning to end, and
Speaker 2: that document is always changing the reality though, and no
Speaker 2: one's ever asked me that question, So I find it
Speaker 2: to be an interesting one the frameworks that I have
Speaker 2: built in different settings or I've been different clubs. It
Speaker 2: ends up being that that document is probably a two
Speaker 2: hundred or three hundred page document. However, not everyone needs
Speaker 2: to engage every single chapter, every single aspect of that document,
Speaker 2: so it is very much age and stage appropriate, so
Speaker 2: we don't necessarily have to engage our first team men's
Speaker 2: players with every part of what we're doing in the
Speaker 2: academy overall, but it does lay out for age stage
Speaker 2: level what it should look like. It also talks about
Speaker 2: what we think our DNA is here at CFC, the
Speaker 2: way we want to teach our coaches, the way we
Speaker 2: want our coaches to teach on the field. It also
Speaker 2: contains how we view humans, how we view learning. So
Speaker 2: we make pretty much statements on this is going to
Speaker 2: be our way and this is going to be our
Speaker 2: soccer way, but that is obviously always changing because we
Speaker 2: keep on getting new research. We keep on getting new information.
Speaker 2: But the hardest part of all of this is always implementation.
Speaker 2: So implementation becomes key and how you do that implementation
Speaker 2: it has to be a drift process until people get
Speaker 2: really used to that environment. But having done this at
Speaker 2: multiple places and being vulnerable again having failed and probably
Speaker 2: achieving our objectives teaches you a lot about implementation. So
Speaker 2: implementation we have to go for simplicity and impact what
Speaker 2: is actually impactful in our environment, and then we keep
Speaker 2: adapting as we go.
Speaker 1: Always do you plan on cloning yourself? Considering that you
Speaker 1: have the men's and women's first teams and the academy
Speaker 1: as a part of the dossier here, do you plan
Speaker 1: on cloning?
Speaker 2: I don't, But what I can guarantee you is that
Speaker 2: I know in several of our positions, and especially with
Speaker 2: Chris right now in his first team role, we have
Speaker 2: people that are extremely competent and talented in different areas.
Speaker 2: We are soon to announce our women's head coach that
Speaker 2: will fall in line. So I always believe that I
Speaker 2: am always a small part of the puzzle, John, and
Speaker 2: it really is about surrounding ourselves with top people that
Speaker 2: have diversified set of skills, that really make our team better.
Speaker 2: So I don't think at all it's about having people
Speaker 2: that are similar to me. Actually it's about people that
Speaker 2: probably are different and bring different perspectives and challenge what
Speaker 2: we're doing, and that's the way we progress. But being
Speaker 2: here for the time that I've been here, I've been really,
Speaker 2: really pleasantly surprised at the overall level, and I can
Speaker 2: see that every day we are making fast improvements. So
Speaker 2: we have a lot of top people, and we keep
Speaker 2: recruiting top people here, and I think that will just
Speaker 2: make us better and better every day.
Speaker 1: So then, since you answered my question about the next
Speaker 1: thing on the two to do list getting crossed off
Speaker 1: and announcing the women's coach, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: Everyone has a to do list, and I know that
Speaker 1: you've got a to do list, and you know it
Speaker 1: could be it could be in a Google doc that
Speaker 1: you can sit there and grab. You know, you might
Speaker 1: have in the old days you had your Palm pilot.
Speaker 1: You sit there, you pull the stylist out, you write
Speaker 1: something down, you jam the stylist back in, you file
Speaker 1: the document away, you grab it. Oh that's what I meant.
Speaker 1: You've got loosely binders calendars, sticky notes on top of
Speaker 1: the fridge that you write at three o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: and then you wake up in the morning the next
Speaker 1: morning you go, what was I writing at three o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning or the six x eight big whiteboard
Speaker 1: that has a bunch of lines going all over the place,
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, path to hear, path to hear,
Speaker 1: path to hear. Where is that to do list for
Speaker 1: you with this particular gig And what do you think
Speaker 1: the next next thing that you can cross off that
Speaker 1: to do list is as you get ready for next season,
Speaker 1: because it's going to be here before we know it
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different fronts for you at CFC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I will answer that first from kind of
Speaker 2: like a global leadership perspective, which is I am still
Speaker 2: in the process of deeply learning the people that we
Speaker 2: have here at CFC, and for me, that's very important
Speaker 2: to engage people and understand what we call sometimes super strengths.
Speaker 2: What do they bring to the table, where do they
Speaker 2: improve the team. I'm still in the process of doing
Speaker 2: that and that probably is priority for me. But as
Speaker 2: you said, we also have the reality that we're in
Speaker 2: very competitive environments. Priorities right now are obviously for our
Speaker 2: first team men's recruitment of new players. Part of that
Speaker 2: is we also have available positions coaching positions on the
Speaker 2: first team. On the women's team. Again, we will have
Speaker 2: an announcement on the coach soon, but the recruitment in
Speaker 2: that regard has already started. And what hopefully is the
Speaker 2: next main big thing that we cross off in terms
Speaker 2: of our technical plan technical framework is that for the
Speaker 2: first time in CFC history, we will have curriculum and
Speaker 2: learning plans that connects us all the way from U
Speaker 2: seven all the way up the pathway to our first teams.
Speaker 2: And that is obviously a lot of work done every
Speaker 2: day by a lot of good people. But when I
Speaker 2: get to that point and we achieve that as a staff,
Speaker 2: I will for sure have some kind of very tropical
Speaker 2: moheto to celebrate.
Speaker 1: And I will remember that now because we've now got
Speaker 1: to figure out where you can get said tropical Mohito
Speaker 1: when it's desired up there in the chech area. We'll
Speaker 1: certainly be keeping an eye out. Doc. I can't thank
Speaker 1: you enough for dropping by, especially now with all the
Speaker 1: new titles in the business card and everything and all
Speaker 1: the work that you have in front of you. Thanks
Speaker 1: for dropping by for a one v one and being
Speaker 1: an open book about things as you go forward there
Speaker 1: at CFC, looking forward to seeing who our things continue
Speaker 1: to go, looking forward to seeing how big the book gets.
Speaker 1: And we'll be a knocking on your door soon. Thanks
Speaker 1: for dropping by.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much, and I guarantee very soon
Speaker 2: there will be a CFC scar as part of that
Speaker 2: collection in the background. So thank you John.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you very much. We will see you soon.
Speaker 1: That's it for another socer down here. One