PZPN

At the meeting with media representatives, the Polish Football Association was represented by PZPN Coaching School Director Paweł Grycmann, PZPN Coaching School Deputy Director Piotr Grzelak, National Coaching Education and Licensing Coordinator Adam Łopatko, Coaching School analyst Daniel Wojtasz, Deputy Sports Director Bogdan Basałaj and Deputy General Secretary Marek Łukiewski. "We invited you here to show you how we train, what we pay the most attention to and what is most relevant to us, but also to tell you about the challenges we will face in the near future. You report and write about the work of coaches, analysing and evaluating it, and we believe it is vital to use reliable information in this regard. Information based on facts, figures and the actual training environment in Poland", said Paweł Grycmann.

"Watching doesn't mean seeing — how do you watch a match as an expert? New trends in modern tactics" was the title of the first presentation given by Daniel Wojtasz. The PZPN Coaching School analyst shared knowledge on expert football nomenclature, contemporary trends in tactics, and important tactical details that can change the way we look at events on the pitch and thus evaluate the effectiveness of individual player actions in a match.

Paweł Grycmann then went on to talk about how the Polish Football Association wants to educate coaches and the environment of professionals that influences player development. The PZPN Coaching School, which is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its relocation to Biała Podlaska, is evolving year on year. The last twelve months saw the introduction of specialised education courses: sports director, academy director, motor skills preparation coach, football analyst and talent scout, which have, to a significant extent, filled the gaps in the national football education system. Education quality is a priority, so PZPN also ensures the high competencies of the educator coaches, offering them a dedicated further training path in this respect.

The Polish Football Association uses a wide array of tools to train the youngest footballers. These include unification, the National Game Model or the PZPN Football Academy Certification Programme. There is also a special working group that publishes sets of syllabi every week; these are available in the "Connected by Training" tab at www.laczynaspilka.pl. Recently, the "Training Resources" tab on PZPN's online learning platform has enjoyed rising popularity as well. "It is an ever-expanding database of presentations, handouts, video clips and conference transcripts concerning different age categories, both at professional and grassroots level. By making them available, we want to encourage coaches to continuously develop and keep up with trends. The idea is not to leave them on their own once they have completed the course. We want every active coach to be familiar with the current training trends", Paweł Grycmann stressed.

Online webinars are provided via the Polish Football Association's e-learning platform (at e-learning.laczynaspilka.pl, accessible to anyone with a "Łączy nas piłka" website account). "We provide free training resources for coaches and share knowledge and experiences — not only our own but also that of other inspiring people or foreign academies we visit during our courses. The lessons learned from such trips are now available to every coach in Poland", the Director explained.

Media representatives vigorously engaged in discussions and shared their insights. "We know that you also care about the development of Polish football so that our national teams and clubs achieve the best possible results. Therefore, let's talk about football as much as possible, learn together, draw the right conclusions and then put them into practice", Grycmann concluded.