University of East London men’s football team has seen a lot of success in the past two years – going a whole season undefeated and winning the league, scoring a record amount of 88 goals in just 37 matches, and dominating their opponents not just by scoring, but by keeping a hold of the ball 64% of the time during their matches.
“My success this season is promotion”
For a freshly put together squad, it can not be easy going into a season with the whole world on their shoulders, or in this case the whole university on their shoulders.
Although many fans and critics might assume that the team has a lot of pressure and expectations for this season, Head of Football Ryan Gordon insists that he and his team of coaches deflect that pressure off the player’s shoulders and allow them to solely focus on the effort they put in on the pitch: “My success this season is promotion… we are good enough to be promoted, the service that we provide to our players is second to none.”
A way in which Gordon and his team try to remove the pressure from their players is by deep diving into ‘a lot of emotional intelligence’ which helps them see how a player uses his/her emotions and how they manage those different feelings.
Gordon is a very proud member of UEL and has all the confidence in the world in the facilities UEL can provide to new recruits and current players. “I have had a senior management staff member for Crystal Palace in this week to have a look at the facilities and I’m about to go and present to Wolves in the Premier league… the service we do provide is equivalent to Premier League football clubs.”
“I’m already recruiting for next year”
Having played three games so far this season, the UEL men’s team have unfortunately broken their two-year run of no losses, conceding a 6-5 defeat to St. Mary’s University.
it was a game in which Gordon admittedly used a different approach, explaining that he wanted to give his players the chance to show him how they operate without his hands on the wheel while he took a back seat and observed. “Look, it’s our first loss in two years but I learned so much from the loss and there is a saying that I have ‘sometimes you have to understand why you have lost to learn how to win.'”
While the loss means UEL’s unbeaten run has come to an end, it signifies a new beginning, a new start to something even bigger. Gordon explained in our interview that the time off during lockdown helped him ‘reflect’ on his coaching and his methods and gave him space to learn different approaches to the game. “I have to be adaptable in my methods in the way I communicate and get my message across and that takes a lot of patience.”
As with a winning mentality sometimes, one has to embrace failure and keep looking at what is next.
Despite the team being in its early stages, Gordon told us that he is already in the process of strengthening his team. “I’m already recruiting for next year, I know what I’m building and I’m looking to make us stronger and better.”
After their most recent 6-0 victory against the University of Brighton on the 27th of October, the UEL first team currently holds a record of three wins and one loss with a goal difference of 14-7.
A players Cognitive Bias
A cognitive bias means that a person’s own view of reality, their subjective view, may dictate their judgment and behaviour on the world despite objective input.
A way that Gordon uses cognitive bias to his advantage is by observing a player and assessing how the players think while their team is in possession of the ball versus when their team is chasing the ball. “What I’m looking at is how do they retain information, what other mental blockages are there for performance…then you start going into depth and you start looking at things like emotions, engagements, relationships.”
That is just one of the techniques used in favor of the UEL football team by coach Gordon that he learned from his research as a positive science psychology coach through the science of positive psychology.
Heartbeat
Winning of course matters a lot to Gordon and the University of East London but the team and University is also very proud of the work and time they invest into their players off the pitch. “I also have to make sure that I’m developing well-rounded human beings and that’s paramount for me.”
Showing that what really has brought success to UEL in football has been the changes and views implemented on Gordon’s arrival and appointment as Head of football.
The program now assesses the player as a person as a well as an athlete within that, building a brilliant culture within UEL. “You have to have a relationship with the players, you have to understand their heartbeat, that heartbeat and connection is what’s going to make this team tick.”
The standards set on the players in the programme aren’t taken lightly as the match against St. Mary’s saw three players get dropped for ‘breach of code’ and once asked, Gordon explained that the names of those won’t be stated, as it has been dealt with ‘in house’. “For me, we expect high standards on and off the pitch and that’s what’s helped us succeed.”
