Anthony White
anthony white interview
afc bournemouth first team assistant goalkeeper coach
anthony white
We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with AFC first team assistant goalkeeper coach, Anthony White.
Anthony was appointed the club’s assistant goalkeeping coach in 2016, joining the Premier League side from Oldham Athletic.
Anthony also gained his UEFA A License in goalkeeping and outfield in 2016 and since then, has continued to grow his skill-set and reputation which has seen him be invited to present at many top conferences across the world, including our partners at International Goalkeeper Coaches Conference.
Your impressive coaching journey has caught the eye of many lovers of the position across the world. You have a wealth of experience, at such a high level, for someone of your age. How have you enjoyed your coaching journey so far?
I have really enjoyed my coaching journey so far, having seen and been involved with academy and 1st team football.
The day I left Oldham athletic as a player at the age of 18, Tony Philliskirk our manager said “if you can’t play for your country then make sure you coach for them”.
It took me the entire summer of 2010 to figure out what my path would be in football.
So I journeyed to Florida in America at the age of 18 to continue playing whilst earning a degree in psychology and directing the goalkeeping department for FC America in Orlando.
I then returned in the winter of 2013, still trying to continue playing with Crewe Alexandra and coaching part time for Oldham athletic youth team and academy.
It was then in January of that year that lee Johnson offered me the opportunity to go into full time coaching with the 1st team at Oldham athletic.
A daunting experience for a 21 year old, who was now to be bestowed with coaching and developing a loan goalkeeper from hull city in mark oxley and an ex Manchester united goalkeeper in Paul Rabchubkah.
After receiving the great news, I sadly lost my mother a few weeks later, a huge inspiration and motivation for the forthcoming years.
I decided to further my education in coaching, gaining my UEFA A Licenses in both goalkeeping and outfield, as well as completing a masters in sports science and starting a PhD in Goalkeeping science; all of which I felt could aid in development goalkeepers.
I felt the goalkeeping department at Oldham needed developing and in the preceding 3 years we built the department to then sell Joel Coleman to Huddersfield and Chris Renshaw to Everton; a great achievement for the club and for the goalkeepers themselves.
In the summer of 2016 at the age of 24 I was offered the fantastic opportunity by Neil Moss (Head of Goalkeeping at AFC Bournemouth) to join him and for us to create a goalkeeping department.
The department has now grown to include 3 academy goalkeeping coaches, 2 first team coaches (Mossy & Myself) and a 1st goalkeeping analyst (Matt Parker).
Every member of the department plays a key role in the development of all of the goalkeepers at the club and we are very fortunate to have goalkeepers that are willing to learn and have the capacity to retain and transfer learning and experiences.
Sat here now at the age of 28 I am exceedingly lucky to be in my 7th year as a professional coach, 4th year in the premier league and to be able to work with a talented group of players and staff each day. I never thought I would have had so many experiences in football (both good and bad) at this age, but I am very thankful to my family, past and present staff and friends who have all helped on my journey.
We are seeing a lot more coaches fill assistant goalkeeping coach positions in the professional game, please take us through a week in your shoes as first team assistant goalkeeping coach at AFC Bournemouth?
The role consists of me assisting Neil Moss (Head of Goalkeeping) in every aspect on and off the pitch.
My role on the pitch is to assist Mossy both in the coaching detail and serving of the session. Whilst my role off the pitch requires me to look at aiding in the design of the sessions alongside Mossy, scouting and recruitment, formulating a loan system, monitoring the goalkeepers, analysing training and games (all coaches should be doing this, we are very lucky to have Matt Parker our goalkeeping analyst who is very thorough, knowledgable and detailed in his work), and innovation throughout the department to look at our current methods from session design to communication strategies.
You are a big advocate of promoting multi-sports and how the crossover skills it presents can benefit goalkeepers. Can you tell us a bit more about your thoughts around that?
I feel strongly about the goalkeepers finding solutions to problems. For me each moment in a game is a puzzle, the goalkeeper needs to seek the clues in the environment and ultimately solve the problem.
Therefore by exposing the goalkeepers to an array of different sports/games their awareness for problem solving and search strategies for clues becomes heightened, ultimately affording them opportunities for effective actions in the future.
The multi sports strategy so far has been a success and although tactically each game differs and the positional aspects will always change, if the goalkeepers can take pieces of information to transfer (eg effective “shapes” from handball to save a shot) then hopefully the goalkeeper adds ways to solve problems to their achitecture.
And, we can’t sit down with you and not ask you about the impressive rise of Aaron Ramsdale. What can you tell us about the work you are doing with him in training, which has enabled Aaron to perform at such a high level?
We are very fortunate at the club to have brought in goalkeepers who have a great appetite to learn and respectfully trial new ideas to ultimately aid in their performance. Aaron (21), Mark Travers & Will Dennis (20 & 19 respectively) make up the 1st team setup alongside Artur Boruc (39). The goalkeepers have great work ethic and respect for each other and in turn provide a good competition.
As coaches at the elite level we are ultimately looking at the details to effect 10% of their make up. The player brings with them 90% of their identity and as such that is respectfully nurtured; whilst the remaining 10% is then improved if the player has the capacity and willingness to learn and implement.
There is great work happening all over the world, no different to here with the goalkeepers at AFC Bournemouth, we are simply very lucky that we have goalkeepers willing to listen, share and co create ideas (between goalkeeper and coach) that doesn’t have a one size fits all approach, but allows for the individual goalkeeper to best succeed.
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