Hello,
The best scouts (at both the youth and professional level) are "diggers." They excel at developing contacts, building networks, and linking with the most plunging levels of football (grassroots) through the professional game. A quality scout unites with individuals who are "there" (accomplished through respect for development coaches and the grassroots game to the upper echelons of professional football). Next (and most importantly), it is about "noticing" talent (seeing it when you are there and not missing it). Finally, it is about tracking and revealing players through reports and highlights (the most overlooked and rarely-assessed aspect of a scout's quality). An excellent scout can translate and strip one's talent and deliver assessments, pairing the written word with video and verbal feedback. Then, they excel at comprehensive player files, bridging initial screenings, tracking, and final evaluations to expose a target, prospect, or candidate. Ultimately, respect for the game and all involved, paired with one's ability to dig and reveal, improves through physical practice, studying, and embracing the levels of football. That said, the difference between talent identification and player discovery is novel in the modern game—and that is because the difference between romanticized scouting and "digging" in the trenches is equally unrecognized. Scouting, proper scouting, is about discovery.
At Fisher Talent Group, we will train our staff to "dig." It is how we enhance folks (teach and develop new skills) and bring awareness to overlooked players and communities. So, we are not only discovering overlooked kids, empowering them through opportunity, and spotlighting their communities, but also teaching our staff an ability and a range of skills. As mentioned perpetually, our goal is to have a paid scouting operation in every African country. With that, we will maintain a team of "diggers." They will develop a knack for networking, assessing talent, and formulating player pools, depth charts, and profiles. Our team will be adept at writing, reporting, and delivering talent assessments in diverse settings. They will learn new technology, and we will have ongoing training to facilitate improvement and learning of new skills. The above involves communication, writing, and interpersonal skills such as public speaking, professionalism, and self-confidence.
Moreover, we will teach coping skills: managing stress, working under pressure, and meeting deadlines. We will enhance their decision-making, problem-solving, and creative thinking by working proactively as a scout in rural communities and being intelligent with their scouting techniques. Most importantly, management and leadership development will be essential to our full-time staff. We will teach everything from managing a scouting schedule to leading and communicating with community counterparts and successfully managing a reporting workload.
The above training from Fisher Talent Group is integral to our scouting mission. It is why we will achieve our goals and how we will bring folks into "closing the gaps" and equal discovery opportunities. Our ideas of what makes a "good" scout and quality team and how we teach those skills to create that environment stem from professionalizing our mission. We will only get where we are going if we are methodical, purpose-driven, and immersed in details. We are serious about "change," and earnestness and our staff's mastery of the craft is how we move forward.
As mentioned last week, current donations support building our Eswatini database (filming players, technically constructing it for the web, and publishing expenses) and the Eswatini Scouting Manager (whom we have not funded). The latter is the first individual to jumpstart our movement, and they are our foremost "digger." If you wish to contribute, please do so via the toolbar; likewise, if you know of an individual or organization who might, please contact me at rob@fishertalent.com.
We cannot change the world independently, but we will together.
Until next time.
Live forever,
Rob Fisher
Executive Director and Head of Scouting