 I'm a next player. I've been coaching since I was 16-17 with some club teams just to get a good feel for it. And when I stopped playing at 27, I realized how much passion and love I had for the game. I didn't want to get out of it as an athlete. So I became a coach. And the other experience that I've had throughout my years of playing, I put it into my coaching career as well. So what I've learned, mistakes I made. And what I did was, I compiled all that information, put it in the storage department, which is my head, and I started training and teaching kids the right way to play the game. And that's how I came up with PureTech Soccer Academy. That's awesome. So tell us a bit about your business then. What does your company specialize in? We specialize in private technical training. We don't work on big numbers, as some of the clubs do, some of the academies do. It's all about numbers. Numbers equals tons of, I don't know about profits, but lots of money. We specialize, we charge a higher price, a higher premium, but we specialize in small group training like a private school. What we'll do is that we'll have maybe, our ratio is between one instructor for every six to eight students. So that way they get the highest learning, technical development they could possibly get. A lot of these other institutions, what they'll do is they'll have two coaches for 60 kids and they charge a fortune. So that's the difference between what I'm doing versus what everybody else is doing. I never had teams through my academy, but what I did was I started an IDCAM series where I picked top players in certain age groups and we traveled to Europe and our first trade trip was to Portugal and we played three exhibition games, we won all three and that's how we built the success of these athletes because I exposed them to different parts of the world if they're interested and I also exposed top players to universities in the US if they're looking for a scholarship based on their videos, based on their training development and I hope to get these players all my goal, my rule of thumb in my academy is to get these players to the next level. Fantastic. So you've been coaching for a long time now? 16, 30, 32, 33 years, give or take on 49, 20, 50 this year. I've been training for a long time but it's not just any training. What I do, do not do is that I grab player and I find out what their deficiencies are, what their assets are, what they're good at, what they're weak at and I work on your weaknesses as opposed to focus on their strengths and in order to get them better, let's say for instance, I'll give you an example if somebody comes in and says, okay I'm a right footer, fantastic, I'll assess them, first thing I do with any new player I assess them and I take a look to see what their deficiencies are and I'll work on more of the deficiencies but I always go back to their strengths. The reason being is because they're strengths it's always something that they're going to go back to during the game. Even though you're working on your weaknesses, the weaknesses will come into play once confidence builds. So you've got to repeat that weakness over and over and over so that way they could execute it in the game or practice and get comfortable with it. Love that. So what does a high quality coach in session look like then? For a team or an individual. For an individual. What I do is I start off with some ball, some skills, different types of dribbling using one foot, other foot, both feet, rolls, toe taps, duck walks, I call it duck walks but it's thick talking between the feet and then what I do is I see the progression of the player, how they're developing in the session and if I find that they're developing quick I'll take it to another level. So what I do is called progression stages. I start very basic, I assess them with the basics and then after I turn them into somewhat intermediary which is a little bit higher grade if I see that they're doing good and then I step it up as high as I can if I see that they have the potential and the drive and the passion to continue doing the high-skill drills and eventually we build it up to 1v1 to shoot, give and goes what their footwork is like and then I break down their whole component of their body, their foot, how it's got bones on it I focus like based on like the structure of the player like if they're not opening up their hips and their arms open up the hips to reduce the strike, I need to fix that if they're not hitting it with the toe bone the shot low, high I fix that if passing is big passing with the right technique it's all technique if they're not I want to correct that and if they're listening to what I'm telling them they'll see the progression really, really fast so I break every individual up as an individual I don't paint everybody with the same brush so somebody will say to me hey Ang I want my kid to shoot like so and so on TV well do you know that so and so on TV has been practicing every day for the last 20 years do you know that they're professionals for a reason do you know that they're dedicated to the sport that they love do you know that so and so and so and when you break it down from these parents I say listen not for anything but if your kid wants it I could teach it not a problem if your kid's just going to waste my time your time and everybody else's time in between I'm going to be honest with you I'm going to say listen not for anything but your kid might not want to be here but I want to teach it but if they don't want to be here it doesn't make sense because save your money with all due respect I don't chase money I chase dreams I send them to where they need to go and we develop together as a unit and when they get to where they need to go I take the credit for it along with them we work as a partnership and then after we take it from there so I'll give you an example 8-9 players that play in Europe that live there and they all came from my training academy not my team academy I don't have teams training academy which means that we work together we work on their weaknesses I know what the European clubs are looking for for this kid to succeed so 99.9% of the time when I send the kids to Europe they don't come back because we check off all the boxes that's what makes me unique in what I do so therefore all these kids say wait a second I see so and so made it but they weren't that good I make them as good as they can be and want to be I get into their psyche of the head and I start fixing this as opposed to the body and the feet once they understand the psyche of the game because every game's got a psyche they can develop better and faster because they'll visualise it they'll see it and they'll execute it that's my goal so what do you look for when you bring on a new client then what are a couple of traits you look for in a player a player comes to me I never work with them say for instance you came to me say I want to get better I'm a striker okay I play at this level I always ask them what level you play at okay good highest level doesn't matter I don't think so but the quality of the player the passion that they have do they love the game or do they like the game if they love the game it's like anything else when you left something you're gonna listen you're gonna try to execute you're gonna ask questions and we're gonna work together the other thing that I look at is when they come in the first thing I do is ask them to dribble just dribble grab a ball dribble someone change use your left use your right use both lay down some pylons have them dribble through there what's their body posture like what's their what is their foot do they stiff when they dribble you know what I mean do they look unathletic like what's the situation everything that's registered in my head because like I said before I don't think every player with the same brush just because you come in somebody somebody else might be different they might have good feet but no head some people have good head no feet slow so there's so many variables that I look for in a player and I'm able I don't know how I'm able to do this but maybe tons of experience from when I played all over the world in regards to what are you trying to accomplish when you play are you trying to become that distributor do you like to score goals what makes you happy as a player do you like to compete do you like to communicate do you like to just stand there on the field with with no success you're not moving you're not speaking you're not doing this there's two things you can't teach from what I've learned in my experience is you can't teach height either you got it or you don't if you're looking for that and you can't teach passion either you got it or you don't if you have those two things it doesn't matter about the height but it matters about the passion because the passion is more important than the height depending on how you play the game if you're physical play physical don't change your pattern of playing because you see everybody else say or Lionel Messi no there's only three right everybody else is part of the rest of the pack so I tell these guys who's your favorite player they'll bring up somebody and I'm like do you want to be like them and they're like yeah I'd love to and I said why be like them and it could be you yeah like why do you have to be somebody else that you can't be because you live in a country like Canada US or whatever you got more opportunity where you're from England because it's a professional and it's a lifestyle right so over here I say wait a second what are your goals I want to play I want to get a scholarship okay so let's focus on that route let's focus on making you eligible good enough to get a scholarship with your grades with your ability to learn and listen with your ability to train hard work hard with your ability to speak and we'll find that route what's your goal oh my goal is to play in Europe that's a different lifestyle that's a different game because they played in Europe and at the end of the day you can't play the North American style in Europe because there's two different methodologies and philosophies about the game that's why a lot of people struggle when they went to Europe because European soccer is totally different with the movement communication and everything and they go what's called patterns playing and in North America I've just come back from Florida and I've seen some of the top U19 teams playing in Florida in the Walt Disney Club showcase and I wasn't impressed to be honest with you but I was not impressed the top teams in the state in the country that were there because it's a different game you know what I mean that's not my style but for some people at the end of the day it depends on what you're used to like I'm more like the European style for me to play in the US I could do it but it's not my cup of tea for me to play in Italy I adjust a lot better that's my style playing movement first touch, second touch so that's just my philosophy and how to play it first thing I ask is where do you want to go going forward oh I want to play we have different leagues here OPDL is supposed to be the highest league here it's called OPDL so you want to make an OPDL team position my position is whatever it is I said do you know your roles in that position they're like no I say well every position has a role simplify it right try to make it easier for them to understand mm-hmm okay so what do you want to work on are you allowed to do this or are you restricted from doing A, B and C because every coach is different I have the freedom to do this perfect you have the freedom first thing you need to do is and then I go through the steps of what you need to do in that position they say to me and you but how do you know all these positions I said it's a very simple game every sport is simple if you make it simple if you're the playmaker make plays if you like to score goals if you're not scoring goals as a striker you ain't going to last too long you need to score goals if you're wing backs attack on the flanks if you're a creator if you're a false nine like whatever your position is there's roles for them but they were never taught that so I become that person to teach them what they need to learn to succeed in this particular sport so I simplify things for them the best way that I can so that when they're happier they're more confident they want to play more but at the end of the day they get scalloped that's what I want to do with these players so every kid to me in Piratar Soccer Academy is a project I could turn a bad player into an excellent player just by controlling the mind of them their mind because they don't play they get discouraged they lose confidence and they don't want to play anymore so I make it fun for them those are the type of players who do not know that if you actually take anybody doesn't matter what color or whatever and you say to them listen we're all special we have certain skills that we are great at and once you find out what that skill is take advantage of it it doesn't have to be sport it could be you being brilliant in business selling something real estate whatever it is we're all talented in something if this is something you want to do in love you came to the right place because I'm going to create you to be that person and when they become it how did you do it with so and so that they didn't want to play the problem is clubs in general they paint everybody with the same brush because they don't have time to train that kid individually to make them better so they come to people like myself and say Angel I heard so many great things about the academy what you've done with so and so so you build what's called a resume for yourself that's how I started I built a brand that when somebody comes to me I'll make them better a thousand percent because that's my goal and if I don't make them better so I put the pressure on me because I care about it so much and I have so much passion to make people better that it's almost like an obsession to say okay you know what I need to make this kid great it's not that you're making anybody great you're turning them into a human being that loves doing something over and over that's it completely agree so let me take you back Angelo when you first started pure touch soccer then what was a few challenges you faced getting your name out there getting credibility getting the clients getting the fields to train on getting confidence from the people that you played with or against because they'll always say oh did you hear Angelo so my goal right from the gecko was to put my name and my product out there so what I did was I started off with a mini camp I wasn't working through two years because I had a full-time job but I started off with a mini camp in the summer one week to see how many students like it we promoted it with flyers we brought it to schools we dropped them off we said listen if you're interested hear the flyers give us a call send us an email we'll answer any of the questions that you have so we made a partner that I had at the time and what ended up happening was we got good success based on we had the first class first week we had about 14 kids second class they liked the first week so much they told friends we ended up with 18 kids and we only did a two week camp in the summer so we like you know what this was successful enough to put a brand out there but the biggest problem when you started new business you could lose it just as fast as you built it okay because the first reaction the first response from the customers consumers if they give you bad rep to say it's not worth it you're finished but they never said that because we I never personally spent a lot of money on advertising my advertising has burned them out a referral from Joe Peter Mike hello Angelo my name is so and so because I got your number from so and so one of your students I'm like okay so you know already something's going well and I've been building it ever since from 2004 to today but the only thing that hurt a lot of small businesses like myself you know what it is pandemic facilities were shut down nobody wanted to stand next to each other people had to wear masks like it was a mess over here I don't know how it was over there in England but it was a complete mess so other facilities were closed they were working with limited numbers and for me limited numbers means one thing breaking even I don't work to break even I got a family to three they got a wife and two kids I need to create money for what I love to do to feed my family and to pay me for what I love to do simple why do people go to work money no matter how you slice it or dice it I cannot work for free for the rest of my life because when the bills come in or something else comes in a birthday gift a confirmation a wedding whatever you can't go to say here I'm giving you me because I got no money so number one thing I don't care what anybody says you got to do what you got to do you got a passion for money will come thousand percent I don't care what anybody says I speak what I believe if the kid comes up to me says hey my kid is great no he's not he needs a lot of work I'm not saying that because I want you as a client but the reason why you're with me because you know he needs work right a lot of people are like that they say my kids the best in this age group well let me be the decision maker I'll decide how good your kid is because I would love for your kid to be great and take it to the next level so that will we both win in the end mm-hmm the way the way I do it is I interview the parent first and foremost before the kid because the parent will determine tell me how the kid is going to be so the parent what do you think of your kid I start with the same thing I question them what do you think about your kid oh my kids got tons of potential these a b c and d okay fantastic talk to the kid I don't care how old the kid is I speak to the kid eight nine ten six seven doesn't matter what the age is and then I assess and I question them to say what do you want to do first thing I say is what do you want to do with your life besides education health that's number one I want to be a professional soccer player where I want to play middle I want to play in friends I want to play in England good do you play with the ball every day even on your own they'll say yes or no so once now I have an idea you know what I'm getting into because if the kid says yeah I like to play with the ball every single day fantastic that for me gratifying to the point where we meet we start training and then from there we build the brand together and after we try to get them to the next level that's my philosophy after so where do you see private training going in Canada in the next two to five years we're not going I'm going to tell you something soccer is not our number one sport it's isarchy okay I played isarchy too the highest level you could I was a better hockey player than soccer but because I made the Canadian national team at 15 and it's played all the way to U21 U22 I had no time to play hockey so in hockey the bottom line is this the reason why TERS become who they become because it's 5,000 hockey schools in the GTA Greater Toronto area and no coach no organization will ever occur somebody a player for not getting better never the kid can't skate go see Leonardo the kid can't shoot go see Angelo the kid can whatever can skate shoot it go see Peter like we always send them to the right people the best technical trainer so much so we promote that but over here they don't promote it because they see that they're not doing a great job but they're getting paid from the club the kids want to get better to pursue their dreams so they come to people like me the clubs get upset because they come to people like me because when they go back they're better than everybody else they get upset because their name gets what's the word I'm looking for let's tarnish let's say that your name gets tarnished where did you get better I went to so and so no no no no you can't go there you know what I mean like it's an ego thing and I'm saying to myself but not for anything but if the kid's better for your team that makes you look better as a coach because you're winning more games what's the issue but in hockey it's totally opposite they push people to go to these academies these training clinics these skating this power skating the hitting the shooting the passing we promote of it because we have no time to develop little Johnny we don't because we're running a tactical session based on power play based on what based on what's our methodology of playing 4-3-3-3-5-2 4-2-3-1 like what is it every team is different right so we they don't promote the individual they don't understand a lot of things that's going on with regards to when you go on a trial did you play soccer yeah okay Leonardo you go to a trial you don't know anybody there who are you supposed to make it look good yourself or the team yourself of course it's an individual thing right once you make the team you become part of a team and that's when you build up your technical tactical because you're part of a team now but when you're showcasing yourself you don't want to make everybody else look good and that's why I developed these kids to be the best at these trials these ID camps because you're building the individual but you're still reminding them that once you make it you're not an individual anymore you're part of a group you're part of a team you win as a team you lose as a team but be the difference maker when you win and lose and that's what I want trying to instill in their head to say hey you're still playing for a team which is you and if you don't want to look after everybody else and they get all the success now you're making a mistake so I became a consultant as well so they could always call me say Angela I'm coming over here in Florida and struggling in this particular area and I'll help with it I'll help with it it's only a little phone call to say Angela what am I doing in this situation so I discussed with them I said give me the scenario and I put it on a piece of paper because everything I have is on pieces of paper so every drill I've ever made like I got about 5,000 drills I made them from the top of my head which is not normal because a lot of people go to YouTube they get a drill and they just execute I don't do that I've never done it because I'm so obsessed with becoming the elite of the elite trainer in the world that I need to go above and beyond everybody else you see what I'm saying so when I train these kids I train them to do things on their own in a situation when they're on the field that's my goal for my academy and it's always been and the people want to not say they do it out of jealousy I don't know but it doesn't bother me because perfect so what would you say to another coach either watching this or listening to this interview who want to start a business but are maybe afraid to do so what would you be your number one advice to them? you've got to have the passion to do it you've got to take the players okay so this question's always been asked they're like Angela what do you do with players that aren't very good I said well you call yourself Joe's training academy development program because they started from stage one ABC they said okay they said how about if they start getting better I said well you've done your job how about their coach and you want to start something like what I'm doing what do you do? first of all you've got to see if it's for you because not one of the best players in the world not around now see down on those guys not all of them make good coaches because they can't explain to the players what they can do so that becomes a little bit of a why can't you do this well I'm not you because they're all painted the top players in the world are so fixated on everybody else's success so say how come you can't jump how come you can't do that dunk I did how come you can't dribble through nine players and score like you did against England how come you guys can't do that coach we can't now what happens now you've lost your trust because you're painting everybody has the same brush that you're using so you're painting everybody with the same brush but at the end of the day you can never be successful that one okay so as a coach I'm an explorer have a passion for teaching or do you have a passion for the money which one is it because you have a passion for something believe me when I say this money will come you don't need to sell yourself because it's going to show in what you do how you develop them how you speak to them what do you get out of them do you let the kid fool around and train is not for everybody they think it is that's why you see 5000 academies oh I got ABC when I started in 2004 there was me plus 5000 academies in the GTA now there's 180 you know how many of those 180 are successful one 12 they all left one on their own and they went belly up in a year because they thought but if I'm an angel I'm going to do what he does and people are going to come doesn't work like that because you need the passion to do it you just can say oh by the way I see Donald Trump and I see all these wealthy guys and there were billions I want to be like you can't be like them everybody's we're all created differently and when these guys try it and fail they'll come back and he's looking for a job again I'm saying guys you want to do it you do it but do you have the passion to do it to break down the kids ability to kick a ball or pass a ball do you have the ability to do that or do you get frustrated, delete what's your story what I'm telling everybody to do at the end of the day is do what you think you're best at whether it's assistant coach whether it's a trainer whether it's physical whether it's speed training whatever you do that focus on it and you will never fail a coach who plays doesn't mean you could coach but hey do you know someone so scored I don't care what he scored because at the end of the day can you teach how you score can you demonstrate to show them that they could do it too not everybody could do that because they don't even know what they're doing they just do it you see what I'm saying because a human being doing it I don't know if I'm boring you or not but a human being at the end of the day is broken down into quadrants okay just like the field you got feet you got thighs you got chest you got shoulders you got head you got neck you know what I mean like you got hips be mobile but at the same time you got to do what execute and when you execute what happens people start knocking on door who's your kid what's going on over here they start to take notice of course because you're selling yourself as a brand you're a brand yes my father always said to me he goes in but forget about everybody else your last name is your brand yes do you want to be known as who's you of the best yeah of course that so that's your brand some people say but I don't have a brand yeah your brand is your name do you want to do bad things your brand and you want your brand to take the rest of everything that you did negatively you want people to know you as the greatest or the worst and if you want to take that route to the worst that's your brand and that's what I like to teach these kids because there's people that don't necessarily become pro players but they become very successful business people individuals I'll never forget what you told me I'm like what are you talking about I never forget that time when we were training and you said guys you cannot fight to be the second best you got to be the best or don't participate nobody remembers number two these guys all graduated from universities they all built like apps they all built financial industries and they're like they think me like what are you thinking me for you don't even play soccer anymore it's the rules what you teach us that is so important in life the rule that you taught us can't be can't be rewritten to the point where you told us to do this but you didn't tell us to do this because it benefited you you told us to do this because it benefited my brain to tell me why I'm doing it I'm like oh and I get teary eyed when I do it when they come up to me give me a hug say thank you I'm like oh like for me it's like oh that's special not soccer players but they succeed in everything else then I got the players that became successful playing in Europe so that made their journey the most successful to what they wanted in life you know what I mean so I don't know how to explain but I'm just different because I have too much passion for what I do yeah I mean essentially you're developing people yes exactly you know soccer is just something the person does yes exactly so yeah it's a byproduct byproduct exactly yeah so tell us a bit about how did you get your first client then client? yeah how did you get your first client like I said we we solicited the camp in 2004 the summer and we solicited through what's called the jurisdiction of where you want to hold the camps for instance we're holding it in a certain area called Vaughn Ontario yeah which is Naples which is within the city of Vaughn then there's another concord which is in the city of Vaughn so we decided to do it in Naples in the city of Vaughn and we handed out our brochures in packages to all these schools in the surrounding area to all say hi how are you I'm interested in the camp and at first we had to open it up to the general public because we wanted more volume than quality quantity versus quality just to get our name out there and we ended up with 12 kids is it good and they go to 1,000 flyers not really but at the end of the day it's a good start so now that we're doing this camp now we gotta prove to them and the parents who we are and what we do the first kids specifically I don't remember who it was but I got a photo of six kids that came to the camp they're all plain professional wow yeah which is unbelievable unbelievable nobody's ever done something like that in their life one's in Benfica, one's in Holland one's in two players in Spain one's in TFC Toronto one's in the other one one's in Norway and you think to yourself they're four or five that's how young they were, some of them some of them were eight or nine it was a very young group of talent the parents were there so they were interviewing us just like we were interviewing the kids some of them knew me personally from when I played and they're like okay let's see how I teach the game and what he's gonna do with my kid and then what ends up happening is that you make them better and it comes around and you say if you want to develop go see this guy, you want to develop so when they call me now I already know that they're calling on a referral someone so asked me to call you because my kid needs this now they're getting very specific because they know I specialize in what I do when it comes to soccer can I coach? thousand percent I won many coaches of the year it's too tactical I want to see them moving with the players but it's different training methods between coaching tactically versus technically it's hard to do both very hard to do both that's why when I separated myself from the rest of the pack I became a technical expert in training and breaking the player down rebuilding them in D and that was my goal from a technical perspective love that so where do you see your business in the next five years from now then? without due respect if this pandemic didn't hit I would not have had any glitches whatsoever based on because my goal throughout 12 months over here in Canada you do six months outdoor indoor due to the weather fall winter you can't train outside it's cold it's freezing so I go indoor to outdoor and it's been very very successful for many many years until the pandemic facilities were shut down I couldn't train more than 10 kids at a time especially in the indoor years with fall winter of 2020-2021 it destroyed a lot of businesses it didn't just destroy mine based on the fact that I was still doing private, semi-private team training in the spring and summer so I had to work every day four sessions a day seven days a week for six months that's how I made up the difference in costs and revenue because if you had to rely on facilities especially in this country to make money during the pandemic a lot of people lost everything because they're not available people get sued, you get tickets for having one extra player on the field it's very stringent to the point where they didn't want you to succeed as a small business and it was frustrating for guys like myself because we built a brand for all these years 2004 and all of a sudden they take it away from you and you're like wow now what do you do that's why I ended up going to Florida with my family because if I'm not going to work here I'm going to go to Florida there's no restrictions really you know what I'm saying so it's a different mindset I have to change my game plan but now that I'm back home I'm so busy right now every single day but the problem I'm having right now is the climate change and it's still snowing in Toronto now what do you do see what I'm saying there's always it's not consistent here so therefore the people are telling me hey yeah it's not for anything but what do you want to do with this situation because you enjoyed Florida and I got a lot of connections there are you going to go there for 6 months come back for 6 months what do you want to do so that's the crossroads I'm at right now so as a business owner I got to sit back spoke to my wife and I said what can we do how are we going to do it now the business plan has changed now I need to adjust the new business plan which is how are we going to make this work for the benefit of the students benefit of the parents for the benefit of me and my business that's it love that well Angelo it's been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for taking the time out to share your story I can obviously tell you're very passionate about what you do so I want to encourage you to continue to do it because I know you're changing lives the difference to the clients you work with so if any coach is watching and they're inspired by you by your story, by your business how can they get in contact with you and how can you follow your business such soccer on Instagram I only have my pure touch website on my phone but it's shut it down on my computer because of the pandemic so when you're paying hosting fees for no reason and nobody can register on it because we have nothing to do I told everybody we told all the clients that we were going to take emails to my director email account and we're going to do Instagram or personal messages and then what I do is I do a schedule if they want to get a hold of me come to message me and if I could help them I'll help them there's no issues with that so what we'll do is we'll add your Instagram link to the bottom of this video so any coach can reach out to you or follow your business perfect all right it's been an absolute pleasure Angelo good luck with everything in the future and I hope to thanks for having me you're very welcome I hope to connect with you again very soon perfect sounds good thank you