Having stumbled on other teams’ playbooks left lying on sofas, McLeod is wary of written documents reaching players. His answer is the team’s Olympic room, which he calls a walk-in 3D playbook: player work-ons, current priorities, and plans for pressing and penalty corners against specific countries all sit visually on the walls for players to study. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Belgium’s coaching scene is fairly open, in McLeod’s experience. He points to the federation’s youth and coach programmes, speaks with club coaches after Sunday games about how their teams have gone, sketches diagrams with them, and sometimes asks clubs to try elements of the national side’s game where they fit. Tokyo material stays off limits, but general knowledge flows freely. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.