Thomas Gronnemark and the Benefits of Being an Outsider

In an exclusive interview with TLO, Liverpool’s throw-in coach
highlighted an important distinction that sets him apart.

Thomas Gronnemark, throw-in coach extraordinaire, was kind
enough to once again have a chat with us about Life, Throw-ins, and
Everything.

I’m still working on the full article (or possibly two), but I
wanted to briefly focus one important thing he touched on: his
experience as an “outsider” in the world of football.

“I’m not a football coach,” Gronnemark explained. “I don’t have
any football education.

“I’m totally sure that if I had taken youth coaching education,
then UEFA C, B, A, and then Pro, I’d never be a throw-in coach,
because when you’re in an environment and not developing a lot, or
doing things that they did 5 or 10 or 30 years ago, then it’s
really hard to be innovative.”

This is a really insightful observation. And it is one that can
be applied well beyond football and coaching.

Education is often necessary to succeed in life, but it can also
act to stifle innovation and creativity. At worst, it can become an
echo chamber of good ol’ boys, who perpetuate the same ways of
doing things because that’s the way it has always been
done.

For 140 years of association football, throw-ins were a mere
afterthought. For most clubs and most managers they still are. But
not for Gronnemark. Or Klopp. Or Liverpool.

Of course, Jurgen Klopp is an “outsider” as well. In Raphael
Honigstein’s fantastic Klopp biography Bring the Noise, he
talks about how second division players never became first division
managers, and certainly not at the biggest clubs. Klopp changed
that.

As I’ve touched on several times before, including recently, this
outsider/outside-the-box-thinking is arguably Klopp’s biggest
advantage as a manager. He gained success not despite his
unconventional background, but because of it. And in turn,
he is more open-minded when it comes to other unorthodox histories.
Including Gronnemark’s, obviously.

We’ll have more on Gronnemark soon, but I just wanted to
highlight this one part of the interview, which I personally really
enjoyed.