The objective of the FBM Practitioner course is that you learn how to positively influence football players, decision makers, training staff, scouts & recruiters and player agents, i.e. the football side in the business of football.

In this course decision makers learn how to manage risks. Scout & recruiters learn how to appraise players and how to convince decision makers to listen to their scouts & recruiters, to stick with the rules set up for scouting and recruiting and to make the right decisions when hiring players. Player agents and training staff learn how to understand their players better and create loyalty in their players. This course is valuable to both people already working in these roles and people aspiring to these roles.

With the FBM Practitioner course you learn five important sciences to achieve this:

1. Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). With OBM you learn how to get the best out of people using positive reinforcement. This is most important in influencing decision makers and players. OBM is the overarching science that includes the other four sciences the FBM Practitioner course teaches in its protocol. The first step in the OBM protocol is specifying. With OBM we specify our Unified Scouting Language so that all scouts of the club report correctly and in the same language.
2. Subjective Bayesian Statistics. The second step in the OBM protocol is measuring. You learn how to use descriptive and predictive statistics to measure the performance of players. To be clear; you learn how to create your own Bayesian models, you don’t get the proprietary FBM Bayesian models. You also learn how to measure the performance of scouts, recruiters and decision makers so you can use all of this for risk management when it comes to hiring players.
3. The Viable System Model (VSM). With VSM you learn how to structure the organization of a club. This includes setting the right balance between the sporting director and the manager of the first team. VSM is a cybernetic model so you also learn how to use cybernetic feedback loops to optimize scouting & recruiting. 
4. Cybernetic Big Five Theory (CB5T). With CB5T you learn to understand the innate behaviors of yourself, players, training staff, scouts & recruiters and decision makers. Our brains were formed in evolutionary times and a small but important part of our behaviors we are born with. Depending on our brain type we behave differently. Normally these differences are explained as differences in personality. But with the FBM Practitioner course you learn that these differences are actually evolutionary behavioral patterns. With CB5T you learn how to discover someone’s personality profile both overtly and covertly.
5. Triangulation and verbal behavior. Language plays an important role in our society in general and in football specifically. Often how you say something is much more important than what you say. With the FBM Practitioner course you learn how to use your communication to clarify what others are meaning to say and you clarify your own message so that others understand you better. You also learn how to communicate to influence others so they are more likely to do what you want them to do. This is important when you communicate with players and decision makers.

The FBM Practitioner course takes five days (one day for each of the five sciences) as the FBM Practitioner course is the turbo edition of the ten day Football Behavior Management course as taught at the VU-university in Amsterdam. The main difference is that at the VU-university professionals working in the field come by to be interviewed so they can explain how these five sciences impact their work, whereas with the turbo edition you get all of the teachings but not the interviews. When you complete this course you receive the FBM Practitioner certificate and can use the FBM Practitioner title on your resume.

This course is taught by Joost van der Leij. Joost van der Leij is a VU-university certified OBM trainer/coach and teaches the Football Behavior Management course at the VU-university. Furthermore he also teaches these five sciences at the Erasmus university of Rotterdam. Joost van der Leij is also working as a general consultant and data scout for clubs and player agents.

This course can be taught in company at a club or player agent. We also provide open courses for which you can sign up through the form below. If you have any questions, please reach out to us as we are happy to help.

Logistical details:

• Dates: January 15th till 19th 2025.
• Times: We start at 10am till 1pm, then there is a 1 hour lunch break and then we continue from 2pm till 5pm.
• Venue: NLP.amsterdam, Binderij 7-L, 1185 ZH, Amstelveen (very close to Schiphol and Amsterdam).
• Training fee: 1975 euro ex. VAT.

To sign up for this course, fill in the form below. When you have filled in this form, we will send you the invoice. Your participation in the programme is secured as soon as the invoice has been paid.