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| Me and Andy Smith. |
In October 2019 I spent one week in Glasgow attending the Scottish FA C license course. I thought I'd write about my experience in case I can help future candidates.
My first piece of advice is to go with an open mind. This is the most important part of being a coach. As with anything in life, you will only get better at what you do if you are humble and are open to new ideas. Take the ideas you want and form your own coaching style, but keep an open mind.
The second piece of advice I'd give is to get a couple years of experience before you go. You'll be running sessions and shaping a team on a topic chosen for you, and you'll be doing so in front of former professional players who know what they're talking about. Our instructors, Andy Smith and Jimmy Bone, were former professionals and have years of coaching experience under their belts. It can be a bit intimidating.
If you sign up for the one-week intensive course, like I did, then you'll definitely want to go with some coaching experience. On Monday, the instructors demonstrate what you need to do, then the rest of the week all of the candidates run their sessions and are evaluated. You can also sign up for the less intensive course, where you are allowed to return to your club to practice what you learned before returning to be evaluated.
I think the final bit of advice I'd give is to get in shape before you go. They might have younger players ready to perform the sessions that coaches run from Tuesday to Friday, but if they don't, the coaches have to participate - and it can be a lot of running around. Our class had younger players on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I participated all day Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I was quite sore by the end of the week. You're there for about 8 hours each day.
What I loved about the course was that it had minimal classroom time - about 30 mins each morning and a quick debrief Friday afternoon to round out the course. We were out on the pitch the majority of the time learning from some great instructors and doing things ourselves.
I also really liked the instructors. Jimmy Bone speaks his mind and isn't afraid to do so. He'll tell you what he thinks - even if it hurts a bit. But I appreciate the honesty. He's also quite funny! I also liked Andy Smith, but I didn't get to interact with him much as he was with the other group of 20 coaches.
There were about 40 candidates in total and we all formed great relationships during the course. Some of us kept in touch and have signed up to do the UEFA B course together in May 2020.
The trip was such a wonderful learning experience and you'll probably make lifelong friends in other parts of the world, which is always cool.
Below are some pictures I took while there.
Contact me if you have any questions!