How to become a professional football coach

hi everyone I'm Neil almond I'm the head

coach of the Middle East youth soccer

organization in Dubai this is my video

on becoming a professional football

coach okay so again asked this question

quite a lot and I'd like to share with

you guys my experience of my journey

since becoming a coach so first of all

Who am I and I've got ten years

glassroots and Academy experience a

wafer B and advanced Youth Award coach

which is a level 4 qualification I

specialized in the foundation phase and

closed wait for we're gonna flat say

Liverpool Football Club and I must say

I'm currently working in Dubai now so

how do I get involved in being a coach

well when I was younger I played a

decent level unfortunately like most and

didn't make it as a professional

unfortunately but once of the to stay in

the game had a huge passion for it and

was desperate to continue that you okay

so first and most important question is

how did you get started how did you get

involved in football and for me

personally I volunteered at a grassroots

club in my local in the pool area called

paramount Football Club and great

standard great setup and there were an F

H artists and the club basically what

that means is each coach volunteer that

work there had to be qualified with an

FA qualification either in level one or

level two or an FA safeguard and we're

sure this is a great foundation for me

because as a unexperienced

non qualified coach originally I had

players and coaches around me that

helped me and guide me there's a great

blueprints for looking at how to set up

a session organize the session and how

to deal with children how to deal with

differences in children and just

basically get the ball rolling

have fun usually these clubs as well

have a really good philosophy

particularly when it comes to their

cultures so they will support you

through you don't level one or level two

qualification and in some instances they

will often pay for you as well so where

can you gain your level 1 and level 2

qualification right the man at my local

count CFA lots of different courses are

run through the FA and the count CFA

level 1 level 2 a lot of grassroots sort

of foundation course to run through

there and they're all listed on the

website to gain my level 1 it took me a

couple of weekends and then I was signed

off very simple the course consists of

how to organise your practice how to

keep it safe and how to manage children

basically in that sort of football

environment so after that I did my level

2 course which is a little bit more

technical a little bit more advanced

than goes into the details of actually

coaching and coaching technique again

that can be found at your local County

FA and just to be aware and you have to

pay for your own level 1 and level 2

unless your standard charter club is a

good one and we'll provide you funding

for that but just be prepared and you

probably more than likely gonna have to

pay for these yourselves so while I was

coaching at the the grass remains

paramount team and I would continually

go off through my level 2 course this

took roughly about 6 months so in total

it's of probably about 12 12 months to

get these the level 1 or level 2 courses

out of the way

and these are definitely just the

Foundation's that all coaches need and

to coach a sort of a grassroots and even

any level really and they're a great

guideline as I say and you definitely

give you the tools to go forward ok so

as always going through my level two and

I got the book for coaching I absolutely

loved it and it's great working with

kids and seeing how you could help them

and improve

though just the smaller turns like if

you awaken on shooting or if you work on

Cleveland and they demonstrated

something that you you taught them in

that session which creates us it's great

satisfaction as a coach and I was I'm

sure you you'll all be aware and so as I

say in that time I was sort of applying

for lots of different jobs to the

community additional volunteering work

and also I was looking at going over to

America a lot of my friends at the time

go to America and something that I'd

always wanted to do however I felt that

the the ship had sort of set sail at

that point so at this time I was

thinking about taking my coaching career

fair there and how to apply it for lots

of different jobs but I came over here I

actually looked at how many different

football academies the way at the time I

think back then there was about probably

about eight or nine football academies

so checked out to all the websites

looked at all the contact details and in

total probably sent about 25 to 35

emails separates individual contact

details and four academies across Dubai

after that once I got home luckily it

took about six months for any replied

sir to come through basically so in my

experience during this stage you have to

be able to take the sorts of rejection

because a lot of emails came back a lot

of applications came back unsuccessful

not qualified enough and you haven't got

enough experience you don't think you

know all these different things and but

it didn't sit for me it didn't stop me

from trying to achieve why wants to

achieve I think that the most important

thing is that your resilience and you

just keep going never give up if this is

something that you really want to do I

think you should keep going and strive

to to achieve what you want to achieve

so my first sentence in Dubai was in

2012 to 2015

whereas just an Academy coach with the

Malaysian soccer organization it's give

me brilliant foundations to wear with

all different levels and all different

age groups from after-school activities

to advanced group sessions this is a

great time for me because it allowed me

to use all the level-1 level-2 and youth

module techniques and apply it in all

different scenarios with different ages

and abilities something that I would

advise anyone to do is to try and work

with this mixed ability as possible and

it really does develop your source of

initiative as a coach and your

organization skills as well as your

planning you always have to have two or

three other sorts of exercises or

practices that we sleeve just in case

something isn't quite where I came they

haven't got it and using all these

different techniques that you use

throughout the courses was the back end

of my first interview in Dubai I was

traveling back home to the UK to

complete the UEFA B license I wouldn't

recommend to do this to anyone

unfortunately and where I was at the

time there was no coaching education so

I had no choice if I wanted to progress

my career so I definitely think about

doing your UEFA Bay or any sorts of

higher level qualifications in the

country that you are in it just cost too

much your flights obviously as well as

paying for the course itself

so my recommendation would definitely be

to do it in the place that you live in

so the UEFA be course is a lot more

advanced than the level 1 level 2 and

use module awards in the sense that it

has a lot more tactical emphasis as well

as technical and it's how you deal with

the 11 B 11 formats or 8va formats in

that sense this took around 12 months to

complete and during that time I had the

men saw an f8 mentor who guided me

through the journey during that time I

had to fill in a portfolio

which you do with any sorts of FA course

now you have the login sessions evaluate

sessions which is a great tool and a

great way to continue to improve as a

coach once I completed the UEFA be and

unfortunately I passed my mentor advised

me and we had the discussion about what

was the next move for me I've been here

for three years which was a fantastic

experience

I was desperate to gain professional

Academy experience that time and luckily

enough he put me influence of interview

panel we can athletic football club so

fortunately for me

I managed to get the role I was working

as a coach in the foundation phase so

this is for hundreds up until under

eleven now again this was a fantastic

experience it's important that you wait

for be level even sort of level two

things and also be in line with a cool

philosophy now every prayer every every

Professional Academy will have their

cool philosophy and that will oversee

how we are as a coach but also the

technical and tactical elements that you

deliver to all the Academy players as

you can imagine this was a fantastic

learning experience for me going through

the likes of Man City Liverpool and

Everton lots of different Premier League

advanced academies back in the UK so if

you're fortunate enough to pass you away

for being you want to go this far

progress your career and I would

definitely recommend

to get some sorts of experience within a

category one two or three Academy and

obviously the higher the better for me

this is where I learned a lot of things

technically and tactically and how to

look at individuals individual programs

how that works within the units how that

works in the team it's a fantastic

experience I would recommend anyone to

try and get even if it's just

volunteering or observing sessions this

is something that is key to your

developments as a coach so just to

summarize my experience and sort of

going forward this is a long journey and

as I say I've been doing this for ten

years now when by no means am I the

finished article and the good thing

about coaching is that you learn a lot

all the time and there's always

information and new information to take

onboard whether that be technical or

tactical elements of the game and

there's the the game is always evolving

which is you know is great for a

studious coach and it's it's so

important another vital part is gain as

much experience as possible whether that

be in your local community or a

grassroots Club this is where you're

working with lots of different age

groups and lots of different ability as

well that's the most important thing

this will develop your initiative

planning as a coach so as we said

previously you may have one session

practice that you wanted to liver but

then if it's not going so well you need

plan ABCD and it's a great way of

building your foundations as a coach so

when you're on all these different

courses I think it's really important to

meet contacts so being as friendly and

as polite as possible there's many

different people and all these people

have different walks of life and it's

something that you can always take from

from any other

you were with or used to be alongside so

I think it's making as many contact as

possible in football is really important

going forward so during your journey as

a coach it's really important to stay

committed and stay on track there will

be times where you have self doubts in

your own ability and doubt about the

general sort of profession itself but

for me honestly it's the the best me is

the best profession that you can go into

if you're if you you know you're so

passionate about what you do and you're

passionate about football I think it's

really important you will have your

moments where you think this might not

be for me and but then the next week you

might put on a really really good

session and you know everything's rosy

again so stay committed to it and

continue to research this is another

really key element for me and as part of

my job now I recruit their different

members of staff lots of different

coaches and the problem is sometimes is

that we see lots of the same games over

and over again during interview

processes and this is okay it's not a

problem that will get you to a certain

point in your coaching career but in

order to develop and build on on the

foundations that you've got I think you

need to take risks by taking risks and

research in different practices trying

different things it always makes you a

better coach in and could be coming out

of your safety safety net so I've had to

fund everything that I've done so far

and whether that's from the level one

level two UEFA B and most recently the

advanced use the wards at st. George's

Park which took just over twelve months

to complete I would recommend any FA

course I'll be honest and I know they've

had sort of a little bit of a critique

in the past but for me and my experience

I've learnt an awful lot especially

recently at the advanced youth awards at

st. George's Park this was specified and

specified in foundation phase I taught

me an awful lot going forwards and just

to finish and I've been very lucky very

fortunate in my short coaching journey

so far and I've traveled to the likes of

Iceland Malaysia

Cyprus Norway and Dubai obviously we're

on base now as head coach and this is a

fantastic career it's it's very hard

work but it's also very rewarding and I

would advise anyone if they wanted to

pursue it if you want to get in touch

with me not a problem and I can help you

also

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