How to become a football coach: Bryan's story

Brian:
I'm Brian. I'm 25 years old, and I'm the head of a football academy. I've always been a passionate football fan. I never thought that having a career in football was even a possibility. So my job role is office-based and on the grass. As a coach, I head up the under-16 age group.

The key part of coaching is understanding the person first before they meet the footballer. I feel like using football as part of my job is vital. It's probably one of the key aspects. From the outside looking in, we're just a football club that wants to have players and improve them. Once they're in, that's when they get the extra stuff. That's when you get the rapport of the coaches reaches them and with excellence we support them and we're creative with how we coach them. Football is a universal language. It's what everyone can understand. It doesn't matter whether you speak English or not.

Growing up, I was mainly focused on the IT route because I thought that was the pathway for me at the time. So, after finishing sixth form, I decided to go to De Montfort university and study IT. And the course during the three years was very insightful. On results day, I ended up getting a 2:2 which was a complete shock and I just was in tears because I was just gutted. I still had to think about, you know, life carries on and what happens next.

So I went to do an internship for three months in Nottingham. Towards the end of my internship, I said to my manager at the time, "This opportunity has been fantastic and I no longer feel like I want to do IT."

I came back to London and during that period of time was quite difficult. I tried to keep myself occupied. I was still playing for my church football team. I met Jordan. He mentioned that he worked for an organisation called Reaching Higher and he was the head of football at the time. Then I went to a session and I was just absolutely amazed about the number of young people, how the coaches were communicating with the young people there as well. And I just thought, this is it, I'm supposed to be here.

My favourite part of my job is definitely the transferable skills workshops. In those transferable skills workshops, we cover five key areas. One is responding to authority, awareness of your decisions, dealing with high pressure scenarios, having a reliable support system and communicating effectively. Those five topics, I believe, are very key as a footballer, but also as a person. If you understand and master those skills, you're more likely to be a well-rounded individual.

My true motivation is seeing the young people develop and grow, making progress day by day, session by session, match by match. That's what makes my job so rewarding.