Football is the UK\’s most popular sport with millions of people playing the game each year. In the last decade or so football has become highly commericalised with huge sums of money being invested in the game. The Premiership for example attracts billions of pounds worth of investment each year. With such investment comes great opportunity as the demand for facilities, players and training staff grows.

In recent years the demand for skilled football coaches has been growing. These talented individuals can help change the fortunes of a team and provide management with a great deal of support and encouragement. Despite such talents these people are often hard to come by and is why you are seeing many clubs turn to retired players for coaching positions. As a result now could be the time to think about training for a career as a coach. A career in this area presents great opportunities and could be just the thing you were looking for. In this article we will share insider knowledge of what life is like as a coach and what you need to become one.

Who Would Suit a Coaching Career?

The most obvious choice would be people who have a real passion but in reality there is a lot more to football coaching these days. Science forms a big part of the game these days as clubs monitor exactly how their players bodies react to certain environments and scenarios. Time is also given to what they eat and a solid understanding of how the body works is required. This is only really applicable to people looking to coach at the top clubs but is a real consideration. If however you are looking to coach young children then a different set of skills are required.

Football coaching careers are undoubtedly difficult to get into and as a result it is good to get into from a young age. Doing this means you can get your badges early and presents opportunities for you to travel abroad to train kids from other countries. If you like to travel and enjoy the outdoors then a football coaching career could be for you but what skills do you need?

What Skills do you need to become a Football Coach?

The first thing you will need to do is take your FA coaching badges. In most cases you will need to take level 1 and 2 and will provide you with the basics of football coaching. Although every budding coach should take these it will only provide the basics and the real skill comes from experience and self learning. Outside of qualifications coaches also need to have the right skills to help develop a player’s fitness, technical skills and team working ability. As a result most coaches are outgoing, confident and particular in their approach. As mentioned earlier you could also go abroad to help develop your skills. America is a popular destination for this.

Opportunities

Before embarking on a football coaching career you need to take the time to understand what level you want to train at. This could be for professionals or for school kids. Some people take the teaching assistants route where they can provide classroom support on set subjects while coaching kids football for P.E. The rewards from professional, Premiership standard coaching is much higher than that of kids coaching but the level of focus is much more intense. This is why the top coaches are often in their 30\’s.

Coaching can also provide a route into management which is an attractive prospect for many. Travel is also an option and the skills learnt from football coaching can be taken into a range of different jobs. The role in itself presents many opportunities and can make a great career choice.

If you are thinking about a career as a football coach then you can expect to earn anywhere between £24,000 to £250,000. Coaches are constantly being testing and demands are high. It is essentially a results driven business and is not for everyone.

Author Bio: Patrick Wade – Football coaching expert

Category: Sports
Keywords: football, coaching