About
Acute Football Coaching
Gaining experience in both league & non-league football as a player was strengthened by attaining a 2:1 BSc hons degree in sport coaching at Sunderland University back in 2012. After graduating, a few years experience was gained teaching in secondary education. Eighteen months of which was working in a Pupil Referral Unit as a behavioural specialist teaching KS4 science, design technology & lead activities coordinator.
The past decade, I’ve been coaching football at a variety of age groups from under 8s to senior teams at the foot of the pyramid system in the North East of England. I’ve also worked in the building trade glenrobsonbuilders.co.uk mainly as a plasterer, for best part of my adult life alongside playing football.
To prepare for the rest of the 21st century & beyond, it’s never been clearer to me that together; parents, older siblings, grand parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches, youth workers, foster carers & friends of the family etc., strongly influence infants in their first few years. According to neuroscience, it’s the core values & beliefs established in those first 6/8 years of a child’s life that defines their character all the way through adulthood.
Those pivotal figures above could take control of the current situation in terms of what kids are taught today with regards to health, fitness & well-being. By the time we reach adulthood, the vast majority of us know very little at best about ourselves physically, psychologically & energetically.
Collectively, we also have a very limited understanding of the reciprocal interactions we share with the environment & each other. Financial education is non-existent too with most of the global population only ever taught how to work for money on the bottom rung of the financial income ladder!
A big lesson learned when I had back-to-back full ruptures of my anterior cruciate ligament at the age of 27 was; there is a lot more to life than just football. I love it, it’s a passion of mine & I’ve gained so much on a personal level from the love affair over the years. However, the few years working in secondary education led me on to ground-breaking discoveries in fields such as neuroscience, epigenetics, quantum science, astronomy, ancient history & financial literacy to name a few.
Those topics were not even mentioned in the staff room, never mind the classroom when I left mainstream education in 2015. It’s probably all getting covered in schools now though yeah?
The following are highly valued at AFC to help long-term development among individuals:
What sets me apart from most other coaches is that I don’t pass on training methods until I’ve tried & tested them on my son & myself first. Biological age vs chronological age is something I’m consistently monitoring myself, striving for longevity.