Congratulations to David Burton for completing his UEFA C license after an impressive 90 hours and five months of studying for the qualification. David has been a coach at Ascot for ten years, first beginning in the Soccer School with our U5’s. We caught up with David, the Ascot U14’s boys coach, about his motivations for completing the course and why he thinks more parent coaches should consider doing it too.
David was inspired to take up the qualification as he looks to develop his current U14’s squad by providing them with season long session plans as they look to train twice a week. His core motivation is ‘looking to develop players to be as good as they can be.’
As a coach he has some fundamentals he wishes to includes short-term in the development of his squad, these include:
•Looking to develop my core values
•Develop and build on my philosophy of how we play.
•Build a trusting/fun environment.
•Offer constructive developmental feedback
•Training sessions to be challenging and engaging.
•Let the children set the “acceptable certain standards”
•Develop the Children to think and solve problems.
•To develop an “accountability” culture.
The most fundamental thing David took from the qualification was about trusting his players and getting them out of there comfort zones in a fun and challenging environment. He’s keen to ‘use and drill down the four aspects of the FA “four corner” model and let the players express themselves’ whilst also ensuring they’re helping one another and playing in a positive environment.
On whether or not he’d recommend the course to other parent coaches, ‘I think parents owe it to the children to give these kids a complete player experience from that first training session through to match day, after the horrendous last couple of years (Covid) this is their “fun” time’ . He believes football now is their chance to spend times with friends, having a laugh whilst being in an enjoyable learning experience.
‘Happy teams are winning teams!’
And, how is he going to implement what he’s learnt at his own team? He’s hoping to make the children the best they can be in a safe, friendly environment. These courses have really helped. They are a great “networking” session meeting liked minded people and give you so many new ideas or help solve issues you may have had. You are not alone with different challenges!’
We’d like to once again congratulate David on completing the qualification and look forward to seeing it implemented with his team. If you’d like more to know more about the course, you can get in touch with David via email or drop him a DM on Twitter.
