FA Coaching Badges

So I was wondering - how do you gain FA coaching badges? I was thinking this because often people presume that coaches within football are just undeserving ex football players with not much knowledge in the training and tactics department.

Can anyone enter into them and if so what sort of work does trying to gain a basic level 1 coaching badge contain? Has anyone on here ever taken up the option to take up coaching badges?

So I was wondering - how do you gain FA coaching badges? I was thinking this because often people presume that coaches within football are just undeserving ex football players with not much knowledge in the training and tactics department.

Can anyone enter into them and if so what sort of work does trying to gain a basic level 1 coaching badge contain? Has anyone on here ever taken up the option to take up coaching badges?

My son's qualified upto Under 16's.  Easiest way to get started is with your local junior team/club, or just contact the local FA.  Lancashire FA if your in Merseyside, Lancahsire or Greater Manchester.

My son's qualified upto Under 16's.  Easiest way to get started is with your local junior team/club, or just contact the local FA.  Lancashire FA if your in Merseyside, Lancahsire or Greater Manchester.

So the FA offer courses I presume? Does it have entry requirements?

This is something I'd love to do. I'd need to move to England first though. Anyone want to offer me a job?

Danny is a professional coach, haven't seen him on the forum for a while though. He could help.

So the FA offer courses I presume? Does it have entry requirements?

No entry requirements mate apart from a basic knowledge of the game and being relatively fit.  Only thing you will need eventually is a CRB check due to working with kids.

Yeah it's the FA that run the courses but it's not like college.  They really just cover the admin side.

My son started doing his badges on his Sports Science course at college but he's carried on doing them since he finished his course even though he doesn't work in Sports.

So I was wondering - how do you gain FA coaching badges? I was thinking this because often people presume that coaches within football are just undeserving ex football players with not much knowledge in the training and tactics department.

Can anyone enter into them and if so what sort of work does trying to gain a basic level 1 coaching badge contain? Has anyone on here ever taken up the option to take up coaching badges?

One of my mates took them at Liverpool's Academy and got a job on the training staff working with U-12 to U-14's.

Thought I'd dig up this thread as after the New Year I will be going on a course to hopefully obtain a Level 1 coaching badge. It's something I've wanted to do for a number of years but have never had an in and never knew where to start but thankfully I got that a couple of months ago. I'm currently coaching on Tuesday nights (with the under-8's) and Saturday mornings (a soccer school). The club is great, they've been very popular with people in the area for a long time and certain players have gone on to get scouted for teams like Burnley, Blackburn, both Manchester teams & Bolton.

What I like about this club is that for every coach they send on the course, they pay half of the fee so instead of £160 it's £80. Our coaching system in the UK would be so much better if they reduced the price of the courses. In Germany and Spain it's a fraction of the price at every level.

Anybody been on one of the courses that could give me some tips or inside info? The guy who is the head of coaching has said he's going to put on some sessions for me to lead before the time comes so hopefully that helps.

Good luck mcarz, hope it all goes well for you and look forward to you coaching at melwood in the future 

Thought I'd dig up this thread as after the New Year I will be going on a course to hopefully obtain a Level 1 coaching badge. It's something I've wanted to do for a number of years but have never had an in and never knew where to start but thankfully I got that a couple of months ago. I'm currently coaching on Tuesday nights (with the under-8's) and Saturday mornings (a soccer school). The club is great, they've been very popular with people in the area for a long time and certain players have gone on to get scouted for teams like Burnley, Blackburn, both Manchester teams & Bolton.

What I like about this club is that for every coach they send on the course, they pay half of the fee so instead of £160 it's £80. Our coaching system in the UK would be so much better if they reduced the price of the courses. In Germany and Spain it's a fraction of the price at every level.

Anybody been on one of the courses that could give me some tips or inside info? The guy who is the head of coaching has said he's going to put on some sessions for me to lead before the time comes so hopefully that helps.

My son's qualified to coach upto u18s I think mate but I've no idea on the format.  He did his through
College as part of his Sports Science Btec course and it's over 10 years since he did it so any info he gave me probably wouldn't be relevant now.

Like most educational courses it'll probably be a mixture of planning each session and then executing the plan on a practical level, with follow up reports and feedback.

Do you know who is delivering the course?  You might be able to do some research on them and also what the success rate is from where the course is being delivered.  The content of the course could vary considerably from place to place, a bit like University courses vary for the same Degree.

Good luck with it anyway, I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience and who knows where it might lead 

Good luck mcarz, hope it all goes well for you and look forward to you coaching at melwood in the future 

I bloody wish . My old manager from when I was 16 actually used to be a scout and coach for Liverpool at Kirkby with the kids. He's now at Man City.

I bloody wish . My old manager from when I was 16 actually used to be a scout and coach for Liverpool at Kirkby with the kids. He's now at Man City.

Hey never say never mate.  Get your networking head on and you never know 

My son's qualified to coach upto u18s I think mate but I've no idea on the format.  He did his through
College as part of his Sports Science Btec course and it's over 10 years since he did it so any info he gave me probably wouldn't be relevant now.

Like most educational courses it'll probably be a mixture of planning each session and then executing the plan on a practical level, with follow up reports and feedback.

Do you know who is delivering the course?  You might be able to do some research on them and also what the success rate is from where the course is being delivered.  The content of the course could vary considerably from place to place, a bit like University courses vary for the same Degree.

Good luck with it anyway, I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience and who knows where it might lead 

Congrats to him!

As of right all I know is that it'll be in one of two neighbouring towns but have no idea who leads the course or anything. I'm sure I'll be told that in due course. Whoever it is must have a decent success record as there's a ton of coaches currently at the club from under 7's all the way up to open age teams and they've all been on this type of course. For the past month or so I've just been cataloging different routines and drills for areas like warming up, passing, shooting etc. and then how each one can progress and stuff. I'm just about to start fitting things into a specific session which I'm hoping will give me some sort of advantage.

I remember when I was 15 and I went on a referee's course during the Easter holidays. If it's anything like that then I think I'll love it. Been football mad since I was 6 .

Congrats to him!

As of right all I know is that it'll be in one of two neighbouring towns but have no idea who leads the course or anything. I'm sure I'll be told that in due course. Whoever it is must have a decent success record as there's a ton of coaches currently at the club from under 7's all the way up to open age teams and they've all been on this type of course. For the past month or so I've just been cataloging different routines and drills for areas like warming up, passing, shooting etc. and then how each one can progress and stuff. I'm just about to start fitting things into a specific session which I'm hoping will give me some sort of advantage.

I remember when I was 15 and I went on a referee's course during the Easter holidays. If it's anything like that then I think I'll love it. Been football mad since I was 6 .

He never used it to his advantage though mate, just coached the kids from his local team that he played for.  He's also a qualified cricket coach too and again never used that other for his own local team.

Sounds like you've got things sussed mate, your enthusiasm and determination will carry you through the tough bits, especially if you've got an end goal to target, like Melwood 

He never used it to his advantage though mate, just coached the kids from his local team that he played for.  He's also a qualified cricket coach too and again never used that other for his own local team.

Sounds like you've got things sussed mate, your enthusiasm and determination will carry you through the tough bits, especially if you've got an end goal to target, like Melwood 

That's a shame. I've always been jealous of a keeper I used to play with when I was 16. He was terrible so I have no idea how he got scouted for Blackburn and Blackpool but he's been the keeper coach for the Liverpool ladies team for about 4 years. Always see him looking gormless on TV when they play .

That's a shame. I've always been jealous of a keeper I used to play with when I was 16. He was terrible so I have no idea how he got scouted for Blackburn and Blackpool but he's been the keeper coach for the Liverpool ladies team for about 4 years. Always see him looking gormless on TV when they play .

Yep that's why I said, get your networking head on mate.  Anybody of consequence, no matter how insignificant they may appear, could be a way in somewhere in the future.

When I think back to my days as local Club secretary, the amount of contacts within the game I had was unbelievable and I wished I'd made more use of it looking back.  If I'd kept at it I could have been some female bigwig at the FA by now, seeing as how the "female" bit has been pushed in the last decade or two. 

Back then I was still a novelty 

Good luck mcarz! There is no reason why you can't get to the highest level if you give it your all.

Thanks for the advice and support guys!

Yep that's why I said, get your networking head on mate.  Anybody of consequence, no matter how insignificant they may appear, could be a way in somewhere in the future.

When I think back to my days as local Club secretary, the amount of contacts within the game I had was unbelievable and I wished I'd made more use of it looking back.  If I'd kept at it I could have been some female bigwig at the FA by now, seeing as how the "female" bit has been pushed in the last decade or two. 

Back then I was still a novelty 

Close escape then, doubt you'd want any association with the FA these days

Close escape then, doubt you'd want any association with the FA these days

This is true mate and I didn't want to then either.  I had my eye on bigger fish like John Smiths and/or Peter Robinsons job   

I wish there had been degree courses, like there is now, specifically for working in football, I'd definitely have followed that path.

Thought I'd dig up this thread as after the New Year I will be going on a course to hopefully obtain a Level 1 coaching badge. It's something I've wanted to do for a number of years but have never had an in and never knew where to start but thankfully I got that a couple of months ago. I'm currently coaching on Tuesday nights (with the under-8's) and Saturday mornings (a soccer school). The club is great, they've been very popular with people in the area for a long time and certain players have gone on to get scouted for teams like Burnley, Blackburn, both Manchester teams & Bolton.

What I like about this club is that for every coach they send on the course, they pay half of the fee so instead of £160 it's £80. Our coaching system in the UK would be so much better if they reduced the price of the courses. In Germany and Spain it's a fraction of the price at every level.

Anybody been on one of the courses that could give me some tips or inside info? The guy who is the head of coaching has said he's going to put on some sessions for me to lead before the time comes so hopefully that helps.

Just enjoy it. The more fresh, enthusiastic coaches the better.

I've got B licence in Scotland but have stepped back in last year.......politics and slef interest abounds I was the only coach qualified in our team to coach at that level / league but was outvoted by 3 others........2 of which have done virtually nothing

Take a notepad - you don't need to go all Pep / Jose but I just found it easier to jot down little translations or notes to myself explaining what drills were to me. I then overlay that on the material they provide and it tends to mean I get and can adapt it quicker.

Good on ya man 

Don't show them the Footy Manager threads and you'll be fine, mate.



Good luck and all the best!

Don't show them the Footy Manager threads and you'll be fine, mate.



Good luck and all the best!

I took Huddersfield from League One to Champions League, they definitely need to know about that!

The Cheshire FA are a pain in the arse. They sent emails out 2 weeks ago to everybody on my course about signing up to the FA website and completing some of the pre-course module tasks but the info they tell you to sign in with doesn't work. I got there today for the first day of the course, half the room hadn't been able to get on the site and the other half could only do the first task as the rest weren't opening.

The funny thing is, they had 2 people sending out similar emails to everybody which gave completely different instructions.

One thing it opened my eyes to was how much some coaches just wing it when they turn up rather than have it planned out like we were shown today . All in all it's been a good day.