Post by Les on May 4, 2019 9:34:36 GMT
www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/jack-ross-coach-licence-experience-16219009
Jack Ross completes coach's Pro Licence course, but nothing replaces hands-on experience
Jack Ross completed the UEFA pro licence course earlier this year, but believes no course can compare to actual hands-on experience in management
Ipsa scientia potestas est.
More commonly known as Sir Francis Bacon's quote: "knowledge itself is power".
It's something Sunderland manager Jack Ross - always eager to learn and develop his own knowledge and skills - knows only too well.
While guiding Sunderland through a strenuous League One campaign, which included a run to the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley, Ross also spent time with his head in books revising and completing courses to earn his UEFA pro coach's licence - the highest badge that can be earned.
A two-year course, the Scot began it while still in charge at St Mirren and completed it in January.
But did the Black Cats boss find it useful, or was it more just a box-ticking exercise?
"I finished it a while ago but they did the graduation ceremony where they invite those who have completed the course," Ross said of the course. "I completed it in December/January.
“It’s the best part of an 18-month, two-year course, so the ones that are on it at the moment came up and they gave me some CPD as well. I sat for a few hours.
“My thoughts are that the course has probably evolved quite a lot from when it was first born. It was broadened out to coaches and now there’s a real variation in who is involved. On my course, for example, there was an analyst involved – a guy, Kevin Murphy, who is now at Hearts but was the head of Man City’s ladies junior academy. There’s a real mix so the breadth of content on the course needs to be wider.
“There are bits of the course that will fit for different people. The bits that were of more benefit for me were when managers came in to speak and you hear a bit about their experiences.
“But if you can take one small thing from it, I think it’s worthwhile. The truth is it’s not an easy qualification to get in terms of the work involved in it and if you’re working at the same time, it’s not easy.
"It’s definitely a course that’s a lot easier if you’re not a manager when you’re doing it. You have to produce your own book at the end."
Gaining his pro licence makes Ross as qualified, on paper, as he'll ever be to manage Sunderland, or any club for that matter.
That said, for Ross, true knowledge is gained through the hands-on experience of doing the job day-to-day, and he admits he's certainly learned plenty about himself, and about football management in just shy of 12 months on Wearside.
In particular, it's the increased scrutiny that Ross has faced at Sunderland - more than anything he's ever experienced elsewhere - which he has had to learn to deal with. Something that comes with managing a club with support as sizeable and passionate as Sunderland's.
That scrutiny has increased in recent weeks with Sunderland missing out on automatic promotion and instead needing to go through the play-offs if they are to achieve their goal of an immediate return to the Championship.
Despite that, Ross is confident in the work he is doing on Wearside and his methods, while also appreciating that he is always learning from new experiences and facing up to new challenges that come his way.
“I’ve felt as if I’ve learned all the time, which I enjoy," he said.
“A lot of things haven’t surprised me but there’s been elements that have. I suppose the biggest thing is if I was to leave this job tomorrow and hand the baton over to someone else I would say the scrutiny of everything you do is probably the biggest thing, and the dissection of every decision you make. Every analysis is done in hindsight.
“I know that’s the same for every manager but the intensity is so great here. That’s a bit different.
“You talk about the scrutiny people like Pep Guardiola and the managers in Glasgow are under, where everything you do is under the microscope but it’s a bit like that here!
“People spoke to me about working in this part of the world and it’s very much like that. That’s replicated in some other footballing cities and areas but not them all, and it’s not always a reflection of the level they’re playing at. I’m sure there’s clubs at a higher level than we are at the moment get less scrutiny.
“It’s given me a clearer insight into the pressures the very top managers are under because it’s like that here. I’ve said that to people when they've asked me about the job. It’s been great for me to prove to myself I can handle it, but it’s been demanding, there’s no doubt about that.
"I think you have to be comfortable in your own skin and resilient enough to deal with that in a number of different ways because every manager who works at a club where there’s an intensity to the scrutiny will say it can be draining at times as well, but the truth is you have to find the energy every single day to come into work and be the person that drives everything forward.
“I believed I could do that, but you don’t know until you’re in that position. Will I ever have a more challenging job than this? I don’t know. You just never know because it’s probably right up there and I think all the managers who have sat in this chair, albeit some in different leagues, would probably say the same."
Jack Ross completes coach's Pro Licence course, but nothing replaces hands-on experience
Jack Ross completed the UEFA pro licence course earlier this year, but believes no course can compare to actual hands-on experience in management
Ipsa scientia potestas est.
More commonly known as Sir Francis Bacon's quote: "knowledge itself is power".
It's something Sunderland manager Jack Ross - always eager to learn and develop his own knowledge and skills - knows only too well.
While guiding Sunderland through a strenuous League One campaign, which included a run to the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley, Ross also spent time with his head in books revising and completing courses to earn his UEFA pro coach's licence - the highest badge that can be earned.
A two-year course, the Scot began it while still in charge at St Mirren and completed it in January.
But did the Black Cats boss find it useful, or was it more just a box-ticking exercise?
"I finished it a while ago but they did the graduation ceremony where they invite those who have completed the course," Ross said of the course. "I completed it in December/January.
“It’s the best part of an 18-month, two-year course, so the ones that are on it at the moment came up and they gave me some CPD as well. I sat for a few hours.
“My thoughts are that the course has probably evolved quite a lot from when it was first born. It was broadened out to coaches and now there’s a real variation in who is involved. On my course, for example, there was an analyst involved – a guy, Kevin Murphy, who is now at Hearts but was the head of Man City’s ladies junior academy. There’s a real mix so the breadth of content on the course needs to be wider.
“There are bits of the course that will fit for different people. The bits that were of more benefit for me were when managers came in to speak and you hear a bit about their experiences.
“But if you can take one small thing from it, I think it’s worthwhile. The truth is it’s not an easy qualification to get in terms of the work involved in it and if you’re working at the same time, it’s not easy.
"It’s definitely a course that’s a lot easier if you’re not a manager when you’re doing it. You have to produce your own book at the end."
Gaining his pro licence makes Ross as qualified, on paper, as he'll ever be to manage Sunderland, or any club for that matter.
That said, for Ross, true knowledge is gained through the hands-on experience of doing the job day-to-day, and he admits he's certainly learned plenty about himself, and about football management in just shy of 12 months on Wearside.
In particular, it's the increased scrutiny that Ross has faced at Sunderland - more than anything he's ever experienced elsewhere - which he has had to learn to deal with. Something that comes with managing a club with support as sizeable and passionate as Sunderland's.
That scrutiny has increased in recent weeks with Sunderland missing out on automatic promotion and instead needing to go through the play-offs if they are to achieve their goal of an immediate return to the Championship.
Despite that, Ross is confident in the work he is doing on Wearside and his methods, while also appreciating that he is always learning from new experiences and facing up to new challenges that come his way.
“I’ve felt as if I’ve learned all the time, which I enjoy," he said.
“A lot of things haven’t surprised me but there’s been elements that have. I suppose the biggest thing is if I was to leave this job tomorrow and hand the baton over to someone else I would say the scrutiny of everything you do is probably the biggest thing, and the dissection of every decision you make. Every analysis is done in hindsight.
“I know that’s the same for every manager but the intensity is so great here. That’s a bit different.
“You talk about the scrutiny people like Pep Guardiola and the managers in Glasgow are under, where everything you do is under the microscope but it’s a bit like that here!
“People spoke to me about working in this part of the world and it’s very much like that. That’s replicated in some other footballing cities and areas but not them all, and it’s not always a reflection of the level they’re playing at. I’m sure there’s clubs at a higher level than we are at the moment get less scrutiny.
“It’s given me a clearer insight into the pressures the very top managers are under because it’s like that here. I’ve said that to people when they've asked me about the job. It’s been great for me to prove to myself I can handle it, but it’s been demanding, there’s no doubt about that.
"I think you have to be comfortable in your own skin and resilient enough to deal with that in a number of different ways because every manager who works at a club where there’s an intensity to the scrutiny will say it can be draining at times as well, but the truth is you have to find the energy every single day to come into work and be the person that drives everything forward.
“I believed I could do that, but you don’t know until you’re in that position. Will I ever have a more challenging job than this? I don’t know. You just never know because it’s probably right up there and I think all the managers who have sat in this chair, albeit some in different leagues, would probably say the same."
