Football Coaching
As things were going well in 2016, we registered two hobby teams in two local football leagues for the season of 2017. NG Inter performed in the 7vs7 league, while HJ Haka entered the 11vs11 league. I was acting, as the head coach for both teams. To be frank here, I had no prior experience as a football coach at that moment. Yet, it is possible to say that my first experience, as a football coach went pretty well. With NG Inter, we managed to win the hobby league. In addition to working with adult teams, I was also coaching three junior teams of the club. I was not particularly good, as I did not have a player background. As a result, I did not have the experience of giving football trainings, which was multipied by my little knowledge of football training drills. In order to learn, I was constantly watching training sessions of other coaches This learning process is pretty common in football coaching: many coaches are learning (possibly "stealung" would be a better word here) by watching training sessions of other coaches, at least at the beginning stages. As a youth coach, I could feel that most of my sessions were turning into unorganized chaos. Children I was coaching were way more active and needed a completely different approach than the hobby adults players. I noticed later that many coaches start their pass by coaching hobby adults groups (where possibly they play themselves), then move to coach children, as youth coaches, and then move towards amateur and professional football. At that moment, I was feeling confident coaching adults hobby players but not giving training sessions for youth players.
Moving to Jyväskylä
It proved to be the big step forward for me straight away. Within the first few months, I have read more articles and books than within the whole Bachelor studies! To be fair, my bachelor degree was purely applied science and, as a result, gave me the knowledge on how to make applied researches. In comparison, the master's degree taught me to conduct academic studies. In simple words, the difference between applied and academic can be explained using analogy with selling coffee. Applied research aims at answering the question: "how to sell more coffee?". On contrast, the general academic study could rather focus on learning "why do people drink coffee?". My Bachelor studies in the university of applied studies were strongly action-based, utilizing the concept of "learning-by-doing". That changed completely when I moved to study at the University of Jyväskylä. However, I believe my master's degree education was complimantory to my earlier very-much practical background. It promoted me to read and read a lot.
