Why learning never stops for driven Dan

“Twitter is an absolute minefield, but it can be filled with gold as well. The same goes for Google, Netflix, Amazon Prime - there’s so many different platforms for you to delve into and do your own research.

"At the moment, I’m looking at the psyche of our athletes. There are so many programmes and books that just look at that one idea.

"Obviously, they’re not always going to be giving you the answers, but they help paint a picture of what can happen, what can be good, what can be bad. 

“For me, in a nutshell - do your own research as best you can, and focus on one thing at a time rather than trying to try to do too much in a small space of time.”

SCW: In England, the FA promotes a ’plan, do, review’ model. How important is reviewing to you? How do you do it?

DB: "Three or four years ago, reviewing was probably a poor part of my arsenal.

"It wasn’t until my fiancée at the time, now wife, said to me, ’As a paramedic, we’ve got to do a review after every critical incident’. She shared some of her models of review with me.

"It hit home how important it was to them. If it’s that important to those who are saving lives, maybe I could at least give it a go. Over the last couple of years, it has become quite important to me.

"I’ll leave it a day or so to review it. You don’t want to go with your immediate feelings and emotions of a session - if it’s gone well, or gone badly, you’re always going to review it to the bias of that very moment. 

“A day or so later, I’ll sit down, get my book out, line it up next to my session, and review each part - how did I do this? Did that go alright? What were the players like?

"I try to be as honest as possible. If you can be honest and say there was a period where players didn’t look that engaged, or there were questions, or they didn’t quite understand it, that’s something to work on.

“Something I’ve had to work on is clearly being able to explain myself and my sessions, or explain a coaching point so everyone understands.

"It’s making sure you cover all aspects, whether visual or verbal. I’m a visual learner, so I need to see it taking place. I make sure I always try and cover at least two of the different ways [things] can be learned."

SCW: Does being really honest with yourself about your coaching get easier the more you coach?

DB: “I’d say you get even more critical of yourself as you go on. So I wouldn’t say it gets easier, in the sense that you become better - I’d say it gets easier in the sense that you’re happy to criticise yourself more, whether that makes sense or not.

"Over the last couple of years, reviewing has become quite important to me..."

"I find myself highly critical and I always have been. But there were periods at the start when I’d think, ’it was definitely them, they didn’t understand me, it couldn’t have been my fault’. Or, ’my session was great, I’ve done it with another team before, so why didn’t this team do it as well?’.

“With each year, with each experience, with new people, and new scenarios, you’re going to learn something each time.

"So it’s [about] taking a step back and going, ’you know what, maybe it wasn’t as good. Maybe I can do this a little bit better’. 

"It becomes easier to criticise yourself and take that on board and not be stubborn to little changes or little bits of feedback."

SCW: Where do you hope all this investment and learning takes you?

DB: “My end goal is to work in professional football full-time, whether it’s women’s, men’s, boys or girls.

“I’m waiting to hear back to see if I’ve got on my Uefa A licence. I know it’s a very competitive field to get onto these courses. 

"It’s just [a case of] being patient, continuing the learning, and hopefully, further down the line, it will be a professional football role of some sort."