'First and foremost it is important to keep on learning and educating yourself at all times' says Mark Bowen!
What has Daley Thompson got to do with a UEFA Pro Licence Course? His mentor and coach, Frank Dick, is just one of the guest speakers at the University of Warwick and he certainly made a lasting impression on Mark Bowen.
The former Wales and Birmingham City coach has just completed his second and final year of the UEFA Pro Licence and insists that football can continue to learn from other sports.
Dick was probably one of the most revered coaches of his time, as he helped Thompson to three Olympic Gold medals in probably the most punishing of all disciplines - the Decathlon. It isn't only athletes who have benefited from his eye for detail too as Bowen revealed.
"Probably the most enjoyable part of the course was listening to the variety of different speakers who imparted their knowledge on us," said Bowen "Frank Dick in particular made a favourable impression on me. He has been the top man in British athletics for many years and coached a legend like Daley Thompson.
"He had some great ideas and he has now branched out into other sports and coached sportsmen such as Boris Becker, and is now helping out Justin Rose. "We had a two hour Q & A session with him, which was very enlightening."
Workshops such as these are just one of the reasons why Bowen believes attending courses such as this is crucial to your ongoing development.
He may have played a big part in guiding Birmingham City to tenth in the Premiership last season, but Bowen knows that it would be ostrich-like to ignore the opportunities coaching courses present. "First and foremost it is important to keep on learning and educating yourself at all times," he added.
"Secondly, these courses are fantastic for bouncing ideas off other managers and coaches and pooling all your resources. You can pick the brains of other coaches and you will often pick up some good ideas. Everybody needs to undertake courses like this and you must have your head buried in the sand if you don't think you can learn any new ideas."
However, unlike it's predecessors this course is more classroom based and is more a test of the mind than of the body. Any technophobes will have their work cut out, as everything is set up with the purpose of trying to make each coach more efficient.
Time-management and utilising your resources to the full area all stock ingredients of this course and helps turn you into a modern-day coach in more ways than one.
"The C, B and A courses are primarily practically based with a lot of work on the training ground," says Mark. " "However, the Pro-Licence is different as it is based on the Internet and the modules are done on that basis. It is useful though as it is a far quicker of conducting your business.
"It helps you learn a lot of other aspects more in depth such as fitness and finance too."
