by Adam Clark | Dec 19, 2022 | Coaching Blog
It’s been a long while, since I’ve written a blog for the website, so I thought it would be good to update everyone on the last few months.
Just after my last post in August, I was appointed first team manager of Alresford Town, who ply their trade in the Wessex Premier League (Step 5 of the non-league pyramid). During my short tenure, time was minimal, so I had to prioritise other things.
While I was only in the position for 3 months before resigning, I took a huge amount of learnings that I previously hadn’t experienced. These range from match day management, to new external factors that caused me challenges.
In the new year, I’ll be kicking off my blog posts again, with a number of the key areas that I felt were big learning experiences. I hadn’t previously had this type of exposure with these situations, so it will only make me better in the long run.
Hopefully, by reading these entries you won’t make some of the mistakes that I did and you may be a little bit more prepared, for what could come your way in football management.
The first post will be about taking over a job in season, opposed to one, in pre-season.
by Adam Clark | Dec 14, 2022 | News
We’ve reached the end of another year, so it’s now time to thank those that have made it an extremely successful one. We can’t believe how fast the year has gone and we’re now planning to make 2023, the biggest and best yet. As most will know, Park to Pro is managed by 1 person, but around the business there are plenty of people who contribute, in making it what it is today.
To all of our providers, who have been great support and allowed us to use their facilities, to bring our projects to life this year. These are;
St.Georges School in Ascot, for hosting our football courses during the school breaks.
Charters Leisure Centre in Sunningdale, for hosting our training centre, on a weekly basis.
St.Francis School in Ascot, for allowing us to manage the after school sports programme, the lunchtime football club and the hosts of our coach CPD events.
In the background of Park to Pro, we regularly have contact with some excellent companies, who are all managed by professional and hardworking individuals. Without these people, we wouldn’t be able to run a successful programme.
Our website is managed by Reload Ltd and an individual called Mark, who regularly updates the site with our requests and ensures that it looks the best around.
For all of our events and advertising, we’re blessed to have an individual who takes so much pride and joy in his work. Nelson Vasconcelos, has provided us with some exceptional artwork this year, which we’re hugely grateful for.
All of our equipment needs are met by Bolam Premier Sportswear (Kevin & Tricia) and although they are based up north, we are never left disappointed with their communication and delivery of items.
During the summer months we had a local sponsor in VRT, who generously supplied the children with many free gifts. On our summer football retro weeks, all participants received a free t-shirt and USB stick with 10 famous games. Without their generosity, this wouldn’t have been possible, so a big thank you from us.
Our players and parents have been hugely supportive of our projects this year, so without this, we wouldn’t have grown as much as we have. Feedback is extremely vital when you’re evolving and we’ve been fortunate enough to have plenty of it. Thank you to those that we regularly speak to and provide objective feedback, as this allows our football courses and training centre to excel. To date, we haven’t seen any providers giving children as much as we do from a football perspective, with access to guests, prizes and content, making this environment a memorable one.
As well as providing our own services, we assist a number of local clubs in the community. There is some fantastic work being done at FC Bracknell and we’re delighted to be involved. On a weekly basis, we work with the youngest age groups in the clubs soccer school, as well as the girls only session, Wildcats. With the support of the club chairman, we also provide weekly mentoring to coaches who need it and a support network, focusing on a number of key areas within youth football. A big thanks to Neil Graham, Marie Cobb and all the volunteers at the club.
Most recently, we’ve just started a partnership with the Berks County Bulls, where again we’ll be providing coaching to the upcoming generation of football player, as well as assistance to the coaching team. A big welcome and thanks so far to, Eugene O’Donnell and Michael Rammell.
We take pride in our service and always strive to raise the bar. The staff at Park to Pro have a huge passion for football and will always give everything they can, to the children involved. Thanking Aiden, Aaron, Gary, Josh, Jon and Joe for your hard work this year, it’s greatly appreciated.
Lastly, I’d like to thank my family for supporting me behind the scenes and trusting this journey.
In 2023, there will be plenty to look forward to. We have more online content being formulated as we speak and plans to improve our ever so popular, football courses. If you want to take your game to the next level, whether that’s as a player, club or a coach, we’d love to hear from you.
Have a great Christmas and we wish you all the very best for 2023!!
by Adam Clark | Oct 26, 2022 | News
From a very wet morning to a warm afternoon, todays weather tried to cause us problems! We managed to get outside first thing and got a number of warm up games underway. This then led into small wave practices and game play, before the rain interrupted us.
After our small interval we headed back outside, to host another Premier League knock out competition which involved QPR, Norwich and Stoke!
During our break we looked at the all time, top ten goalscorer’s in the Premier League since 2010 and there were a couple of surprises in that list. We also explored some of the best records, from clean sheets to appearances.
This theme really has generated a lot of interest with the children and some displaying some excellent knowledge!
Tomorrow our focus moves up to the current season and some of the biggest stars/flops that have taken part in the league since it begun!
by Adam Clark | Oct 25, 2022 | News
Onto the 2nd day of fun, as we stepped into the 2000 era and a firm focus on the Arsenal invincible’s. We looked at how successful the squad was and which players were most frequent in the starting 11.
Elsewhere, there were two knock out tournaments featuring the following teams; Fulham, Everton, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton, Portsmouth and Blackburn, who all played a part in the premier league history within this era.
Our Match Attax swap shop took off and was hugely successful with an abundance of lists ready for trading. There were some big exchanges and plenty crossed off the ‘need’ pile, which is great news for our budding collectors.
Tomorrow, we move forward in our quest for Premier League history and a visit to 2010 – 2019. There will also be a focus on the greatest teams, that have graced the last 30 years.
by Adam Clark | Oct 24, 2022 | News
Today, saw the start of our Premier League Retro Week and we got off to a great start. The focus was on the 90’s and when the premier league started, along with some of the greatest winners of the competition.
There were some all time greats discussed, like Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham and Robbie Fowler. Along with some disastrous points totals as well as league form. One of the fun activities that got everyone involved was to guess the kit. This was provided by one of the players and focused on the 1997-98 season.
During the afternoon we had our Match Attax swap shop, speed gun competition and we even had time to relive some old fixtures, such as Wimbledon vs QPR!
We’re looking forward to more tomorrow and will update then!
