Welcome to the YBFA blog - brought to you by our founder - Shaun Burgess.
Shaun is a Category 1 professional football academy scout and has worked in this capacity for almost 4 years. In that time he has scouted over 100 players with around 20% of those currently signed with the club he works with.
Shaun has an extensive network of players, parents and people in the game. He prides himself on his work with players of all ability - not just academy level players.
In this blog, Shaun will naturally talk about the academy journey as he helps players navigate this. Shaun will also spend a great deal of time chronicling the inspirational stories of other players who aren’t at academies but have perhaps made it into their school team/district or other stories of progression. Shaun will also cover stories around others whose main benefits may have been “off the field” but are still equally significant.
All views and information shared within this blog are the views of Shaun himself and should not be considered the views of any organisation/s that Shaun is associated with.
Practise makes permanent / Proud Dad
In March 2023, whilst holidaying in the Caribbean celebrating a landmark birthday for myself, I unfortunately lost my father, aged 85 due to sudden ill health.
2023 has felt like the hardest year of my life for a few reasons - none greater than the loss of my father, Pedro Da Costa Burgess.
My dad was the first person to ever take me to play football - over Wanstead Flats aged 5 or 6. Often, on a Sunday afternoon (after Mum had “dragged” myself and my brothers to church) Dad & I would ride our bikes along Cann Hall Road taking the short journey to this landmark footballing location that only Hackney Marshes can eclipse for its local reputation as a grassroots footballing hub.
We would practise shooting, dribbling (which I loved) and passing. Even though this was over 30 yrs ago now I still vividly recall the way Dad would improvise and instead of cones he would literally have me weaving in and out of orange peels (in a slalom) as I practised my close control of the football - my father was extremely resourceful!
I am certain that my dad’s early intervention, time and efforts spent doing this with me are what made me a half-decent schoolboy player and also ignited my love for coaching - I know he was proud of me and it fills me with fond memories to think that before he passed away he was able to see me working “full time” in the beautiful game that I love.
Dad wasn’t just my first football coach; he also taught me how to play his “first love” which was the steelpan. The national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago - the Motherland! I have had experiences through playing “pan” that would blow some people’s minds - I have met members of the royal family, MPs, loads of random famous people and I once recall meeting Tottenham legend Garth Crooks at some sort of Afro-Caribbean event when I would have still been of primary school ages.
Dad was keen to let Garth know that besides being something of a child steelpan prodigy I was a big Arsenal fan (very awkward! Thanks Dad lol) and Garth didn’t appear to hold this against me much!! He gave me one simple bit of advice that has stuck with me all my life - that practise makes permanent.
The more commonly used one-liner is that practise makes perfect, but any keen golfer will tell you (I’m certainly not one) that if your swinging technique is poor, no amount of practise (of said poor technique) will make you “perfect” - whatever perfect is, which is a whole ‘nother story in itself! It will only make your poor technique permanent. Myself and my dad instantly took this line that Garth had delivered and ran with it. I still use and love it to this day.
This philosophy in many ways underpins my approach to coaching at YBFA. I began football coaching 5 years ago with a vision and a plan.
There have been some operational changes to the business over the years - some were my wish, others were slightly more forced (this is a future blog in itself trust me!!) but it’s safe to say that one thing I have always believed in is that players will get out, what they put in. Everything I do I do with intensity, and the number one way to ensure success in anything you do is to plan, plan and plan some more!
The benefits of robust and meticulous planning are most likely why in the corporate world they have so many meetings! I used to joke in one of my former corporate 9-5 roles that my employer at the time had a culture of arranging a “meeting about a meeting”! It used to drive me round the bend, however as I have grown older/wiser/greyer I have seen the benefits.
In the past 5 years since creating YBFA I have had the pleasure of seeing so many talented young players. Some of the best in their age group around the country. Many of these players attend Category 1 football academies and have an average of 6-8 hours “contact time” per week - with highly qualified and experienced coaches who have decades of experience.
When players who aren’t in the academy system aspire to be as good as the players who are - they need to have a plan to achieve this. Training once or twice a week is not going to bridge the gap with these players who arguably are already ahead of them relatively speaking and are continuing to improve week-on-week. You really do get out what you put in.
This is why we train 4x a week at YBFA. All sessions are a minimum of 1.5hrs in duration and the sessions are intense and thoroughly planned. We are intentional with our approach to improving all attendees.
Too often I meet parents who want the results but aren’t willing to put in the work required. I often say that whilst I think of myself as a highly capable coach, I am not a magician! Players who attend YBFA and practise the most, will make the most (permanent &) noticeable improvements. It really isn’t Rocket Science!
I will continue to do my utmost to improve the players and coaches around me. This is the very least I can do and the thought of knowing that Dad is looking on with pride is my motivation in testing times.
RIP “Popz” - I miss you every single day.
Written by Shaun Burgess, December 2023