In recent weeks I've been contemplating whether I want to kick start some more professional football coaching in myself. Certainly have an interest in the field. Just wanted to see if anyone has any experience in this regard? I've done the bit part state league coaching here in Canberra but it's all pretty casual.

I'm talking more about getting into the NPL/WNPL system (juniors too) or upper State League coaching.

Where should one start? I've been looking at the FFA/AFC C Licence and was wondering if that would be a good start? Or should I look at one of the lesser certificates first? Has anyone else had some experience with this and willing to offer some insight? Online research doesn't really amount to much tbh.

go for C straight away 

Agree, if you have already done some coaching and plan on trying to get into NPL, go straight for the C.

Only thing to consider with C though is whether you do youth or senior, both are recognised for youth coaching, but senior is required if you plan on kicking on and doing a B. Officially you will need to do the senior component of C prior to starting B, but there is no assessment.

FFA coaching
criteria for NPL are changing and B will be required for 15YO+ in the next couple of years so need to take that into account.

Thanks for that mate.

I'm interested in coaching younger, say NPL 13s and above at the moment, however would be open to getting into Seniors down the track. So in that case probably best to do the Senior course, as that allows for either level?

Double check with Football ACT, but should be the case there as well. Also for senior C, the focus is more on game training, which is better if you are thinking 13's and up. Junior C focuses a lot more on SAP, which is interesting but not as useful for 13's and up.

Having done the C  Licence, we learnt an immense amount about tactics, structure, football analysis, four main moments, four phase training ground practices, body position, positional play in build ups, plus  formulating training ground sessions using a proforma based on identifying weaknesses from the weekly  game played.

However, four of us, who were going to coach elite youth shortly after, were encouraged by the state Tech Dir to do a specialist rep coaches short technique course   after the C Licence.

It really focused our thinking on dividing technique into four parts:

*First touch.

*Striking the ball - shooting, heading, passing.

*Running With The Ball.

*1v1 defensive and attacking skills.

One can probably also add handling  speed - the time taken to receive the ball and pass it on.

I think most of this content was passed over to the Junior Licence, or something like Game or Match Training Certificate.

Many of the other C Licence coaches were often doing some of the same old technical exercises they used to do pre C Licence with senior NPL teams. Conversely, we felt like we received some integral, supplementary  info for technique development, that should have been mandatory for the others.

Also, there were some very good training ground exercises placed on this Performance section from academies at KNVB, Ajax, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSV, Man U and  a Brazilian club that I found invaluable for technique acquisition too. Thais  doesn't help you, but Dirk Van Adidas put up  something from a R Brown.

In short do the Junior Licence, or whatever it is called now, identifying the four technical  facets of football. It only took  2days or so too.

Then do a C Licence. It takes about 16 days. You can either do it successively, or, do it 2 days every weekend. I think now they might have a module where you can do it one night a week for 32 weeks as well.

I did too much of this too late in life.

Good luck!