When you have 20 10-year-olds to control, it is a sight easier if they want to do what they are told. Being well organised also helps you to retain their concentration and considerable emphasis was placed on that aspect.As the weeks went by we graduated to small-sided games. Some were there with a view to making a career from coaching, others to improve their own game, the game of the team they manage or simply to make sense of the game they write about.On the first session we concentrated on basic skills; turning, trapping, heading, passing. The sort of things you should have been taught at school but were not because all the kids ever wanted to do was play, not learn.They still do, which was why Arthur was constantly encouraging us to make it fun, to enjoy it, to pump some life into what we were doing. All five parts must be passed.My colleagues were a disparate group ranging from 18 to late thirties in age and from accountant and hairdresser to student and journalist in occupation All were male.

On alternate Sundays the students are taught techniques and then demonstrate how they would coach them. Assessment is in five parts: the three practical coaching demonstrations, a written paper on coaching theory and an examination on the Laws of the Game. Courses vary, but are at least 26 hours and cost between £40 and £80. This one, through the Surrey FA, cost £55 and consisted of six successive six-hour Sunday sessions and a few hours' weekly written homework.A reasonable level of fitness and technical proficiency are required.

Did you know that 79 per cent of goals are preceded by moves of four passes or fewer; that long forward passes are an element of 27 per cent of goals; and 64 per cent of goals are scored through headers? No? You probably would not care either, except that these statistics helped persuade the last England manager to adopt some of his most criticised policies.So, armed with a pair of boots, enough figures to pass the maths GCSE, and some trepidation, I went to the NatWest sports ground in Norbury to learn to be a coach. He is widely regarded as the high priest of long-ball football and the popular belief is that coaches are taught direct play to the exclusion of all else.That suspicion is strengthened when you buy the course books, The Winning Formula and Soccer Skills and Tactics, which are written by Hughes The latter is obsessed with statistics. The FA's coaching `Godfather', Charles Hughes, is not given to publicity or enthusiastic about criticism, having received a barrel-load of it after the failure of his disciple, Graham Taylor, as England manager.In the event it was described as `conciliatory' and, though neither side are willing to go into details, further meetings are planned and the likely consequence is greater professional involvement.The present courses are overseen by Hughes, the FA's long-serving Director of Coaching. It believes the current coaching awards, the Preliminary and Full Badge, are inadequate. It is a view the FA is slowly coming to agree with and, this week, its coaching department met the PFA officials who had implicitly criticised them in the report.It was a potentially tense meeting. This will entitle us to work at the many Schools of Excellence that are sprouting at professional clubs, to make a few bob teaching American kids in the States, and generally be a bit flash about our supposed football knowledge. It will also make us part of a nebulous body of (primarily) men who are frequently blamed for British players' lack of technique and whose standard and practice are under attack at present.While the FA is looking at overhauling the coaching structure, it is the Professional Footballers' Association that is setting the pace, having already produced a deeply researched and broad-based critique of current practice and future development.The report, "A Kick in the Right Direction", is highly critical of the FA coaching department's educational standards and emphasis. He's pushing 60, a welder by trade and a football coach by desire.

We are apprentice coaches taking the Football Association's Preliminary Badge. The sports field is deserted except for 15 sodden footballers and an apparently demented grey-haired old fellow who keeps leaping from side-to-side shouting "you have got to keep the clock ticking" This is Arthur Hammond, coach to the starmakers. A wintry day in South London: it has been raining for three hours and it is freezing. Medical precautions for the bout have been intensified in the wake of the Gerald McClellan tragedy.. I have no fear of him after going with a true great like McCallum," Collins said."Eubank has a good chin but I'll find it. Mike Tyson had a great chin but got knocked out and Rocky Marciano was supposed to have had the best chin ever but got knocked down by a light-heavyweight [Archie Moore]."Nevertheless the signs point to Eubank's 12th distance victory in 13 outings and the fifth of his £10m Sky TV deal.

But while being tough, strong and determined, he cannot be classed as a major league puncher.Eubank's chin is, of course, a formidable fortress and Collins must base his strategy on outworking the man in front of him."Eubank's negative style bores me. But Collins has not fought before at the 12 stone super-middleweight limit, has not had a bout since taking the WBO middleweight title from Chris Pyatt last May and has not met a truly front-ranking opponent for a couple of years.The challenger is very resilient, however, and has never been stopped in 31 bouts. Eubank's list of narrow squeaks is well chronicled but he has become accustomed to feeling less vulnerable with Puerto Rican judges at ringside.To date, nine Puerto Rican judges have scored exclusively in favour of Eubank during his championship reign and two more - Nelson Vasquez and Ismail Fernandez - will compile the points at the 7,000-seater Green Glens show jumping arena which hosted the Eurovision Song Contest a couple of years ago.The Ulsterman, Ray Close, should have got this chance ahead of Collins but was ruled out of a third meeting with Eubank after an irregularity was discovered in a routine brain scan.Collins is widely experienced and his three career defeats have been against world champions: Mike McCallum, Reggie Johnson and Sambu Kalambay. And if the mercurial champion is as fired up as for that first epic with Benn four and a half years ago, the Irishman is likely to run into Eubank the warrior rather than Eubank the annoying enigma.The warrior was on view in Eubank's last defence against Henry Wharton in December when he turned in a top-class display to keep his title without a trace of controversy.That has not always been the case. I want no apology from Collins - beating him will be enough."Collins, 30, accused Eubank of forgetting his roots. This is not about the fight now, it's about honour."I am fighting for more than my pride, standard of living and record. He is putting out a bad message to people and I have to stop him talking this way.