Keith Hill hopes boxing can help him achieve the Pro Licence.
Currently sitting at the summit of League Two, Rochdale finally look like ending their 35-year association with English football’s bottom division, and manager, Keith Hill, hopes his love of boxing will help deliver a knockout blow to his promotion rivals.
Along with 16 other coaches and managers, Hill is halfway through his studies to achieve the UEFA Pro Licence, where all the candidates are required to undertake a study visit to either a football club overseas or a club from a different sport altogether.
After speaking to Freddie Roach, the highly regarded boxing trainer of Amir Khan and Manny Pacquiao, Hill is considering taking this element one step further and viewing the training practices employed in the build-up to a particular fight.
“There’s a lot of preparation work in boxing, leading up to specific fights, and that’s one area that I’m really interested in,” said Hill.
“Preparation is key in any industry, not just sport, but because boxing places such an emphasis on being in peak condition by a particular date, it is a great area for me to look at. There’s a very strict timescale to their preparations and I think there would be things within that that I could use in my own preparation work.
“I spoke to Freddie about his preparation for specific fights and that gave me a great insight on him as a trainer and his preparation for specific fighters, so it’s definitely one sport that I’m looking at for my study visit.”
The study visit is just one area of the Pro Licence, the highest qualification in the game, and Hill was speaking to TheFA.com during the course’s ‘
midseason masterclass’. This masterclass involved a residential weekend at Wokefield Park in Reading, where the budding Pro Licence graduates were treated to expert presentations from some of the football's top names.
The England Under-21 Head Coach, Stuart Pearce, and the England Women’s Head Coach, Hope Powell, spoke to the group about tournament strategy and preparation after their own experiences last summer, while Northern Ireland manager, Nigel Worthington, highlighted the differences between managing a club side and an international side.
Former Middlesbrough and England Manager,
Steve McClaren, gave a detailed rundown of football in Holland following his two years at FC Twente and champion jump jockey, Tony McCoy, was also on-hand to explain what drives him on to ride winners every day, despite having already ridden over 3,000 winners so far in his career.
“Listening to these speakers, the likes of Stuart Pearce and Steve McClaren, is adding to the experiences that I’ve already had,” said Hill. “They give you a great insight into what they are thinking about the game, what they have achieved, what they are trying to achieve and how they are doing it.
“I’ll happily take a few of their theories or methods back to my own club and use the ones I feel will best benefit my players and the team.”
The Pro Licence is a year-long qualification and the 17 coaches hope to complete the course in July.
“The last six months have been superb to be honest,” said Hill, in summary of the course so far. “There’s a lot of experience on this course and I’ve taken as much as I can into my everyday role at Rochdale and it’s paying off so far.”
‘The Dale’ achieved their one and only promotion in 1968-69 before slipping back into the old Fourth Division in 1974, but through the astute stewardship of Hill and the knowledge he is gaining on the Pro Licence, the Spotland outfit could soon find themselves climbing the League ladder once more.
