Former OU student learning from Iniesta

“The main thing I loved about the degree was that it was so broad,” says Open University Sports, Fitness and Coaching graduate Jack Skoczen. “I loved every element of it. Towards the last few years, we did a lot on the psychology of coaching. It helped me learn how to be around people a bit more, how to communicate, and how to understand athletes.” 

Jack’s journey has taken him from grass roots, working with youth team players in the Welsh semi-professional pyramid, to EFL side Swansea City, and now to coaching at pro men’s team Gulf United in the UAE, alongside World Cup winner Andrés Iniesta.

Born in West Bromwich, Jack moved to Wales with his family at age 11. Showing talent as a young footballer but sadly suffering a set of injuries around 15 put an end to chasing a playing career. He briefly studied Product Design at a brick university, before travelling to China to teach English as a foreign language. 

‘I’m going to become a coach’

“After completing university for the first time, I wanted to do something that pushed me out of my comfort zone. I couldn't really find anything I wanted to do at home,” explains Jack. “So, I thought ‘let me do something crazy and just move away’.” He then made the decision to study a TEFL course and moved to Southern China.

“At the school in China, I would just get involved in sport, and found that I could communicate through football. And then from that moment, I said ‘I'm going to become a coach’.”

Returning to Wales, Jack started his coaching journey at his boy hood grass roots club Bryn Rovers, balancing his new-found love of coaching with jobs at a pizza delivery company and Coleg Sir Gâr, before joining the set-up at Carmarthen Town. 

“By this point, I’d done my coaching badges, but for me to progress even further, I knew I needed to go to university,” he says. “And that's when I saw that The Open University offered the course. It was perfect, because I was working and coaching part-time.”

“There’s flexibility in terms of how much you study, so I managed to finish the degree in five years. Studying gradually while I was coaching really helped, as I got so much more out of it. I was putting what I was learning into practice.”

Learning visually

After leaving Carmarthen Town, Jack had a brief stint in the USA with Chicago Fire, from there he joined Swansea City, initially as a Development Centre Manager in Cardiff and Cardigan before, progressing to a Pre-Academy Coach and his final year Academy Safeguarding officer, with responsibility for player welfare. This gave him a different perspective on football, thinking how players could be supported holistically alongside their sporting development.

At Swansea, Jack continued with his OU journey. Alongside the flexibility, he also says that he appreciated the online learning experience. 

“I always enjoyed the online tutorials, and got to as many of those as I could. Of course there’s an element of self-study, but also you weren't completely alone because you could see what other people were thinking about, and often they’d have the same questions as you.”

“I could read through things a little bit more at my own pace. And I think because it was all online, it was very visual, it was always in front of me. One great thing I can take away from it was that I learned to write academically, because it was scientific. I still read academic papers as part of my work.”

Coaching in the United Arab Emirates

Following his time at Swansea, Jack sought another challenge abroad, this time in the UAE, with Gulf United FC, a team founded only six years ago. What the club has done in that time is, according to Jack, “pretty immense.” 

The senior men’s side plays in the country’s first division, and is coached by Andres Iniesta. After initially working with a range of age groups in the academy, half way through the 25/26 season Jack had the opportunity to take over the UAE FA under-19s, overseeing a big turn around in what was struggling season for the group. Heading into the 26/27 season Jack has been appointed as the coach of the Professional Development Program, who play in the UAE Division Two.

Working with a younger age group, Jack still has player wellbeing at the back of his mind. 

“Tactically, young players are more aware than ever. So sometimes I'm learning off them! I openly have those conversations with them, even if they're younger than me, I don't have an ego with it. I’ll say ‘you give me information, I'll give it back to you’. So they're definitely more informed than ever, for sure.”

“But I always instil in young players that football isn’t your only option. It's a short-term career, so you need to think about what is next. Wellbeing, player care, developing life skills and education – I try and build that into their whole programme as a coach.”