I was always under the impression that German people are uptight and not easy to get along with, but how wrong I was.

These past two weeks I spent in Germany, on a coaching course, proved to be the opposite.

From the time I put foot on German soil, I was made to feel at home. From the transport used by the coaches to the accommodation and the training facilities, all of this was something you’ve probably only seen on television.

But I did not go there to be entertained.

I learnt even more about the beautiful game of soccer and what an eye opener it was.

The course was not only about training football on the field, but also about nutrition, sports medicine and the laws of the game.

All coaches at the course had to undergo four exams on the laws of the game, a practical exam, an oral exam and, on the last day, we did a written exam that covered everything we did on the course.

The soccer language is the same wherever you go, but it gets modernised all the time, and that is the trend you need to keep up with.

Methods of training are also modernised all the time.

We, as coaches, used to spend a lot of time practicing speed. But how do you do that? And how much faster can you become?

How many of us know that there are different types of speed that can be worked on to make a player faster and, here, I am not even talking about how fast you are moving. That is just one aspect of the coaching course that I found fascinating.

But, all in all, it was two weeks well spent and I will give an arm and a leg to go on more of these types of courses.

And, of course, you also learn about the way coaches do it in different parts of the world, because the course was attended by 25 other coaches from various countries around the world.