I never imagined I would be writing this.

I don’t have A-levels.
I never went to university.
I don’t hold a bachelor’s degree.

And yet, this September, I’ll be starting a Master of Research (MRes) in Sport and Exercise at the University of Winchester—with the aim of making it the first step towards a PhD.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

For the past 24 years, my classroom has been the tennis court.

I’ve spent my career immersed in the realities of coaching—late nights on court, early mornings traveling to tournaments, conversations with parents, players, and coaches from every corner of the world.

That lived experience became my education. Every session, every experiment, every mistake and adjustment shaped my understanding of how people actually learn and perform in sport.

Instead of textbooks, I had thousands of hours of practice. Instead of exams, I had real players giving me real feedback in real time.

The Frameworks That Changed My Coaching

Along the way, I discovered a set of ideas that shifted my entire approach:

• Ecological Dynamics – seeing learning as an interaction between player, task, and environment.
• Ecological Psychology – understanding perception and action as directly connected, not filtered through stored “programs.”
• The Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) – designing practices that shape behavior through affordances, not instructions.

These weren’t abstract theories to me. They were tools. They helped me design practices that prepared players for the chaos of competition. They helped me see why so much traditional coaching failed to transfer from practice court to match court.

And they gave me a language for what I’d been searching for as a coach—an approach that actually works in the trenches.

Why Academia, and Why Now?

So why step into academia after all these years?

Because coaching alone isn’t enough. If we want to change the profession, we need to connect lived experience with research.

Too often, sport science is written in a way that never reaches coaches. Too often, coaching wisdom is dismissed as “unscientific.” My goal is to bridge that gap—to bring the rigour of research together with the realities of coaching practice.

I don’t see this MRes as leaving the court. I see it as an extension of it. My coaching has always been about learning. Now I get the chance to deepen that learning, test it, challenge it, and contribute something meaningful back to the game and the profession that has given me so much.

A Message for Coaches

I share this not to say, “Look what I’m doing,” but to highlight a bigger truth: there’s more than one pathway.

• You don’t need a traditional academic route to make an impact.
• You don’t need the “right” qualifications to learn deeply and teach effectively.
• You can start from wherever you are, with whatever experiences you have.

Coaching is learning. Every session, every player, every challenge is part of your education. If you’re open to reflection, willing to change, and brave enough to question tradition, you are already on a pathway of growth.

And if my journey shows anything, it’s that pathways don’t have to be linear. They can start on a tennis court and lead all the way to a PhD.

Looking Ahead

This next chapter will be challenging. Balancing study with coaching, research with family life, and academic writing with the fast-paced world of coaching won’t be easy.

But I’m ready for it. And I hope my journey encourages other coaches to rethink what’s possible for them.

Because whether you’re on a court, in a classroom, or somewhere in between, your experiences matter. They can shape not only your own development but the future of the game.

Here’s to proving—once again—that there’s more than one pathway.