I left school in 1988 before computers were even introduced into schools. In fact the year I left school I think the first computer arrived and filled a whole room! Despite this, somehow my frustrations with testing/movement screening and trying to create individualised training plans for a lot of players led me to contemplate technology as a means of improving this process. This was not something that I had either any knowledge of or experience in and I was still not sure why I thought technology was the “holy grail” but perhaps I thought it must be able to help with at least making testing objective and quick.
My issue was technology might be the answer but how the hell was I going to develop a technology product without any knowledge of technology or the money to invest in such a product. I wracked my brain for a few weeks without any success. The money required to develop a technology product was astronomical and I just couldn’t see a way forward.
During the 2nd week in October I was about to put this idea to bed as I just couldn’t see how I could make it happen. Then as if by magic I was having my regular weekly coffee at the Costa in Wetherby with Matt Portas and we were discussing our usual subject of improving movement screening with young athletes. Matt Portas, who at the time was a senior lecturer in sports science at Teesside University and was helping us to enhance/improve our movement screening battery of tests out of the blue, suggested a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Teesside University as they were a University that had a focus for technology and might be interested in discussing a project. I had never heard of a KTP so now had my homework in place for the next few weeks.
In November 2014 a bubbly Jenny Hudson (Business Development Manager at Teesside University) walked through the door and sat down to discuss my idea’s around a KTP. Instantly I was impressed by Jenny’s enthusiasm for my idea and totally surprised as I was very skeptical that a large university with a reputation for technology would want to discuss a project with a football coach born in 1969 who had very little knowledge of technology.
As we discussed my idea in more detail I genuinely started to get the feeling that Jenny was impressed with my idea and that she felt there would be an opportunity to apply for a KTP which would be funded through Innovate UK Ltd. I left the meeting with a large smile on my face thinking I must have come up with a good idea for a technology based University to be interested. During the meeting Jenny confirmed that if your application was successful then you would receive a serious amount of funding to bring your idea to life.
Little did I realise the journey that I was about to undertake regarding the KTP.