Balancing Pro Football and GIS Studies: Harrison Bruton Student Profile

Adding to our list of students who have competed in elite sport, meet Harrison Bruton.

Rising through the ranks at Weymouth, Harrison now plays for Al Qabila FC in Dubai while studying with GIS for his MSc Performance Analysis in Football. Also a coach for Empire Football Club, the former National League goalkeeper decided to complete his undergraduate degree in sports management after suffering a minor head injury that forced him to develop his career in other ways.

Recovered and back on the pitch, Harrison now recognises his studies as not only a preparation for an alternate career in sport, but a tool for improving his game.

Saying the studies “helped me find the right headspace in football”, the course has taught him how to analyse his own matches, something he had struggled with in the past.

“As a player, I always found myself criticising my performances, never picking out positives, and when I was criticising it was never productive, I was just getting deflated. One of the biggest reasons for the masters is to improve my own analysis of my own performance.”

Modules on this course include Applied Football Match Analysis, Football Statistics and Data Analysis, Talent Identification and Recruitment, and Global Sports Leadership, all of which help prepare you for career opportunities in performance analysis, coaching, scouting, or for opportunities within teaching and learning environments.

Despite being only 22, Harrison commented on the importance of having a plan to go into a different area of sport after he retires.

“When I finish playing competitive sport, I’m still going to have that competitive nature within me, so I want to be doing something where I can fight for a position, and have a motivation to get up and do something”

“When you finish sport, you won’t want to sit around and do nothing, you’ll want something to aim towards a bit and have a goal, so working towards that before your career ends gives you a great head start.”

Combining work with studies can be particularly challenging, especially as a professional athlete. Studying online can help alleviate some of the pressure, with our distance learning courses enabling students the flexibility they may need that a strict timetable may not allow. Harrison has felt the benefits of this, saying that “by Zakaria AnaniYou want to be as productive as you can with your time, and online is the most convenient way to do that.

“The structure that GIS has built for students to study online is pretty bang on, the hours that the lectures work well with my training hours,”  he added.

A downside of online learning is that it can become difficult to maintain the social life and networking opportunities that attending lectures with your peers can offer, however Harrison explained the opportunities that can provide these chances of meeting fellow students.

“Out here in Dubai we have a WhatsApp group with all the students that study here, and we aim to meet up weekly to discuss assignments and help each other out. There’s also the summits which are a great way to network.”

Our signature Global Summits are 5-10 day residentials held at GIS locations all over the world, where students can hear from guest speakers, attend workshops, network with industry leaders and go behind the scenes at iconic sporting venues- click here to find out more.

To learn about the opportunities we offer for students to study in Dubai, click here,

Article by Zakaria Anani