Michael Nelson
When I reflect on the time I spent training with David Dihn, I only have feelings of gratitude. I came to David as a 22 year old who had just finished up his first year of professional soccer. I grew up in Austin all my life playing for Lonestar but our paths never crossed. As I was going through my college years, I began to hear of old teammates such as Kekuta Manneh, Khiry Shelton, Walker and Tucker Hume, etc. that had been training with him and I could see the improvements in their game. Throughout my time in college I was rarely back in Austin for an extended time as I spent my summers playing PDL in Virginia while completing summer courses for school. However, during the offseason after my rookie year I knew I was going to be back home for a little while and needed to train and improve my skills as a player. David was the person that I went to for help; because I felt that he could provide me with the best chance of improving my game.
I made contact with David and without much knowledge of who I was he welcomed me to his training with open arms. In my first 2-3 sessions David just let me play and go through drills without much input so that he could better gauge where my strengths and weaknesses were. After a couple days in training he called me into my office and asked me what I hoped to gain from training. After telling him that I wanted to strengthen my first touch and technical skills in tight areas, he informed me that he’d also like to improve my foot speed and vision. After laying out a plan of what areas to focus on he told me that as long as I was willing to work my hardest, he was willing to help me with anything I asked. Over the next couple months, I went to the Forza training facility day in and day out working to get better.
While the training that David provides is top notch, creative, and effective in improving a player’s technical skills, it is not what I personally believe is what sets David apart from other coaches and competing training programs. It’s David’s mentality that does that. The fact that he welcomed me with open arms without knowing anything about me says a lot about the type of person he is. He is selfless and only holds intentions of helping players improve their skills in the game of soccer. The more I trained with him the more I could see just how much that holds true. He works tirelessly with players going through 2-3 sessions a day for 6 days of the week. That kind of work ethic is not something you find every day in a person and I was very grateful to be around that, because it makes you want to work just as hard for him as he is working for you. The distance that he is willing to go to help a player is seemingly endless. He even goes to extent of allowing players to stay at his home so they have a place to sleep if they are from out of town. These aspects of David’s mentality are commendable to say the least.
The only regret I can say I have after training with David is that I wish I would’ve started training with him a long time ago. I truly felt like I improved my technical ability during my time with David but my mind can only wonder what kind of player I would’ve been if I started training with David when I was 14 instead of 22. That regret is the biggest compliment I can give to David and the best way I can thank him for the training he provided me.
All the best,
Michael Nelson