Air Traffic Control Developmental
Workload; Situational Awareness; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Aircraft; Airspace Structure; Human Factors
I was working Frisco D Side and then took over the R Side after he was approaching 2 hours on position and forced to take a break.  We had several aircraft from SPS inbound for multiple practice approaches at ADM airport.  The military trainer pilots had a limited grasp of the English language and were not answering radio calls in a timely manner.  In addition to these aircraft we had several other slower aircraft that were wanting practice approaches as well as a departure push from DFW and other regular traffic.  After taking over the R Side I determined that the workload was making the sector unsafe and I denied practice approaches to the 3 other military training aircraft and forced them to go elsewhere so I could get the sector under control.  In my career I do not recall ever having to deny service due to workload.I am new to the facility and recently learned Frisco Low used to be three different sectors but over the years it was recently combined into one sector.  I have been a Certified Professional Controller (CPC) at ZKC; SAT; L30 and ZHU and based on my experience I can tell you that this sector is unsafe and needs to be split immediately.  I would recommend a HI/LOW setup with one sector being SFC to 100 and the other 110-FL230.
ZHU Developmental describes a situation where he had to deny practice approaches to numerous aircraft due to workload.