- Coaching activities
- Officiating
- Behind the scenes ‘running a club’
- Marketing and Promotion
Since our launch event in August we have now run 4 young leaders workshops; Marketing & Promotion, Running a Club, Leading Team Activities and Adapting Sport for Visually Impaired Participants. This half term saw some of our new leaders taking advantages of the opportunities we offered.
Wednesday 28th October was a long day for those involved, starting with a Running a Football Club workshop at Farringdon School in Sunderland. Not only was this a chance for our new leaders to learn about what goes into running a football club and organising club events it was also a chance for 2 members of our Young Leader Management Team to show how far they have come over the past year when they took up the challenge of delivering the workshop to the other leaders. Jordan Stephenson and Kieren Laverick both attended the FA’s National Leadership Camps in 2008 and 2009 respectively and have since both been selected to be part of National Management Teams – Kieren for the FA’s 2010 National Camp and Jordan for the Youth Sport Trusts 2010 National Camp which are excellent achievements. As part of their roles they will be expected to present and talk in front of more than 100 people so we gave them the opportunity to practise their presentation skills which they both accepted with great enthusiasm spending an afternoon at the County FA putting together a PowerPoint presentation and tasks for the workshop. On the Wednesday morning after arriving at the school they then ran a 3 hour workshop which was given excellent feedback from their fellow leaders.
The day didn’t end there though, after lunch the leaders took part in a session looking at Leading Team Activities which gave them the chance to try some delivery themselves. With Kieren and Jordan leading much of the session again, with the help of Mark Platten who also attended the FA 2009 Camp and Nikki O’Donnell from British Blind Sport who came down for the afternoon to give the leaders an insight into Visually Impaired Football and Goalball, the afternoon got underway. The 14 leaders were split into groups and over the next 3 hours planned and delivered mini tournaments for Futsal, Goalball and Benchball. The idea of this was to introduce some new games and equipment such as Futsal and Goalball and to give them some experience in planning and delivering in front of other people.
For some the day didn’t stop there as we then headed over to Gateshead International Stadium for an evening workshop on Adapting Sport for Visually Impaired Participants – An Introduction to Visually Impaired Football. This workshop, delivered by Nikki O’Donnell from British Blind Sport was a chance for our young people to find out about the opportunities for VI football players and how they can adapt their coaching sessions to insure VI players are included.
The session included a theory presentation and some practical activities involving blindfolds and specialist equipment followed by a short Futsal game against a local VI team. We also had a special guest in the form of a young leader who attended our County Leadership Camp this year after doing his JFO. Kurt Rossin is a 17 year old leader who has a visual impairment classified at B2. Over the past year he has completed his JFO, started a Level 3 BTEC Sports Development Course, completed his Level 1 Football Coaching Badge and most recently last weekend was selected for the England Blind Football Development Squad after travelling to Hereford for trials. He gave a talk to the other leaders about his visual impairment and his recent successes to show them that having a disability doesn’t stop him doing anything…..in fact he has done a lot more than many his age!
Feedback from all 4 sessions has been positive and we will be providing further opportunities over the coming months.
Watch this space for an update on Kieren’s journey as he joins the FA and 7 other young leaders from around the country at Wembley next week for their first planning meeting for the 2010 FA Leadership Camp.
If you would like any further information on the FA Step into Sport Programme please contact Tina Reed (Football Development Officer – Education) on 0191 387 2928 or tina.reed@durhamfa.com