Coaching the coach to bring out the best?
An article in the Independent Newspaper from 2011 when reporter Glenn Moore took one of Chris’ courses and wrote about the experience…
The extract appears below or use the link to read what Glenn says about his experience
“When I volunteered to coach my son’s football team I reeled off my qualifications to reassure parents I would not metamorphose into the Ray Winstone character from the FA’s Respect advertisements once a ball was kicked: Uefa B licence, the FA’s first aid and safeguarding children certificates, a CRB check. The parents were impressed; unfortunately, the kids were not.
When I finished my first session and asked for feedback they replied: “It was boring.” I realised that while I was theoretically qualified to coach teenagers and adults, the pre-teens were another matter.
I was not alone. The FA has realised that the overhaul of coach education over the last 15 years, while laudable in many respects, largely overlooked the key age-group most receptive to learning – the five- to 11-year-olds.
Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development, recalled when they recruited Tesco skills coaches (a scheme which sends specialists into schools and clubs), “many of those who had very good CVs, right up to A licence, put on terrible sessions in which the kids neither enjoyed nor understood what the coach was trying to do.”