11 January 2021
During the last lockdown in November a number of CV Life Community Development Officers, Sports Coaches and other CV Life staff took part in a Coach Development Programme hosted by CV Life’s Engage Co-ordinator Wayne Goss.
With Wayne’s background as a Coach Educator for the English Football Association he was well placed to take the learners through the new online FA Playmaker Qualification which was recently launched by the Football Association in conjunction with BT.
Wayne explained “The programme was split over 4 weeks with the group meeting virtually each week, covering the following topics of Connecting with your Players and Children, Creating Fun Sessions, Encouraging Communication and Understanding Children’s Motivation. After that we looked as a group into the Plan / Do / Review process of how to effectively design, deliver and reflect on coaching sessions to support the coaches when out coaching in schools or within their club environment”
The course also covered important topics on Medical Emergencies & Safeguarding providing an overview of the key messages for Sports Coaches.
Wayne added, “In the final week of the programme we reviewed Medical Emergencies discussing Emergency Action Planning, Recognising & Managing Concussion and Recognising Sudden Cardiac Arrest, when it happens and what you can do to help those affected. These modules provided an essential overview of how to support medical emergencies and provides a basic understanding that the coaches can take into formal medical training and qualifications”, he went onto say “We finished off the programme speaking about Safeguarding for All and covered topics including Best Practice, What you should look out for and Listen & Pass It On which are all vital components of Safeguarding Children”
CV Life Performing Arts Coach Cheryl Mok who took part in the programme said “The course gave me an insight into what I am looking for in myself, my teaching and my students. Although I wasn’t familiar with football at all, the course isn’t focused just on football, but rather what the coaching process is. This helped me to understand what we are all aiming for and valuing similar elements for what we are passionate about, which draws me closer to the team. The course has boosted my confidence in continuing my hard work in delivering Performing Arts in CV Life”
Cheryl went on to say “I am now really interested in making an impact on Girls Football. I shall be looking into some online basic football coaching videos and create a session plan for girls football if I am to deliver in the future. As Girls Football is quite underrated, I think it is inspiring, as a woman myself, to support for a change of gender stereotype in society. I also would like to see how I can make football and performing arts entwined and make it unique for all types of children / participants”
In addition Community Development Officer Ben Tidy who also participated in the programme said “Across the course there were many features that I believe had a useful influence and a good insight into understanding coaching. Personally, I thought the Plan, Do and Review element of the course had the biggest influence on myself. The reasoning for this was because it gave a better insight into how to plan for sessions, how to adapt sessions but also to understand why it is important to understand what worked well and what did not work well within sessions” he also added,
“For me personally the FA Playmaker course helped me understand the positives I am already doing in my coaching. But also helps you understand more that regardless of who you are teaching, every environment is different, and every child will take something different from each session. That is why coaching is the best job in the world”
Wayne Goss finished off by saying “CV Life now has thirteen brand new FA Playmakers that have successfully completed their certification which is great to see and as you can see from Cheryl’s and Ben’s comments that the coaches found it a very useful four weeks in terms of their own personal development which will ultimately improve the coaching delivery that they and the other coaches provide into many schools across Coventry. The beauty of this programme is that the underlying coaching principles in the course are transferrable across multiple sports and activities and will no doubt positively impact all the children we coach whether it be in Performing Arts, Gymnastics, Tennis, Football or other sporting activities”