Pre-Summit Workshops a Success
Sport can be a fantastic vehicle for the development of children and young people. That was the message from a series of coaching workshops organised by sports coach UK and Sport Northern Ireland prior to the UK Coaching Summit in Belfast.
More than 60 coaches from the Irish FA (IFA) and Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) took advantage of state of the art facilities at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown.
The day emphasised the need to take coaching beyond ‘skills and drills' and towards holistic practice that supports the development of physical, technical, tactical, mental, and personal and social abilities in the children we coach.
The morning kicked off with 2 workshops:
1. Coaching the Whole Child looked at the development of personal and social outcomes in and through sport such as Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character and Caring and Creativity.
2. Empowering Coaching, developed by Professor Joan Duda and her team at the University of Birmingham, looked at the necessary conditions for a developmentally appropriate climate in your coaching sessions to ensure children's experience of sport is a positive and rewarding one.
The afternoon saw the exciting delivery of 3 ‘live' sessions carried out by IFA, GAA and Wildcats Coaches with pupils from St James Primary School, Newtownabbey. These sessions provided a great opportunity for the delegates to identify the coaching principles covered in the morning and network with other coaches.
The day was wrapped up with a panel session where all coaches and presenters replied to questions from the audience before posing for the customary ‘team picture' that closed the day on a high note.
Summing up the day, Terence McWilliams, Games Development Manager at the Ulster GAA felt such events "should be included in every conference... it was a great chance of team building with the IFA coaches and more sessions like this would be beneficial for all."
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