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Sunday 25 November 2012

Summer of 2012

I have now gone through [briefly] my 2 years of college, more specifically how I got involved with volunteering in football. Since the FA Football Futures Camp in July numerous other event have occurred with have now shaped this season 2012/13 and my time at University. I am hoping that this blog can bring my voluntary events up to date.

I won 2 awards for my voluntary efforts last season, firstly I was selected as AFC Telford United Ladies' 'Unsung Hero' award. Secondly, I was awarded the FA McDonald's Community Award 'Young Volunteer of The Year' for Shropshire FA. 2 awards which I am very proud of, to be recognised for my efforts is an amazing feeling - however I don't volunteer my time to win awards and or be recognised. I look to develop players and people, and develop football in general.

As I mentioned in a previous post/blog, over the season 2011/12 I was a part of the FA Coach Scholarship Programme, for working hard and sticking to deadlines I a was 1 of 9 coaches to be offered a place on the Scholarship for a second season [2012/13]. Another great achievement, but I didn't work hard to be offered a place again. I worked hard because that it my philosophy. 'If you're not going to do something properly, then why do it at all?'

Being a part of the Scholarship for a second season has already shown benefits. The Youth Sport Trust, National Young Coaches Academy is coming around for it's second event. I have been asked to attend the event again, as a mentor for the FA. Until this event comes up I won't fully know the ins and outs of my role and what I will be doing. However, I am very much looking forwards to the event after my success there last season.

Over the summer, I completed the FA Youth Award Module 2. This was just as good as the Module 1, in my opinion they are the best awards which the FA run, mainly because I adhere to that method of coaching. On the last day of the course I set my 3 goals for the future
  • To push myself into 'difficult sitautions' to then develop as a person.
  • Complete my University degree.
  • To have a more successful season in terms of coaching and volunteering compared to last season.
The final part of my summer, probably the most exciting part, I was successful in applying for a voluntary position working for the Independent Schools Football Association [ISFA]. As part of this role I get to travel around the country to set up football tournaments, these will be concluding at the newly opened St. George's Park in April. I hope to blog after each event which I attend. So for I have attended 3 events, at Chigwell, Cumnor House and Charterhouse. I have been working on The National Under 11s, 7-a-side Tournament.

Since moving to UCLan [University of Central Lancashire] I have linked up with Lancashire FA and I am now working with Penwortham Under 17s Girls and Springfields Under 7s. Yes this is very time consuming considering I am studying for a degree, but I am very much enjoying myself working with the teams.

I guess this now brings you all up to date with my past voluntary career, and where I am now.  I want to sign this blog off with a quote which has inspired me to reach my dreams and don't let anything get in the way.

"Do what you really want to do,
Don't let the words of others hold you back.
Take a step towards your dream.
As you move closer new opportunities will open up that you never imagined possible.
The journey will be full of struggle, but I learned that the greater the struggle; the greater the victory!
As you go for your dream, you will inspire others to live their own."

Rudy Ruettiger

Saturday 24 November 2012

Leader Life, Leader Legacy

The FA Football Futures Leadership Camp, 16-20th July 2012

Leader Life, Leader Legacy.

Excitement built, nerves jangled and the level of anticipation rose, well for some people it did. On arrival at Hereford Blind College, Take that – Never Forget was blasting out of my car, bags were falling out of my hands and t-shirts were being piled on top. The friendly and familiar faces of Camp staff were greeted by 100 enthusiastic football leaders.
Following the distribution of room keys, ice-breakers and team activities began; blindfolded assault courses and bowling to kick off. A task where you really didn’t know where to put your hands!! Then came the entrance of Laurisa Robson and her sprinkler dance, who knew she would be such an influential character throughout the week?! Certainly not the 20 of us playing ‘Hi, I’m an egg.’
Mystery tours across the campus lead us to the main hall; a room filled with anticipation and senior team members who knew everything about you, even though there had been no previous meetings. The ceremony really drove home the key messages for the week; take everything you can, have fun and create a legacy of your own. Feeling inspired yet? Well this is where great futures will begin.
After lunch, or an hour long banter session if you were me, came our first workshop. Group 4 to the main hall for media. Personally I saw a few familiar faces, this creating a positive atmosphere for the session to follow.
Task:- create a 3 minute video, come up with your own idea, but 1 minute must be around the Mars Just Play Scheme. You have 1 hour to come up with an idea, sort out roles, plan, rehearse and then deliver.
So many great ideas came from the session, since when was there an age limit on Big Macs and Mars bars?! But on a serious note, there were many lessons to be learnt from the session. Like how much planning goes into such a small product. The initial idea can take so long to find, but without it you can’t move onto the next step.
I took a personal message away from this workshop, the media can translate so easily into the front line of football,
We as leaders are like the writers and directors of media, without us there isn’t guidance or someone to follow. We can only offer advice and start the ball, but other leaders, coaches and players must keep it rolling.
Reflection time turned out to be the most important part of my time at Camp. It was time to think and write my thoughts for the day, discuss opinions and what we want to get out of Camp. Common themes were to gain knowledge, ideas and to have fun. From this session I was able to create 3 goals for the week:

1.       To be inspired, so that I can then go and inspire.

2.       To grow as a person with knowledge and understanding.

3.       To have a clearer image of where to go next in terms of football and my pathway.
 
Evening activates were the talk of the day, Team Nigeria remarkably got a high score on the quiz...
This was soon to be an evening with Dermot Collins, the main messages I took from this session were,
‘How to do we make this person better? How do we make them perform better? And sometimes you have to go sideways before being able to take a step forwards. Don’t be afraid of this side-step, in the long run it will be for the better.
Back in the dorms, bonds turned into friendships, and late night thinking turned into personal reflection. Not forgetting the most epic 'hide and seek,' shame that the seeker didn't come looking for well over half an hour!


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So day 2 started off early, thanks to the loud and enthusiastic running club. Each morning I found myself to be one of the first at breakfast, which wasn’t a problem, it just allowed more reflection time and time to wake up. Let’s be honest I’m not a morning person!
The first session of the day, Futsal with Karl Lines, another familiar face, and an influential character to my football futures journey so far. This session was a bit like jumping in at the deep end, opening up a new sport, techniques and ideas. I think that everyone would agree, the session created ideas which would transfer into football and it also questioned how we coach. For most this was a learning curve, we should be thinking about what it best for our players, not what makes us look like a better coach.
But then are we coaching right? Is trapping the ball wrong? Or are we coaching the wrong technique? If we look at inclusivity, surely Futsal is the way forwards. The ball challenges all players, not just those technically gifted.
Onto sports development with Tina Reed. For me, a workshop which I have learnt the most from; I didn’t realise what football development officers do and how much they cover. Certain parts of the workshop were about areas within football which I’ve been part of, more so than what I thought it would be.
Task – produce and put forwards an idea to the Youth Council for the Legacy Fund.
A lot of similar ideas came from the task, similar but not the same. Most were surrounding football for all and equality. It was great to see that the Youth Council members were impressed by the ideas put forwards and the feedback given.
If you build a bridge, you’re not the only one who will walk over it... think of all those who will follow. Maybe not all at once, but they will come, look and then continue to follow in your footsteps.
Our final workshop for the day was coaching. The key messages to come from this were; don’t force something which isn’t necessary. Just because you have planned progressions doesn’t mean you have to use them. This would be a lot to do with knowing your players and recognising learning methods, progression speed and when they are ready to move on.
Within this session I took a bit of a step back during the task of planning a session. I felt that some people took control of the group, but wouldn’t loosen their grip to let others in. I think that some sessions have been really eye opening to how people develop and progress, being able to delegate is a huge part of working as a team. Sometimes workshops have hidden messages; the title isn’t always the topic.
Onto reflection time, my favourite part of Camp, without a doubt. Time with our Camp Councillor and enthusiast, Dawn Georgeson, to reflect upon the day’s events. This session was built up on 3 parts, a blindfolded assault course, team discussions and the post-it game (where you think of a word to describe who’s next to you, then they have to guess the word). All are very simple, but very effective. My 2 words for the day; inspiring and insightful.
Final part of the day, evening activity! Olympic theme, Task, create an Olympic sport using the devices given. After having time to think we came up with a tennis like game using peaked cones and a handball. Each group was very creative and able to come up with fresh ideas, which would definitely have intrigued Lord Coe.
 

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Another late night and early morning proved by the fact I put brown sugar on my corn flakes not white! Luckily this wasn’t a theme which carried on through the day.
Our first workshop of the day was equality, a session which no-one knew much about, but took a lot from. Equality isn’t just about racism; there are so many stereotypes and barriers which need to be broken down. The 3 key words which came from the session; equality, diversity and equal opportunities; equality is allowing people to have equal opportunities, not allowing diversity to get in the way.
Something else which came from the workshop, we don’t act differently around others. We adjust to the environment and situation and the needs of others. Being able to recognise when to adjust to the needs of others is a great skill to have. Laurisa Robson and Dawn Georgeson are 2 top examples, and they portray this skill immensely well.
Final message on equality: CRAS,
Consistent/ Content
Respect
Appropriate
Sensitive.
Moving onto refereeing, to start with we looked at the key skills of a referee or assistant. Key quality; tolerance, in most situations. To be a top referee you need to ignore those with an irrelevant opinion. You need to focus on the main roles of a referee, not imaginary ones. Being a referee has its ups and downs, just like anything else. If you can stick it out through the bad/tough times, then the highs are a lot more beneficial. All in all, making you a better person.
After lunch came our specialist training, mine was coaching, with Paul Bridson and Jack Walton. So firstly, what did we want from the sessions? What do we expect? Following this we created our own sessions and then looked at the practical aspect of coaching. Although a lot of notes were taken within this session, the hard work and analysis came in during Thursday’s sessions. The main thoughts going in Thursday, drills/sessions must be realistic and beneficial to the game. Food for thought going into day 4.
In we went for reflection, a team quiz. The theme was the Football Futures Camp and what had been learnt. Also it turned out to be Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday, not 96th.
This lead on nicely into the evening activity, Football Future’s Got Talent. A clever theme to get everyone active. This brought out a different side to people. It was great to see how people dealt with the pressure and how creative people could be.
Next came a session lead by Matt Jones, who opened up the Mash Up initiative to us all and then showing us (practically) how it would work. Mash Up sessions are chances to coach, referee and play on a recreational level. 6 top tips:

Listening

Engage
Graft
Act
Create
Yourself
"You only enjoy it if you want to enjoy it. You only get out what you put in."

An hour of fruit fun followed in the dorms, who knew apples could make such good entertainment?!
 

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Getting straight into day 4 and the first specialist coaching session of the day. To begin with we analysed Wednesday’s session and it’s key messages,
ü  Practices need to be realistic of game related in order for them to be beneficial to the players.

ü  Always question and challenge players to get and keep them involved. This enables a learning process. Players thinking not just feeding off a plate.

ü  If there is no success, progressions were added to achieve success,
The more problems there are to solve, the higher the enjoyment level. Practice in context to the game, under load, don’t always overload.
Task – create a 15-20 minute session surrounding a theme, forward passing. In our group of 4 we created a session to then go and deliver.
Outside we were delivering our sessions and smashing windows. In my opinion a lot was to be gained from watching other coaches, new tips and ideas, but also it show-cased how different people coach and their opinions.
During these sessions I spoke to a number of people, asking for their views and opinions. This again opened up new opinions and things to look out for. Each session was different, not just the content but also the delivery. From these sessions you can already see that the future will be bright.
Onto reflection and evening activities. During reflection we covered the week and wrote a one liner to describe the week in our view. ‘Inspiration can be found in the places you least expect’ was pretty much mine. Next came the ‘Post-It’ game (round 2, describe someone with a word.) mine was considerate, and also inspiring.
To finish the day, DISCO TIME! The fancy dress code, LEGACY. Everyone had a Boomtastic time, described as ‘the best sober party ever.’ The final song of Take That – Never Forget summarised the week perfectly.
 
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Our final day of Camp started with a good old sing song at breakfast, with Cee Lo Green – Forget You, which really set the mood for the day.
The last activity was a festival put together by the football development group. Based around the Mars Just Play Scheme, so not just a straight forward tournament, an event built around having fun and different ways to be involved.
I spoke to a number of people surrounding Camp, asking for their opinions; the general consensus was that Camp 2012 was amazing and 100% the best one yet!
The closing ceremony was so inspiring. Ted Grizzel and Dan English’s speeches were amazing. I hope that everyone took something from it, and will re-use this inspiration within their community. Don’t be the one who says they want to do something, be the difference...go and do it.
Everyone will take something from Camp, inspiration, new drills, experience or just new gear! I’ve left Camp as a better person, with a fresh mindset and a number of targets to hit. Leaders are already making and leaving their legacy; mine won’t be a quick fix action, but a step process to when I’m needed.
‘Camp is like dropping a stone in to water and watching the ripples that follow.’ Matt Chester
Thank you to everyone involved, those who had the idea, made it happen and created an environment where so much learning and future building could take place.
Lead a life, lead a legacy.

Friday 23 November 2012

Up 'til now #2

[September 2011] Leading straight off from the last post, my second year of college started with disappointment, I was still not playing football or any sport. However, I had a wonderful time at Oswestry Hosptial and with an MRI machine! I was the class ref for volleyball, that's as close as I got to play sport at college.

In terms of volunteering, the season started off really well. I had completed my football referee's course and passed. I felt more involved with AFC Telford United Ladies, and new events were thrown at me as soon as I arrived back at college. FFT meetings, Disability Courses, Team19 and news of a brand new 3rd generation facility being built.

Before any of this came the turning point of the season, in September, I was nominated for The FA Coach Scholarship Programme, I was successful and awarded a place on the programme. This involved a mentor, the opportunity to got to numerous events, and improve as a coach. It seemed all of the hard work and hours put in were worth while, and recognised. This opened up a new chapter in my voluntary life. I became a part of Wrekin Juniors Under 11 Girls FC, a team which I think I had a huge impact on, but they also impacted upon me. They enabled me to become a better coach and look at football in a different light. I wasn't just a coach, I was a friend, a teacher and a role model.

Soon after finding out about the Scholarship programme, Team19 was being launch at TCAT (Telford College of Arts and Technology) I was heavily involved with the launch. I gave a speech about how football had influenced me so far. I helped run the whole event and looked over the female side to the opening Team19 event.

In early February [2012] I saw another physio about my knees, this was very positive and I couldn't wait to implement the new exercises. On that same day I travelled to Loughborough Univeristy to be a part of the first ever Youth Sport Trust, National Young Coaches Academy. I was 1 of 20 coaches representing the FA, with 120 other young people representing other sports. The academy was a great success, an amazing learning environment was created so that a mass amount of learning could take place. I came away as 1 of 6 award winner, I gained the 'Organisation Award' for being a positive thinker and reflectr over the 3 day event.

I attended other CPD events over the course of the season, 1 in Swindon with the Scholarship Programme for 2 days. In service events run by Shropshire FA. And I completed the FA Youth Module 1 Award.

By this point the new 3rd Generation sports facility was ready to be opened. Another event which I was involved in, again delivering a speech, running the female event and then closing down the event.

In this part of the blog, I have only given you a few of the events and activities which I was involvd within. I also worked at the Shropshire Olympian Festival, The Shropshire School Games and I'd become a sports maker. This is around May of 2012, I left college with 3 Distinction* [D*D*D*] and an offer from the University of Central Lancashire. Events were already being lined up for the summer. My level 2 coaching course, The FA Football Futures Camp and preparationf for Septmber 2012 for my volunteering to continue in Preston.

Before I unveil my Football Futures Camp blog I want to show how football can give a good and bad side to confidence and improving me as a person. Following the first week of my Level 2, I asked to be taken off the course. This was a week that I really want to try and forget. A week of football which had a detromental affect on my confidence, and opinions of myself as a coach. Clearly I wasn't prepared to be shouted out for a week, to feel smaller than a paper clip. Although I've had many positives within football, it seems that the negatives have been pretty big.

Up 'Til Now #1

Let me take you back to September, 2010. I had just started college, Sports Studies BTEC National Extended Diploma. A new start, a new chance to experience a different level of football, or at least I thought.. 2 weeks in and football was over. Doctors told me to stop playing to reduce the pressure being applied to my knees. The pain was excruciating and clearly this was the best option, physio had already been advised. Please understand, I'm 6 foot tall, a problem was already on the cards.
Well this is where my story begins, I thought that I would be back playing after a short rest period, wrong, 1 month turned into 3, 3 months turned into the year, over 2 years on I'm still not playing.  
However, I didn't give up football like my knees gave up on me. I kept attending training sessions, matches, social events. Through the harshest of weathers, I was always on time, watching. I got more involved with football from watching and giving my opinions, looking to help indivuals. All these hours soon added up, before I knew it, 50-60 hours had been clocked into my brain, soon to be a Football Futures log book. All of these hours counted, and could result in rewards. At the time clocking hours wasn't important, I wanted to be on the pitch. But the longer time went on, the more I recognised how not playing would be a long term idea.
Within college, I soon became a member of the Football Focus Team (FFT), our aim was to increase opportunities for young people to have the chance to get involved within football. Everything seemed to roll into each other at the time, one opportunity lead to the next, my logged hours were increasing drastically every week. This passion and drive to see past my injury has ultimately led me to where I am now.
I continued to be a part of the college women's team and AFC Telford United Ladies as much as I could, looking for new ideas and routes into football. The 2010/11 season was over and I have clocked up just over 200 voluntary hour, a year and a half on I'm above and beyond 650 voluntary hours. The season 2010/11 I missed 1 training session all year, covering 2 teams, I stopped playing 1 week into October.

This season finished on a high, I was managing AFC Telford United Ladies in the Women's Summer League, clearly a mark of where I had progressed onto, an injured spectator, to a coach/manager. Little did I know how my voluntary career would propel over my second college year, and into the future.