BSc Football Coaching & Performance students joined Port Vale F.C. Foundation Trust for their recent Coach Development Event
The first-year cohort of the BSc Football Coaching and Performance course were invited by Tom Sheratt, Head of Port Vale Foundation Trust, to visit Vale Park and participate in their in-house Coach Development Event for sports coaches.
The day started early for the students with an 8.30am meet at the Roy Sproson statue (popular player from the 1950’s and 60’s) directly outside Vale Park in Burslem. The first action of the day was to shake off the effects of the -2 degrees Celsius temperature with warm refreshments. After a short while meeting and greeting the club coaches and coach educator, the in-house training event started in earnest. The students were purposefully mixed with the club and community coaches to ensure that there was a variety of backgrounds and experiences to draw upon in the subsequent activities.
The activities on the day all revolved around effective coaching and how coaches can add their own ‘flavour’ when coaching. Coaching is a social activity, conducted in teams, and it always benefits to have the coach put their own stamp on what they do, making it unique and personal to themselves, whilst also focusing on the needs and development of the participants. The students enjoyed the coach development session, which was delivered by Tom Peever, F.A. Coach Educator, particularly because of the insight that it provided to students surrounding the type of CPD training they may have to undertake when they graduate from the course and gain employment in a football club. This was invaluable for the students and only provides them with more knowledge of the inner workings of a football club.
The final part of the day was organised by Tom Sheratt exclusively for the group, it involved the students watching the academy train, followed by a tour of the stadium. With a lot of the students being fans of ‘The Valiants’, this was perhaps the best part of their day, week or even month! Feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive, Casey Wilson of the BSc Football Coaching and Performance course said, “The event was excellent, really enjoyed seeing how coaches are educated once they are actually doing the job. Just wanted to get out there and get stuck in!”, another student on the course, Matt Butler stated, “They are my boyhood club and to attend an event here is nothing short of amazing, I love this club”.
All in all, there were a lot of smiles, a lot of learning and an enjoyable day had by all students (and staff ?). It was nice to see that our students had a positive impact upon Tom, who had these pleasing words to say about our students “It was great to welcome staff and students from Staffordshire University to our coaching development day. A number of students excelled that day and have now taken up roles within our community sessions to gain some vital coaching experience. It’s something we will be looking to do again being impressed with the quality of the students and great to be supporting the students with their degree”.
A great event, thank you Port Vale F.C and Port Vale F.C. Foundation Trust. We look forward to working with you more closely in the future.