However before that I just want to mention an experience that I've had recently! I was given a brilliant opportunity to be a head coach with a FA Schools team recently. After a trail and a couple of training session, the team had their first game, a five hour away trip to start them off. For me from a coaches point of view it is the first team I've been head coach with and this meant that I had to think about things that I never have before llike picking a team and positions. For me this is a massive step and insight into coaching 11 a side teams and county side games. A massive thank you to the county fa for giving me the opportunity and also to the girls who played and trained with a fantastic attitude throughout and made me job as easy as possible and helped me when I needed it.
The long journey we had to make reminds me of the journey I have taken to be the person and coach I am today. It has been long but I am only a very small percentage of the way and am thoroughly excited for the rest of it. This year I feel I have taken massive steps on my pathway through the many amazing experiences I have had and also the people I have met.
It's hard to sum up everything that has happened this year and the effect each one has had on me and also the amount I have learnt. This is the reason I am struggling to write this blog and also write about the county fa schools team because of how new the situation was and how it opened my eyes to a lot of things. (This blog could be quite long if I state everything so will try and cut it down as much as possible). This blog has taken me about a week to write.
This year started with my level 2 fa coaching course which I passed in February this year and from this gained many new opportunities not open to me previously , such as jobs at both the girls and disability ACC's in my county and ofcourse the county schools FA team. As well as this I also visited St George's park for the first time thank to the FANYC and the football futures programme which I have blogged about before so will just skip past although it was a brilliant, once in a lifetime experience
However something I haven't blogged about and should have was our trip to Portugal on a youth exchange focused on sports participation in different countries. This was huge for me, showing me how different countries deal with participation issues and some of the fantastic projects and ideas that other people use to help others around them. Working with in sports inclusion as well as sport coaching elite it really helped with defining the differences between the two and gaining ideas on how to develop our own project and how to best to be inclusive and engaging which is a very important feature with in coaching.
To conclude this year I have also started my sports coaching degree and all the time management techniques I used at college are coming back and I am really enjoying it and finding it very interesting. As well as this I also completed a level 3 teachers qualification which enables me to tutor on courses run by our company with a focus of sports coaching. The relation between coaching and teaching is huge and methods should be inter grated from both and experimented with because both professions could learn a lot from each other.
I also mention two achievements I am very proud of, this year I won 2 awards, both for my coaching. At the FA community awards I won young volunteers of the year having put 300 hours into the football futures programme in two years. Also at the CSP awards I won young coach of the year award for my job at the FA and 2nd Chance. I am extremely grateful, for anyone that nominated me and chose me for the awards. They sit with pride on my desk.
Well that's more or less my year summed up, I just want to say a thank you to anyone that has made this year as good as it has been. I can only see 2015 being bigger and better and I am very much looking forward to it and what's to come.
Thank you for taking he time to read me babble on about my year and a merry Christmas and a happy new year.....the journey continues.
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