13 Feb 2016

St. George’s Park hosts 200 coach mentors

St. George’s Park has welcomed a workforce of over 200 coach mentors from across the game for a series of workshops and coaching sessions, as the programme geared up for 2016.

For the second year in succession, the ‘National Coach Mentor Development Days’ received a fantastic response from a group of 300+ mentors currently working in the English game to develop coaching at the grassroots, as they were joined by 40 FA staff and guests for the two day event last Thursday and Friday.

A packed two days included a coaching session on the Indoor 3G led by National Coach Development Manager, Tony McCallum, followed by five workshops, that focused on keynote addresses with sessions from both staff at The FA and the game’s stakeholders, including Justyn Price from Sport England. Thursday evening also included a presentation to the group from England Under 19s Head Coach, Aidy Boothroyd, who discussed his own mentoring experiences throughout his career.

Les Howie, Head of Grassroots Delivery, and current leader for the FA Coach Mentor Programme, was delighted with the response, and said coach mentoring is a huge area of work for The FA.

He said: “It’s a hugely exciting time to be part of The FA and the two days allowed all our mentors to meet colleagues, share ideas and best practice, whilst celebrating what had a been a successful past 18 months where we have set up the programme to support over 10,000 coaches.”