Earlier this year, The Coaching Manual invited coaches down to Worksop Town FC to observe the recording of some top quality training content, with a full session delivered by perhaps the pre-eminent coach educator in world football - Martin Hunter.
Coaches of all experience levels were able to learn something from the event, which also featured a 'classroom' session with presentations from Martin, The Coaching Manual, and Worksop Town FC representatives. We spoke to some of those involved on the day about what they learned.
Scott, a grassroots coach from Cardiff, said that attending the event and observing the training session first-hand took him onto 'another level' of his coaching journey.
He said: "It's great to be behind the scenes and see how the professionals do it. You watch some videos online and everything looks too perfect - you see that sometimes it's 'rough and ready', and it's great to see how the coaches come in and correct things."
Laurie Griffin, Worksop Town Academy Director, said: "The event was absolutely fantastic We feel that everybody has taken away something that they will be able to transfer into their practices to enhance the experience of the young players they're working with. I was speaking to coaches on the sidelines tonight and every one has said they've picked up one or two things that they can instantly instil into their practices."
The players who experienced the session also benefited. We spoke to Worksop Town Juniors midfielder Oscar. He said: "It was good having a coach at that level - you can tell he knows what he's doing. He shows you what you need to do for each session and how it works, and how it's going to help you. I took quite a lot from it."
Worksop Juniors Chairman Paul Clarke said: "It's an absolute dream. Having events like The Coaching Manual's here at our facilities is fantastic. Personally I thought Martin's authority over the session was something I wanted to take away for myself."
The event was a hosted at Worksop Town FC by The Coaching Manual, who wanted to showcase live examples of the brand of coach education that it provides to their members every day.
Head of Product Development at The Coaching Manual, Terry Barton, said: "Martin was terrific, as we expected. The way he educated coaches is first class. People enjoyed it, and they all learned something - that was our objective. We had absolute beginners, and we had people who have been coaching 30, 40 years attending. It shows why something like this is important - it gives people a platform, it gives them the ability to ask questions. It changes people's minds about their preconceptions. It's great that coaches can come to an event like this and get that kind of learning in a really positive environment."
And Martin Hunter himself, who delivered the live session and hosted a round of questions and answers to a crowd of well-engaged coaches, thought the event was a success.
He said: "I thought it was a fantastic event, it was a very engaged group of coaches. There are a lot of common denominators from grassroots coaching right up to the top managers and coaches."
The event provided coaches from the local areas and beyond with an opportunity to see first-hand the type of content that The Coaching Manual hosts within its library of broadcast-quality session content, as well as the opportunity to ask questions to the people behind the platform.
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