It isn’t just buses that come in threes – it is also coaches!

As part of the Bobcat’s five year plan, the committee sent three members on a BSUK level 1 Softball Coaching Course.  This is to develop our coaching structure for next year so that we can hold several parallel training sessions to suit the needs of individual players.  

Quentin Young has done a superb job as Coach this year and we are very happy to announce that he has agreed to be Head Coach for the 2012 season.  However, he will be joined by three new assistant coaches Meg Gallahan, Sapin Patel and Kate Page-Smith, who successfully passed the course last weekend. 

                                                             

                                                                      

        Kate Page-Smith                                     Sapin Patel                                         Meg Gallahan

Meg, Saps and Kate were selected to participate in the course due to their dedication to the club, their regular attendance, their leadership and people skills and (for Saps and Kate) in preparation for their new committee roles.  It was also decided that the current coaching structure needed some female influence – which Meg and Kate were very happy to inflict!

The Course was held over two days and was taught by Will Lintern and Liz Knight from BSUK, who were both excellent – very friendly and encouraging while delivering a efficient and informative course.  Their approaches varied – although interestingly they used the same phrases, which I assume are BSUK buzz words.  The Bobcats were also joined by four Leicester Blue Soxs and one Leicester Royal.  It was a great group and we look forward to catching up with them again in the new season.  The course included the following:

• roles & responsibilities of coaches
• working with Children & Young People
• codes of conduct and good practice
• rules and formats
• and game modification, including Teeball

There was also a practical session on the afternoon of the first day, which focused on teaching the essential skills.  This explained how to teach correct technique, fault diagnosis and differentiating for different abilities and ages of players.  At the end of this session each participant had to deliver a 10 minute coaching session to the rest of the group.  This was in preparation for their assessment on the second day.   Needless to say everyone passed with flying colours.  A huge congratulations to Philippe, Paul, Damien, Jacob (from the Blue Sox), Spencer (Royals) and of course to Meg, Sapin and Kate.