The Ontario soccer community can now boast the addition of 40 coaches with knowledge of athletes with a disability.
The FA Coaching Disabled Footballers course was held over the weekend at the award winning Abilities Centre in Whitby with coaches representing a wide variety of Clubs and organizations.
Led by FA Tutor Kevin England the course uses a wide range of techniques enabling coaches to share their experience or understanding of soccer for athletes with a disability.
Kevin himself is a full time employee of the Football Association and works daily on the development of the national game and in his spare time works with England national squads for deaf and hearing impaired players. His experience in delivering the course made the shift between UK and Canadian content seamless.
The morning session involves fun discussion around the knowledge of our players and their needs, differences between soccer and soccer for athletes with a disability, problem solving, characteristics of the ideal coach and the 4 Corner Model which features heavily in every FA coaching course.
The afternoon session enabled Coaches to get experience in delivering a small session to a specific disability group including; cerebral palsy, blind, visual impairment, learning disabled and deaf athletes.
Coaches got some great insight into the nuances and uniqueness of the sport when it comes to athletes with a disability and while Coaches loved to experience blind soccer it was the range of ball types that took many by surprise.
A range of ball sizes, colours, textures and sounds can be used to ensure the player gets the most out of a session.
The courses will continue Wednesday February 4th at W.Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in Brantford and Thursday February 5th at the West Ottawa Soccer Club and place are still available.
The courses will empower more Clubs to provide a broader range of programs to their community members and at the same time assist in the scouting of potential national team players for both the Canadian Soccer Associations 7-a-side para soccer program and the Canadian Deaf Sport Associations futsal program.
For guidance on developing your own Club program contact Matt Greenwood.