The inaugural Northern Coaches’ Conference 2016 was held at Leeds Beckett University on Wednesday 14th September - and what a truly inspiring day it turned out to be.
Around 100 LTA accredited coaches of all levels walked through the doors of the Great Hall at Leeds Beckett University; each mainland northern county was represented with coaches travelling as far afield as Carlisle, Newcastle and the Wirral.
With a full schedule of industry-changing speakers sharing their insight into this year’s theme ‘Changing Beliefs’, our northern coaching workforce were able to learn from the very best, develop new ideas, network and ultimately take practical ideas back to their coaching programmes. The speakers from the day captured the audience with their level of knowledge and ability to engage and inspire.
Simon Wheatley, LTA Resource Development Manager, opened the conference with an insightful presentation entitled ‘World Junior Player Levels and Implications for Very Young Players’. This was then followed by 4 workshop rotations, each with specifically tailored content based on coach feedback from our LTA Spring Forums. Each of these sessions were carefully designed to give attendees a bitesize look into how coaches can utilise a variety of new concepts, opportunities and technology within sport at any level.
2016’s Workshop Rotations included:
- Video Analysis/Technology Support for Coaches (presented by Andy Bedford)
- Marketing-:The Use of Digital Platforms (presented by Kacy Mackreth)
- Fuelling Performance (presented by Louise Sutton)
- Streamline Your Coaching Business for the Digital Age: ClubSpark (presented by Rob Ratcliffe, LTA)
The air of excitement at the conference built further when guest speaker Malcolm Brown MBE took to the stage. Brown enchanted the audience with his vast coaching experience and down to earth style of presenting, discussing ‘Creating excellence in your own backyard’. Malcolm Brown has worked in universities and teaching for 35 years and coached evenings, weekends and holidays for the past 30 years - something our workforce can relate and aspire to. He currently coaches at the Leeds Triathlon Centre which had 5 athletes selected for the Rio Olympic Games these included Gold medallist Alistair Brownlee, Silver medallist Jonathan Brownlee, Bronze medallist Vicky Holland and 4th place Non Stanford. Since 2006 he has coached, with Jack Maitland, the Brownlee brothers. Previously, he held coaching posts with British Athletics.
On behalf of LTA North, we would like to say a huge thank you to all of the coaches that attended for your continued support and effort into helping grow the game of tennis in our region.
Please pencil in the next Northern Coaches Conference on Thursday 14th September 2017* (6 credits included) for another fantastic opportunity to upskill and network with the best.
*This date is subject to change