Earlier this week Water Eaton FC welcomed a team of MK Dons FC Girls Centre of Excellence coaches to host Under-14s and Under-9s sessions.
The team of coaches, including Paul Read, the Centre’s A-Licensed technical director, were on hand to deliver an in-service event for their coaches.
The sessions were a chance for some of the Water Eaton coaches to observe and work alongside coaches currently delivering at the highest level of the female youth player pathway and for the players to have the opportunity to be coached by Centre of Excellence Coaches.
Technical Director Paul Read was on hand to float between the sessions and offer support and advice to the club coaches and to answer any questions from the coaches. He said: “Today was great for myself and our coaches to see the players in a club environment and show their coaches how we approach the sessions for their players. Sometimes it’s as simple as providing them with a few ideas for practices, or just a different way of looking at things to help develop their players.”
The Under-9s took part in a session working on ‘Close Ball Control’, which gave them the opportunity to work on their individual skills, turning and dribbling. This progressed onto passing to team-mates and creating space (as a team and individual).
MK Dons Girls Centre of Excellence coach Holly Skinner said: “It was great to come down and work with Water Eaton FC, it’s always good to work with local grass roots teams helping to provide learning opportunities for both the coaches and players.”
The Under 14s girls worked on a session with the key learning focus of ‘Shooting - where and when and technique to finish’. They did this through a mixture of technical and game based activities with level 3 U15 head coach, Balvinder Shekhon.
Girls and Women’s Development Manager Charlene Ward added: “Seeing so many girls taking part in female football at grassroots level is brilliant, this club has been working hard for the past few seasons and they have been rewarded for this effort after winning Charter Standard Club of the year 2013.
“They are one of a number of local grassroots clubs really leading the way in the girls game as they are working hard to keep bringing in and developing their players and raising the profile of female football, this has been helped by the great work we are now linking up on.
“A number of their players recently attended the Centre of Excellence trials and they have worked with us to develop a number of holiday courses and initiatives in the local area. Their coaches are always open to
receiving CPD from our coaches and doing events like this with such a proactive club is a great way to provide strong links between the club, the Centre of Excellence and the local community.”
Manager of Water Eaton Girls U14’s Mike Kiely helped organise the event and said: “The girls certainly enjoyed the sessions and it was very useful for us as coaches. We look forward to working with MK Dons further.”
