Under Will Feebery, The Coaching Development Officers have also been instrumental in training a number of volunteers to become accredited part-time Trainers and Coach Educators. More than 84 Trainers and 489 Coach Educators have been trained, providing the infrastructure and workforce to deliver high quality coaching courses within each CBs and region.
The number of Club Coaching Coordinators (CCCs) has reached 817. The deployment of our eight regional officers has enabled much closer tracking and support for these volunteers who are key to ensuring that adult, youth and mini/midi coaches have coach education opportunities within their clubs.
To support the development of coaches, a range of coach development workshops have been produced and delivered across the country. These workshops help provide coaches with the opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of the technical, tactical and psychological aspects of rugby, as well as lifestyle requirements and coaching process skills.
In addition to the 6,874 coaches attending qualification courses, almost 11,500 coaches and teachers attended this type of coach development workshop. A key addition to this year’s programme has been the provision of 16 Teacher Development Days supported by Rhino and the Daily Mail. These events, primarily held at schools, and during term-time,
provided teachers with the opportunity to observe high quality coaching themes, based around developing school rugby.
Since September, the coaching department has undertaken a series of workshops around the country to review the services and resources provided to the game.
The workshops also provided the opportunity to consult upon the Coach Licensing proposals, whereby all coaches would be licensed by the RFU. The feedback has led to a revision to the final recommendations which reflect the aspirations of providing a high quality coaching workforce, (volunteer and paid) and the need to ensure the scheme is easily administered.
The familiar adage that without officials there can be no game is one that the RFU has wholeheartedly embraced and in 2006/07 a great deal of work was done to ensure that properly qualified referees are available at every level.
A significant shift in the training of community referees saw the National Foundation Certificate (NFC) replaced by the Entry Level Referee Award (ELRA), a three stage award designed to equip new and inexperienced referees with many of the skills required of a newly qualified referee. No less than 27 Referee Trainers were recruited nationwide to ensure the delivery of the new award at a consistently high standard. The Mini/Midi course was also updated and is now available both as a stand alone
More than 84 trainers and 489 Coach Educators have been trained, providing the infastructure and workforce to deliver high-quality courses
