The Coaching Manual recently ran a 4-day soccer camp in Glasgow, Scotland in partnership with Blantyre Soccer Academy. The event was a success with nearly 100 players attending each day to learn from some fantastic coaches from TCM and Blantyre SA.
Players aged from 5-15 were put through their paces by the coaching team and were assessed on their skills, how much they improved throughout the week and their overall attitude. On the last day, the top players from each age group were selected and given awards, including entry to the 2024 TopTekkers International Finals in Manchester for the overall best player at the soccer camp.
After speaking to some of the players it was clear that they thoroughly enjoyed the event and would be open to any future camps.
“I’ve learned how to open my body up with space, I’ve learned new techniques for dribbling, for shooting. Overall, it’s been an amazing week.” - Blantyre Academy Player.
The event was designed to give these players an enjoyable football experience but also to improve their fundamental skills and become better players.
“It’s been a hugely successful week, first and foremost the kids have had a great time, with loads of smiles on faces. Every morning the numbers have been really high for the whole four days and the proofs in the pudding, as they say, we’ve had a full compliment of kids back for the last day and they’ve been having a great time and that’s really what matters.”
“We’re here to improve them technically and try and give them something a little bit different with how we do things at TCM with the TopTekkers camps on the grass but all in all we’re here to help the kids improve and really just enjoy the game. ” - Emmet Friars, Pro Licence Coach and Head of UK & Ireland Business Development at The Coaching Manual.
As well as the players receiving a full week’s worth of new coaching and different football activities, the coaches at Blantyre were able to attend a night of coach education with the team from TCM. They were able to pick the brains of our coaching staff and learn some valuable information on delivering sessions, the principles of play and much more.
Head coach at Blantyre Soccer Academy, Kevin O’Neil had this to say about the event: “We believe within our academy, to have good developed players we have to have even better coaches to enhance that coaching structure which we have at the moment. So, it was really good not only to have the camp but also Lee (Fletcher) put on a coaching session, a presentation and then a practical session to enhance the coach development which we have within Blantyre Soccer.”
Leading the event, Lee Fletcher, The Coaching Manual’s Head of Content and UEFA A Licence Coach said: “So all the coaches here are UEFA qualified, obviously different and vast experience from first team football all the way to Junior Foundation Phase football which has been brilliant because the kids have got the opportunity to deal with different types of people in different levels of football. So for them, it’s given them a unique experience to take home and then go and practice.”
Check out the video on our YouTube video about the event here.
Kevin went on to say: “We’re hoping that we can do similar projects like this and we’re also engaged with the TopTekkers format. We’re looking at increasing our coach database and using that to enhance the coaching structure that we have already within Blantyre.”
“It’s been really good the partnership we have with The Coaching Manual and we would endorse it for Blantyre Soccer and I would say to other coaches of similar academies like us to go down that path because it’s been nothing but superb for us.”
For more information about Blantyre Soccer Academy, visit their website here.
If you are interested in getting involved with an event like this in the future please get in touch via - sales@thecoachingmanual.com - or fill out the form below.