Our latest Coaches Club event took place at the Forest Sports Zone on Friday 23^rd March, when 45 Nottingham coaches were put through their paces by two coaches from Nike.

Jon Phillips and Dan Holloway are both UEFA B Licence coaches who work full time for Nike. They deliver coaching sessions for Nike partner clubs and County FA’s up and down the country, and we were really pleased that they found time to visit us in Nottingham.

It was a great turn out, considering it was held at 8pm on a Friday night, especially considering that England were facing the Netherlands at the same time. It just goes to show how the coaches club has gripped the attention of the coaching public in the county.

A number of the coaches rolled back the years and put on their mainly black boots, and were put through their paces by Jon and Dan. They started with a couple of arrival activities, and moved on to some 1v1 practices. They looked at possession and support play, including movement to support.

They finished with a 3 team, 3 goal finishing game, which was really competitive and went down a storm with the players.

There was some great discussion between the coaches, all of them considering how they would change the practices to make them suit the age and ability of their players. Jon and Dan gave a great insight into how this can be done.

There was a wide range of coaches from a number of our grassroots clubs, to non-league coaches from step 6 clubs, and one well know experienced coach from a step three club in Northamptonshire.

A really enjoyable evening for us and all of the coaches involved. We are sure that there were a few stiff and aching muscles on Saturday morning, but hopefully it was worth it.

Many thanks to Jon and Dan for delivering a great session, and to all of the coaches who came along. If you want to find out about our upcoming Coaches Club CPD events, then click on the CPD article in March’s newsletter.

Becoming a Nike partner club brings a wealth of benefits for clubs, including deals on kit and bursaries clubs can use to fund courses for their coaches. We managed to speak with Nike, who said: ‘The Nike Partner Club program was launched in 2013 and was created by Nike in collaboration with The FA. The goal of the program, which is exclusively for Charter Standard Community and Development Clubs, is to raise the standard of Grassroots football across the country. Nike’s investment supports a primary FA National Game objective – increasing the number of licensed coaches in England. To this end, each summer Nike Partner Club host workshops and events at St. George’s Park that focus on best practice for club coaches and officials.’

If you want to find out more about the Nike Partner club scheme, get in touch with Notts FA Business Development Manager Ricky Stevenson. Drop him and email to Ricky.Stevenson@NottinghamshireFA.com