Local coaches attend education workshop

Over 100 coaches from local and grassroots football clubs across south west Wales attended a special education workshop at Swansea City academy this week.

The special session was aimed at providing local grassroots coaches with an insight into the curriculum undertaken at the football club.

Swansea City Chairman Huw Jenkins opened the evening session alongside Academy Manager Nigel Rees, before Swans coaches showcased the club's training methods at Landore.

"The club wanted to give something back to coaches in the community," said Academy coach Roy Thomas. "It gave us an opportunity to show local coaches how we work with our young players on a day-to-day basis.

"Over 100 people attended the workshop and we hope that they have taken the principles about how we coach away with them.

"It is vital we do sessions like this to pass on the knowledge and support to as many grassroots clubs as possible. We are proud of the way things are going at the Academy and we want to pass as much information on as we can."

Coaches from as far as Pembrokeshire, Newport and the Rhondda attended the event and teacher Andrew Jones, who also coaches part-time at Swansea City's Bridgend development centre, thought the workshop offered an insight of how more local coaches can work with young players.

"It has been a superb session," he said. "We have been very impressed with what we have seen. Seeing how the coaches work with their philosophies and the ideas they are putting across to develop young footballers is great.

"I'm very impressed and it's a very professional set-up. There is plenty we can take away to put back into the clubs and young footballers we work with."

Under-8s coach, Anthony Williams, from Talycopa Football Club added: "Some of the training sessions and techniques we have seen have been great. 

"There are things that we never thought of that we can go away and now look to implement with our coaching that can help develop young players.

"Workshops like this are a big help. The skills and knowledge that coaches like myself can gain from this is going to be brilliant to take back to the clubs, and hopefully we can build footballers for the future from the grassroots up."