YOUNG LEADERS CAMP 2008
The first camp of its kind held at Bradfield College near Reading. A 3 day camp for selected young leaders from netball,
athletics, rugby and gymnastics to improve their leadership skills. We were in
store for 3 full days and one big experience! (...and many freebies!!)
Monday: Arrival Day
Upon arrival we were thrown straight into
team building activities to get to know other young leaders from different
parts of the country and from different sports. More fun games followed in the
evening and climaxed with a talent show.
Tuesday: The Busy Day
What a day this was going to be! The first
group activity gave us ideas into innovative ways to influence young athletes
to become young leaders themselves. This was followed by a psychology workshop
which helped us to think up new ideas of motivating young athletes to take part
and enjoy their sport. However the best was yet to come! Up the hill to our
first netball specific session to be greeted by Sue Hawkins, England Netball
National Coach; ready to run us through our paces of being a successful leader
and coach. Following this we then met Jo Binns, an England Netball player at
present who taught us some new coaching tips. At this point we became aware
why we were given 3 T-shirts at the start of the week – the heavens opened and
we got drenched. That night (after drying out a bit) still in awe of those we
had met earlier we had the team quiz (further attempts at team building).
Wednesday: The Final Day
The final day was to be no rest! Our
workshops for the day included Running a Club and Youth at the Table. Both
gave us a very interesting view on being involved in a committee and all the
background effort in running a club. The final netball specific sessions led
to us meeting Jan Crabtree, head coach of Superleague team TeamBath. From this
session we could see how important planning a session is when a limited
training time is available. We also gained an insight into how to be good
officials and how this is also a very important side of leadership as well as
coaching. A presentation then followed to round the camp off. However a quick
exit needed to be made to ensure I was able to play the final netball match for
Tibberton at Shifnal in the Secal Laser League. Reading to Shifnal can be done
in 2 hours 35 minutes!
All in all the camp was a brilliant
experience; I was able to meet new people from varying sports, learn new
coaching techniques, meet some influential netball faces and be proud to be a
Young Leader! Tibberton Netball Club offers great support to up and coming
leaders, so why not see how you can get involved? I strongly recommend that you
take the opportunity to go on the Young Leaders Camp if you get the chance.
Finally the overall message we gained from the camp was...
“DON’T
HOLD BACK – GO FOR IT!!”
By Rachel Massie