Over the last few months, MWFA has been sending our Coach Mentors out to visit all of our clubs to provide coaches with guidance and support with their training sessions, as well as occasional match visits. During this time we have come across several examples of coaches who are doing a really great job.
This week we’d like to acknowledge Nilson Barreto and Mike Cornwell who coach the U6 Reef Sharks at Curl Curl, and actually recognise them as our Coaches of the Year!
See this video to check out some highlights of their recent training session, as well as some quick interviews with both coaches and some of the kids!
MWFA Coach Development Manager Eugene Lawrenz said: “The reason we are recognising Nilson and Mike as our Coaches of the Year is because they perfect examples of how to approach coaching at U6 level. They are both super enthusiastic, energetic, patient and encouraging, and the kids respond positively because of this. The run really fun sessions with a lot of action, competition, touches on the ball and scoring goals. They are also good at demonstrating and using Q&A too. It goes to show that even at the beginner level, you can still be really effective as coaches and help your players develop a lot while still giving them an awesome experience, which means even coaches of much older age groups should follow their lead. I’m very confident Nilson and Mike will get even better over the next few years too.“
Well done Nilson and Mike, and keep up the good work!
As a reward and recognition for their efforts, we are also pleased to provide the team with a few special gifts:
- extra training balls, because every coach wishes they had more balls to use so they can do exercises where every player has a ball each to work on their control
- mini goals, because scoring into actual goals always makes training more fun, and finishing is a skill we should encourage players to develop ever more
- a whiteboard, so coaches can help players understand their positions and how to support each other visually, which is much more effective than just using words
MWFA would like to thank all coaches for their efforts this year, and we look forward to hopefully seeing you all again, and continuing to provide our support, in the 2024 season.
