Over 40 coaches witnessed over 2 hours of drills and games that are suitable for adaptation and delivery with players with a disability. The sessions were delivered by Jonny Michael and Alan Crooks from the Irish Football Association, Matt O’Brien and Anton Santos from Queens Park Rangers and Ingo Goetze and Michael Arends from SV Werder Bremen. The playing participants were the Northern Ireland Cerebral Palsy Squad.
The attending Disability Coaches took away a coaching resource that detailed the demonstrated 24 drills and games as well as a set of mini-soccer goals, kindly provided with support from The Departure of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
Alan Crooks, the Development Manager for Disability Football at the Irish football Association was keen to praise all those involved in the project ‘Anything we can do to improve the delivery of football activities to those with a disability across Northern Ireland has to be welcomed. I feel those coaches that attended will have gained some useful tools to assist with delivery with their own groups. The fact we had specialist coaches from renowned European Clubs in QPR and SV Werder Bremen raised the profile and the quality of the Event.
Fergie Baxter, an attending Coach from local Disability Football Club Newtownabbey Kickers, was delighted with the Clinic activities ‘I really enjoyed it. The coaching sessions were great and the drills are something that we will definitely introduce into our club. Thanks for the equipment and for the experience and support’
This is the first in a series of four workshops in partnership between the IFA and FCSA. The vision of the FCSA is “To use the unifying power and values of football to contribute to the education of disadvantaged young people and to sustainably foster their development.” The next workshop will be held in June.