I was a bag of excitement prior to any delegates arriving, looking forwards to catching up with old friends from National Camp 2 years ago, seeing tutors and workshop leads who I haven't seen for a while - and just being a part of the event.
The SMG finished off and ran through the opening presentations before anyone arrived, making sure we all knew our lines, jokes and messages. Rooms were set up and tutors started arriving. I think we were ready! Like any Football Futures event, it was run by young people, for young people - and this one was no different.
Day 1 of the conference involved a number of workshop including media, sports science, futsal refereeing pathways, setting up a football business, life after university, football Mash Up and Street Games. Delegates got the choice of 3 of these workshops.
The first workshop I was in was around Sports Science delivered by John Brewer, a professor from the University of Bedfordshire, the workshop looked at the differences between technology in football today compared to 1988. How things have changed! There is so much more player analysis and technology to improve player performance. The question is, has this technology and sports science actually made a difference. If we look at outcomes, England got further in the 1988 World Cup with minimal technology, compared to this year not even getting out of the group! The question to the group was, what will sports science look like at the 2038 World Cup? Some mad answers came up, performance analysis will have made it to grassroots football, possible drugs which can improve players, micro-chips within players to track performance even closer. I think that sports science will go full circle, by the time we get to 2038 there will be less technology, just a couple of necessary things. The world will come to realise how much technology we have and don't need!
The only negative to come out of the workshop was that John was the person who created the 'bleep' test, or multi-stage fitness test. Now I know who to blame so many depressing PE lessons on at school!
We then had lunch! A great time for me to catch up with some old friends, share stories and have a right old laugh... #TeamSarah2
Being the model students, the SMG left lunch early to make sure everything was set up for the afternoon, so much so, all delegates were sat down in their workshop before the session leads had found the right building.
I was sat in with Ted Grizzell who delivered a session around creating a football business. Ted has progressed through the Football Futures Programme, and is now managing director of ZigZag Coaching and sporting director of Malvern Town FC. Sitting in 2 executive positions, it would be hard to believe that Ted's like for business started when he was a school boy, setting up a sweets shop based in his own locker.
Ted went through some of the processes he has taken to get his business to where it is. The thing with starting up a business is you need an idea and the resources to do so, it's not something which can happen over night.
4 questions / points of starting a business which Ted put together were:
1. It starts with an idea, which can be limitless, raw and without any real direction.
2. To take this idea forward, what skills do you have?
3. Who can help? You cant do it all alone, and to be a success you need to invest in the right partners.
4. Where is the demand?
A key line which was used during the presentation was 'Be different or be better.' I think that hits any walk of life, but especially when starting up a business. Why will someone go to you, and not the next person along? What makes you different? Why are you better?
My final workshop of the day was with Selena Creighton looking at life after uni. A workshop of which I wasn't sure what to expect. A key part of the workshop was around 'being visible.' I don't mean wearing high-vis jackets, but on social media. You are your own brand, what is it that you're portraying.
The first task was to describe our own brand with the 6 words, skills, qualities which we would want to be giving. I struggled to get to 6 and ended up with 5 words - approachable, trustworthy, reliable, realistic and experienced. I'd like to think those are words which I do portray in everyday life, but after uni, when applying for jobs, how do you prove that? What ways do employers use to find out about possible employees? The answer, social media.
Sometimes we don't think about the person we are showing through social media, is the on-screen character, the same as the person behind the screen? For those up to the challenge, we loaded up our Facebook profiles and passed the device onto someone else. It was for them to decide whether or not our profile pages paralleled the 6 words we associated with our brand. I had no idea this task was coming, but it turned out that my words were true.
Maybe that was luck. But it showed us to be visible for the right reasons. What do you want other people to see and think about you? Looking at the image of the triangle on the left, you can see I have split it into 3 areas. The top part of the triangle is what is visible, your behaviours, what you're seen to be doing. The middle part, your technical competencies, the skills you have and can perform, they aren't always on show, some are depending upon the situation. And then at the bottom, the largest part but the least visible to the naked eye, your personal characteristics. However much these are the most important part of you being you, you cant how them through a pictures or what you do on the social media platform. It is these behaviours which are the key area. You have to be careful of what you are portraying because of who is watching. Your social media profile soon becomes the real you for people who don't know you.. what do you want to be seen as?To end the day was our key note speaker, Stuart Attwell. A football league referee with premier league and international experience. It was my job to introduce him. Stuart spoke about how being a referee can help to increase the chances of you being employable, the transferable skills which have help him along the way.
I cant really comment on the presentation as I was in a discussion outside. Having a catch up with Ted, reminiscing in Football Futures memories and some which will be coming in the near future!
Following a game of dodge-ball and tea, there was a table tennis tournament. I did what I do best, sat on my laptop doing work. But it was so enjoyable to sit talking with new people, hearing their stories and what they get up to.
Day 2!
Another early start for the SMG, checking out and then arriving into breakfast early. Hopes of a full food hall were diminished, as the odd trickle of students fell through the door... however they all made it our of bed and on time to their courses. Classrooms were soon filled up with resources and flipchart paper and our tutors! The 4 FA courses running were, A beginners guide to futsal - run by Karl Lines, Coaching Disabled Footballers - run by Pete Collins, Small sided refereeing - run by Marc Bikett and Mentoring Adults - run by John Heathcote.
Always fun when you know all of the tutors from previous events and experiences, I think that says a lot about my journey so far!
I was in the mentoring adults course with John. A course which I have done parts of at the Youth Sport Trust's National Young Coaches Academy. But as times change, so do you as an individual. So it was interesting to see how my thoughts had changed.
The primary theme of the course was around mentoring coaches. How can we look to be effective mentors? To begin with we discussed previous mentoring experiences we've had either a mentor or as a mentee. I'm fortunate to have been in both seats. Mentoring at the NYCA, in Rwanda and a few young leaders who have looked for help. But I have also been mentored, as a coach, when in Rwanda and with the National Youth Council.
Then came out the jigsaws, as a team we had to build our jigsaw. For every 10 pieces put in, we could write down a skill/quality which we think makes up an effective mentor. My team were first to build the puzzle, but we soon came stuck when nailing down specific qualities.
A lot of things come to down to personal preference, how do you like to learn, how do you like to be taught. We went through a task of looking through the window, and then looking into the mirror. Are we portraying the person which out club/ environment needs?
Further tasks involved watching video clips of a mentoring session, how they could work. The format of questioning and working from a broad spectrum into something quite narrow. We then watched a couple of coaching session and used an observation format to critique what we saw. This practiced worked us up to a bit of role play. Looking at how we'd mentor others. The route we would take to helping someone out.
The key points looked at being open, not cross armed and up tight, paying full attention to what's being said, having good eye contact and asking the right questions.
A technique of 'funnelling' came up. Starting off the conversation very open and broad, and then working your way into the specifics, which when working with a coach could be the next steps of future developments.
As John put it during the course, 'At the end of the day it's about working with people to get the best out of them.' Its about working together as a partnership, not against each other.
A day full of stories, working with new people and having run soon drew to a close we the closing ceremony followed.
My role was to go through the key learning points, which is quite difficult. Everyone will have taken something different from the 2 days. Nobody wanted to share their thoughts out loud, but from the conversations I've had - the 2 days certainly influenced and inspired an number of the delegates.
My key messages were, 'Be different or be better' as Ted said on day 1. And that Football Futures is all about people and helping them to be the best they can be. In that room were people from all over the country with different experiences, make the most of them.
To finish off a class 2 days we watched The Kid President and his Pep Talk video [link below] which perfectly pushes our key messages. Be awesome, make a difference and work hard to make a difference.
If I didn't think the event could get any better, Prathiv Kholia - BUCS Football Co-ordinator offered me a place to be on his SMG formally next season . After applying and not making it this season, the offer shows what can happen when you work hard and prove your worth. I'm still deciding, but I'm overwhelmed at the offer.
A fantastic experiences with some unbelievable people. Friendships which have developed over the 2 days, and a new look on delivering events.
Huge thank yous from me to Storma, Ollie Selfe, Heather Smith, Amy Clayfield, Pietro Palladino and Sarah Fulcher - Arnold. The dream team who worked incredibly hard to make the event what it was. To our tutors, who created a fantastic learning environment and have certainly positively influenced a whole cohort of students. And to the delegates who showed a top level of enthusiasm and willingness to learn.
I think we all need A Pep Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o
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