Empowering Coaches Empowering Players

15 Feb 2021 @ 17:42 GMT

Scottish Touch is embarking on a complete overhaul of its coaching system, starting with an independent review.

Scottish Touch Association is embarking on a complete overhaul of its coaching system, starting with an independent review. The review kicks off a 2-year strategy with ‘empowering coaches empowering players’ at its heart. It will leave Scottish Touch with a fully-fledged coaching development pathway that aids recruitment for coaches, whether it’s for the local school team or to take on the best at the World Cup. 

Since taking on the role of Coaching Development Director, Peter Faassen de Heer has set out a strategy and established terms for the review which will be done in partnership with Napier University and with expertise from Ontario Tech University. He states: 

“We’ve been really fortunate with the coaching talent that we have in Scotland but it’s masked what seems to be a lack of structure and some fundamentals that we don’t do well, or at all. There’s a lot of good practice that we want to retain but it’s also about learning what we don’t have. I’m really excited about the review - the researchers know what to ask based on their coaching experience and literature reviews on what happens elsewhere. We’re also using surveys we’ve conducted in the past and bringing that all together”

The review will take 3 months, partly due to it being a collective effort. Peter says:

I’ve coached referees for years and know Touch as well as anyone but I’m no expert when it comes to coaching players. I’ve had to bring people in and that’s no bad thing because this cannot be about what any one person thinks. This approach will make the system much stronger.” 

The review will include interviews with experts from both inside and outside the sport, as well as focus groups to explore the key elements that should be in the coaching system. Recommendations will be considered by Peter alongside an expert reference group that includes Monica Wallace, Simon Ebbett and Michael Short.