Reflection and change are probably the two most overused words at this time of year. But reflecting, setting new goals and changing for the better, whether its on 1st January or 11th August doesn’t matter, its almost always a good thing to do, so we’ve been at it as well!
Rather through coincidence than by design the New Year sees the relaunch of our Club with our academy programme beginning again on 10th January. All of our coaches are really excited to get to work.
When we set the Club up in 2012 we had a vision and a goal that we wanted to achieve over a 3 year time frame. The only way to achieve this meant ruffling feathers, pushing for recognition, selling ourselves, selling the sport, pushing the boundaries and at times being controversial. We upset a few of the old ‘fixed mind set’ brigade locally and others whose agendas didn’t align with ours. We played the politics game when we needed to as well. All of the things that need to be done to set up a business and establish a strong brand identity in a short time frame. We achieved what we wanted, more than we expected in truth, but it took an almighty effort from a lot of great people. In doing so we took the Club and the sport locally to new levels. Yet even with all the praise and attention, on reflection, the only real reward for all of that effort was in seeing the development of the players and coaches, particularly in our academy programme.
So, we are moving into a new era for the Club. We’ve set new goals, ones that align with what we have discovered we enjoy doing the most – developing players and coaches. And ironically this aligns with the way the sport is being developed nationally – organic growth. If we and others like us progress along this track then over the next 10-20 years Futsal will finally get the attention it deserves.
We have already set the wheels in motion on this and have launched two initiatives for January 2016.
Coaches Corner
This is a new dedicated area for Football and Futsal coaches on our website to access Futsal specific information and resources. Click here to register. Much of the content is in the process of being added but we’ve set up the document library which allows anyone, and yes that includes you, to sign up for free and access and share Futsal coaching practices and session plans.
Its purpose is two fold, firstly its a coaching resource tool. We want as many people as possible to be using this so that we can develop and grow our knowledge of the game together. There is also a forum to discuss the practices and session plans or anything Futsal related. Secondly, its a development aid for our own coaches. We have recognised a real fear amongst many grassroots football coaches locally to embrace the game. There is a lack of access to English written resource on Futsal and that puts people off coaching the sport. So as a Club we aim to attract people who want to coach, we give them 6 months practical experience as an assistant with one of our academy teams and they use the document library as a written resource to aid their development.
The aim is by the end of 2016 to have built up a comprehensive library and Futsal guide for British coaches to access for free. Please sign up, invite your friends and upload any resources you want to share with the community.
New representative teams
Today we have sent out the invites to the players we want in our new look representative teams. We will be launching more teams and Futsal classes as and when we have the coaches ready to take on the sessions so don’t worry if you were involved last year and haven’t had an invite yet. The sessions launching in January are different to what we have had previously, the players we have selected are grouped on technical ability to ensure they get the most from the sessions. Our teams will be offered more competitive opportunities than they have had in the past which will inevitably mean more travel but it will be worth it. We are really looking forward to watching them develop over the next few years.
Finally, if your new years resolution is to get involved in grassroots sport and you want to try out coaching Futsal then please get in touch with us, we have opportunities for you.
Happy New Year to you from everyone at Carlisle Futsal Club.
