Young Leaders' Camp 2011
Every summer a group of over 140 youngsters get together for a very special camp which teaches them to how to become better coaches and leaders. The activities range from sports specific sessions to more generic workshops such as the ‘Sports Leaders UK, Teaching Values Through Leadership’ seminar or the ‘Running a Club’ workshop. Expert tutelage from guest speakers such as Sue Hawkins, and International Umpire, Gary Burgess help to encourage the young leaders as they are provided with the best advice around.
With England Netball being a vehement supporter of the Young Leaders Camp, Alex Sexton headed down to Bradfield College to find out what happens on a typical day. The camp has been running annually over the previous four years and lasts for four days, this year it started on Sunday 14th and concluded on Wednesday 17th August. We joined up with the team on the Tuesday, so at this stage the campers were well and truly settled in, with the banter flying around. Netball wasn’t the only sport represented as Gymnastics and Athletics also had a strong contingent of young, eager leaders.
The purpose of the Young Leaders Camp is to deliver an inspirational leadership opportunity for young people aged 16-19 years and to train those young leaders in a number of areas of the game, using them as long-term advocates and volunteers within Netball Clubs. The young leaders at the camp are interested in developing into high performing coaches, officials or administrators and are not dissimilar to young athletes who are striving to become high-level performers. They need strong dedication, a desire and commitment to personnel excellence with solid leadership and communication skills. Upon arrival we entered the Sports Hall to find one of the workshop leaders berating a group of youngsters and telling them contradictory instructions. Thankfully, this was just a practical exercise in the Sports Leaders workshop detailing how badly coaches can come across if they are rude, abrasive and unassertive. It seemed to work too as the smiling faces were absorbing a lot of information and could now easily determine what attributes make up a poor coaching style.
The next activity was a netball focused coaching session from a familiar face in the form of Emma Blackmore, Regional Excel Coach for London and the South East. This was aimed at testing out some fun, inventive games that the leaders could take away and share. This would help the participants to not only remain interested, but to also help them develop some key netball skills. A crazed hour and a half ensued with all sorts of mayhem spread over three courts with relentless energy being shown as leaders attempted all sorts of running drills and shooting games under the expert guidance of Emma. The young leaders left the session exhausted but full of praise for the way that coaching can be creative, enjoyable and still focused on essential training techniques.
At half past 12 we headed to the Dining Hall, and it was here that the grandiose surroundings of Bradfield really hit home. The hall was like something from Hogwarts with its big stained glass windows, old fashioned timber support frames and wooden benches as seating. It was one of the more impressive places to take in lunch. It was also here that the camaraderie and feel good factor of the camp was really shown. All morning I had witnessed groups of young leaders walking around with large flags of varying countries and had assumed it was part of a challenge, but at lunch all was revealed. At the start of the Camp the youngsters were split into groups, six from each sport of Netball, Gymnastics and Athletics. The reason behind this was to concentrate on teamwork and communication skills but to do so in an approachable environment. Each group was given the flag of a country to have hosted the Olympics and would be known as the city in which the Games were held.
At sporadic points during lunch each team, who were sat together, burst into song with creative chants promoting the city they were representing. Athens, Moscow and Barcelona were particular favourites. I was also informed that later in the evening they would be competing against each other in a talent contest too. The energy of these guys was amazing! The next session was classroom based as the young leaders from Gymnastics, Athletics and Netball gathered for a variety of quick fire introductions ranging from spreading the word of London 2012 to managing an event and dealing with problems that arise from coaching.
The only missing ingredient was umpiring, cue England Netball’s very own international umpire, Gary Burgess. Having taken charge of the Commonwealth Games and World Championships final, there was nobody better qualified to talk to the group about umpiring than Gary. The group were given a crash course in some of the more important and essential parts of umpiring. Utilising games as a way to get the rules affirmed, the young leaders started by looking at distance and stepping in. Gary imparted his wisdom and gave some insight to the group about how different international players attempt to bend the rules to their advantage. To the delight of the girls, the next activity concentrated on contest or contact. Suddenly balls were being thrust into the air and all manner of high jinks were breaking out with elbows, arms and shoulders flailing on court as the umpires had to make a choice as to how fair the challenge for the ball was.
Last up was match practice with Gary overseeing the umpiring and looking for strong, firm and direct decisions from those with the whistles. Footwork and contact were being regularly called as the group grew into the idea of controlling the game and making the calls. The session concluded with a question and answer round with Gary, and the hot topic was replaying or repossessing the ball. The young leaders disputed the grey areas around the subject, including whether a defender could deliberately be playing the ball and claiming it as accidental. Luckily, Gary has pretty much seen everything in his time as a top level official and could at least give the young leaders the tools to manage situations even if they are not always black and white.
Speaking with some of the youngsters, you could see exactly why an event such as this has great appeal. Not only do they get to interact with their peers and pick up invaluable advice about developing their leadership skills, but they really come into their element with the Netball specific training. It is a case of learning these skills while keeping the enjoyment element in the camp. Being able to interact with key figures like Gary, Emma and Sue Hawkins, who had given the girls a lesson on the previous day, provides fantastic insight for the young leaders and encourages them to progress further in the sport and hopefully go on to becoming invaluable and integral figures themselves.
It also has to be noted that the average age of the staff at the event is 21 and that 90% of these guys are voluntary. We always put great emphasis on volunteers and once again they have helped make a genuinely worthwhile and memorable event. After the session with Gary it was time for dinner and Talent Show preparation. The day finally came to a close at 11pm as the youngsters were given a well-deserved break with a disco after the Talent Show. Unfortunately, having witnessed the action close up, the ending of the day with 2 hours dancing was far too much for us to take so we left the Young Leaders to it. Oh, Sydney won the Talent Show, if you were interested.
To gain an inside perspective on the Young Leaders Camp we asked some of the volunteers, leaders and mentors on what the YLC means to them. Some of the responses we had back are shown below:
Quotes from Young Leaders:
"The Young Leaders Camp 2011 was an amazing opportunity to help people who wanted to improve their leadership/coaching/umpiring skills! It really helped me a lot in gaining confidence which i lacked in before and giving me an idea of what i could actually achieve and how i could go about achieving it. Thank you to all of the leaders, graduate mentors, organisers, photographers and everyone else who made the camp possible!"
"It was an absolutely immense feeling, making new friends, learning new skills that we could take away, and basically being able to improve! The amount of support we got was incredible and really did help me! I now have a better idea of the journey that I want to take, and have come away with plenty more ideas and games that I can take to my club to make the sessions more fun."
"Thank you everyone for this sensational opportunity! i would love to be back next year, especially as a volunteer so that i can pass on the wonderful feeling and sense of achievement that i got this year to others who are as passionate about sport as i am! you definitely made my summer, if not my year!"
"Young Leaders Camp is the most amazing experience anyone can have. You only realise how much you've learnt when you get home, because all the time you're there you having fun and don’t realise. The camp made me gain so much confidence and experience!"
Quote from Team Leader:
"Applying for YLC in 2009 was the best decision that I could have made, and I thank England Netball for letting me on the camp. I learnt so much in the few days and coming back in the past 2 years as a team leader has taught me so much more. I have seen that the quality of volunteers has grown since being on YLC, and it is amazing to be part of that!"
Quote from Rebecca Skinner, Children and Young People Manager at England Netball:
"Whilst the news is often full of negative reports about young people most recently with the rioting, here we have 50 young netball leaders who are freely giving up their time to develop and support netball within their local community and schools. These young leaders are a true inspiration and an absolute credit to England Netball. Working with a group of people that have so much enthusiasm, energy and a real desire to learn and improve is a pleasure. I am so pleased that England Netball has been able to offer them a unique learning opportunity which has helped to support and grow them as young leaders. I very much look forward to working with them all in the future."