When April came, so did more country town visits.
WSA spent the week on the road travelling to Esperance, Kalgoorlie, York and Albany. Over 3000Kms of travel and each town benefitted from the coaching services provided by the academy.
Starting in Esperance, we were welcomed by the locals. Over 50 juniors and coaches got involved in sessions that gave them both skill development and confidence in their hockey, whether it be with the juniors in their learning of new essential skills or the coaches with how to deliver a inspiring session throughout the year. We also tasted the local fish produce which was definitely a taste worth visiting again.
We then travelled due North to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. We were greeted with over 50 juniors wanting the same type of session we delivered less than 12 months ago. We mixed up our essential skills session with a few mini games and specialty skill sets. The photographer on site came a field and took many photos of the event which are now available to see on the Woodhouse Sports Academy facebook page. We also put the coaches under pressure by taking them in a beginner coach classroom session, explaining the new ideas in hockey and encouraging them to share idea as coaches rather than keeping a tunnel vision approach. We challenged them to delivering skills in front of their fellow coaches ensuring them confidence when delivering it to their juniors.
York was next in line. Another 30 odd juniors joined the roadshow and experienced the skill based session. All juniors worked hard and by Day 2 had improved their skills. Coaches also took part in a two day coaches course by spending the first night in the classroom running through the technical requirements of coaching then attended a practical session supervised by WSA coaching staff. Each coach was given a small group and were allocated a skill to teach. It was done on a rotation basis, so all coaches, coached all juniors, teaching their allocated skill. The WSA staff were onsite to assist and provide feedback to the learning coaches. It was a very effective way to run this and a even better as all 11 coaches who attended now will gain their Beginner Coach accreditation through HockeyWA and Hockey Australia.
The last venue was Albany. Two days again of intense training and developing juniors and coaches. Only a short visit, with 6 hours of coaching for juniors and 2 hours of coaches. The coaches also took opportunity to take part in one of the sessions to be assessed as part of the beginner coach accreditation.
In May, we travel to Kojonup and a club in Bunbury called Towns South. This will complete the roadshow visits until June/July when we revisit a few towns that have already invited us back to run another session.