Coaches from as far away as Israel and Spain were at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds recently to take part in the WPBSA World Snooker Community Coach Certificate Course, to achieve the Level One Certificate.

Chris Lovell said: “It was a great day with everyone showing the passion and desire to get involved with the team and support the growth of the game. It was particularly encouraging to see people travelling in from other countries where snooker is flourishing.”

The award is a one-day course aimed at anyone aged 16 and above who wants to take their first steps to becoming a coach and develop their skills to support a qualified coach in their area, or simply have skills and knowledge to organise and develop snooker sessions in their club or school. The one-day course gives you an insight in how to engage people of any age, gender and ethnicity, into the game.

TRAINING AND DEMONSTRATIONS ARE GIVEN ON:
• An introduction to the basics of the game
• How to get involved and support the Cue Zone at televised events
• How to find a club/school and get them interested in supporting you
• How to communicate to people taking part and keep them interested in developing their snooker skills
• How to organise competitions and events
• How to engage participants with bite sized fun games on the snooker table
• Child Protection/Safeguarding
• The Paul Hunter Foundation
• Cue Zone Into Schools including Functional Snooker
• The rules of the game

Venue:
Northern Snooker Centre
92 Kirkstall Road,
Leeds
LS3 1LT
0113 243 3015
www.northernsnookercentre.com

10.00am – Welcome and Introductions
– An overview of the activities of the WPBSA/World Snooker

10.30am – How to develop snooker in your area including
– Setting up your own Cue Zone in your local school or club
– Supporting World Snooker in promoting events

11.00am – How to organise a competition/draw including the issue of various types of draw sheets

11.30am – Making snooker fun, how to use different types of snooker games to engage people of all ages

12.30pm – Lunch

1.00pm – Cue Zone into Schools featuring Functional Snooker

1.30pm – An introduction to the basics- Andrew Highfield

2.30pm – The Paul Hunter Foundation

3.00pm – Child Protection/Safeguarding with Sheffield Park Academy’s Chris Motley

5.45pm – Review and feedback
– Your action plan
– After Course Support

6.00pm – The course concludes.

This one-day course includes all refreshments, including lunch, delivery material to organise events, polo shirt with the community WPBSA logo to wear when delivering sessions or attending events, certificate, WPBSA rules book, full after course support, access to attend (free as part of their membership) the twice yearly coach seminars at the UK and World Championships with other members of the coaching team, together with Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths.

Please note: the achievement of the certificate is through attendance on the day.

The next course will be held at the Northern Snooker Centre on Sunday 31st January 2016, to book your place please contact Lisa Bray on 0117 317 8200 or Click here to download an application form.

The participants said:

‘The course was a great experience and very inspiring. I hope to be able to use it as a platform to further develop youth interest in snooker and support youngsters who want to improve at the game. It was a very enjoyable day.”
Mark Wells

“A fantastic coaching course that is professionally delivered by very knowledgeable people. This course gives you the chance to work with the excellent Cue Zone into Schools and to get the young playing snooker again while learning.”
Mark Pears

“I have to say big thank you for the coaching course last Sunday in Leeds. I especially enjoyed the introduction to snooker basics by Andrew Highfield in the early stages. It was a good starting point on my way to being a well-qualified coach. The little competition between us gave me a nice insight into how to get young people into the game and shows how snooker can by interesting, funny but also dramatic. I went home with new contacts and with really positive motivation for the future. Many thanks.”
Marek Brunovsky

“Thanks for the course, it was a major experience for me and I have learned a lot from it. I can conclude that it helped me put the game and its basics in templates, which makes it easier for my own game and obviously in the future, when teaching others.”
Elena Kurbakova

“I am a great believer in practising what you preach. I personally feel in any coaching/teaching, especially in sport, if you take part and compete in the modern game yourself, then you can therefore demonstrate all those skills and theories ‘live’. It would instil great confidence for both children and parents, to know that the coaching team can not only ‘say’ it but most definitely ‘do’ it!! On the whole, a great stepping stone and I look forward to the next steps!”
Paul Dearing