11 Oct HUDDERSFIELD TOWN FOUNDATION FACILITATES FOOTBALL COACHING IN CHINA!

Two members of the Huddersfield Town Foundation coaching team spent their summer coaching youngsters in China.

Lewis Smith and Adam Rawlings, from the Huddersfield Town Foundation jetted to Guangzhou, China on Saturday 13 July 2019 for seven weeks, with the aim to deliver modern English football coaching styles and techniques to the local children.

The Huddersfield Town Foundation teamed up with Huddersfield Town 100 Business club partner Fired Up to deliver the football coaching programme for children in China.

Fired Up have a large manufacturing presence in Nantou, Zhongshan, and therefore help support the local community and take responsibility for areas in which they operate by promoting young talent.

The coaching provided children with a platform to be individual, expressive and creative, while ensuring enjoyment was at the forefront of each session!

Over 250 children attended the daily sessions which each focused on a variety of football techniques and the psychological and social aspects of the sport.

Week one focused on the children gaining an understanding of the rules of football, building relationships between the children and the coaches and most of all having fun.

The second week delivered area specific sessions, such as, passing, dribbling and shooting, to give the children a further understanding and experience of different skills used in football. Week three continued this to develop the difficulty of the sessions by putting these specific techniques into phases of play.

Week four and five focussed on the core skills vital to the footballing game. The children started to show phenomenal signs of improvement during these weeks through a deeper understanding of the structure and content within each of the sessions.

This enabled the children to have more ownership during the sessions, where they had the opportunity to officiate fixtures.

Children who had shown good engagement, effort and attitude throughout the coaching course were selected to take part in an organised fixture against the local school team, Nantou Junior Middle School. This provided a fantastic opportunity for the children to have a matchday experience with tactical information and for the first time, to play as a team.

During the final week the children prepared for the World Cup Tournament which took place during the summer camps closing ceremony.

The closing ceremony presented a celebration to the previous six weeks where lots of Huddersfield Town memorabilia was gifted to the children who had shown good effort, attitude, ability and helpfulness throughout the coaching camps.

This included medals for the winning tournament teams, certificates, Huddersfield Town signed shirts and footballs!

The event closed with all children and their families invited to a feast after the closing ceremony, where the Huddersfield Town Foundation coaches gave a presentation on their experience over the summer camps’.

Lewis Smith, Huddersfield Town Foundation Coach, commented:

“This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life both personally and professionally!

“To experience so many positive moments in such a short space of time was incredibly rewarding and I hope the children and many wonderful people I met along this journey can say the same thing.”

Huddersfield Town’s Commercial Director, Sean Jarvis, added:

“We are delighted to send two of our Town Foundation coaches out to China. Fired Up are great supporters of the Club and we are grateful for the opportunity.

“We know that they also have a large presence in the Nantou area, so it is great for us to give something back to that local community.

“Being a part of the programme also allows us to continue growing the Huddersfield Town brand on a worldwide scale which is a fantastic opportunity for us as a club.”

Richard Kaye, Managing Director at Fired Up, said:

“Fired Up take very seriously the responsibility we have to the areas in which we operate and are proud to support Huddersfield Town and the coaching programme in Nantou.

“We believe in promoting talent and are excited to be a part of this programme’s ongoing success.”