Sunday the 7th August saw the third annual Central Region Coach Development Day with around 100 coaches gathered to take in some new ideas and sessions from the presenters despite the rain.

The morning session was led by Pat Bonner, former Celtic and Republic of Ireland Goalkeeper, who stressed the importance of including all the players on the pitch, including the goalkeepers, building from small 4 v 2 games right through to the 11 a side game.  After a  short question and answer session, the coaches had a break for lunch and to do some important networking with the other coaches who had come from across the regions. 

In the afternoon was a session by Gordon Craig from Coerver Coaching who demonstrated the importance of ball mastery and how these techniques could be worked into coaching sessions.  Gordon also works at the Scottish FA Performance School based at Graeme High in Falkirk and has been able to see this in action with the players there.

Among the coaches in attendance were a group undertaking the continuous professional development needed to retain coaching licenses issued by the Scottish FA with Peter Houston, Assistant Scotland Manager and Manager of Dundee Utd among the number taking part.

Thanks go to the players on the day who came from the Scottish FA Central Region School of Football based at Braidhurst High School in Motherwell. 

The coaches who attended found it very informative and hopefully they will be inspired at their sessions for the season ahead.