The Top Coaches Programme (TCP) celebrated its latest six graduates in Antwerp last week at a knowledge-sharing seminar of coaches wishing to raise their level of expertise.
The five-day session was the fourth and final session for Ion Camio Lopez (Spain), Olivier Coulon (Belgium), Helly Jelley, Robbie Turner (both England), Tiago Ventosa (Portugal) and Dawid Zimnicki (Poland)
During the seminar, they received sessions on ‘how to work international tournaments’, ‘team tactics’ and ‘goalkeeper integration and identification’ while they also had a special guest talk from Jeroen Baart (who coached Oranje-Rood last season) who offered his perspective from the top of the club game.
At the graduation ceremony, EuroHockey board member Patrick Keusters thanked the group for their dedication across the past two years and wished them the best in their coaching careers.
He also spoke of the network that these coaches now belong to, graduates who coach all across Europe and constantly strive to push one another to develop our sport.
There was also a moment spent thanking the mentors for their hard work, without whom the course would not be possible. Present in Antwerp were Ali Ghazanfar, Sofie Gierts, Sven van der Most, Grahame Mansell-Grace and lead mentor Michel Kinnen, while mentors Jules Halls, Bobby Crutchley and Cedric D’Souza also have helped these coaches on their journeys up until now.
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For Helen Jelley, the course offered her a big boost in terms of her confidence and ambition to expand her horizons. She is a full-time coach, currently the second team coach with Wimbledon Hockey Club while she is director of hockey at the up and coming school Notre Dame and has worked with the England Under-16 girls. Previously, she also coached the British Army hockey team.
“The TCP was hugely valuable for me as a coach, it resets what your values are, where your ethos is coming from and helped find a common ground with other coaches at my level,” she said of the experience.
“I really enjoyed that we could go much deeper into topics like the technical and tactical side of the game, looking at actual current trends and maybe where things will go in the future.”
A key feature of the TCP is bringing together up to 16 coaches each year from diverse backgrounds and sharing their experiences.
“There has been some really insightful conversations but also the ‘cafe chats’ with other coaches has been really cool, a really good environment to share ideas.
“Sometimes when you talk with other coaches [locally], maybe they are literally your competition in a league and some people get a bit touchy about sharing their thoughts. It can be the same on the junior international stage.
“[The TCP] is a really safe environment to delve deeper; coaching can be a little bit lonely in a sense but to actually sit with another coach on the same level of knowledge, it’s almost priceless.”
She also cites some of the unique insights given by those at the top of the game. For example, Max Caldas debriefed on his World Cup experience to the TCP group just three days after the competition in India.
“The insights he gave don’t leave the room but he was really open about how Spain did, how he managed being new to Spain. It was inspiring, thinking about how to adapt to new environments like a new club or if you move countries. It was an inside look which you just wouldn’t get anywhere else.
“Sitting in a room with other coaches, they open up a lot more, a lot more honesty than what they might say to a camera! It’s access you wouldn’t get elsewhere and the conversations you wouldn’t get.”
Andreu Enrich – currently coach of Mannheimer HC’s German men’s national champion side – is another who struck a chord.
Asked about how being part of TCP has influenced her coaching over the past two years, she says:
“I feel a lot more confident just being in those environments more with coaches discussing conversations.
“For actual coaching and delivery with players, I have more understanding and knowledge behind why we’re doing things to then be able to share that.
“We got deeper into the finer details of positioning and body shapes and that’s made my coaching a lot more detailed as well.”
And she is looking to carry that through into the next phase of her coaching career: “Personally, I am trying to build a bit more within the environment I’m already in, putting the knowledge into practice. I’ve got a really good support network at Wimbledon as well in terms of coach development.
“In time, I can hopefully to be able to be a Prem coach, either in England or maybe to look abroad. It’s definitely something that’s opened up connections and opportunities to maybe go overseas, whether with a club or national pathway.
“We can get stuck in our own little environments, can’t we, when we’re coaches? It’s really refreshing to be somewhere there’s so many different cultures of hockey coming together. Your nation, whatever nation you are, you can’t really get yourself.
“It’s definitely something I want to look at is maybe a higher age group level, going for senior or under 21 jobs – that’s the three to five-year plan.”
Find out more:
The Top Coaches Programme is an international coaching programme is designed to support coaches who want to work at an elite level within the game. Exploring the principles of coaching, devising and developing strategic nous, evolving a coaching philosophy and understanding the management of teams and individual athletes are all part of this comprehensive, world class programme.
Click here for more information: https://eurohockey.org/programme-session/top-coaches-programme-tcp
