English Coach Development Sessions

[TheDoc]

In the initial thread Coaching and Development for English coaches was highlighted as a need by the community.

To begin the discussions on this I'd like to pose the question of "How do we start this?"

(a) Will there be official TE practice sessions somewhere central (WHW) which we can attend and focus on better gameplay

OR

(b) Local/regional sessions with a member of the TE/Elite players?

OR

(c) something totally different!

[Raging82]

Option B would be the best. Getting together in groups and discussing positioning and tactics is so valuable. If you don’t play other poeple or have your play looked at then you will not improve

[Pipey]

I am working on (A) currently, all to be confirmed.

As far as this is considered official Team England business, I'm not sure. Initially when I mooted that sort of thinking on TE Forum and Reddit some of the regulars didn't want it to be official or mandatory attendance for the EB team. I do think we have been missing an official TE practice event so.

To me I would just be running a tournament off my own bat (back? both? ). If we want to call it official then that's fine by me

Thinking a small gathering, fairly informal, maybe 16 players. Small necessarily makes it "exclusive" but all will be welcome within space limitations, with a special invite made to the EB players. Would be non-NAF, EB rules, standard tournament Swiss format but with everyone encouraged to share ideas, discuss etc. in the spirit of what has been asked for in Podfrey's thread.

[TheDoc]

I am working on (A) currently, all to be confirmed.

As far as this is considered official Team England business, I'm not sure. Initially when I mooted that sort of thinking on TE Forum and Reddit some of the regulars didn't want it to be official or mandatory attendance for the EB team. I do think we have been missing an official TE practice event so.

To me it doesn't have to be official TE but somewhere where players can learn from each other. I've heard about people being interested in this since I joined the tournament scene (a few years ago... 7 ish) so a need is out there, it's just how to admin it and make it of value to people.

[Pipey]

I'm aiming for something which is at once useful for EO and EB players wishing to warm up ahead of Cardiff, and also useful for those who wish to learn from experienced players. All in a relaxed (but competitive) environment.

[deeferdan]

I'm currently working on a version of B. Once i've got a date sorted I intend to pop it up on here to see who else is interested.

The main thing is that they will be semi-regular, so if you cant make it there will be other options

[Podfrey]

Joemanji already does some form of c) with the “what happened next”. I must admit I like that, but being old I forget to check back in a few days to find out what he thought was the right move....

I’d love to join in a Facebook Live / Twitch (I’m totally guessing here at what’s technically possible ) session to interactively discuss options and logic. Even if it was once a month, covering two scenarios (released in advance) and several people had 60 seconds to explain what they’d do & why. I’d be 100% up for that!

[Joemanji]

Thanks Geoff. I never posted an answer as I thought it might put people off contributing if they could later be seen to be 'wrong'. The discussion was the useful thing for me.

[Leipziger]

Thanks Geoff. I never posted an answer as I thought it might put people off contributing if they could later be seen to be 'wrong'. The discussion was the useful thing for me.

I can see that, Joe. For me, knowing what a top level coach would’ve done & the reasoning would be useful. That said, the discussion itself provided plenty of food for thought.

[mawph]

Thanks Geoff. I never posted an answer as I thought it might put people off contributing if they could later be seen to be 'wrong'. The discussion was the useful thing for me.

I can see that, Joe. For me, knowing what a top level coach would’ve done & the reasoning would be useful. That said, the discussion itself provided plenty of food for thought.

I agree with Leip here (without actually having seen what was going on!). The debate would be enlightening, but the useful thing is knowing what a top player would have done, especially against another top player.

Another thing around the 'training sessions' would be what would a top player do in certain situations against another top player. Some might see this as harsh feedback, but from facing off against Joe, Phil and Bren the times I have it would be interesting to hear if they played a certain way against me, when they might have done something different were they facing Lycos, Jim, or similar. An environment where someone is willing to effectively say: "I kinda babied you, because I saw where you were going with your play" helps (or maybe I'm just needing confirmation I'm not that bad... ).

There's probably also some useful coaching for those not quite yet at the selection tier (like myself) around pattern recognition and how you'd go about playing against certain styles and how you'd counter it etc. If I were to take additional steps forwards in my play (apart from additional game time) there's an element to knowing thought processes and play development - also taking out the element of the opponent making "rookie errors" leading to different play. If this all sounds rambling, its largely because I'm struggling to explain where I think my weaknesses are!

[Podfrey]

Thanks Geoff. I never posted an answer as I thought it might put people off contributing if they could later be seen to be 'wrong'. The discussion was the useful thing for me.

And that makes sense. As with other comments, that's why I would like to have 60 seconds from each of, say, 10 different coaches (without necessarily having a "right" answer).

To mawph's point, there are some subtle differences when playing against different levels of experience and "training" sessions (real life or online) would be a great way to explore these.

[TheDoc]

I'm currently working on a version of B. Once i've got a date sorted I intend to pop it up on here to see who else is interested.

The main thing is that they will be semi-regular, so if you cant make it there will be other options

I'd be happy with this. Like you family matters take first dibs on my time so let me know what your thinking and I'll get on board to support.

Also I forgot about Joe's C option which I liked but without a "Yep that's what I would have done" I didn't see the full value of it. If we could get that as well it'd be great.