Minis Coach the Coaches

Ironsides Mini’s season kicks off with RFU's biggest ever Coaches training event.

The first week of the 2022/23 rugby season saw Battersea Ironsides Mini's Section continue its commitment to grassroots rugby with Kids First Tag and Kids First Contact training sessions, for coaches from the U6 to U11 age groups.

Working with the RFU, each age group received a Coaches training session, focussing on delivering Active, Purposeful, Enjoyable and Safe (APES) coaching practices to many of our volunteer coaches across the Mini’s section.

The sessions were setup for each age group and training was provided by RFU Coach Educators, David Cheng, Sagan Daniels and Jack Bairstow led by Chris Spedding, the regional England Rugby Coach Developer for South London & Surrey.

The training took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th September and was very well attended, with over 100 Ironsides Coaches in attendance, across the three nights.

The RFU representatives said that as the Ironsides Mini Section is the largest in Europe, this was the biggest capacity coach training event the RFU have ever delivered, requiring additional planning and material for delivering coaching to the age groups.  Chris Spedding provided some great feedback to the Club after the event: 

"The feedback on the night from coaches was class and I'm really pleased with how this worked out, educating over 110 coaches over 3 evenings back-to-back.  It was likely the largest stand alone set of courses that has been delivered and my colleagues had a great time and really appreciated the hospitality from the club on all three evenings! Thank you for the pies and shandies!"

This was a wonderful beginning to the Ironsides Rugby season, and as always, the true Ironsides welcome and inclusive approach worked its magic - unsurprising to hear that there were a few shandies consumed! Huge thanks to all those involved in making this happen!

Season 2022/23 is off to a great start!