2011 European Coaching Project

The development of European coaches continues this year, with FIT Secretary General & coaching guru, Dennis Coffey, once again trekking across the continent conducting courses and upskilling coaching course presenters. The first course of the current tour saw a Level 2 Course held in Vienna, Austria.

There were 13 participants on the first European L2 course for 2011: 8 men and 5 women, including 2 from Hungary and 2 from Germany. The L2 was delivered at the Vienna International School just outside the city complex. The course schedule included 3 hours Friday, 7 hours Saturday and a further 6 hours Sunday, and covered the new TFA L2 syllabus.

The feedback indicated acceptance of a higher and different coaching standard above that normally experienced at park level. Practical elements proved extremely valuable, identifying some innovative approaches to course topics, with a result that such a program has again provided participants with a new facet to advanced coaching and further motivated participants to developing technical coaching.

Austria has entered a Men's Open and a Women's Open team in TWC2011 and coaches from those teams completed the workshop. One of those coaches, Kathi, wife of Touch Austria president Dan Travers, completed the workshop in a seven-month pregnant state, while also celebrating her birthday. Another significant workshop outcome was the establishment of a core group of coaching technicians from the eastern Europe region.

Keep an eye on the Gallery section for pictures as they come to hand.