CTV in South Africa > Alan Richardson discusses the coaching seminar

View photos from the coaching seminar below

While in Cape Town for the club’s South African community camp, development manager Alan Richardson and club physiotherapist Rob Hunt held a coaching seminar for around 50 local volunteer coaches.

The seminar, held at an oval in Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s largest and best-known township, was attended by an enthusiastic group of locals, many of whom live in shanty town-like communities where poverty is rife and many homes are built out of old metal and timber scraps.

The locals give up their time to coach young children who have made our Australian game one of the fastest growing sports in the region, and many conduct up to five training sessions per week with youngsters who can’t get enough of their new sport.

All but a few coaches are unemployed, and while some volunteer in the hope their involvement will eventually lead to some sort of employment in the local AFL industry, the overwhelming message was that people have simply embraced coaching the game because they are genuinely interested in being involved and growing the code.

Richardson, who set up the Collingwood Academy at the Lexus Centre and has been credited with being instrumental in the astonishing rate of development in many of the club's young player sin recent seasons, spent time discussing some of the basic technical aspects of coaching and how to best relay information to young players, while Hunt spoke about injury management, training loads and managing peak physical performance, before the pair headed outside to take the coaches through drills.

“It’s quite amazing, really, when you consider that they’ve had no exposure to the game, and that life’s pretty tough here,” Richardson told CTV immediately after the seminar.

He went on to praise the work of Allison Simons, the provincial development manager for AFL football in the Western Cape, who guided Collingwood through the Cape Town experience.

“Somehow, through the good work of Allison, who we’ve worked with, the people have been able to engender a love for our game and a want to coach it, which is quite remarkable.”

To confirm the remarkable level of interest in what the Collingwood pair were teaching, when it came to question time, the hands went up and the enquiries were excellent.

“You can always tell with the questions, and the level of intensity in terms of the eyes looking back, and some really intelligent questions came back.

“So there’s no doubt that the AFL has certainly done some work already in terms of getting information across, but they were terrific questions, which shows they know a bit already.”

While we may not necessarily see African natives gracing AFL grounds in the next couple of years, the foundations have certainly been laid for a prosperous period of growth in the game in South Africa.As Richardson noted, getting a competition up and running is paramount to further AFL development in the region, and Simons and her small but loyal band of staff have been working tirelessly to get a senior four-team league going on the Western Cape, which will commence in the coming weeks.

“It’s still pretty early, the first thing they need to do is get a competition up and running, and depending on the level of commitment from the AFL, more exposure to the greater level of the game, like exhibition games between Carlton and Fremantle last week, or perhaps some of their coaches going over to Australia.

“But if enthusiasm is a benchmark, or a cornerstone to this sort of development, then I think anything’s possible.”

All photos copyright collingwoodfc.com.au

 

Alan Richardson and Rob Hunt introduce themselves to the volunteer coaches

One coach has put a huge amount of time into decorating his singlet for the event

Richardson goes through some drills on the projector screen

Allison Simons, the provincial development manager for AFL in the Western Cape, addresses the group

Richardson and Hunt demonstrate a handball drill

Once outside, Richardson displays some finer points of gathering and handballing

Hunt works with a group of coaches

A local displaying his skill

A long handball drill

This time the Collingwood men take the group through a circular drill involving many people, ideal for large numbers of African kids

The group at the conclusion of the session