I have now had two "experiences" of Charlton Challenge and unfortunately both have left me somewhat disillusioned. Some seven or eight years ago my eldest boy took part and more recently my youngest (aged 5) started in May of this year. Both have done well (my youngest is currently on Level 4 of 5) but that is in spite of the coaching rather than because of it.
The coaches actually spend very little time coaching, there is extremely limited one to one activity and there is no attempt to engage with the kids as individuals. When games (at the end of the session) are played the coaches pay minimal attention to what is going on. Yesterday, for example, one of the older boys, probably 7, pushed a 5 year olds head against the wall and then proceeded to trip him up. This was totally missed by both coaches.
This year we once again went to Centre Parcs for our summer break and enrolled my youngest in the weeks coaching. By the end of the first training session the coach (in his late 50's and a former player) knew the names of all of the kids. By the end of the third of four sesions he had identified his strengths and weaknesses. However, he brought much more than that to the party. He brought fun to the sessions and conveyed the need to "love" the ball. These traits are sadly missing from "our" coaches who seem to know exactly where to put the cones and the drills associated with them but do not appear to have the desire to do much more than watch the kids struggling with a particular skill.
No doubt the talented players are identified and go on to be coached by more senior coaches as when they are lucky enough to be selected for such sessions. But that is not what I am moaning about. I'm talking about all those 5 to 7 year olds who drift away because the love of the game (and Charlton) hasn't been "sold" to them. And that really is a great shame.
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The Community Scheme is, from what I understand, almost totally seperate from the club these days. The lack of money avaliable I guess has affected the quality of the coaches. These days they seem to be young kids.
I think the School Holiday courses, especially the ones held at Sparrows Lane seem to get the better coaches.
I can comment on the link between the community scheme and the club, which is definitely stronger than it has ever been. The club development team have a strong working relationship with community scheme managers, Jason Morgan is currently acting chief executive of the trust and has a high profile at The Valley, while the previous head of the trust is now chief executive of the club, which is bound to lead to closer links.In short, there is a lot more joined up working.
The club's change of status has had no impact on funding for the community scheme, although possibly the scheme's continued expansion and coach development programme has led to a drop in the average age of coaches.
I would think the coaching resources are more stretched by the school holiday courses than by Charlton Challenge, so it doesn't seem logical that the former would get better coaches, but I don't have any direct experience to base that on!
I do think it is an age thing and wonder if there is any "mystery shopping" for some of these sessions in order to assess the performance and grading of these coaches.