Nancy Ovens bursary update

Andrew Brown, SkillsActive - 12/07/2007

SkillsActive have already had the opportunity to meet with Norman Greenhouse and Scott Nicholls, two of the eight bursars who are undertaking innovative placements to progress their skills.  We caught up with Norman at the recent World Team Badminton Championships, held at Scotstoun in Glasgow, where he was giving coaching demonstrations with disabled players.

Norman works with Welsh Badminton as a voluntary coach, specialising in coaching disabled athletes and the Welsh example is pioneering the development of disabled badminton across the UK. As part of a self taught organisation which has got far in developing disabled badminton and its coaching across the UK, Norman has now got to a stage where he needs outside assistance to improve his own skills and the sport, and as a tutor for the disabled coaching module of the UK Coaching Certificate, this means that these new skills will filter back through to other coaches too. To achieve this Norman will be travelling to the Netherlands to work with and learn from the wheelchair badminton world champion and his coach, and said of the opportunity:

“In Holland and Germany they’ve been playing disabled badminton for many years. We need to go there and find out how they progressed their sports - we need to go to that stage and talk to them and learn from them  - we don’t need to try and reinvent that wheel. They’ve done it before us so let’s ask them questions - see how they coach, see how their players work, recognise what we’ve done and where we’re at and see where we need to move forward;  that’s what we need to do now. Otherwise the sport will just stay where it is.”

Scott Nicholls is a full time lecturer in the Sports Department at York College and a keen cricket coach, but is restricted in expanding the coaching programme at the college due to tutoring commitments. Scott will be shadowing top coaches at the Headingley Cricket Academy, where he will have the opportunity to work with state of the art technology and learn new skills to take back to his club with a view to establish a cricket academy at York College. The bursary is allowing Scott to be released from his college tutoring by providing cover for him while further local funding has been found that should allow Scott to continue his involvement at Headingley for a longer period.

Matt Johnson, Head of Development at Reading Rockets Basketball Club, has set himself an ambitious and impressive coaching development pathway, which will see him become the GB Assistant Coach in 2012 and the GB Head Coach by 2016. Part of his development will be to travel to America to work with a top coach which is what the Nancy Ovens Bursary is allowing him to do. Matt said of the chance to work with Bob Mckillop, Head Coach at Davidson University:

“Coach Mckillop is a highly respected college coach who has been at the top of his profession for 25 years. He is widely respected across the nation and has produced some outstanding teams and players over his time. I am very privileged to be spending so much time with him.

“My days will consist of early morning meetings and sessions followed by team practices, reviews, video sessions, scouting sessions and late night practices also. It will be a thrilling opportunity and I intend to get the absolute most out of my time there.”

Expect frequent updates on Norman, Scott and Matt's experiences, along with all the other Nancy Ovens bursars, on their own pages here.