Setting up a Junior section Academy

[skippy89]

If any one has set up an academy for Juniors what activities do you do with them and what ways did you attract the youngsters in the first place?

[john haydock]

If any one has set up an academy for Juniors what activities do you do with them and what ways did you attract the youngsters in the first place?

This may seem a bad time for this but it will give you a chance to get things right before hand, where are the students to come from, members grandchildren etc. Local schools, advertise your intentions ,local press. Make sure you have at least one qualified coach involved, and make sure they are registered with DBS,the programme you employ must be fun, once they have realised that, then you have a good chance of recruiting their friends, tasks must be realistic according to ability,have you got the right bowls, probably want some O0 or O at least(some members may loan you in the early stages) make sure you have men and ladies involved in organisation. Maybe need more coaches to be trained,Cannot stress the importance of DBS .The greatest problem is to resist the temptation of focusing to much on those with the most ability,if this happens you will start to lose players, in many ways your best coaches should be helping those with less ability at an early stage . Any sign of segregation by ability at an early stage will cause problems. What is the purpose of the group,to increase membership or find a champion both are achievable,but the latter is a bonus not a target Good Luck.

[skippy89]

Many thanks for your response John, food for thought on what we need to think about.

[showaddy]

If any one has set up an academy for Juniors what activities do you do with them and what ways did you attract the youngsters in the first place?

When things settle down again, talk to ed morris the manager of essex county bowls club at southend. They have had a cadet section indoors and out for years. This has been very successful in their area, with a number of members going on to international honours. Good luck

[skippy89]

Thank you for the information

[K_888]

The trick is to make it fun. Make them want to turn up each week. It isn’t playing pairs or triples. It’s doing different stuff like ‘blindfolded bowls’. I used to do this with the ACT juniors to teach them how to communicate better. One junior would be blindfolded and their mate not. The mate needed to verbally instruct their blind folded team member to get on the mat, point in the right direction, bowl and then walk up the end. We’d also do lots of rink setups where they would practice a particular shot, reset the head and then move onto the next rink. So many different ways to make bowls fun. Including driving practice for the boys!


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