Peter Sturgess featured at end of year Junior Development League Workshop

Former English Football Association Technical Lead and National Team Futsal Coach Peter Sturgess was the star attraction as Football NSW hosted a special Junior Development League (JDL) Workshop on Monday evening.

A world-renowned football leader in the 5–11-year age categories, Sturgess presented to 40 JDL Head of Program and Technical Directors in what was an informative evening which included theoretical and practical sessions with the support from Blacktown Spartans FC JDL players.

“It was great to have someone of Peter’s international standing present and engage with our JDL players, coaches and technical staff,” said Football NSW’s Player Development – Juniors Manager Neil Mann.

“The individual focus and creating child cantered environments is in line with the Standards and Benchmarking Framework direction and all who attended took home a number of key messages.”

Sturgess outlined several key messages in the hope of assisting coaches with their journeys.

“You need to trust your players to make decisions and figure things about themselves,” Sturgess said.

“Coaching children requires different coaching methods, identification, and philosophy than adult coaching and we must adapt to this.

“We must also encourage players to stay on the ball, ‘millions of touches’ should be our aim.”

Sturgess also played a pivotal role in directing the English FA strategic objective ‘to develop skillful players’ via three vital steps; Connect with creativity, combine with creativity and collaborate with creativity.

Sturgess is currently in Australia and will feature in this weekend’s sold-out Football NSW Coaching Conference taking place at Valentine Sports Park.