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STOKE CITY'S globetrotting Community Coach Warren Leat is back on his travels again . . . having flown out to Kenya to spend a week delivering the Premier Skills Course Phase Two.

Following the success of a similar visit to Senegal in the Autumn, Warren has joined up with Adam Lea from Portsmouth and Head Coach Gareth Prosser from Wolves for this latest trip.

He will be keeping stokecityfc.com in touch with the whole experience of coach education in Kenya on a daily basis. Here is his account of day seven:



Kenya Day Seven

Well, we have reached the end of the Phase Two Premier Skills course in Nairobi. The week went really quickly, but was a very rewarding experience. The day started with the participants evaluating how the course went for them and whether it met their expectations. Also the participants had a one to one meeting with myself, Adam, and Gareth to go through their learning experiences for the week/give feedback and also discuss with them how they would use the skills gained in Phase Two with existing and future development plans.

From my perspective, all eight of my participants expressed real satisfaction with the course and were eager to go back and put aspects of the course into practice. In particular, reference to feeling more aware and confident about how to recruit and retain volunteers, gain sponsorship and access funding. Also they generally felt that they were better equipped to mentor other coaches and volunteers within their community, and how to plan effectively for upcoming projects.



In the afternoon, as part of the closing ceremony, the participants coached some local school children. It was really pleasing to see a difference from when we coached at the opening ceremony. The organisation between themselves was exemplary with all coaches delivering with a much more confident approach. The sessions chosen mirrored excellent interaction between the children and the participants who clearly were more confident in their approach particularly as they offered mentoring advice to their peers, and they did this in a positive way.

Later on we met the participants at their hotel for the official ending of the course. It was held in the form of an informal dinner, and was finalised with speeches from the British Council, the staff and the participants from the representative countries. This was a real positive experience and the course ended in a positive way. The participants were also given gifts from Stoke City including a bag, programme, team poster and magazine. This went down really well . . . I think we have gained a few more Stoke City supporters!!