As it is the policy of the Sliema Nursery administration to support and encourage the Coaching staff to improve and advance their coaching education a two and a half day workshop was organized as part of the instructional sessions held during the season by the Nursery.

For this workshop, the Nursery invited Ms. Marion Hayton the Senior Development Officer at the Leicestershire & Rutland Football Association to conduct the program of lectures and training sessions. Ms. Hayton was also accompanied by Paul Holden who is an F.A. Pro Licence Coach with vast experience as he was for three years the Director of the Crystal Palace Academy and also Director of Football for the Gibraltar F.A., he also conducts English F.A. Courses for Coaches.

During the workshop, Ms. Hayton gave each participating coach a coaching topic to cover during practical training sessions with the age group the Coach usually works with and later each training session was analyzed and evaluated so that each Coach would know how his performance could be improved.

During the workshop other interesting topics were covered such as the charectestics of players of the different age groups, the qualities of a Coach, the signs and symptoms to identify injuries with special focus on ‘overuse injuries’, how to handle the different levels of abilities during a training session and other topics that are covered in the English F.A. Coaching courses.

Besides the Coaches’ Instructional Workshop, both Ms. Hayton and Mr. Holden observed and participated during the Nursery’s training sessions of all age groups and attended the YFA league matches of both the Under 15 and Under 17.

It is interesting to note that Ms. Hayton is of Maltese nationality and has made a successful career coaching grassroots football and as Director of Football with the English F.A. She is in charge of football education at all levels for the Leicestershire & Rutland Region, she is also involved in other F.A. projects for the region.