Luxol Sports Club coaches have recently visited Cumbernauld College in Scotland as part of a Leonardo da Vinci football exchange programme in order to maintain the Club’s policy of continued professional development and have been putting students at Braidhurst High School through their paces as part of an exchange trip to develop coaching techniques.

The Coaches recently also visited the Motherwell school’s football academy where they were joined with Scotland and Celtic legend Davie Hay and former professional players Stevie Hamilton and Andy Smith.

The trip involving the Luxol coaches to Motherwell was organised through the Leonardo Da Vinci training programme in Malta and in partnership with Cumbernauld College and the council’s Learning and Leisure Services.

Former Celtic Manager Davie Hay said the exchange programme is of great benefit to both countries. He said: “This visit provides the coaches with the opportunity to learn different coaching styles, work on player development and social management techniques.

“As part of their visit, the coaches visited the Ravenscraig Sports Facility, Rangers Murray Park Academy and Celtic’s Lennoxtown complex as well as helping to work with Hamilton Accies youth team.”

The Leonardo da Vinci programme supports development skills and training and is part of the Lifelong Learning Programme funded by the European Commission. Luxol Sports Club Coaches have used the exchange to further develop their sports life coaching skills and techniques for a multi-sports programme. The one week project was aimed to support the participants to engage in an exchange within a full time professional environment that challenges them both physically and mentally while working in a world class facility with world class specialists.

The council’s under 16’s football development squad participated in the programme and they have just returned to Scotland from Malta as part of the exchange partnership.

Andy Smith, Football Development officer with North Lanarkshire Council, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome the coaches to North Lanarkshire and to develop our exchange links with the Maltese authorities.

“This type of partnership provides a great learning curve for players and coaches to experience new training and coaching methods.”