Bury St Edmunds Talent Academy: Assistant Coaches

We are looking to recruit a new TA performance coach to work with the existing TA performance coaching team who come from clubs and schools across East Anglia.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of talent development, working with athletes who have the most potential to become junior or senior internationals, or high-level University and club players alongside other leading and talented coaches.

BSEHC (East) TA 

There are 24 Talent Academies across the country for the highest level of 14 –18 year olds.  We are based at the Culford Hockey Centre near Bury St Edmunds.  Clubs and schools in the Norfolk, Suffolk and South Lincolnshire area feed talented youth players into East TA with around 60 players benefitting from almost 100 contact hours on pitch from September to July.  The cycle is rounded off with a national festival for all Talent Academies in July. 

Our TA comprises regular Monday night training sessions along with some Sunday training, fixtures against other TAs and off pitch / online learning.

The BSEHC (East) TA is led by TA Director, Lisa Letchford, current England U21 assistant coach and formerly England Hockey Lead Talent Coach, England U18 head coach and head coach of the Belgium U16 and U18 sides. 

We are looking to expand the on field coaching team to include a new “Assistant coach” role.  Assistant coaches will work with the lead coaches to form a team of three coaches for each of the Boys and Girls squads.

The person

• The ideal person will should have a passion to become a high-performance coach and ideally will have knowledge and experience of the following: 
• Technical knowledge of individual and team principles including techniques, tactics and coaching trends, and ability to apply the demands of performance level hockey within a talent development environment.
• Experience of coaching players at County level and above.
• Understands talent development principles and development of young athletes with a track record of effective talent identification and selection.
• Experience in planning, organising and implementing a comprehensive high performance coaching programme for junior athletes.
• Forward thinking: able to apply different coaching approaches to their delivery to meet the needs of the players.
• Ability to support, develop, challenge and empower others.
• Strong communicator: able to accurately disseminate information using a variety of methods and to a range of audiences (coaches, players, parents, managers).
• Self-motivated and able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Efficient and organised with effective time management.
• Commitment to personal coach development.
• Understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities in employment and equality issues.
• Understanding of and commitment to comply with Health and Safety Policies & Procedures. 
• Embodies the Talent Coach Profile. Please see The Role Of A Talent Coach | England Hockey 

The role

On pitch the coach will work with senior coaches to: 

• Work alongside the TA Lead Coach to plan, coordinate and deliver high quality sessions that develop the Complete Player Qualities.
• Work as part of a coaching team to check and challenge each other and limit bias.
• Support other coaches to ensure consistency and quality at training sessions.
• Select players into the Talent Academy programme.
• Select players for fixtures and Talent Academy Festival.
• Take responsibility for the safety and protection of the individuals in their programme.
• Represent the Talent Academy in all training and competition environments favourably.
• Adhere to the England Hockey Code of Ethics and Behaviour & Safeguarding policies.
• Contact time includes Monday evening training, occasional Sunday training and fixtures, Talent Academy Festival and potentially training camps during school holidays and Easter weekend tour.  Coaches should be available for at least 90% of activities

Off pitch the coach will be responsible for:

• Player profiling in line with the Talent System Framework including; Game Understanding, Highly Skilled Actions, Physical Capabilities, Mental Skills. Teamship. Superstrengths.
• Performance management and communication with athletes, including the ongoing delivery of Individual Development Plans, training diaries, selection decisions and player feedback.
• Maintain regular engagement with players and their environments away from training, utilising a variety of communication and presentation tools.
• Attend off pitch / online learning (approx. 6 sessions per cycle).

This role description is not intended to be regarded as inclusive or exhaustive and will be amended in light of the changing needs of the TA.