Hello and welcome to my new blog site!

My name is Ben Matthews and I am a 3rd year student at the University of Lincoln, studying Sports Development and Coaching. The 3 modules I have chosen to complete this year are: Critical Issues in Teaching and Coaching, Contemporary Issues in PE and Sociological Issues in Sport Development. The reason for this is the keen interest I have in each of the topics, and also that I aspire to become a teacher after graudation, and I felt these were the most relevant to me.

My main sporting and coaching interests lie within football. I play at a semi-professional level and hold the first FA coaching badge, looking at obtaining the Level 2 shortly. I have played football my whole life and have been fortunate enough to have played at an academy for most of my youth. I have represented Peterborough United FC, Norwich City and Cambridge United all at an elite level, and for each of these teams I have represented them abroad, playing in some of the best tournaments in the world. From all of this I have been coached a number of different ways from across the world, which in turn I believe has lead to my success as a coach, developing my understanding for the game and the different effective styles of coaching. More importantly, my experience has taught me how to understand young athletes and this I feel benefits the coach greatly.

(here I am representing the University of Lincoln 1st team)

Me in Coaching

When it comes to coaching, obviously I enjoy coaching football, however I also enjoy a challenge. Teaching or coaching something I have never done before often brings out the best of my abilities and I very much enjoy it. Last year on a placement through the university I coached ‘Stoolball’ for 6 weeks. Prior to the 6 weeks I had no idea that the sport even existed, yet by the end of it I had succesfully completed a 6 week coaching scheme and the participants understood and enoyed the sport. A job well done I’d say.

In other experience, I have managed to accumulate a total of around 300+ hours of voulntary work as a TA (teaching assistant) at Kingsfield Primary school, working in both a class room and PE environment. During this time I put myself forward to coach the KS2 football team, and also the ‘High 5’ Netball team, taking them to the district tournament.

The majority of my coaching experience has been gained through football. I have coached at a variety of levels ranging from grassroots to academies. I have put a lot of work in to my local team, almost paying back the time and effort that was spent on me. But I have also been lucky enough to coach for Cambridge United, running soccer schools for them, and in cases acting as a scout.

Hopefully you will enjoy the blog, and enjoy reading about my next placement.

‘Onwards and Upwards’

Cheers Ben