VX England Newsletter April 2015

After the better part of five years in limbo, VX England (along with the sport in general) is now taking steps to move our sport forward. This process has been going on for some time and we thought this would be a good time to give all of our members an update on our progress and some detail of our plans for the future. Once all of the issues that were holding us back were sorted in the middle of last year, we had our first meeting in June to decide on the best way forward and how to address the most pressing concerns for the NGB. VX International were attending conferences and trade shows again, thereby increasing our visibility to schools and other organisations that are involved with sport and momentum was starting to build back up to historic levels again. The time was ripe for planning and major changes. As a result of this and several other meetings the following priorities were agreed: - 1. New formal structure 2. The need to be at a standard that would qualify us for Sport England recognition and UKCC accreditation for our training 3. The need for a complete overhaul of the coaching training and development structure 4. Club and VX development 5. New club & competitive league creation 6. Elite player development and the England squad 7. The need to increase volunteer participation in VX England

Structure VX England is to be a community interest company for the benefit of its members and the amateur sport. The company will be formed shortly and we will keep you informed as to our progress.

Recognition and Accreditation In the past we have never really been concerned about this. This is partly because of the time and financial commitment required to achieve it and also because the authorities can be exceptionally slow in granting their approval (as long as 20 years). As is the norm, the list of sports supported by Sport England has been reduced from over 160 to around 100 and, of course, the big 6 are the sports that gain even though many either don’t or, should not require funding. The obvious candidates here are football, swimming, cricket, athletics, rugby, boxing etc. Boxing is an excellent example because the professional side of the sport attracts millions of pounds in sponsorship and prize money, but they put little back into the amateur side of the sport which requires an £8 million subsidy from Sport England or it would collapse. However, there is a real need for VX to be recognised, even if the powers to be don’t give us financial support, there is our image as a professional organisation and sport that operates to the standards and guidelines laid down by the powers that be. This can only be good for our sport. Fortunately, there are very clear guidelines on how we attain recognition that cover everything from coaching and child protection through to development plans. VX England will meet all of these within the next 24 months. Coach Training and Continuous Professional Development The UK Coaching certificate (UKCC) is a national accreditation scheme for Sports Coaching qualifications, administrated by Sports Coach UK. The purpose of UKCC is to ensure that coaches qualified in the UK meet comprehensive national minimum standards which are transferable between sports. Each sport requires its own knowledge of the game but all coaches require the same basic skillsets and regular re-assessments of their ability. To date, there are only 32 sports that meet their requirements out of over 160 that are recognised by Sport England and UK Sport. It is our intention to meet all of these requirements before the end of this year and be in a position to gain accreditation as quickly as possible. Historically, we have only concentrated upon VX gameplay which would not meet with UKCC requirements. With this in mind, Conrad Broughton, with assistance from James Foster, has been working very hard to pave the way. Conrad has created a new Activators' Course at the behest of Loughborough University, a completely new Level 1 and a GCSE course. He has already delivered 1 Activators' and one GCSE course and both have been well received. In addition, the new Level 2 is close to being completed. Levels three and four are more focussed on coaching skills and will be developed in due course. As many of you will already know, to gain and retain a coaching qualification within recognised sports you also have to hold a number of other qualifications such as child protection. This also applies to club officials. Some NGBs run in-house training and some outsource to providers such as Sports Coach UK. The costs of the coaching courses reflect these charges, but they often don’t cover all of those courses that are available. In addition, they often insist that you have to take their own courses even if you have completed them elsewhere and, of course, a refresher course need to be taken every three years to ensure coaches and officials are up to date with any changes in legislation that may have occurred. Where an outsourced provider is used, the prices usually range from £25 and up. It can get expensive. You generally have to attend many of these in person too, so unless you have time on your hands it can be difficult. In order to save you both time and money we are delighted to announce that VX England will be launching an online learning platform shortly (probably June), which will cover every topic needed to fulfil the recognition and accreditation criteria and some additional ones too. There are 12 standard courses and we will be introducing some stand-alone modules as well. All of these courses are relevant to both coaches and clubs and several of the courses on offer, such a first aid, will also enhance your employment opportunities as well. All will be heavily discounted to help make them affordable to everyone and additional discounts will be given to existing coaches to encourage them to complete the programme and meet national standards. We also plan to make these available to other NGBs within VX so that they can meet the minimum standards set here even if their local requirements are lower or, indeed, non-existent. Once the new Level 1 & 2 courses are completed we also hope to be able to put the classroom sections online which will allow us to concentrate on the VX element and improve practical techniques and gameplay while, at the same time, ensuring that all new coaches receive accredited coach education (as opposed to sport). The quality of learning is assured because there is an examination system built in. We will be sending a detailed circular to all clubs and coaches shortly. Oh, we nearly forgot to thank James Foster and Conrad for the new Game Officials Course too. Another desperately needed addition to our coach education programme and a job that’s been very well done. Thanks guys.

Club and VX Development Everything that this newsletter has already covered is about enhancing the skills and professionalism within our sport. We would like to see the end user experience exceed that of every other sport and we are keen to provide systems that will allow clubs and players help to improve the game and our own performance as a governing body. Unfortunately, we don’t have a multi-million pound budget from Sport England to allow us to do everything right now, so we are going to have to take a step by step approach. Neither do we have the manpower to speed growth and new systems along. However, we do have a development plan which, with your support, will succeed in a relatively short time span, 2 to 3 years. VX International has been working hard on re-kindling our market presence and driving up demand from schools, universities and other sports groups. Over the past year VXI has invested thousands of pounds attending conferences and trade shows to ensure that the popularity of VX in the education sector is close to historic levels and will be continuing to do so. Now that this has been achieved we (VX England) are ready to launch the full development plan. Spreading our sport across the country and elsewhere is now our number one objective. The past is behind us, the brakes are off and the future is looking very good indeed.

New Club & Competitive League Creation This is an area which is critical to our success. We need new blood and more competition! Working within the education sector is great, but the first question they ask is where your local clubs are? They are looking for an exit route which provides long term opportunities for students to participate. With this in mind we will be launching our new “Stepping Stones” project to encourage and promote both school league competitions and the development of new clubs within schools and the community at large. As part of this project we will be recruiting professional coaches across the country and this process has already begun. Conrad is working with North Lincolnshire Council developing local schools and the Street Sports Project and is having great success. We have 30+ schools in Leeds and Bradford that would like to take the sport further and we are about to start a similar project in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Graham Lings from the Outwood Academy in contacted Conrad after he did a taster session for them and said they would like VX on the curriculum. The best way to do that was to get Edexcel, a GCSE examination board, to approve the sport under their “meeting local needs” programme. This was applied for and subsequently approved for GCSE. Our thanks go out to Grayham and his team for their help in writing and submitting the necessary documents and their feedback on the course that Conrad wrote. An application has also now been made to AQA for approval under their criteria and we will keep you posted as to the outcome. Obviously, this is a huge step for our sport and should help to encourage many more schools to participate. So far, we have had three other enquiries about GCSE from schools in Gainsborough, Goole and Boston, which is tremendous news. As these areas grow, further similar plans will be started in other areas. Jack Brown is running our universities programme and has managed to get York up and running. So congratulations Jack! Jack is due to start his placement year in industry shortly, so we may need to find a replacement or stand in while he’s away in Birmingham. Conrad was approached by Loughborough University Volunteer and Coaching Academy and he is working closely with them. James Foster has started developing both Nottingham and (most importantly) Loughborough and, at their request, Conrad has written an Activators' Course which they like to use as an introduction for students to new (and existing) sports which are then taken into the community and schools. Loughborough are the leading sports university in the UK so a very important connection. Well done James!

Elite Player Development and the England Squad Another crucial area for VX England to concentrate upon is player development. Much progress has been made this year but there is still much more that needs to be achieved. Since the current coaching staff took over the National Programme great strides have been made in this area to put the England VX squad on a much more professional footing • The squad now has 4-5 sessions per year • All players wear a uniform training kit • Each session follows a set structure • New drills are being introduced to improve play and tactics • We are gradually getting a solid and committed core to the squads • Fundraising activities are being undertaken • A Junior Squad has been added to the existing Youth and Senior Squads - Jonathon Cooper has responsibility for this • We take formal photos of the squads and players • Previously prospective new players would come to a training session and that acted as a trial. Now we hold two formal trials per year. One in March and on in November. Schools are now welcome to propose outstanding pupil players for the trials. (As yet, none have done so, but the Stepping Stones Project should help to encourage this). • We have started an ongoing programme of monitoring player stats. This is a long-term programme.

• We have a squad sponsor (NCL Services Ltd, York. Chartered Certified Accountants) who have bought two full squad sets of game wear and travel wear • We would also like to say thanks to Helen Mackenzie as she was instrumental in providing us with a home at the National Centre of Excellence • Plans for the future include implementing video facility to assist with the development of individual players New blood and extra competition for places within the squad can only help improve the elite squads.

The Need to Increase Volunteer Participation within VX England As we stated earlier, we have to adopt a step by step approach to growth and improvements due to both financial restraints and manpower. If anyone would like to come on board and help we need a variety of skillsets to help us move forward. These vary from IT to someone that can write press releases etc. Your help will be warmly welcomed! End Note We hope reading this newsletter has whetted your appetite for more of its kind and we hope to be able to produce these on a quarterly basis. We’d be delighted to get some feedback from you too, so drop us a line. We think you will agree that an immense amount of unseen/behind the scenes work has been going on over the past 15 months. This work is now starting to bear fruit and the future is looking better than it has for quite some time. We hope that you are looking forward to the future as much as we are! Until the next time….