Summary
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has hailed the success of a new summer schools initiative organised as part of a drive to introduce more young people to snooker in England.
Launched earlier this year (2020) as a collaboration between the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards (EPSB), Sport England and Sport Structures. The scheme has seen over 100 junior players all new to snooker and billiards taking part at officially recognised clubs across England. Participants included girls and boys across all age groups and as part of the programme, sessions have also seen the development of ‘young leaders’ aged 14-16 who have assisted accredited coaches and those taking part.
Approach
Our main role was to put together the young leaders’ programme element of this project, the five modules are:
- Club Experience
- Safe Sport
- Club Structure
- Marketing
- Snooker Pathways
The process was: young people on the programme were sent a link to complete the modules online over a 6-month period. We supported WPBSA during this programme by providing 1:1 calls with the young leaders and club representatives in order to deliver an effective learning process.
Outcome
The summer school’s initiative has proven to be a great extension to our Cue Zone project around the world and goes hand in hand with the increased opportunities for juniors to enter competitive tournaments hosted by the EPSB during this season as part of our commitment to the future of English snooker.
From a young leader perspective, 8 young leaders graduated from the programme in January 2020 with another 12 starting the programme again in June 2020. Therefore, our role has been instrumental to the success of WPBSA Summer Schools & Young Leaders Programme.
Bob Hill, Club and Facilities Manager for the WPBSA: “The launch of the EPSB junior holiday clubs has been incredible. The clubs, coaches and local school networks have really bought into the initiative. It has been superb to follow the groups as they’ve grown over the summer and see new junior snooker communities established.”
Jason Ferguson, WPBSA Chairman: “The WPBSA as snooker’s world governing body is constantly driving new initiatives to increase participation globally"
Impact
WPBSA Summer Schools & Young Leaders Programme is a 3-year programme that is currently in its 2nd year (2021). We have helped design a programme that is developing young leaders to support junior snooker activities. The Five modules are continuously utilised by the programme via online learning to help young people learn about all aspects of running and engaging in snooker activities where young people support their clubs by making them more appealing to junior players. Our work is integral due to primarily designing modules which are good resources that underpin Young Leaders Programme.
Ultimately, young leaders have enjoyed taking part and gaining experience in snooker volunteering. They have added valuable skills to their CVs through the programme. The work we have done has benefited the sport (snooker and billiards) as many positive outcomes have come out of the programme such as developing young volunteers for the first time, has strengthened the capability of clubs to provide beneficial sessions to the junior players.
| Bob Hill, Club and Facilities Manager for the WPBSA: “It was a good experience working with Sport Structures and tapping into their expertise to run an effective programme to engage young people in our sport” |