Annual WPBSA Coaching Seminar Staged in Sheffield
John Parrott and developers of the new Play Snooker App were the headline speakers at the annual WPBSA Coaching Seminar which took place in Sheffield last Friday during the World Snooker Championship.
Hosted at the Leonardo Hotel in Sheffield, the seminar was attended by WPBSA coaches who have qualified across the three levels of the WPBSA Coaching Programme.
The evening began with introductions from WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson, Head of Coaching and Training Development Manager Chris Lovell and Sports Development Officer James Chambers.
David Murray was then invited to the stage to speak about the development process and future goals of the recently launched Play Snooker App – a new platform designed to make snooker more connected, accessible and visible for players at every level of the game. Click to learn more about the Play Snooker App.
Following a short interval, 1991 world champion Parrott sat down with Lovell to discuss his life and career from first picking up a cue, to winning the world title, and later becoming a popular pundit and commentator on the BBC coverage.
INAUGURAL CPD EVENTS STAGED
For the first time, the WPBSA hosted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) events for qualified coaches and referees alongside the annual WPBSA Coaching Seminar.
The inaugural events, which are set to become an annual part of the WPBSA calendar during the World Championship, were staged at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in Sheffield on Friday and Sunday afternoon.
Anthony Hamilton, the 2017 German Masters champion, was the first guest speaker at the Coaching CPD event with support from Level 3 coach Andrew Highfield, while WPBSA Referee Course Coordinator Glen Sullivan-Bissett led the Refereeing CPD session alongside World Snooker Tour (WST) referees Julian Bell and Graham Mason.
Chris Lovell, Head of Coaching and Training Development Manager, said: “We are delighted to have staged the inaugural Continuous Professional Development events for WPBSA qualified coaches and referees during this year’s World Championship.
“The annual seminar has been a popular part of the calendar for over a decade and we want the CPD events to achieve the same exciting status – providing coaches and referees with additional opportunities to come together each year and develop their knowledge and skills.”
