England Golf is seeking talented youngsters across the country to form ten Under 18yrs regional coaching squads for training over the winter months of 2013/14.
The Programme forms a key step on the England Golf Player Pathway towards hopefully representing England in the future. The programme is funded by the National Apprentice Service and all players selected for these squads will be enrolled on the Advanced Apprenticeship on Sporting Excellence. This encourages young people to get the right balance between their academic studies and playing golf at an elite level. All players completing the 2 year programme will graduate with a nationally recognised NVQ in Sporting Excellence as well as having received coaching and support from some of England’s best coaches.
“The programme allows young male and female golfers to receive high quality golf coaching, whilst also providing them with the underpinning knowledge of what it takes to be an elite sports person. They will leave the programme having worked not just on their golf, but also on their physical conditioning, nutrition and mental game, allowing them to develop as an all rounded player” commented Sam Marshall, Manager of the Regional U18s AASE Programme.
This is the fourth year England Golf has run the AASE Programme and over 80% of previous players have gone on to golfing or sporting careers/further education. Approximately 50% have secured scholarships to high profile golfing universities in America and several players have been selected to represent England.
“We aim to give our talented young players the best golf development experience available,” commented Nigel Edwards, England Golf’s Performance Director. “We expect them to be fully committed to achieving excellence in their game, and also recognise how important academic studies are for this particular age group. This programme sets up our young golfers, to achieve high levels in the men’s and women’s amateur game and ultimately touring professional level in future.”
Young golfers will be asked to submit an initial application form by the end of August and if successful will be invited to one of the regional squad selection weekends in September. We do also require applicants to have 5 GCSE passes grades A-C and this must include English and Maths. With only a limited number of places available, competition for places on the programme is expected to be fierce. As part of the selection process, applicants will be expected to compete with their peers in a series of skills tests, player profiling and on-course ability. Once the selction process is complete, applications will learn if they have secured one of the squad places for the months ahead and will start the programme in early October.
An application form, detailing the full criteria for prospective squad players, is available on the England Golf website.
The deadline for applications is Friday 30th August 2013.
England Golf www.englandgolf.org