Despite featuring the likes of ex-professional players and local club technical directors, this week’s FFA/AFC B Licence Course at Meakin Park has retained a community feel amongst participants.

Led by State Technical Director David Abela, the two-part course concerns the performance phase of Football Federation Australia’s National Curriculum and continues to develop coaches who aspire to professional careers within the game.

Football Queensland’s Chris Kenward, who coaches within Brisbane Strikers’ PlayStation® 4 National Premier Leagues program, is undertaking the course and believes the reduced number of participants has aided the exchange of information.

“It helped in a number of ways in terms of it was quite intimate and we got to change groups and tables quite often to mix with each other and that’s good,” Kenward said.

“Often I think you find on these courses you learn as much if not more from some of the other coaches then you do the instructors and that’s obviously an environment the instructors create.

“The downside to the small group is that when we were playing, there weren’t enough players and we are all getting old and we were all getting injured and hobbling around!”

Following completion of the six-day first stage on Thursday, participants will return to Queensland’s Home of Football for part two in March.

Kenward says, despite forming part of the ‘Advanced Pathway’, the model of the course facilitates a sense of community amongst the coaches.

“It’s a network,” he said.

“People have already invited each other to come to their training sessions to critique them.

“That learning, that ongoing learning, hopefully will continue long after the course has finished and that’s probably the biggest part of it.”