A local Shaolin Monk Master leads the way at Elthorne Park
AFC in the Community coaches discover Qigong
Just before Christmas 2008 over 32 Arsenal in the Community coaches undertook their first Qigong session in Elthorne Park with a local Shaolin Monk Master. Qigong, renowned for improving breathing and stretching techniques for over 3,000 years, is arguably a great football training tool and certainly proved a new and exciting experience for the young coaches in attendance.
Led by the Master of the Shaolin Temple UK in Tufnell Park, Shifu Shi Yanzi, sessions of Qigong help to develop balance, coordination, calmness under pressure and relaxed power. The art of Qigong is a set of movements coordinated with the breath which guides the vital inner energy – “Qi” – through and around the body.
The Arsenal in the Community gap year coaches who took part were from local sixth form colleges, while the coaches on the trainee programme attend the City of Westminster College in Paddington, London. They would usually spend their one of three weekly two hour sessions learning new football drills from Arsenal Soccer School head coaches that would later be used during their own sessions in local schools and estates, however, the change was a welcome one.
The session lasted two hours and was extremely popular with all the coaches including Head of Arsenal in the Community Alan Sefton who said: “Our session with the Shaolin Monk was an eye-opener in terms of the techniques that are used and how they have potential within sport and more specifically, football. All of our gap year and trainee coaches really enjoyed themselves along with the rest of the Arsenal in the Community coaches and it is something we would definitely be keen on doing in the future.”
To find out more about meditation classes at the Shaolin Temple in Tufnell Park please visit www.shaolintempleuk.org and to find out more about any of the coach training programmes run by Arsenal in the Community please contact Samir Singh on 020 7704 4158 or ssingh@arsenal.co.uk.
[Wednesday, January 07, 2009]
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