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Steve Barker began pLaying Korfball at the age of 16 way
back in 1976 and went on to become a key member of the British National
team and one of the leading players in the British National league.
As a member of the Great Britain team played in three World
Championships tournaments and one World Games tournament, winning a
bronze medal in the 1987 World Championships tournament
Steve's early coaching career saw him take on a player coach role at
Crystal palace Korfball Club and the club dominated the English Korfball
scene in the early 1980s going on to be appointed to non playing
coaching roles at leading British national league clubs.
Steve's international coaching career began with his appointment as the
Great Britain Under 21 national team coach having attended the IKF coaching course
in the Netherlands and he lead the GB squad to a
bronze medal in the 1985 European Championships.
As time passed Steve realized that to compete with the top nations in
the Korfball world British Korfball would need players with far greater
technical and athletic skills than had been the case and as result he
shifted his coaching to talent development and working with junior and
youth players.
Steve accepted the lead coaching role at the West London Wildcats
Korfball club in London working with players as young as 10 years
old the resulting talent development programs saw the club dominate the
British Korfball scene at the U13 and U11 age groups for a number of
years,
In an effort to further enhance the quality of talent development within
British Korfball Steve then founded the Korfball School of Excellence a
privately run talent development program focusing on junior and youth
players who aspired to play at the highest levels of the sport.
The intensive training courses offered by the SOE program focused
primarily on the development of Korfball technical skills, Athletic
skills, Tactical awareness, Mental skills and general sports education
and the program was soon boosted by the arrival of legendary
Belgian coach Rudy Ramaekers, one of the sport's most successful
international coaches, and the only coach outside of the Netherlands to
win a World Championships Gold medal.
The Rudy Ramaekers approach to technical and Athletic skills had already
begun to play a key role in the fortunes of Belgian Korfball through his
Tenovis talent development program in Belgian and it was not long before
those methods began to bear fruit in the UK.
The SOE program played a key role in the development of a number of
young players many of whom now play key roles in both the English
national league and the English National team.
With greater numbers of talented young players now available than had
been the case in past years Steve accepted a coaching role within the
British national youth squads and was subsequently appointed as Head
coach to the England National U19 squad where he played a key role in
developing what was soon to become recognized as one of the leading
talent development programs in the Korfball world.
It was shortly after Steve left the role of England Youth coach in order to emigrate to
the US that the England under 19 squad reached the final of the Korfball
Challenge tournament for the first ever time, beating not only the
Belgian U19 National squad in the process but every other Dutch Regional
squad it faced.
Steve is now based in Los Angeles California and is focusing his time
and helping establish Korfball into the US and is looking forward to
returning to coaching once again.
If you are interested in the Korfball School of Excellence program
courses or workshops for both players and coaches then feel free to
contact us.
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