Mohammed's Story
Mohammed brought his two sons to the Wicketz session at the Karmand Centre in Bradford and has been coaching there ever since, initially as a volunteer and now, having gained several cricket coaching qualifications, as a paid support coach and Activator.
The Wicketz Development Officer recognised Mohammed’s ability to connect with the participants and use his experience of working in schools and coaching football in the community to help deliver consistently safe, fun cricket sessions in a creative way. “[he has] a gentle and persuasive approach that stands out. As a mother seeing my son getting confident and coming along with his speech makes me happier than everything. It’s made me feel more well” Khatoon, participant’s mum.
Mohammed helps deliver not only coaching sessions but also events and workshops. He is a strong leader and huge benefit to the Wicketz project, to its participants and to the coach, providing a strong link between Wicketz and the community, to the benefit of all parties. He has received a very positive response from young people and also from the local community and parents with whom he has shared his vision and goals for the Wicketz project. There has been an increase in parent activity in and around the session since he took on the leadership of the 8-11s session.
“My aim was to bring the children, parents and coaches together as a team. Once achieved I wanted to keep these people together through the cricket activity.”
In return the Wicketz programme has allowed him, to develop and expand his coaching skills, gain cricket-based experience and qualifications. Mohammed, who also works part time in the financial sector, wanted to put more back into his community and the experience he has had with Wicketz has helped him towards following this chosen life path of delivering both community and high-performance coaching. He sees his long-term future as working full time in a sports coaching industry that he can influence to be more socially conscious. “Getting the coaching qualifications has given me a benchmark to refer to both in and outside of Wicketz and the ability to work alone and lead groups. Through Wicketz my understanding and general practice has significantly improved, in turn raising my levels of confidence even further.”
Yaseen sees both the community value of charitable organisations working with sport and the pursuit of personal success within the coaching industry. He has two routes in front of him that cross over between the community and business world. The ideal end point is a more socially conscious business using sports coaching. In the past two years Mohammed has made significant steps toward pursuing his vision. From volunteer, to trainee cricket coach, to paid sessional coach and now working as the Wicketz Bradford Activator.
May 2020