First District to Introduce the Junior Coaches Certification

On the day of the testing: junior coaches, their trainees, principal of their school and their Head Coach, David Coombs David Coombs, Cayo Chess Coordinator and Coach, developed further the idea that he and some other coaches were discussing before: we, adult coaches, should not only acknowledge the fact that kids can teach other kids to play chess, but we must be able to assess the quality of their teaching and officially recognize it through the official certification procedure. Below you will find the description of the procedure that he developed and utilized with the first group of students in the St Barnabas School:
Procedure for the Junior Coaches Certification.
Stage One. Beginner coach.
Students who want to try to be a junior coach must know all the basic rules of the game. This knowledge will be tested by questioning and playing chess with a visiting or club coach.
Students must know basic opening tactics, checkmate methods and stalemate situations. The students must be able to demonstrate these.
The Student must also be willing and able to communicate this knowledge and teach others.
It is unlikely that a student would reach this stage until having played for at least six months.

Stage Two.
The student teaches one beginner student to play chess, all the rules to play a whole game. Teaches check, checkmate, stalemate. The beginner students must be able to play a whole game. This is documented by the coach.
This stage may take several weeks or even months.
When the student coach is confident that the beginner knows the game the chess coach will test the beginner by playing a game and setting up positions to see if they know castling rules, check, checkmate and stalemate. If the beginner is not sure of any rules the coach can give more time and then when the beginner know the rules and can play a whole game the chess coach will recommend to the BNYFC that a junior coaching certificate be awarded.

We encourage other coaches to embrace that concept and empower their players through the official certification. Brian Chun, Stann Creek coach, introduced long time ago to his club the idea of peer teaching, and we can all observe that his team right now is the strongest in the country. Thanks to Cayo initiative, there is a way now to acknowledge those kids work.