It’s one thing to have a cracking facility like Marsh Farm, but it also takes the dedication of the volunteer workforce within the club to continue to provide & develop the future of the club. Now with the help of the quality junior coaching on offer the NFA club has obtained Clubmark for Angling.

Not only do they have some great waters & excellent fishing, but also have a tackle shop, toilets, ample parking and classroom facilities for coaching inside during the winter. By working in partnership with a tackle business some 30miles away they were able to provide the extra resources that an onsite tackle shop offers the visiting angler.

The club runs coaching sessions every weekend for juniors, organised by their head coach Peter Dawson. They have six more qualified Level 2 coaches and a further two candidates will start to be trained as Level 1 coaches shortly who can support them with the coaching programme delivery. They have developed their own coaching cards that each new angler works through and the coaches record their progress as they learn new techniques. This helps them with planning their sessions and allows them to introduce new skills at the right time.

Malcolm Richardson, Secretary of Godalming Angling Society, states;-

“Whilst Godalming Angling Society had some of the criteria for Clubmark already in place, working towards Clubmark status enabled the club to make changes of direction, particularly in the way that we carried out our coaching activities. These changes have been highly productive and enabled the club to work in a more structured way with our junior anglers, their parents and siblings. The fact that we already had an ideal venue for coaching at Marsh Farm made these changes slightly easier to adopt, but there is no reason that other angling clubs cannot work towards Clubmark status with their existing venues. It is hard work, but well worth the effort”.