Some of England's brightest young leaders converged on St. Georges School in Ascot for the inaugural FA Young Leadership Camp, giving them the chance to take part and develop their knowledge in a whole host of different football disciplines.

The pinnacle of The FA 'Step into Sport' Programme lasted for four days and gave a unique training opportunity to young leaders aged 16 and 17.

Opened by a stimulating speech from Sir Trevor Brooking about the value of volunteers and coaches in football and how we need to address the decline in technical ability of our players.

This was followed by a presentation from three young girls that went to Lesotho in Africa last year as part of the international programme, of which four would be selected from this years Camp to do this year. Their presentation gave a wonderful insight into the experience the lucky chosen four would go through, and really set the scene for the week.

Throughout the week the young leaders developed and enjoyed sessions in working with disabled footballers, learned about what futsal is and gained further knowledge in coaching, goalkeeping and refereeing.

The week also happened to be the hottest of the year so far and although there was lots of sweating and exercise going on, thankfully there were no heat related injuries!

Each evening saw the young leaders develop their team building skills too, learning about the importance of communicating with others, developing interpersonal skills and even how to manage an international team!

The final day saw further workshops on the importance of equality and child protection and also some further information on what football development is all about and the role they can play when they go back out to their communities.

The Camp was rounded off by presentations and certificates to all involved and a motivating speech by Ray Wilkins on the value of coaching and being involved in football.

The hardest part of the Camp for the staff involved was to choose the four young leaders that are going to go to Botswana in October as the standard was so high, but this has almost been concluded and more information on the chosen four will follow!

For more information on getting involved in the FA Step into Sport programme, contact your local County FA.