Quidditch and Me

experiences Mar 23, 2018

Hello everyone, my name is Jay Holmes and I’m going to be talking to you about my experiences with the Quidditch Premier League or QPL for short. To start we’ll just go over a little bit about me: I’m currently Captain of the British Champions of Quidditch, coach with the national squad and help to train new coaches and scout potential. I have worked as a referee and commentator in quidditch alongside my career as a player.

QPL_logoLast Summer, QPL was proposed by Jack Lennard, and if I’m honest, I was sceptical. Nothing to this scale had really been done in the UK with quidditch before and paying for a full summer league before it had been tested seemed daunting and a little risky. What if it was terrible? What if I didn’t like my team? What if they took my money and gave me nothing?

Thankfully, QPL delivered on everything I wanted and more, and I made sure I was one of the first sign ups for the new summer season.

 

The First Season

In my first QPL season I played for the London Monarchs, the London-based team that had a huge pool of players to draw from and was one of the favourites to take one of the top three spots. I volunteered to coach the team for the summer, as  I had been an assistant coach to the national squad and captained my university team, but had never had all of the resources, knowledge and time to use what I knew.

QPL gave me that opportunity.

The manager of the Monarchs was very flexible and allowed me to implement my own offensive and defensive system as well as make personal changes and lead the team. I was aided by the chosen Captain and Vice-Captain of the team as well as the Manager.

Coaching Royalty

Coaching this team for QPL really allowed me to develop my skills as a coach, as I worked with lots of new people and learned to accommodate to all of their needs and find their talents. I could try out all the new drills, ideas and play schemes that I had in my head but had never had the clay to mould them with, until now. Coaching the Monarchs was a highlight of my quidditch career (now 5 years long) and it allowed me to engage with the people and the sport to a deeper level than I had before.

QPL teams bring people together from across a region and while I was reunited from friends that I had played with and coached before, it also gave me the chance to engage with new people and implement them into a new system. Having these different people and playstyles allowed me to learn more about the game and try my ideas, as well as making some new great friends in the process. QPL helps to balance the hard work ethic of playing with the sociability and networking to allow teams to truly bond and share a fantastic experience over summer together.

Luckily, the coaching seemed to work and the Monarchs improved from fixture to fixture, as not only did the team have fantastic chemistry but truly seemed to care about the wellbeing of one another. I saw role players and bench players up their game and truly develop into stars in their own right. They provided the ability and the passion and I was able to provide the will and the way. QPL not only developed my ability to coach but allowed the players an environment to improve at their own pace with their own coaching needs.

London Monarchs managed to secure the 3rd overall place in the League and are tipped for favourites for the number one spot this season.

 

Mermaids and Motivation

Hello everyone, my name is Jay Holmes and I’m going to be talking to you about my experiences with the Quidditch Premier League or QPL for short. To start we’ll just go over a little bit about me: I’m currently Captain of the British Champions of Quidditch, coach with the national squad and help to train new coaches and scout potential. I have worked as a referee and commentator in quidditch alongside my career as a player.

QPL_logo

Last Summer, QPL was proposed by Jack Lennard, and if I’m honest, I was sceptical. Nothing to this scale had really been done in the UK with quidditch before and paying for a full summer league before it had been tested seemed daunting and a little risky. What if it was terrible? What if I didn’t like my team? What if they took my money and gave me nothing?

Thankfully, QPL delivered on everything I wanted and more, and I made sure I was one of the first sign ups for the new summer season.

 

The First Season

In my first QPL season I played for the London Monarchs, the London-based team that had a huge pool of players to draw from and was one of the favourites to take one of the top three spots. I volunteered to coach the team for the summer, as  I had been an assistant coach to the national squad and captained my university team, but had never had all of the resources, knowledge and time to use what I knew.

QPL gave me that opportunity.

The manager of the Monarchs was very flexible and allowed me to implement my own offensive and defensive system as well as make personal changes and lead the team. I was aided by the chosen Captain and Vice-Captain of the team as well as the Manager.

Coaching Royalty

Coaching this team for QPL really allowed me to develop my skills as a coach, as I worked with lots of new people and learned to accommodate to all of their needs and find their talents. I could try out all the new drills, ideas and play schemes that I had in my head but had never had the clay to mould them with, until now. Coaching the Monarchs was a highlight of my quidditch career (now 5 years long) and it allowed me to engage with the people and the sport to a deeper level than I had before.

 

QPL teams bring people together from across a region and while I was reunited from friends that I had played with and coached before, it also gave me the chance to engage with new people and implement them into a new system. Having these different people and playstyles allowed me to learn more about the game and try my ideas, as well as making some new great friends in the process. QPL helps to balance the hard work ethic of playing with the sociability and networking to allow teams to truly bond and share a fantastic experience over summer together.

Luckily, the coaching seemed to work and the Monarchs improved from fixture to fixture, as not only did the team have fantastic chemistry but truly seemed to care about the wellbeing of one another. I saw role players and bench players up their game and truly develop into stars in their own right. They provided the ability and the passion and I was able to provide the will and the way. QPL not only developed my ability to coach but allowed the players an environment to improve at their own pace with their own coaching needs.

London Monarchs managed to secure the 3rd overall place in the League and are tipped for favourites for the number one spot this season.

 

Mermaids and Motivation

The logo of the Eastern Mermaids from teh Quidditch Premier Leauge depicting a mermaid's tail and a trident

A lot has changed for me this season as I have transferred to the Eastern Mermaids due to changes in team eligibility.

This has provided me with a whole new situation as I have been able to meet more new players and have started coaching from an entirely different standard. The Mermaids are a struggling franchise and were unable to secure a win last season, but I am hoping that I can help have an impact on their players, and much like Monarchs, help point them towards a winning season.

Meeting these players not only allows me to expand my own circle of friends but gain a deeper understanding of player needs and tap into different part of my coaching from the teaching of fundamental basics to motivation and positivity in players.

 

QPL has given me a lot of opportunities and aided in securing myself a Head Coach role with the Team UK Expansion Squad, and play a larger part in the National Squad structure. By being able to meet new people and develop my own skills it has made me a well rounded coach and I can’t wait to see what QPL holds in store this season.

 

#EasternMermaids #RideTheWave

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Jay Holmes – Quidditch Coach


 

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