Photography Competition - Update

Manuel Almunia with Cesc Fabregas

Arsenal in the Community launched a photography competition open to all Arsenal supporters and budding photographers at the beginning of this season, in memory of the late sports photographer Bill Smith, who worked for Arsenal Football Club.

Supported by Manuel Almunia - a keen photographer – in collaboration with the Club's photography department, entries have been received throughout the season so far and the standard is looking pretty good…but there's still time to get your entry in if you haven't already.

Entrants of any age are invited to send in their photography depicting 'The Arsenal Community' or indeed Arsenal in the Community and the winning photographers from each category have the chance to experience these magnificent money-can't-buy prizes.

CATEGORY A
Over 18s are invited to submit photographs that represent 'The Arsenal Community' and are free to interpret this in any way they wish. The winning photograph of this category will win an amazing prize including the chance to join the Club photographers for the ultimate first team matchday photography experience at Emirates Stadium with a pre-match briefing and pitchside access during the game to capture the best moments of the match. The winner will also receive a portfolio of their photography from the day.

CATEGORY B
The under 18s are also invited to submit photos representing 'The Arsenal Community.'  The winning entrant for this age group will join our Club photographers at Arsenal's Training Ground based in London Colney to assist with photography of a first team training session. The winner will also receive a portfolio of their photography from the day.

CATEGORY C
The third category of this competition is open to all of our many Arsenal in the Community initiative participants with entries required to snap a photo representing 'Arsenal in the Community.' The department celebrates its 25th anniversary next season which might well provide inspiration for photo entries. The winning entrant for this category will join our photographers on our 2009/10 season official photocall day, assisting them on a day attended by all the first team squad, backroom staff and the Arsenal Ladies squad.

The winners from each category will go head to head to have the chance of picking up the Bill Smith Photography Award presented on the pitch before a matchday.

Manuel will line up alongside Bill Smith's son Nigel, Arsenal's Club photographer Stuart MacFarlane and Arsenal in the Community to judge the entries and an exhibition of the top 50 photographs will be exhibited at Emirates Stadium later this year. 

To enter a photo in Arsenal's photography competition, send your photo to: photography@arsenal.co.uk including your name, age, full address and the category you're entering.  Please attach your digital photo complete with a description of where and when the image was captured.  Alternatively, send your entries via post addressed to:

Photography Competition
Arsenal in the Community
Arsenal Football Club
Highbury House
75 Drayton Park
London, N5 1BU

The competition is open throughout the season, but get your entries in early to be sure of a chance of winning one of the amazing prizes on offer.

• See some of the entries
• Terms and Conditions
  

source - www.arsenal.com

AFC in the Community coaches discover Qigong

A local Shaolin Monk Master leads the way at Elthorne Park

Just before Christmas 2008 over 32 Arsenal in the Community coaches undertook their first Qigong session in Elthorne Park with a local Shaolin Monk Master. Qigong, renowned for improving breathing and stretching techniques for over 3,000 years, is arguably a great football training tool and certainly proved a new and exciting experience for the young coaches in attendance.

Led by the Master of the Shaolin Temple UK in Tufnell Park, Shifu Shi Yanzi, sessions of Qigong help to develop balance, coordination, calmness under pressure and relaxed power. The art of Qigong is a set of movements coordinated with the breath which guides the vital inner energy – "Qi" – through and around the body.

The Arsenal in the Community gap year coaches who took part were from local sixth form colleges, while the coaches on the trainee programme attend the City of Westminster College in Paddington, London. They would usually spend their one of three weekly two hour sessions learning new football drills from Arsenal Soccer School head coaches that would later be used during their own sessions in local schools and estates, however, the change was a welcome one.

The session lasted two hours and was extremely popular with all the coaches including Head of Arsenal in the Community Alan Sefton who said: "Our session with the Shaolin Monk was an eye-opener in terms of the techniques that are used and how they have potential within sport and more specifically, football. All of our gap year and trainee coaches really enjoyed themselves along with the rest of the Arsenal in the Community coaches and it is something we would definitely be keen on doing in the future."

To find out more about meditation classes at the Shaolin Temple in Tufnell Park please visit www.shaolintempleuk.org and to find out more about any of the coach training programmes run by Arsenal in the Community please contact Samir Singh on 020 7704 4158 or ssingh@arsenal.co.uk.

source - www.arsenal.com

Wenger - Patience is a virtue for Ramsey

Aaron Ramsey... 18-year-old tipped for big things by his manager

Aaron Ramsey is on the road to being a first-team regular, according to Arsène Wenger – but he is not there yet.

The midfielder, who only turned 18 on Boxing Day, started his eighth match for Arsenal in Saturday's 2-1 win over Plymouth.

The Welshman has been involved in every first-team squad since the start of November. More often that not, he has begun on the bench but he does have four Champions League starts to his name. However Ramsey has not yet began a Premier League game. His manager says that will come but he may have to be patient.

"He's still a bit short [of that]," said Wenger. "He's just 18 and Wilshere is just 17. The Premier League is [the] Premier League and you need to be a man in this League.

"He can play in some games. But if you're asking me if he can play every week, every three days, I don't think he's ready yet. But he shows that he has the quality, that he can do it soon.

"I really think he will be a great player."

source - www.arsenal.com