The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s Coach Education Programme continued with another C License Course held recently at the Ato Boldon Stadium conducted by the FA’s Technical Director Anton Corneal.
Among the 23 participants were current day players Radanfah Abu Bakr and Jan Michael Williams who have both represented the National Team up to recent times. Corneal said he was particularly impressed with the level of participating from the participants and was pleased to see the turn out from Williams and Abu Bakr.
“We’ve continued to get a good response from participants and the interest is definitely there among local persons who want to improve and get certified. It was refreshing to have both Jan and Randanfah involved as participants and to get their views and see their willingness to further develop themselves in the game,” Corneal said.
Some of the areas focused on during the course were principles of coaching; the role of the coach; the teaching-learning process; communication; ethics; coaches being able to assess their players’ developmental; coaches being able to plan and implement an effective training session with specific objectives; and to develop a progressive programme of appropriate duration.
Abu Bakr, who has 37 appearances for T&T, spoke about the course, saying “I Enjoyed it. There were lots of valuable information provided. The course gave a great insight as to why things are done the way that they are, with particular reference to players in their developmental years, up to age sixteen.”
“Generally the course gave me a new perspective on viewing and analysing the game. Having an idea of the game through the coach’s eyes will definitely help me assess and understand the game better,” Abu Bakr added.
Williams meantime also had a similar type experience, saying that it was important for local coaches to enhance their coaching capacity, competence and skills in order for them to play their part in producing better players.
“The course was good. From the moment I went in on the first day I realised that there was so much good information not only for those who wanted to learn to coach at that level but also for me as a player,” Williams told TTFA Media.
“I remember one time I was breaking down my game I got some good advice from Clayton Ince where he said when you are evaluating your mistakes you should start over with the fundamentals first and build your way up. This is a period in my life where I am transitioning because I want to improve still as I am still playing. The five days provided such good knowledge and information, I was really happy for it,” Williams told TTFA Media.
“One participant from the East made reference to the fact that he has a coaching school and he realised here that he has been teaching his kids nonsense for years because a lot of them want to train players as if they are training players like Ronaldo or Hazard when instead you have to set realistic targets and teach them the basics first. It is not necessarily about winning all the time but instead to get the players technically and tactically better and communicating better.
“This is something I will definitely encourage persons to get involved in, not only those who want to get into coaching but people who are in and around football, even senior players as they can always pass on better information.
“This is definitely good for persons who want to coach because we have to develop better young players and in order to do that we have to develop good coaches. And to also develop better players at the senior level we first have to do it at the junior level. It was extremely beneficial to me as well as others who took part based on their feedback. It is a high level course for sure,” said Williams who has 83 appearances for T&T.
Other areas of focus during the course included – coaches being able to understand the main moments of football and relate it to team task and function; coaches being able to identify and develop personal and professional behaviours in themselves and players and coaches being able to identify the basic elements that make up football among other areas.
The TTFA is committed to providing every opportunity for our coaches to succeed. We have established avenues for our coaches to receive continuing coaching education in order to increase their knowledge of the game and enhance their teaching approach. The FA sees the importance of defining a clear direction for player development through a plan for the future and remaining focused on reaching end goals. Not getting lost in the mix of day to day tactical strategies and playing only to win, is key for success.
Interested persons can keep abreast of upcoming TTFA coaching courses by staying tuned to updates on the TTFA’s official websites and social media platforms.