The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation will stage a Goalkeeping Diploma 1 Coaching course at the Hasely Crawford Stadium starting this Friday and running until Sunday.
The course which will be conducted by Technical Director Lincoln Phillips is a follow up of two FIFA/CONCACAF Goalkeeping courses which were conducted in T&T in 1996 and 2002 by Phillips in his capacity as a FIFA instructor. Candidates from all of the CONCACAF countries, including Michael Maurice and Ross Russell were exposed to the modern methods of goalkeeper coaching.
“The T&T goalkeeping initiative is designed to identify and develop the best goalkeeping coaches in the country,” Phillips told TTFF Media. Three Goalkeeping Diploma Courses have been developed by the “Legendary” Phillips.
Top candidates will be selected to the T&T National Goalkeeping Staff, Phillips mentioned. Phillips was also instrumental in National Youth team and ex-Joe Public goalkeeper Thorne Holder obtaining a full scholarship to attend Maryland University which is rated among the best in the USA. Their head coach Sasho Cirovski is a colleague of Phillips and asked him to recommend a promising youth custodian from T&T. Within a couple days, two coaches flew to Trinidad to have a look and subsequently arranged for Holder to attain the scholarship. One of the assistants, Russell Payne, was a participant at age ten at Phillips’ coaching camp “Top flight goalkeeping academy.”
Meantime, following this weekend’s course, the next goalkeeping event here will be a huge nation-wide goalkeeping ID program for boys and girls U-12 to adult. The goalkeepers will be graded on a scale of 1 - 10. Goalkeepers scoring 7-9 (there will never be a 10, will be kept in a national pool for national training purposes. The ones that score below 7 will also be monitored.
In April, and invitation only camp for goalkeepers will be set up to allow the fine tuning of the country's top male and female goalkeepers.
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In 2008 the process will continue but with additional Diploma courses and camps for elite as well as beginning goalkeepers.
“We expect to see an improvement in the level of goalkeeping within two years. Professional and senior goalkeepers will be involved in the training of youth goalkeepers within all regional associations,” Phillips told TTFF Media.
The Goalkeeping Diplomas
Diploma I (three days) This is the beginning level for goalkeeper coaches (similar to the D level Coaching License). The
Diploma 1 curriculum includes: proper stance (ready position), fielding low and waist-high shots, catching, diving, punching, deflecting (over the bar and around the post, distribution: throwing and kicking).
Diploma II (5 days)- The curriculum focuses on the tactical aspect of goalkeeping: Angle play, cross balls, break aways (1v1), restarts, communication with defenders. Technique is still stressed at this level but more during the course of game situations (application to game situations)
Diploma III (5 days)- This diploma is the highest level of goalkeeping certification in T&T. The curriculum includes all of the above and exposes the candidates to various methods of training the goalkeeper with the team.