Former National Team captain and ex-Scottish-based professional Anthony Rougier was among the latest batch of coaches to complete the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation ‘C’ License coaching course in collaboration with the Dutch KNVB at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Friday.
Several other former players and current coaches have completed the three courses offered by the TTFF so far including Arnold Dwarika, Leonson Lewis, Russell Sutton, Kevin Jeffrey, Dexter Cyrus as well as coaches attached to amateur clubs and other coaching schools.
The TTFF intends to have every coach attached to clubs under the umbrella of the TTFF properly certified with the couple of years as well as there are plans to stage courses of higher grades.
For someone like Rougier, who has played for the likes of Reading FC and Port Vale in England, the initiative taken by the TTFF to certify local coaches is a commendable one.
“It was the opportunity to see it from the perspective of the Dutch which is what I wanted to find out more in terms of the overall Dutch game and the way they play the sport.
I wanted to find out what they are doing that is different from us and different from what I have learned and what I have experienced in the past and I got all of that from this course,” Rougier told TTFF Media on the weekend.
“From the methodology to the technical aspects and communication... we found out more about these things.
There are various aspects in coaching that I would have known of from my past experiences but this particular course was about how to put it all into a perspective that could help you teach youngsters about solving problems and how we as coaches could solve problems and make ourselves better all round coaches. These are some of the things we got from this course.”
The former Hibernian player added that he would encourage anyone who is into coaching to partake in the course being offered by the TTFF.
“From my perspective I think anyone who is into coaching, if not some but all the coaches from the Pro League should take the opportunity to come in and do this course.
It’s valuable information and it may seem that you have known some of it from before but it really breaks down everything for you to grasp it in a better or simpler way,” he said.
“I do want to commend the TTFF instructors and they too are learning just like us coaches. This will get better in time but I think they are going in the right direction.
The good thing from all of this is us trying to find a balance between Trinidad and Tobago football and what is good from out there in the bigger world of football,” Rougier concluded.
Close to one hundred coaches have completed the ‘C’ license course and the TTFF will stage other courses for coaches from within the regional associations.
The latest one which closed on Friday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium was staged for clubs in the T&T Pro League and Super League as well as for individuals who had been on a waiting list.
View Rougier's interview
Rougier on player to coach transition