Former national midfielder Leon Carpette believe that youth footballers in this country need to do more training on their own and not wait for team sessions if they intend to develop at a rapid rate.
Carpette, who has four appearances and one goal for the T&T Senior team, was speaking after completing a TTFF/Dutch C License coaching course at the Ato Boldon Stadium recently. He spoke well about the course saying that he believed it would aid coaching development in T&T.
“Myself and the other guys have learnt a lot . The program was very informative and will help to improve the quality of coaching here in this country,” said Carpette who has been the coach at Carapichaima East Secondary.
“You never stop learning and not much is new to me because I’ve been attended a lot of coaching programs with the Brazilians, English and so on and more or less they all look at football the same way but what struck me about this course is where you start with the basic four v four, seven v seven and eleven v eleven as you go up with the various ages.”
As to whether he thinks it could help lift the standard of play in the Secondary Schools League with some of the coaches from the schools having participated in the course, the former Paragon and San Fernando Strikers player added : “It should be able to lift the level of the league but what is lacking is the passion. You hardly see players training on their own. With a lot more work, you can improve your technique and skill and this program gives you some insight into that.
“I think it will help the coaches in the communities but it’s important that the youth come out regularly to the coaching sessions . They seem to be involved in other activities and then wait only for around the August period to come out for training. By that time it’s already too late because then the season is right there and the year finishes shortly after.”
Carpette scored in a 2-1 win over Barbados in a 1978 World Cup qualifier in Bridgetown back in 1976. He also appeared in the 1974 World Cup qualifier versus Honduras which T&T lost 2-1 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.