Twenty-eight teachers and coaches have taken another step towards strengthening grassroots football in Barbados after completing a Barbados Football Association (BFA) ‘D’ Diploma course aimed at improving the standard of coaching for young players.
The four-day programme, held from September 21 to 24 in collaboration with the Barbados Schools Football League, focused on equipping coaches with the fundamentals of delivering structured training sessions for children between six and 12 years old.
BFA Technical Director Philip Marin said the response from participants was encouraging.
“The feedback was great, as it was new information to some of them. It was the first time some of them were doing a course that focused on structured training sessions, meaning that they were able to see the different parts of our training session. For example, how do you structure the warm-up? How do you structure the activities and how do you cool down?” Marin explained.
“Some of them have been into coaching for many years, but they are not familiar with this type of training that can improve our players ability.We are looking to develop their technique.”
According to Marin, part two of the course will be staged in November and will follow on from the topics explored over the past few days.
“We covered the topics such as the role of the grassroots coach and the basic principles of the movements which are attacking and defending. In the practical session, they conducted a training session that covered 60 minutes and focused on technique, skills with an opponent and training with an opponent.
“For section two, they will return and they will do assessments. They will also cover all the practical elements that they did in block one. Right now we’re sending them off back to their schools or back to their clubs to practice,” Marin added.
In the interim, the teachers and coaches have been tasked with conducting a minimum of two training sessions and also writing a reflection about the session.
Marin said teachers will then be further assessed on the completed course work in November.
Twenty-four male and four female participants attended the course.
(KH)
