BY SUNDAY AKINTOYE
Grassroots football coaches in Alimosho and Lagos have been advised to seek more knowledge in coaching so as to compete with their colleagues globally in football coaching.
These were suggestions and opinions of invited guests at the seminar tagged’Alimosho Train The Trainers”held recently at Egan,Alimosho, Lagos, Nigeria.
The one-day seminar was organised by Alimosho Football Coaches Council under the leadership of Samuel Uchenna Eke to refresh the council members and also equipping them for the tasks ahead.
Speaking with our correspondent after the seminar,one of the invited speakers,Dr Asak-Johnson Daina explained the importance of coaching education on the lives of grassroots football coaches.
She noted that quite numbers of grassroots football coaches are not equipped in knowledge which may have negative impacts on their players.
While speaking on her title “Psychology of Coaching” reminded the grassroots coaches to take the aspect of coaching psychology very seriously in their training sessions admitting that many football coaches in grassroots ignore this aspect at their own peril.
“Why I taught the participants this topic was that I found out that many of us(coaches) are not psychologist but it is very important to take this aspect seriously so that our players can be good and better in match situation,”she said.
The head coach of Dannaz Ladies Football Club of Lagos charged the coaches to seek for more knowledge by attending seminar, refresher courses and other coaching education programmes that can benefit them instead of relying on their own knowledge alone.
In his own opinion, another invited speaker, Dr Samuel Johnson who spoke on “Players Development In Football” emphasised the need for the grassroots football coaches to acquire more knowledge to equip them for future challenges.
In his submission,cJohnson disclosed that many grassroots football coaches today in Nigeria and Africa at large based their training programmes or sessions on physical and technical development of the players forgetting that the European coaches focusing more on tactical and mental growth of the grassroots players.
He went further by using just concluded FIFA World Cup on how African teams lost concentration at the last minutes which cost them their defeats.
He admitted that African coaches always lost concentration at the last minutes of the game as a result of inability to focus more on tactical and mental growth of the players as well as technology and data analysis.
He insisted that grassroots football coaches need to focus more on tactical and mental growth of the players and also mentioned social & ethical development of the players as well as rules of coaching & mentorship are part of the key aeas grassroots football coaches should work on.
The CAF instructor also mentioned use of technology and data analysis could help the grassroots football coaches to refine and polish the players so that such players can compete with their colleagues in Europe and other part of the world.
He pointed out that these factors could only be achieved if the grassroots football coaches have coaching education by attending refresher courses regularly and apply what they are taught into practice.
Also speaking , Leader of Ibeju-Lekki Football Coaches Council, Victor Akinmoyo in his title” Football Adminstration And Finance” supported the other invited speakers that there is need for grassroots football coaches to equip themselves saying that the reason why most of the grassroots football coaches are poor is because they lack knowledge and wisdom on the job.
In his own comments, he said without a proper coaching education, a grassroots football coaches would find it difficult to succeed on the job saying that time has come for grassroots football coaches to seek more knowledge rather than relying on their football experience.
“We should stop running a club like a charity organisation.As a club owner or coach, you should also think of business aspect of the coaching.Our club is our identity or call it branding and we need to think how our club can fetch us money.
“As a club owner or coach,here are many things you can do in your communities that can bring fortunes to the club and if you don’t know how to go about it,seek for those who have knowledge of it and they would put you through,”he said.
Akinmoyo however highlighted some key points that can bring fortunes to the club and admonished the participants (Coaches) to always seek for knowledge on a regular basis before embarking on any long term projects for the club.
Also speaking, Leader of Alimosho Football Coaches Council, Eke who spoke on “Discipline In Football Coaching” totally agreed with the invited speakers that coaching education is the solution to coaching problem.
In his submission,he said most of the grassroots football coaches today are not equipped in area of coaching education and thanked the Lagos State Football Association for organising series of coaching seminar for the grassroots football coaches who don’t have the opportunity to enrol in NIS coaching course.
“Of course, I supported the submissions of all our speakers by saying that coaching education is very important for our grassroots football coaches. I think the message is clear and the participants know what to do to equip themselves after this seminar,” he said.
During the practical aspect of it, one of the invited speakers, Adeleke Ibiyemi taught the participants “Possession Game Factor”
He taught the participants the importance of Possession Game Factor and many coaches who spoke to our correspondent after the practical expressed satisfaction with the seminar and practical aspect of it and urged the leadership of the council to organise such a seminar quarterly.
Meanwhile, more than 30 participants were in attendance at the coaching seminar and certificate of participation were issued to the coaches who successfully completed the one day seminar.