The Association of Indian Football Coaches recently held a webinar series for coaches across all states. It provided Indian football coaches with an opportunity to learn and refresh their coaching knowledge with the help of coach instructors and guest speakers from the football community. The webinar, which was held from 16th April to 5th May was attended by 16 grassroots coaches from the Foundation. It was divided into 8 modules which covered a range of topics from a coach’s role in a team to core football principles and fundamentals, also including futsal, goalkeeping, nutrition and hydration, and first aid training.
The Foundation is always on the lookout to provide coaches with learning opportunities and this series of webinars was a welcome opportunity for the coaches to learn from the best in Indian football. The modules were led by AIFF coach educators Mr. Shekar Kerkar and Mr. Caetano Pinho and every session had a guest speaker. Here’s the list of guest speakers from the webinar.
- Mr. Bibiyan Fernandes – IND coach U-16
- Mr. Floyd Pinto – IND Coach U-19
- Mr. Muthali – Aiff Coach Educator
- Mr. Felix D’souza – AIFF Coach Educator & IND GK Coach U-16
- Adv. Emidio Pinho – Human Rights Govt. of Goa
- Miss Samantha D’Costa – Coach Special Olympics
- Mr. Amrit Murali – Manager Technical Analysis, FC Goa
- Mr. Prashant J Singh – AIFF Coach Educator
- Ms. Maymol Rocky – IND Women Coach
- Mr. Clifford Miranda – Interim Coach FC Goa
- Ms. Anju Turambekar – TD Dempo SC
- Mr. Parth Parasher – Mental Health Coach, RF
- Mr. Dinesh Nair – AIFF Coach Educator
- Mr. Joshua Vaz – Futsal Coach Educator
- Mr. Jovito Lopes – General Secretary, GFA
- Mr. Savio Madeira – Head of Coach Education Dept. AIFF
- Mr. Jezz Weeks – Coach Educator Premier Skills – UK
We asked our coaches about their experience and received great reviews about the webinar and the speakers. Coach Som said,”I liked all the speakers as I feel all of them explained their particular topics nicely. I gained a lot of knowledge and it was a good experience for me”. All the coaches particularly appreciated when the speakers gave examples while explaining a topic.
While most of the coaches found the session on scouting and talent identification to be most helpful, some also liked the goal-setting sessions and the communication and motivation session. According to coach Josline, the most helpful sessions were the ones on child protection, behavioral characteristics of players, communication and motivation, and goalkeeping. Coach Inacio found the sessions on life skills, planning for development, goal setting, and futsal most helpful. In the nutrition and hydration session, coaches were asked to make systematic charts on what diet coaches should be following after their training sessions.
Coach Yash has already started thinking about how he can utilise the techniques used on the national level to start scouting at the grassroots level. He is trying to come up with a grading system for his players using all his learnings from the webinar. Coach Premson learned about the value in preparing sessions beforehand to ensure he can assess the development of his players. Coach Allain’s learning from the webinar were the different coaching methods used by different coaches who work at the national and international levels.
Some of the coaches also interacted with other attendees from the webinar to exchange ideas and understand how others are coping with the situation at hand. Coach Milagres talked to Bibiano Fernandes and learned that the national teams have been given a written program with reference to their diet and training which they are to follow. Coach Rohan and Allain interacted with other coaches in Goa who are facing similar difficulties. Many are making plans for the future and working on their fitness levels as well.
Bibiano and Floyd also interacted with coach Yash and shared their experience and learning. Both of them are spending a major chunk of their time reading resources about football. They also discussed the impact online mediums and social media is having on players – from zoom classes to Instagram challenges, the football community is doing their best to keep their players engaged.
Coaches are the backbone of football and in the current scenario, this webinar has given many of our coaches an opportunity to discover how they can utilise their time and energy in the most effective manner. It was a great initiative by AIFC and we look forward to more such opportunities.