Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
ONE HUNDRED and two of the island's youth coaches showed up with the hope of benefitting from a seminar held by National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) coaches, Vince Ganzberg and Lee Mitchell, last weekend at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) office and National Stadium and by all account they were not disappointed.
The seminar was aimed at improving coaching techniques from the 5-10 and 8-12 age groups.
It got off to a very positive start as it exceeded expectations in terms of the expected number of participants.
A POSITIVE SIGN
Twenty more coaches than expected showed up to take part and this, according to coordi-nator of the event, Vin Blaine, is a positive sign.
"We had more coaches than we expected and the parishes were all very well represented. For example, we had about eight from St. Thomas and six from St. Catherine and this is very encouraging."
A major difference highlighted to have been learnt from coaches Ganzberg and Mitchell was the use of the fun factor to entice the youngsters and keep them interested.
Part of their strategy is to apparently get the kids enjoying the game at an early age.
"The basic drills and games that our coaches and theirs used were basically the same, but what they brought was the fun factor," Blaine explained.
A "WIN-WIN" SCENARIO
The learning experience was not by any means one-sided and the American coaches also left having learnt a thing or two in terms of individual moves, which is not always a facet employed in their coaching clinics.
The exchange was on a whole described as a "win-win" scenario.
This sentiment was echoed by Santos' coach, Carlton 'Spanner' Dennis.
"It was very good. You learnt a lot every day and even though it was geared towards players from the age of five to 13, you can easily use some of the things learnt to benefit even at the senior level. I learnt a lot," Dennis remarked.
Even though the seminars only lasted a couple of days, Blaine believes a lot was accomplished.
"We covered a wide area. Our next step is for a camp focusing on the 11-16 age group. As a regional course we plan to follow the structure of the NSCAA."
Blaine went on to say that improvements in the training methods of the coaches is expected to begin showing in the next six or seven months, but actual benefits to the players could take a bit longer to materialise.
The JFF is hoping to put on another seminar for the coaches some time around January or February 2006.
