The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association kicked off its 2019 development operations with the continuation of the B License coaching course being conducted by technical director Anton Corneal with four days of sessions at the TTFA Home of Football in Couva this past week.
Several local coaches and past players have graduated from the TTFA and CONCACAF courses overseen by Corneal including current Senior Team Assistant coach Stern John, Leonson Lewis, Yohance Marshall, Sean De Silva, Jan Michael Williams, Clayton Ince, Ahkeela Mollon, Hector Sam, Kerry Baptiste, Marvin Oliver and Nicholas Griffith among others.
Among the thirty coaches taking part in the current B License course include former national women’s team player Dernelle Mascall, 2018 Super League Player of the Year Yohance Marshall, Kona Hislop, Geoffrey Wharton-Lake and former national stirker Kerry Baptiste.
Mascall who has coached the the National Super League with Club Sando Moruga, said she was pleased to have taken the decision to undergo the course.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the course thus far. It is very informative and Anton himself is a wealth of knowledge. As it pertains to the development of the players… it’s been eye opening,” Mascall told TTFA Media.
“We have a tendency to believe that winning is development which has been a pressing topic for us in the course. But this has course has taught me a lot in terms of what we should focus us on. As a player we just focus in playing but when you are more knowledgeable about the game and aware of situations in the game, moments in the game, you get a better idea of it overall from a coaching perspective,” Mascall added.
Hislop, a former national under 19 player and brother of ex-T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, said he would recommend the course to any budding coach.
“It’s been really good. The course has gone into a lot more depth than I thought it would. It is a lot of information but very interesting. I did the C license over a year ago and that one was also really good.
“The B is a step up and I am enjoying it. I will recommend it to any coach. It teaches you a lot in terms of the way you communicate with players and what to look out for on the pitch. I played professionally but there are a lot of things you learn as a coach that you don’t pay attention to as a player. I am learning so much about how you deal with players in particular. I think we need more of this in Trinidad and Tobago where we are bettering ourselves as coaches and trying to take the game forward,” Hislop added.
Lake meantime commended Corneal and his team which includes instructors Rajesh Latchoo and Marlon Charles for the way in which they have designed and executed the course.
“Over the past three days I realised how much football I still don’t know. The course has been excellent. Coach Anton and Coach Latchoo are extremely knowledgeable in terms of the words of advice they are giving us on the modern game. There is still so much for us to learn. I’m involved in St Mary’s College football in 2018 and I am hoping I can take things from this course and implement into the programme for next year,’ Lake said.
“The big question has been the word development and winning. When does development start and does it ever end and when does the translation after development into winning. It is a winning attitude you want to develop or is it winning at all cost,” Lake added.
Some of the areas focused on during the course were principles of coaching; the role of the coach; the teaching-learning process; communication; ethics; coaches being able to assess their players’ developmental; coaches being able to plan and implement an effective training session with specific objectives; and to develop a progressive programme of appropriate duration.
Other areas of focus included : coaches being able to understand the main moments of football and relate it to team task and function; coaches being able to identify and develop personal and professional behaviours in themselves and players and coaches being able to identify the basic elements that make up football among other areas.
Corneal has lectured at FIFA and CONCACAF Grassroots courses and has lectured for FIFA at courses in this region and in Conmebol for the past eight years. His most recent appearance came at a FIFA course was last week in Barbados where he delivered a lecture at a FIFA technical directors course for regional technical directors.
Interested persons can stay abreast of upcoming TTFA coaching education courses by following the TTFA Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and the official website www.TTFootball.org.
SOURCE: ttfootball.org