Sixteen coaches in Tobago are participating in the T&T Football Association’s (TTFA) C Licence Certification programme which got underway at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago, last Thursday.
Technical director of the TTFA, Anton Corneal, along with the TTFA’s head of coaching education Rajesh Latchoo, and coaching educator Paul Decle are conducting the training. The duration of the course is three months.
Corneal says during the initial week-long workshop, the participants looked at the phases of planning a training session.
“We are through things like Session Planning. We are going through Leadership. We did a demo session in Plymouth where coaches will not only be to see and why it is done but asked questions and then they themselves will have to design coaching sessions based on a specific topic.”
Corneal explained that over the 90 days of training, there will be theory and practical sessions.
“It’s a three-month course where it is divided into blocks. This is the first block which is really five days and then they go into a development period in groups of four where they will go back into their own environment and pretty much get to practise what was done.”
He added that the C License Course is being offered to Tobago coaches for the second time for the year. The former national player and coach further said that successful coaches can now vie for coaching stints at schools.
“Hopefully, this level license will be one that will afford them to coach in the (football) academies, in the school’s programmes, and Under-16 and U-14,” said Corneal.
He told Guardian Media that the successful participants can look forward to advance themselves further saying, “In the near future we will be doing a B Licence Course in Tobago over the next month or two.”
Corneal shared that the coaching drive by the TTFA is an attempt by the local governing body for football to increase the number of qualified coaches in the country.
“What we are hoping to do is that is get all our coaches certified whether they coach at the high school level, the club level, the academies or nationally.”
According to Corneal, A Licence Course is also currently taking place.
He said, “Our programme is one that we are able to facilitate A Licence Course. We have three of them so far. The first one is finishing in a few months. We have persons from all across the Caribbean taking part in this A Licence Course. It is just part of our pathway where someone is able to come into us from the C Prep, which is the D Licence, take part in our C and B Licence courses, and then move on to take part in our A Licence courses.”
SOURCE: T&T Guardian