The first session of the FA’s Academy Coaches Course took place on Friday 16th April via Zoom with 25 participants representing Member clubs as well as the Men’s National team.
The Course, split over 4 sessions, is the first to be designed and sanctioned by a local Sports Governing body and forms the first step onto the Coaches pathway of the Regional Governing body, The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football or “CONCACAF”.
As Course facilitator, Jake Blake, a EUFA “A” Pro Licensed coach and a Technical Director in the Canadian Football system, explained “The course is specifically aimed at Youth coaches, but contains fully transferable knowledge that can be used for Women’s and Men’s coaching.”
The first part of the course covered Session planning, whilst subsequent segments will include Long Term Planning and Development, Match Day preparation and Talent Identification.
Successful completion of all four modules will gain participants a certificate endorsed by the BVIFA and entitles the recipient to attend a CONCACAF “D” license course later in 2021.
“Session planning should be simple, consistent and player focused” commented Blake “and a coach should always stay on task with patience, stick to the aims and objectives of the session and not deviate from the planned coaching points.”
Blake also noted that it is important to Coach to the player’s ability, make sure all players are included and ensure to offer positive encouragement if things do not go quite right as expected as the players are learning.
Blake also used the example of Jose Mourinho in terms of a coaching principle which is basically to keep things simple and not try to be too clever!