Quality coaches – the need of the hour
View(s):Training in competitive sports today is a vast field of complexities and intricacies. Particularities of conditioning training, skills training, technique training, tactical training , runs into numerous branches, that taken as a whole the coach’s awareness and competence in these subjects in not only important but imperative.
The game of football has in recent time been witnessed with so many disputes and controversies between the players, coaches and referees.
In support of the above is the role of the doctor handling sports medicine, which broadly deals with the negative influence such as alcohol, doping, nicotine, sex-the diagnosis , therapy and rehabilitation aspects of injuries, medical aid and application, metabolic problems, respiratory and circulatory functions and nutritional requisites to name a few.
The role played by the physiotherapist in training muscular injury or fatigue is equally important. In fact massage is dynamic therapeutics which is a science of its own and a technique and an art. In the case of sportsmen, massages aim at achieving full physical fitness to a person or persons preparing for the highest individual or collective effort. It also maintains the organism and allows quick recovery effort to other, state of muscular relaxation to the sport. A coach may not be totally conversant with the doctors’ role or the functions of the physiotherapist, but should certainly posses at least a peripheral awareness of the importance of these inputs, so that he may determine the time and the need for such assistance.
It is not my intention in this article to deal at length on the multifarious aspects of training, for justice could never be done to such an enormous subject in a matter of a brief passage or two. My rather limited comments on the subject was only to draw the attention to the vital importance of knowing and understanding the wide and varied field of training and the need to select persons for training as coaches with the requisite background, so that eventually the game of football at school, club and national level would greatly benefit. One of the most sad and unfortunate decisions made by the Football Controlling Body in the past decade, the selection of coaches particularly to handle the national teams, without pertinent , prudent and proper screening, caused our national teams facing humiliating defeats at the international competitions.
Let me appeal to Incumbent President of the FFSL, not to fritter away the opportunity given to you, by selecting mentors to please one or the other or to return the scratch on of the back. In the past we have used international aid and assistance to send wrong signals to the detriment of our football. We direly need coaches of quality, stature and standing if we are to raise the performing level of our football and not mere flunkeys and lackey’s.
Coaching though in itself is a vast subject, is essentially a simple exercise to those who know genuinely, the finer art of the profession. It is certainly not the high sounding credentials, certificates or licenses gained here and abroad that makes one an effective coach. Knowledge alone will not suffice. It is the ability of the coach to understand the players’ social and psychological condition – the player’s skill and tactical limitations and to be able to offer simple corrective measures which essentially matters in the end. Unfortunately, in our football, the absence of purposeful and meaningful pattern of play has caused a slump in our playing standards. One cannot blame the poor players for this. Perhaps this is due to the players not being taught the ABC of football at the inception. They have been wrongly handled by
the incompetent. Individuals who calls themselves as qualified coaches
We have coaches and masters in the country but less than a handful who could be classed as exemplary and effective teachers. Knowledge alone does not and will not make a success of a coach’s task.
Regularity and punctuality in trainings, credibility and integrity in this dealings, etiquette and manners in his association, tone and speech in his communications are pre- requisites for a good coach.
The job of a coach is to take the skills of the individuals and blend them into a team performance. He takes responsibility for the training sessions keeping the players fit and perfect in their skills. During game has to access how things are going and make necessary adjustments to cover any weaknesses.He must be thorough with the interpretation and application of the laws of the game. Finally a coach must be able to win the respect of his charges both on and off the field, above all when one is a national coach, he must absolutely think nationally and select the team without any fear or favour.
A good coach will avoid harsh speech and serve admonishment. This does not mean that the coach should be too passive and too lenient with his charges. A serious and stern command now and then serves as tonic for the drooping spirits. But this must not be overdone. A kindly advice with a certain force is the best form of address.
In teaching technical and tactical skills of football the coach should explain first the purpose of the particular exercise, then demonstrate it and finally, let the players try it out themselves. The coach must watch with a careful eye when his pupils practice, and correct their faults on the spot rather than remedy it later. The coach must also avoid overdoing practices and exercises which might results in muscle strain. Mistakes can often happen due to overstrain from preceding exercises and it is the careful duty of a coach to arrange his lessons to avoid fatigue. There are many causes of mistakes and many methods of correcting them. The main thing is not to neglect any incorrect execution of exercises by the players, not to demonstrate wrong movements but to explain and demonstrate the correct way by the coach himself.
The greatest asset to a team is a good coach – and he would make a wonderful team out of moderates or if he is a bad coach, can make a weak team out of good players. It is foresight, wisdom and human understanding of the varied problems that make a top coach. The correct diagnosis of the sickness and the right prescription are a few of the salient characteristics of a top class coach.
Those players who think that they could coach as well, simply because they were stars or national players are only speaking off their heads. Great stars in the calibre of Pele, Stanley Mathew, Esubio , Platini, Bobby More to name a few did not take – up coaching. Most of the World Cup winning coaches were those who played only professional club football. Coaching is a science and it should be learnt in that way. Just played little football and then coached a team here and there, is no good at all, either for the team being coached or for the game in general. The root -cause for the deteriorated standards of our football and pathetic performance of our national teams in the recent past was due to the appointment of National coaches who have not played even proper first division club football.
A coach should also have playing experience and should undergo proper training himself before embarking on team coaching. If by some stroke of bad luck a wrong diagnosis is made by an incompetent coach the future of a player might be ruined as far as his football is concerned. That is why everyone is not fit to be a coach and those who help the players only through sheer love of the game, without the necessary training and experience may be blind to the fact that they are leading the players into an abyss of football misery, which we witness now either at school, clubs or national level.
The wonderful game of football has in recent time been witnessed with so many disputes and controversies between the players, coaches and referees