Futsal Coach Education – Introduction
As with any sport, coach education plays a vital component in many facets of player development and growth of the sport itself. Having undertaken coaching courses myself, starting from the Grassroots Community Course through to at the time of writing my AFC Futsal License 1 (Advanced) and FFA Senior C License (Advanced), I appreciate how important it is for coaches to be continuously open and motivated to enhancing their coaching knowledge and refining their coaching techniques.
My coaching story begins many years ago. Rocked by knee injuries which at the time were described as degenerative by my physician, and that would end up with me in a wheelchair. Sounds dramatic I know, and with the technology we have now seems unrealistic. But going back to 1994/1995, the 18 year old version of my self had resigned himself to the fact that my playing days were over. Almost immediately, after 2 knee operations that left me on crutches and in a knee brace for close to 6 months, my coaching journey began.
Every coach will have their own story as to why or how they entered the world of being a coach. What I can say about my journey, is that I have been blessed with some wonderful mentors. Coaches such as Xavi Closas, Oscar Alonso, El Abrahams, Nacho Garrido and many more who have shared different methodologies and perspectives on team models and the many facets of developing a futsal player and team.
Of course, it is important to explain that every coach will need to develop their own Vision and Philosophy, which will be shaped by variables such as the level of competition they are coaching in, the age and ability of the players they are coaching, the contact time they have with the players, the Vision and Philosophy of the club they are coaching at, their own personal beliefs/experiences/opportunities, the resources they have available and various other factors. Referring back to the mentors I mentioned earlier, it is important to understand that they too have their own Visions and Philosophies, and the ability for a coach to objectively listen and absorb the ideas and thought processes of others whilst being able to derive what they believe in and when that knowledge can be applied in various situations to their players and team model is an exciting challenge. Developing our own Vision and Philosophy is an adventure, and is part of the excitement of being a coach. They say football/futsal are games of opinions, partly because there is no right or wrong answer that applies to all situations. It is up to us to provide our players with the tools to be able to make the best decisions possible in ever changing and similar but unique situations.
There are many components to coaching, and for the purpose of this “Introduction Blog”, we will only briefly describe some and come back to them at a later time. My personal experience has been, the more that I learn about coaching, the more I discover there is to learn. The more I plan, the greater the detail I discover there is to plan. Coach Education can be compared to turning the dimmer on a light switch. The more you turn it, the more light is shed and the more that can be seen more clearly.
I suppose now would be a great time to stop and discuss the word “Coach”. Coaching can be defined as someone who helps people learn, rather than teaching them. I am also a huge believer that the game, or rather well designed games or exercises with clearly defined developmentally appropriate learning outcomes can be the best teacher of the game. In saying this, it can be derived that the word “Coach” by my definition and belief can be interchanged with the term “Learning Facilitator”.
With so many variables in sports, one thing is certain. People who put their hand up to coach, for whatever reason, are important to the development of our players and for our sport. Providing Coach Education to our Learning Facilitators, and likewise, having the coaches seek out education, will provide them with the tools to enhance the learning opportunities for their players. After all, there are learning opportunities in every situation, and a good coach may provide positive life lessons such as resilience, discipline and focus which will benefit the players long after the final whistle has gone.
Stay tuned for our next Blog which will continue this important topic!
