The newly-formed Goa Football CoachesAssociation's main aim is to educate all the football coaches of the state.According to president of GFCA, Armando Colaco, presently there arecoaches who do not know how to coach theyouth. This probably explains why the state’s younger generation has been foundwanting at the national level of late. Thus, if G.F.C.A manages to unite allthe football coaches and educate them, then Goa's footballing future will beback on track.
After deliberating on the poor performanceof the state’s age group team in variousnational tournaments the Goa Football Association came to the conclusion thattraining only began a few weeks prior to the competition. The players selectedwere part of teams from the local village. If the coach at that level was nottrained enough, the knowledge imparted would be faulty.
The GoaFootball Coaches Association, who have 14 'A-License' football coaches on itsboard, is working on bringing all the coaches under its umbrella. There aremore than 100 football coaches in Goa and the G.F.C.A would like all of them tosign up with the association.
"The most common problem today in Goa isthat there are some coaches who do not know how to coach. I have seen coacheswho make children run for 12 rounds of the ground. The youngsters do not needto run to build stamina. It is at the senior level that one conducts suchexercises. The young players need to develop ball skills, move the ball aroundand pass the ball," says Dempo SC coach Colaco. He added that theassociation did not want to force or confront anyone but thye wanted thecoaches to get educated.
GFCA VP Brahmanand Shankhwalkar says"Coaches should know the right age to make the children play. At the ageof 6 or 7 years, the children should have a kick-about, just made to enjoyfootball." The GFCA will train coaches to notice born footballers, the Arjuna Awardee former Indiagoalkeeper told The Goan. "Moreover, we will also underline the importanceof parents' relationship with young footballers, to the coaches," headded.
