AFC coaching course concludes

The Asian Football Confederation’s Introductory Coaching Course on Saipan concluded Thursday after school teachers/club coaches spent eight days of practical and theoretical sessions with AFC instructor Jose Ariston Padre Caslib.

The last session was a practical test at the Oleai Sports Complex Field with Caslib asking participants to perform drills and grading them. Around 20 teachers/coaches attended the practical session and the last day of the course concluded with the awarding of certificates at the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association office at the TSL Plaza in Garapan.

Caslib, a veteran national coach from the Philippines, started the eight-day course with a discussion about the roles of coaches. He emphasized the need for coaches to have a planned and systematic program designed to prepare an individual/team for improved and competitive performances.

The more than 20 participants then went to the Oleai field later in the afternoon for the first practical session of the course.

Caslib enumerated the importance of warming and cooling down before the game/training, during half time, before substitution, and after the game/training in the first practical sessions.

Warming up and cooling down are necessary to elevate body temperature, increase muscle temperature to improve performance, reduce muscle tightness, decrease risk of injury, rehearse game skills, raise arousal level, and familiarize with the environment.

Part of warming up drills is stretching which begins from general to specific muscle groups, from static to dynamic, and systemic. These drills will help prepare both the body and the mind for a training/match.

Caslib’s course handout encouraged coaches to let their players warm up between 20 and 25 minutes to increase readiness and prevent fatigue.

The next five days of the practical sessions of the course involved the basics of the sport, such as dribbling, ball feeling and control, passing, shooting, defending, attacking, and goal keeping.

Participants were also taught about movements, from simple—like normal runs—to complex, which include agility runs, turning, jogging, and sprinting with or without a ball.

Club and school players were at the Oleai field to help participants in understanding the following drills/techniques.

While the practical sessions were held late afternoon at the Olea field, participants had after-school theoretical sessions at the NMIFA office.

After the course introduction on the first day of the seminar, Caslib discussed how to plan a coaching session, coaching method and learning process, age group training, and nutrition and hydration in the next days.

One day before the course concluded, participants and Caslib discussed the laws of the game.

The practical test on the final day had participants reviewing what they were taught in the first seven days and applying them in the game, as coaches/teacher performed the drills by themselves.

Caslib in an earlier interview with the Saipan Tribune said he is hoping that coaches who were taught the proper way of training players will share their knowledge to individuals interested to coach a team/club.

“It is through knowledgeable coaches that we will be able to teach players sound fundamentals of the game, and eventually develop highly competitive ones, particularly from the youth teams,” Caslib said.