BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (13 Sept 2014) – A total of 28 local coaches started the first of their five-day FIFA Youth Course yesterday.
They will be under the watchful eye of FIFA’s Technical Development Officer for Southeast Asia, Lim Kim Chon, who has 20 years of experience in coaching education and developing coaches around Asia.
The course will see the coaches go through both theory and practical sessions, and Lim firmly stated to the media that the Youth Course is an area that students must learn.
“This course is important because the coaches need to know there are different levels of children playing the game,” Lim told the media at the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) House in Berakas.
“Youth involves kids, maybe from five years old up to 20… So they must understand now that different age groups must be trained differently accordingly to the different method of teaching or coaching.
“You will not train a 19 or 20 year olds the same as an 11 or 12 year olds,” said the Malaysian.
Lim added that the Under-12s are part of the grassroots and those aged 13-20 are teenagers heading into youth.
“They must understand now that if I were to work with a 12-year-old, should we work more on tactics or the physical side?,” he asked.
“We won’t know until we’ve had a look at the kid.
“You have to look at the different qualities of that child so that you will know how to prepare them for the future,” said Lim.
The course will help the participants to understand the requirements needed to develop youth into potential professional and or national players.
Guest of honor at the opening ceremony, NFABD General Secretary Hj Mohd Zamri Dato Paduka Hj Hamdani, shared that the course is another landmark for Brunei’s coaches after taking part in the Grassroots Coaching Course in May.
“This is another milestone for them to gain knowledge because as you know, we are yet to have someone with an AFC (Asian Football Confederation) ‘A’ Certificate,” said Hj Mohd Zamri.
“Even (those) with the AFC ‘B’ Certificate are only a few.
“With the completion of the ‘B’ Certificate recently, we hope some get through and also hope after they attend this course more qualified coaches will appear in Brunei.
“It is the desire of NFABD for all the clubs taking part in the league to have a qualified coach.
“That is our main target, so that’s part of the criteria for the league clubs,” added Hj Mohd Zamri.
