Dhaka: The second BFF AFC A Certificate Coaching Course, organized by the BFF, is underway at the BFF headquarters in Motijheel, Dhaka.
A total of 21 B certificate holders from here and abroad are taking part in this edition of the course which began on 4 May 2019.
With 11 foreign coaches and 10 locals, the first part of the A Certificate Course will continue till May 14.
Among the 11 foreign coaches are four Indians, two Bhutanese, two Sri Lankans, two Malaysians and one from the Maldives.
Besides, there are a variety of top-level coaches from Bangladesh as well who work with BPL and BCL clubs.
The sheer variety of nationalities and Football experience in the course just goes to show the quality of the course organized by the BFF. The presence of the likes of Md Ahmed Nizam of Maldives just adds to the depth of quality and of the BFF’s eagerness to arrange courses at this level and to involve the Southern Asian MAs’.
The course has been divided into two parts and the second part will be held later in the year. In the two parts of the course, the participants will be exposed to a range of modules in line with the AFC coaching convention revised competency model. Candidate coaches will be exposed to a range of pre, in and post course tasks which will be about current modern Football trends, research evidence-based tasks, match analysis, practical coaching tasks, analytical activities, knowledge development and coaching observations.
According to the AFC Coaching Convention, the total contact hour for an A certificate candidates has to be at least 180 hours – 90 hours of theoretical sessions and 90 hours of practical sessions. Besides, 6 or more hours of assessment will be arranged to monitor the progress of the participants back in their own coaching environment.
The course is being conducted by BFF’s technical and strategic director Paul Thomas Smalley. The Briton has been successfully conducting all the AFC courses arranged by the BFF except the goalkeeping specialized range of courses.
Asked about the details of the A Certificate course, Paul said that the first day is utilized to complete the coaching and education induction process, review the pre course tasks of the participating coaches and each participant gets a personal learning manual and the booklet which includes all the guidelines for the course according to the AFC Coaching Convention.
Asked about the assessment process of the participants, Paul said, “We adopt a summative mode of assessment”. There is a huge block of distance learning between the two parts. Refresher courses are part of the coaches’ CPD (Continued Professional Development) of all the different levels. It’s important that the coaches undertake a range of refresher opportunities. Now, this Continued Professional Development can be in a multitude of different ways to allow the coaches to continuously improve.”
He said that when the coaches go through the different courses, they are able to understand all the aspects of their level of coaching competence that they then need to continue to develop. “They need to develop their knowledge and their application of the knowledge into the coaching practical environment. They need to work with players in their own environment. They need to continue to explore and experiment in coaching that they’ve learnt on the course. It is a part of their Continued Professional Development.”
The presence of foreign coaches in the course is positive for the Bangladesh coaches, Paul said, “It’s always positive to have other experienced coaches coming here from other countries with different ideas and perspectives, because they can interact and they can be a part of the development of all other things that are involved in the course.”
Describing a typical day of the course, Paul said, “What we do in the morning session is reflect on any overnight thoughts and discuss homework tasks. They are in small groups. Any overnight thoughts, any questions – we deal with those. On the fifth day, they were put in two groups and they came up with their views and opinions on the playing formations and strategies of Liverpool versus Barcelona which was the Champions League game the previous night. Then there was discussion. And then after that, we looked at the future professional club structures – the structure of clubs and the personnel that are involved in the clubs.”
“Well, they just need to know and understand the best practice in the world. So, they receive information. Then they do some work on their own understanding of the responsibility of certain coaching roles at a club and responsibilities – what’s the role of the fitness coach, what’s the role of the performance analysts, what’s the role of the doctor-physio etc. So, they developed some ideas around that. We summarized it. Then we went outside to do the practical session with our national players.”
“Later in the course, small groups deliver their practical – their initial practical coaching session. They were working in three’s – there was a head coach and two assistant coaches. They had to deliver a practical session based on their analysis that they did two days ago. Then we brought them in and they received some peer feedback; we talked through some of the areas that are important when analyzing coaching performance. Then the coaches developed their own action plan. That was all before the lunch break. And then in the afternoon, they reviewed the lessons learnt. The following morning, they had a task which they needed to further work on and that was it for a day.”
Each day, the session begins at 9am and goes on till 4-6pm depending on the completion of the tasks of that day.
Asked to compare the local and foreign coaches, the BFF technical director said, “All the coaches have embraced the course. All of them are moving forward very nicely.
Summing it up, National Technical Director Paul Smalley said, “It’s not just one part. It’s everything. The course is broken down into concepts…. football concepts, football philosophies, football knowledge. We take them through all of those things. And then they apply those kinds of concepts…. those training concepts in the practical environment.” Paul then expressed his optimism that the BFF will be able to continue to arrange such coaching courses.
Notably, on May 9, the sixth day of the course, two AFC delegates and members of the Coach Education Panel – Iran’s technical director Morteza Mohases and South Korea’s technical director Kim Pangon – visited the BFF to observe the AFC A Certificate Coaching Course 2019.
The duo met with Paul Smalley and discussed various aspects of the ongoing course.
After their primary observation, the delegates expressed their compliments over both the theoretical and practical sessions of the course conducted by Paul.
They were also impressed by how the BFF have provided a modern coach education scheme for their coaches in Bangladesh and their commitment to improve the coaching culture.
