Association of Indian Football Coaches conducted a webinar on ‘Coaching Elite Youth Players’ for Pro, A, B & C licensed coaches on 17th June 2020. The session was led by Scott O’Donell, a familiar face in Indian football. He’s currently the Technical Director of Capital Football.
His presentation was followed by a panel discussion that included Alex Ambrose, Asst. Coach of India U-17 (women’s team), Bibiano Fernandes, Coach of India U-16 (men’s team) and Floyd Pinto, former coach of India U-20 (men’s) and Indian Arrows.
Scott through his presentation stressed and emphasized on, “There is no development without competitions.” Stating how India should be having more competitions in order to develop players and coaches.
He further adds, “It is a challenge that India has and not just India. But knowing India first hand, it’s a great challenge that AIFF can’t do by themselves. At the moment state federations…responsibility must be taken up by private stake holders, academies and no disrespect to them & it’s great that they are doing it but most aren’t doing it for the right reasons but maybe to make money.”
The panel discussion was moderated by Scott himself, directing questions to the three home-grown coaches. Through the discussion, we got a glimpse into the experiences of the three young coaches; Bibiano reminisced his playing days at the youth level while Floyd shared his early experience of coaching at Kenkre Football Club and Alex spoke from the perspective of coaching young girls at the U-17 squad.
The discussion also involved how at the elite youth level, winning is key and needs to be instilled in the players along with development which will help them climb up the ladders. As a whole, the presentation and panel discussion was fruitful and helped coaches understand the topic better.
The full video will be uploaded soon on AIFC’s YouTube channel.
