Kickstart your coaching career
Do you love football? Do you enjoy playing the sport and are you looking for a way to continue to work with the game? Then coaching might be a career option to consider.
Coaching is exciting and fulfilling and gives you an opportunity to pass your skills on to a new generation of players. Maybe you have spent hours on a football game and have led to the pinnacle of club football, But what if you can become a properly qualified coach. Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Fabio Cappello all great managers, but how were they when they were playing.
Not all great players make great managers. So the question arises, what qualities does a manager require. Is it like the FIFA Manager game. Well yes but with a lot more responsibilities, expectations and immense pressure from the fans as well as the board.
Football is a demanding sport and requires dedication , qualification and experience to get into the circle. In the book Coaching Football, Tom Flores and Bob O’Connor write: “As a coach, you have a deep responsibility to your players. It is your job to know the young people you are teaching, the game you are teaching, and how the game of football can bring your players to their highest potential as happy and contributing citizens, husbands, and fathers.” As a coach, you have a deep responsibility to your players. It is your job to know the young people you are teaching, the game you are teaching, and how the game of football can bring your players to their highest potential .
With kind of money involved in the modern era of football expectations are bound to be there. If you’re in your teens or twenties, time is on your side especially if you have experience as a college football player. But prepared because ” It’s not really about winning.” Success and failure is part of the game.
1.To become a successful football coach, you must be willing to spend most of the time for the game
2.Start by playing at local level .Watch the coach and learn from him, spend time with other players to learn the game
3.Approach your local schools and high schools they often hire part-time coaches for their football teams. Once you have some experience apply for one of these jobs. A college degree in physical education will help you win one of these positions.
4.Use experience to build your career. It usually takes years of coaching experience and a winning record to reach the ranks of professional coaching.
5. A coach should have open mindedness to take any new information and then judge what is right and wrong
6. Strong personality, philosophy, command and leadership is essential to become a good coach
7. No coach can produce a player it is the talent of the player which is polished with the help of a coach
8. Be positive and encouraging ,do not expect your team will always win try to be optimistic and avoid negative words
9. Always keep in mind that performance is more important than winning – result will follow the performance
Educational requirement
1. After Plus 2, try to do degree in Physical Education from a good institution
2. Take football as the specialization
3. Develop good English
4. Get associated with District Football Association and keep in touch with them
5. Attend selection trials of district teams and university teams and get selected
6. Do basic courses in football during vacation especially in grass root football
7. Good reading habit and collect as many literature as possible about football
8. Try to complete post graduation also in physical education and pass UGC Net exam, which makes him eligible to be a college physical education teacher.
9. Once you complete your degree or Post graduation in physical education, you are prepared to be a teacher and coach
10. You would be around 20 or 22 years of age by this time.
11. You get a lot of information about football training and coaching from the course, internet and library during your time in the college. Collect as much as possible.
12. It is an ever changing science
13. Always ask why I am doing this? why I am asking my players to do this
14. Prepare before every session FAILING TO PREPARE IS THE PREPARATION FOR FAILURE
15. Do football association courses and not NIS
Deepa Nair and Mitai Shukla writes for FootballKerala.com with inputs from India U-16 Coach Narayana Menon VA
June 24th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I think the decision to become a football coach or not should be done after you have played some football and has had enough experience on the field. IMO, it is not a good idea to look at football coaching as a career when you are young, the career aspiration should be of becoming a football player first and then a football coach if you have the right qualities.
I was associated with the Football Friend Coaching camp in Kannur(which is pure waste IMO) and have seen many coaches who were NIS certified, but had little to do with football.
Also are there any football coaching classes or courses available in India anywhere ?
June 24th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
There are some short term coaches training programmes organised. Need to keep track on them.
We will soon come up with something on coaching institutes.
There was some coaches training programme going on too..
will have an update on tat too.
Kannur Football friends is a well known and widely respected institution. And when you say your experience there was “waste”, it should be supported why. This is the only way we can make take it forward.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
there was a manuscript found in the Arsenal locker room which leaked into the media. It had great effect in the growth of a young EPL team. take a moment to read through this. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/3064653/Arsene-Wengers-blueprint-for-Arsenal-success-revealed-in-leaked-document—Football.html
June 24th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Although ‘Coaching football’ deals more with American football rather than soccer , the notion which is quoted above cannot agreed more!
As the coach , one has the deep responsibility in bringing the peak out of a player, just like a teacher has on his students.
The truly great coaches know how to influence not only the plays that are called on the field, but the minds and hearts of the players executing those plays.
A prime example is that of Guus Hiddink who took over Chelsea FC , in a rather chaotic situation , but later gave the team a rebirth which can be noted by the immediate attainment of peak form by some players.
Cultivating consistency in your Character and Coaching Philosophy , should be of most importance as it should not be pertaining to just one result or one performance.
See Arsene Wenger , some poor results does not take away from his attitude of recruiting and nurturing young guns over posh foreign signings.
If one is in his forties, and fifties and haven’t yet coached or even played football, the odds for making a successful career change into big-bucks professional coaching (of any sport) are pretty slim.
And also if one is in his early teens , the chances that his coaching desire endure ahead of his other aspirations(perhaps a player) are also very little.
If time is one your side , maybe in your twenties or thirties , the odds are high for you to make a successful coach if provided with the right training.
I personally do not know about the networking opportunities of the different coaching institutes but i am pretty much sure that footballkerala.com will keep us updated on some top notch institutes that provide the necessary training for aspiring coaches!
June 24th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I also want to add that more importance to psychological side should be given.
A good coach is a good motivator, who can keep the spirits high always.
Please take time to watch this video which is alleged to the one that Pep Guardiola(Barcelona) used to motivate his team ahead of the final against Manchester Utd.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/5429585/Barcelonas-Gladiators-Watch-Pep-Guardiolas-motivational-video.html
June 24th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Krishnan, football for us is football … not soccer …
soccer is American way of not accepting and going along the rest of the world.
At footballkerala.com we will call football football and not soccer. Because this is real football.
Football is not running carrying something in our hand!
June 25th, 2009 at 1:13 am
I know that Mr.Mohan.
I was saying that the book mentioned above is related to American football.
June 26th, 2009 at 4:43 am
@Mohan, I can write in detail about Football Friend Coaching Center about my experience and in general, but the question that you need to ask is, what has been the result of football friends’ coaching center ? What was their objective in starting a coaching center ?
The objective was to create world(not just Indian) class footballers and Kannur at the time when they started(1978) Kannur was the cradle of Kerala football and enough talent was available. But even after 30+ years, can you name any footballer from Football Friend who has made it to the top of Indian football ? None that I know of. (While they would have their claims about VP Satyan, he attended the coaching for a very short time and he became a player by playing along the Kannur Police and later Lucky Star team). Or even Kerala football ? you can count it on your fingers. How many players in the current Kerala team is from Football Friends ? Or even Kannur District team ? So it is a pathetic failure and waste of effort.
And having spent 5 years(1978-1982) in their first batch, the reasons were quite obvious – they never went after talented boys, and really talented boys would have got bored and left with their coaching methods. Though they initially had great coaches, later they settled for mediocre set of coaches. The other key reason is, the brain behind this coaching center, was more interested in publicity stunts(it is a great success from that angle) than creating footballers – he had nothing to do with football and had never played football in his life.
I can write about this in detail if you want an article – please do let me know. But as you can imagine, I would call it a farce and a futile exercise that they should have just given up long time back.
June 26th, 2009 at 4:45 am
One other suggestion would be to interview some successful coaches – and the best of the best in India is a malayali IMO – Chathunni
June 27th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Moderator(@Mohan?) – it is unfair to not post my detailed comment on Football Friends when you had asked for the reasons why I think it was a waste. Also you are doing a disservice to football journalism by not publishing the real facts about Football Friend. Otherwise please respond(or have someone from FF) to what I have said. The malayalam sports media also has been very guilty of gloryfying FF without *any* results. Please don’t fall into that trap – ultimately this is an online medium where you want to have an open discussion about football unlike media which has its own vested interests most of the time.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am
To the Editor,
We are launching a new professional football club. Kindly visit the details at http://www.tfcpathanapuram.com
I would like to invite you for the press conference scheduled on July 4th, in Pathanapuram. You may contact me for further details – varunc1981@yahoo.com, +65 81390210
Thank you – Varun, Chief Executive – TFC
June 27th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
@Jayadeep:
A few comments including your comment went to the spam section. That is why it wasn’t published.. Sorry for that.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:35 am
@Jayadeep
Sorry for not publishing the article in time, we got it messed up in our spam filter.
You have raised some valid points on Friends Coaching centre which we hope we can get them heard to the authorities and will try to get a feedback from them soon.
At FootballKerala.com we are with positive journalism and are always looking at things in a way that how can we better it and what not to do, rather running some blame games
Our motto is to promote football and young talents.
And we should make clear that we don’t have hidden agenda behind anything or anyone.
Regards
Mohan
Team FootballKerala
March 11th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
jst came across your site today. Grt work guys…I would love to see its popularity increase.
As a football lover I would love to give my share to help this too and would love to be a coach someday.
Even thou I have played for my school n college teams, I have no professional Expertise.
I know it’s a lil late, but still would love to be part of this wonderful game. So being an employee, how can I get in and follow my love for the game?
August 8th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Hello there… i am a very big fan of football.. i live for football.. i have also played for my college. i wanted to build a career as a player, but i don’t have the physical strength to compete in the highest level..
i am more interested in becoming a coach. i want to join any certification course in football coaching in india. but have no idea about any.. i want to take up coaching seriously.. i am from bangalore and 22 yrs of age… please help me..
December 10th, 2010 at 9:43 am
i’m 23 now. i had completed my BE in elec.and comm..i had been the no 1 goalkeeper for my college team. will i be able to become a football coach. what are the courses i have to do.
August 16th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Can you guys get to grips with your English grammar; telling others how to but not being able to do it yourselves is not on these days, might have been 20 years ago.
Secondly, please tell me where I can buy a publication that actually tells how to become a coach and is the accepted authority on coaching in India; does such a thing exist?
August 16th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Looking at your Kickstart item, number 9 is NOT true. Just having that qualification makes one less able to coach than I am, why?
25 years of playing,managing and coaching beats all the exams and qualifications. BUT if you get both then you’re a real winner.
December 9th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Firstly, i disagree with the norms set for becoming a football coach. Any person who has got active interest and profound football knowledge/experience either as a player or analyst/observer should be permitted to approach for joining coaching course, perhaps a written and oral preliminary exam would be ideal whereas having a degree or not having a degree should not be criteria for becoming a soccer coach. This is no where existing except in India. Besides football coaches standard in India is extremely poor that is being genuinly reflected in our football standards. We are still following old fashioned methodoligies for coaching. I am a football referee and analyst for more than 11 years living abroad. When i listen to some of the game analysis of our famous coaches, i feel ashamed to observe their technical and tactical standard. They do not even know how to analyse a match and give credible and techinically sound views. They do not frequently watch intl matches and read reviews and match reports. Their knowledge is very much limited about standards of global soccer. How can they train their team and give them a vision and inspirational guidance?Our system is extremely poor and pathetic regretfully. Kerala associaton should invite like minded people like us from abroad to share our experiences or possibly giving us space here to work for the upliftment of Kerala football.