The
answer to Dable Benz' question - "How good are those SAFA coaching
courses"?
In
his post, Dable Benz says that as he is writing an article on the South African
soccer development; he had a chat with some coaches who went through the South
African Football Association (SAFA) coaching courses and was told that “the coaching
guide produced back in 90's is much better than what's provided at SAFA's
courses. How true is this?”
Well,
this is not the first time when local coaches show dissatisfaction about the
quality of SAFA's courses. There is a long list of complains. In July 2010 I
was requested to make a submission to the Parliament on the flaws of SA's coach
education.
The
main source of discontent has been the lack of quality and relevancy of the
coaching syllabus. Those modules used at SAFA's coaching courses are a mixture
of different theories copied from the old German, Dutch and English coaching
manuals. The content is disjointed and confusing as there are many
contradictions and errors. It's obvious that those assigned to compile SAFA's
modules did not have the basic knowledge or experience for the task.
When
the former director of coaching Michael Nees was asked to explain why the
content of modules is irrelevant and has so many deficiencies, he said: 'At
least they (modules) are better than those produced by CAF' (!?). By contrast
the Coaching Guide produced in 1993 is based on valid and efficient principles
that are also relevant to the specific needs of SA football.
Those
who still have the Guide would realise that the same principles used in the
1993 manual are NOW recommended in the latest English FA 'Future Game Vision'
as well as the new German and Dutch coaching syllabus. This could be a shocking
surprise for the authors of SAFA's modules.
A
deficient coach education syllabus and content in SA has been and still is
responsible for losing a huge number of potentially high quality coaches.
Radical changes are the only hope.
By Dumitru Ted
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dumitru.ted
