Coaching the Coach

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a youth football coaching clinic in Kisumu conducted by Kisumu Youth Football Association. KYFA is an organization that has multiple leagues for different ages of players with over 1,200 players participating each weekend. The clinic was a great opportunity to be exposed to different coaching styles and techniques. I have been a college basketball coach in the past, but football is still rather new to me. The trainer was a Kenyan who coaches a local professional team and was trained in the Netherlands. He did an excellent job in training us how to make football enjoyable for the players we are coaching and how to get them maximum repetitions so that they can develop their skills. There was classroom training and then practical training on the field where we were the players and the coaches. I am better equipped now to read the game and understand systems of play.

It was a little unique for me as we met in a classroom at a Muslim primary school, next to a mosque. Their calls to prayer would interrupt our lessons a few times a day. The field we trained on was a nice stadium right next to where they burned large piles of trash so the humongous clouds of black smoke would sweep over us as we were breathing heavy after a drill which probably wasn’t the healthiest for my lungs. I am thankful for the opportunity and what I have learned that will help me do my job better at school and with our football club.