The most important phase in any operation is the foundation phase and Warriors FC are laying the foundations for the future generation of South African footballers.
The driving forces of the development phase at the George Lea Park soccer club has been coaches Sam Taole and Eric ‘Shongololo’ Madziro. They have been working hand in hand with the youth for more than a decade, and sharing their passion of coaching children and their secrets of making football more enjoyable for players as young as three.
Madziro spoke about why it was better having two minds to coach their U3-U12 squads.
“In the beginning, it wasnt easy having two heads coaching one team but as time progressed we started seeing the advantages. Myself and Sam sit down before every training session and share ideas on how to tackle our challenges and make training more interesting for our players. It really has been working well,” he said
Taole added, “The most important thing that we do is try to encourage our players to have fun before thinking about winning. As coaches, we obviously want our teams to win but at that age, that is not the goal. Remove pressure, make friends, add fun and once they understand the game, that’s when the winning instinct will naturally kick in.”
Both coaches have managed to develop some fine players who now play semi-professionally. The coaches aspire to further develop their teams and hope to see more parents coming to support their children.
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