Training clinic held to arm local coaches
Often neglected, with an emphasis on young players in conversations around local football development, a training clinic was held to upskill local coaches this time around.
Locals youth coaches are the backbone of South African football development at the grassroots level. It is therefore imperative that these coaches are given the right education to shape the country’s next stars. This was according to Mpho Machaba, the co-founder of G and Q Management.
Machaba was reflecting on a local coaching clinic held at the Mapetla Sports complex in Soweto on Sunday hosted by G and Q. The aim behind the initiative was to gather local coaches to share skills and network while giving them in-depth advice from a coach in Premier Soccer League (PSL).
“It always started with the quality of the coach. The better quality of the coach is the better the development of the player,” he explained.
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Machaba continued to say that coaches are often neglected when dealing with promoting local talent, with emphasis mostly put on developing the young players instead.
“It is something that we felt does not receive enough attention in the terms of local football development. As much we have to educate and develop young players, a much more effective solution would be to develop local coaches that work with these young players. The aim is to upskill and empower our coaches,” he explained.
Sundowns goalkeeper coach Marcus Mashilo was the guest at the event.
“It’s something that we to do from time to time where will have a professional footballer in the PSL come and speak to our players. This time we decided that let us do something for ur local coaches,” said Machaba.
He added said he hoped the project would continue attracting more coaches and receive more support.
“The response has been very positive. We hope that in future we will be able to bring in more professional coaches. I think it’s a great initiative to upskill and empower our local coaches who may not afford these coaching badges and licenses. We can’t pretend that we don’t know how expensive they can be. So we are saying let us meet coaches halfway and I think this will have a positive impact on the overall growth of our football,” he said.
Speaking at a local football tournament held in Moletsane last month, Gauteng MEC of Sports, Mbali Hlophe called on more PSL coaches to come into the townships.
“Gauteng has a rich history of producing great athletes and a lot of these stars come from local tournaments. We would love to see more PSL coaches coming to attend local tournaments, supporting and promoting local sporting initiatives,” Hlophe said.
The training clinic received support from the City of Johannesburg’s department of Sports and Thirst Buster.
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