GFF delivers Goalkeeping Coaches Workshop to boost ATC programme

The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) delivered its end-of-year Goalkeeping Coaches Workshop on Thursday to further build capacity among regional association coaches and enhance the impact of the GFF’s Academy Training Centre (ATC) programme.

The one-day training session, hosted at the GFF National Training Centre, Providence, focused on teaching methods for goalkeeping fundamentals and was led by GFF Goalkeeping Coach Eon Deviera and GFF Coaching Education Officer Lyndon France.

The theoretical and practical workshop was attended by 24 enthusiastic coaches from the GFF’s nine regional associations, who expressed their continued commitment to improving their goalkeeping skills.

The workshop included classroom modules on developing goalkeeping practice structures, training techniques and session plans, as well as fieldwork focusing on positioning, types of catches and distribution.

“This is a very important course as part of the drive the GFF is currently undertaking with respect to getting football growing and coaches and players equipped to be able to move forward in the right direction come 2022 and beyond,” said DeViera.

Technical Director Ian Greenwood added that “the main aim is for each of the regional Academy Training Centres to have a specialised goalkeeping coach. We have a couple of very strong goalkeeping coaches with the national teams and we want to ensure that the Academy Training Centres follow the same structure.”

West Demerara Football Association coach Yonette Hector said the course was a great opportunity for coaches to take their goalkeeping skills to the next level: “When I go back to my team, I will be able to show them the basics of coaching.”

East Bank Demerara Football Association coach Andre Gibbs added that he attended the session to improve his goalkeeping knowledge “so in the future I could share my knowledge with the youngsters and we can all improve Guyana’s football”.

Rounding up the day, GFF Assistant Technical Director Bryan Joseph said, while participants will not become professional goalkeeping coaches in one session, the year-end course had taught them the fundamentals.

“I hope they return to their respective environments and make an impact, host sessions and seize every opportunity to work on the things they would’ve learned and develop the players out there,” he said.

The GFF’s ground-breaking ATC programme was launched in 2017 and is the first of its kind in the Caribbean region.

The programme is a selective national youth development initiative that gives girls and boys aged between 6-19 a weekly, structured training curriculum anchored in the GFF’s football philosophy and delivered consistently throughout its nine regional associations.