OFC Technical Director and FIFA Instructor Patrick Jacquemet spent one week with 19 candidates, representing clubs from both Tahiti’s Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, taking them through their paces with the FIFA Goalkeeping Course.
Jacquemet is well versed in Tahitian football spending a number of years with club AS Venus as well as playing for the national team in goal.
“It is with great pleasure that I am here for a week,” he told the group as the course got underway at FTF headquarters in Pirae.
“In general, we work in close collaboration with the Federation’s technical department and the needs have been clearly identified. That is why, together, we have introduced this course specifically for goalkeepers.”
Jacquemet says this course has been around since 2011 where it was firstly tested in Morocco and New Zealand.
“In the Pacific it has already been delivered in Fiji and New Caledonia. We try to attract people who have been a goalkeeper, or who are passionate about the position to equip them with the knowledge to train goalkeepers of all levels,” he explains.
“I think that, now, people have started to understand that a goalkeeper is a position of its own and the player needs specific training. The role is in constant evolution, it’s not enough to be good on your line and to only know how to use your hands well. You now need to have impeccable technique with your feet and good game understanding .”
To emphasise that the role between the posts is a specific one, Jacquemet put the participants themselves in that position for the first practical on day one.
For the remainder of the course, goalkeepers of varying ages were brought in to help illustrate what was being taught.
For the youngest (9-12) coaches need to give a taste of the role and teach the players the fundamentals. For the next group (13-16) it is perfecting the basics.
The FIFA Goalkeeping Course mixes practical sessions with theory to illustrate the content being covered.
The course was held in Tahiti from 25-29 August at the FTF headquarters in Pirae.
For more about Tahiti football go to www.ftf.pf
Goalkeepers under the spotlight
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