Coaches from four different Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Member Associations completed their first step towards gaining the region’s highest coaching qualification at the OFC/NZF A Licence Coaching Course between January 24-30.
Held in Palmerston North, 22 New Zealand-based coaches and six others from Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomon Islands participated in sessions on performance culture, sports psychology, performance and prevention.
Guest speakers included NZF High Performance Manager Gareth Jennings, NZF Sport Psychologist Dom Vettise, FIFA Technical Director Tony Readings and HUDL Oceania Representative Simon Mead.
NZF Coach Development Manager Michael Mayne said the course was designed to support the development of the coaches at the highest level.
“It was a very busy week, but productive, and we felt like the group showed great potential in impacting the game positively for our Confederation,” Mayne said.
“I recognised that because the candidates exchanged and learned from each other’s experiences, they collaborated extremely well.
“We have also encouraged the use of the OFC Learn platform which has shown great capability to connect, interact and link the content from the course.”
West Coast Rangers first team coach Chad Coombes said the course provided him with an opportunity to grow as a coach.
“I have been focused on becoming a better coach and I knew the best way to achieve this was to complete the coaching courses on offer,” Coombes said.
“I was surrounded by good people who challenged me, I learned a lot throughout the week and the presenters added so much value.
“My advice for all coaches out there is to keep on learning, always strive to be better as this will help more young people progress in the game.”
The coaches will now complete several distance learning tasks in their own environment before connecting as a group for a week in November, as part of the final steps of obtaining their OFC/NZF A Licence qualification.
