Savio Medeira: Coaching convention helps to produce local coach educators

The tactician also spoke regarding changes to the coaches' curriculam.

Savio Medeira, Head of Coach Education, All India Football Federation spoke at a length about coaching curriculum structure in a live chat with AIFF TV wherein he mentioned about the introduction of Indian Football’s vision for coach education, modules being introduced in the licensed courses to make it more interesting, the thought process going behind it, the feedback from the coaches, and much more. Here are the excerpts.

Q. How and why the coaching convention was planned?

Savio Medeira: We have started to streamline the entire structure and we are constantly upgrading it. We have undergone a lot of changes to make our curriculum in line with AFC. AFC encourages all the MAs (member Association) to conduct the courses in the way they want them to be done because they are well aware of the environment.

Q. Can you elaborate.

Savio Medeira: Coaching convention helps to produce local coach educators and I am proud to say that we are an AFC Coaching convention approval member today. This is the biggest feather in All India Football Federation’s cap in terms of the coach education program. 

As part of the convention approval, we start from the bottom with an E-certificate which is a four-day course. The sole criteria is that the applicant should be 18 years old. I would like to see more physical education teachers join to acquire this certificate. The applicant will receive a certificate at the end of the course.

Q. After the E-certificate, what's the way forward?

Savio Medeira: It's a continuous process of learning. After receiving the E-certificate, you can apply for a D-certificate course after three months. Then, after a gap of six months, you will be eligible to apply for C-certificate. Before the pandemic started, we had conducted almost 100 D-Certificate courses in a year.

There will be a two-year time period when you need to work at some club or academy before applying for the B-diploma. Following that, you need to pursue A-diploma. After completing it successfully, you will be eligible to apply for a Pro diploma after a gap of two years.

Q. Have you done any particular change to the curriculum?

Savio Medeira: We have broken these certificates and diplomas into modules. Earlier, C, B and A certification courses used to be 13, 21 and 29-day-long respectively. Former players -- who were not very good scholars but had a passion to come into coaching, used to feel bored towards the end of the course. So, the purpose got defeated. 

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Q. So what did you do?

Savio Medeira: We thought of breaking the courses into several modules. We have divided the C-certificates into two modules of 7 and 5 days respectively. The B-certificate is divided into three modules. Duration of the first two modules is seven days whereas the third module is five-day-long. There'll be assessment and between the modules, they will be given tasks to carry out.

The Pro-Diploma course consists of five modules of 8-10 days each. Out of these modules, one will be an exposure trip for the applicants and the last module will be assessments. We had conducted the pro-diploma course last in 2016 and I am trying to host another by April 2021.  

Q. What’s the feedback from the coaches?

Savio Medeira: Initially when we started to roll in these changes, coaches were a little bit apprehensive, But they got interested as the curriculum is far more engrossing right now. Between the modules they need to get back to their respective clubs and apply what they have learnt so far making the process more effective and result-oriented.

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