Seventeen-year-old Gokul Agash is living his dream. An Arsenal club fan, he has been playing some serious football at RaK’s Pallikkoodam. He is trained by coaches from Football Star Academy, an Australia-based sports academy associated with football clubs and institutions such as Melbourne City FC (part of city group), Manchester City FC, New York City FC and Yokohama City FC. The academy in collaboration with the school is conducting professional football training and grassroots programme. “It’s nothing like how I learnt it in my school. They taught me better dribbling tactics and ball control,” says Gokul whose dream is to play for the national team one day.
It is seven in the morning and the children, are practising ball possession exercises in the sultry weather.
“This is a skill-based programme and we are trying to maximise the potential of the child by giving them feedback and assistance,” says David Thomson, FSA Head Coach and Business Development Manager.
The children will be trained on dribbling, ball control, decision making and strategic thinking, and will have one-to-one coaching. The programme has been endorsed by Jesper Olsen, former Manchester United, Denmark World Cup player and Melbourne Heart Assistant Coach.
Their focus is 100 per cent, says David, about his wards. “We have been training them morning and evening. The five-year-olds, who attended our morning programmes, were so excited to have their first kick. They were exhausted, but still smiling and wanted to continue playing. Finally, we had to drag them off the field.” They plan to roll out courses for class 12 pass-outs and graduates who want to pursue the game professionally.
Swetha Krishnamurthy, the founder of RaK’s Pallikkoodam and a national-veteran badminton champion herself, started the school with the vision of making it into a sports-oriented one. “We want to help children find the balance between sports and academics. At the age of four and five, children are interested in different sports. We help them in identifying what suits them best using biomechanics method.”
The programme also offers the certified coaches in the city an opportunity to be trained under the experts in Australia.
Twenty-nine-year-old football coach Rohit Prakash Thorat, a certified grassroots instructor from All India Football Federation, is supervising the children from Coimbatore. He was trained in Melbourne by the academy for 25 days. The exposure was priceless, he recalls. “It was a very professional set up. They make it a point to inject the culture of football in children when they are two or three, while here we train them only when they are 11 or 12.” Rohit will be in touch with a global network of coaches to brainstorm coaching strategies and football curriculum.
Lessons for life FSA’s coaching philosophy is to be interactive, says David. “We ask the kids to think for themselves and take decisions. Football is more than just a game. It is also about building a relationship between the players. They make friends for life on the ground. That’s why that first kick has to be positive.”
In Australia, the institute has introduced Soccer Time Kids, a pre-school programme, where children between one and five will play football with their parents. “It works on their motor skills, interactions, colours, number identification, and so on. It helps parents and children bond as well.” The programme will be implemented in Coimbatore, too.
Football can throw open so many doors, says David, who is from Scotland. At a young age, he always dreamt of becoming a professional football player and Scotland, with its heavy football culture provided him the right ecosystem. “I also had mentors who gave me guidelines on different options I could try out. Football opened so many avenues to me. I went to university and did my sports coaching development degree, and went to America to get some coaching experience. Football helped me travel the world. ”
That’s the spirit they are trying to inculcate here. Apart from giving children access to football clubs in Europe and Australia, the programme plans to offer career options such as that of sports journalists, lawyers, nutritionists and coaches. Says David, “Our aim is to leave a football legacy behind. We have already identified a few talents. We make sure that the foundation is perfect.
You have to keep practising and do all the right things. It is all about taking time, and not rushing.”
