Coach Ujjwal from Share FC interacting with participants during a session
GFF Helps India has been working in the area of sports for children and youths since its inception. Mr. Joe Fisher, the former GFF Helps India Representative during 2018 coached some young people of Chibbo village on Football. Last year when the pandemic hit the world and there were lockdowns everywhere, Joe came forward to encourage the children and young football enthusiasts of Kalimpong through online sessions.
This year too the GFF Helps India team along with Joe planned to have a 3 day session for the aspiring coaches, Training of Trainers. Our football partner Share Football Club was to focus on the practical sessions but the 2nd wave of CoVID19 spread in India and lockdowns were imposed again.
The practical training session had to be postponed but the online sessions were carried out from 8th May till 4th July. There were a total of 14 sessions held every Saturdays and Sundays by Coach Joe and Coach Ujjwal. Mr. Ujjwal Deep Lama is a coach from Share FC who volunteered to take sessions in Nepali language. An average of 15 participants attended each session that belonged from the hilly and plain region of Kalimpong and Darjeeling.
Mr. Saom,Mr. Jayabrata, Mr. Ujjwal and Mr. Ryan during a Panel discussion on the final day.
Some of the topics covered were Coach Develpoment, Game day and Goal Keeping. There were some guests’ speakers who joined the sessions for Question and Answer session.
Ms. Ashleigh Taylor joined in one of the session and conducted a Q&A along with Joe. She is the Operations manager and Women’s first team coach at East Coast Bays AFC in Auckland, New Zealand. Mr. Jayabrata Ghosh AFC A Licence and AIFF Coach Educator joined in another session for a Q&A along with Ujjwal. On the final day, Mr. Ratin Saha AIFF Grassroots Director joined along with Mr. Jayabrata Ghosh.
Coach Joe taking a session on Game DayThe participants were grateful to get the platform to learn from experienced coaches.
One of the participants, Mr. Raju Basfor said “It was a great opportunity to learn new skills and techniques”.