“WE are not about coaching a sport, but we are coaching a life through sports”. These are the words dictated by Whole Life Ministries director Andre Virtue about the inspiration behind the Flow/ESPN football training programme.

An initiative that came into existence through the collaboration between telecommunication giants Flow and world-renowned sports fraternity ESPN. This philosophy was embedded in the minds of coaches and players alike over the course of the two-day clinic that was being held in Jamaica for the second consecutive year.

Born out of the desire to give back to the island by corporate executives including Totlyn Mason, director of business operations and development for ESPN, the clinic in its second staging continued on the mission of enhancing the coaching capacity while boosting the skills of our island’s footballers. Notably, the major sponsors were back on board along with the Western Football Confederation and Virtue’s Whole Life Ministries.

Back to spearhead the clinic were the likes of Caribbean greats Robbie Earle — who remains a cult figure in Jamaica having scored the nation’s first World Cup goal in our only appearance — and by far the best goalkeeping talent to be shipped from our region — Trinidadian Shaka Hislop.

Adopting a similar format to what was used last year, the first day (Friday) saw a total of 40 coaches tutored on how they can cultivate proper training techniques in addition to key coaching strategies that can be implemented into their training regimen. They were also taught how to foster proper technique practices and how to instil discipline and a drive to succeed in players. The following day, over 100 children were given the chance to learn from the world-renowned footballers in a series of exercises ranging from goalkeeping, movement on and off the ball, crossing techniques, positioning and shooting. Observations would dictate that a lot of knowledge was imparted as the experts took the time out to amend any errors when identified at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium.

Speaking with Shaka Hislop, one of the directors of the clinic, he opined that ESPN and Flow started the project last year and we felt it was important to have a grass-roots programme to develop the game of football. Public relations manager at Flow Jeanette Lewis reiterated Flow’s desire to expose youngsters on the island to international talent while improving the competency of the coaches so that football locally can develop.

Expanding on a major aspect of last year’s staging, the organisers cemented their plans to maintain contact with the coaches and youth footballers throughout the year and track their progress. Totlyn Mason revealed that the clinic this year would introduce a monitoring programme called iSoccer. “We have created a virtual clinic that will allow us to continually track the growth and development of the youth footballers from abroad,” Mason said. iSoccer is an online programme where coaches and players alike can assess themselves and track their attributes, while setting milestones that will allow them to elevate their game. “iSoccer was invited by Robbie Earle to assist the clinic following its success with his local club in Orange County where the programme reaped great rewards. He felt that the same could be achieved here,” explained Corey Woolfolk, director of business at iSoccer.

The iSoccer programme is a training tool with a two-fold initiative providing objective measurements and motivational factors. The programme is aimed at enhancing the strengths of the players while increasing their efficiency technically. Using 16 basic football drills in a 5*5 perimeter for 20 seconds, each players skill-set will be quantified through a rating system fostering competition and a desire to improve.

Jamaica is the first Caribbean country to embrace such a programme that seeks to bridge the gap between technology and football. Former goalkeeper Locksley Reid and director at Ballaz International, Sherrick Williams were of the view that Jamaica will only stand to gain from the programme as it aims at perfecting the skills of players making them better.

As was the mandate of last year’s staging, the objective of the clinic is to enhance the quality of football within the country and not only that, but to also serve as a motivator and teacher of the life lessons that can be learnt through; football ranging from discipline to working well with others.

— Devaro Bolton & Michael Thompson