A Goalkeeper Coach Refresher Seminar was held from Tuesday 9 to Thursday 11 October as part of the JFA/J.League Cooperative Development Programme (JJP) at Tokinosumika Sports Center in Shizuoka.

The seminar was conducted in efforts to develop the future Japan National Team goalkeeper and to give the participating coaches an opportunity to brush up their coaching skills. The seminar welcomed Mr. Jack ROBINSON from the English football association (The FA), who was the goalkeeper coach for the U-17 England National Team who won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the current goalkeeper coach for the top team of Liverpool FC, to instruct the seminar. A total of 52 participants, including staffs of JFA, J. League Academy, goalkeeper coaches from the 47 Prefectural Football Associations, and goalkeeper coaches from each age category of the Japan National Team attended the seminar.

The seminar proceeded with lectures and practical coaching sessions with the JFA Academy Fukushima men’s team, as the participants were seen engaging with great enthusiasm throughout the course.

Lectures:
Identifying talents, English goalkeeper DNA, reports from the 2017 FIFA U-17/U-20 World Cup, profiling the English goalkeepers, regarding physical fitness, and reflecting on the seminar with a Q&A session.

Practical Training Session:
Stopping shots, one-on-one, responding to crosses, ball delivery, reaction saves, and physical fitness for the goalkeepers.

Instructor’s Comments

Jack ROBINSON, Former U-17 England National Team GK Coach
It is an honour to be welcomed as an instructor for the JJP GK Coach Refresher Seminar. I personally was able to gain great inspiration by interacting with the participating GK coaches here in Japan. I am very happy to see all the participants and the players from the JFA Academy Fukushima engaging in the seminar with great enthusiasm. Mr. Kato and Mr. Kawamata took on the role as the leader and sub-leader respectively, and they have done a great job as the facilitator to lead this seminar. I would also like to express my gratitude towards the staffs for their warm hospitality. I was given the opportunity to introduce the philosophy of football and the role of the goalkeepers in England, but it would be great if we can continue on these types of cultural exchanges in the future. If you have the chance to visit England, please stop by Liverpool. I will be hoping for everyone’s health and future success in the field of coaching.

Coordinator’s Comment

KATO Yoshio, JFA GK Project Leader
We feel very fortunate to be able to welcome Mr. Jack Robinson as the instructor for the third JJP GK Coach Refresher Seminar. He is an individual from the home of football, England, who took part of the U-17 England National Team that won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup as the goalkeeper coach. The goalkeeping theories and practical methods presented by him showed the rich history of English football, not to mention his wonderful personal traits. There were many things to learn from their ways to analyse and evaluate goalkeepers, as well as their training methods. It must have been an overwhelming experience for the players of the JFA Academy Fukushima to gain this experience to learn directly from a foreign coach. The Q&A session gave the Japanese coaches the opportunity to interact with a world class coach. We would like to thank the FA and Mr. Jack Robinson for making this seminar possible. I would also like to thank the J. League, JFA, JFA Academy Fukushima, and all the participants who joined this seminar. We hope that you will implement what you have learnt here into your daily routines and develop a Japanese DNA out of the England DNA you’ve gained during this seminar.

Participants’ Comments

・Participant
The opportunity to learn about the English GK coaching methods that is rich in history, has given me a priceless experience. Their approach to seek and identify talents, as well as their long-term view has led to their great success to develop world class goalkeepers in the past. Many of their perspectives were similar to ours, as their ways to analyse games and evaluate players had similarities from our philosophy. The lecture on the phycological aspects were especially intriguing. We were able to learn that the English style training methods is taking great emphasis on their decision makings and transitions between offence and defence during the matches. These new findings have given me a great opportunity to look back and reorganise my own training methods. I hope to implement these new ideas into my future trainings. I was greatly inspired by Mr. Robinson’s organised goalkeeping theories and his positive approach to converse with the players and the participants. This seminar has made me realise that in order to heighten the level of Japanese goalkeepers to the world’s standard, the coaches must strive for higher levels first.

・Participant
First of all, I would like to thank the JFA, J. League, and my club team for giving us the opportunity to participate in such wonderful seminar. By experiencing the TR and the lectures of the U-17 England National Team, I felt there were three important aspects. First is to construct a clear goal. Second is to plan backwards from the goal. And the third is to keep it simple. The English style of coaching has always set a goal, either it was to develop the ideal goalkeeper, or to win the U-17 World Cup. And their approach was always constructed based on their final goal. They have also made everything simple, and it was shared among the team players and staffs. We hope to implement what we have learnt in this seminar into our daily trainings at our clubs and one day develop a goalkeeper that can compete at the world stage. To do so, I will set up a clear goal and share it with my players. I will continue to coach with theory and passion.

・Participant
This was a very productive seminar. It gave us an opportunity to understand how England has identified their young talents at each age categories and how they evaluated the players. It gives a new perspective for the future of Japanese player development. I felt of the need to re-evaluate our approach. Their procedures to profile the players has also given us new insights. Their approach is very simple, and I felt that it is essential to monitor the development of the young players. We hope to implement these aspects into our routines. I was really able to empathise on their coaching methods on the field, as they kept their trainings organised, and took each step at a time. The coaching was also very positive, and it allowed the players to challenge themselves in a positive way. The drills required the players to make decisions at all times, and I thought that was very effective. Overall, there were so many useful information throughout the seminar and being able to learn from the goalkeeper coach of the world champions has give us a priceless experience.