On Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 March, the JFA GK Project Workshop took place in Gotemba, Shizuoka.

A total of 31 JFA National Coaching Staffs and JFA National Training Centre Coaches, who are involved in goalkeeper and goalkeeper’s coach development, were gathered to go over the instructing policies and programmes of 2019. The participants also shared information on the world trends and reports on their community involvement.

On the first day, the group held a refresher course on “B” licence GK practical trainings and coaching instructions, followed by presentations on GK development at the national team, women’s football, and the nine regions. On the second day, the participants reviewed the training menus of the U-12, U-14, U-17 National Training Centre, and went through the menu in a practical training session. The day group then shared reports on their community involvement, active plans and held a discussion on each of the topics.

Comment

KAWAMATA Noriyuki, GK Project Leader
This year’s GK project member featured a total of 31 participants including leaders, national team coaches from each category, chief coaches of the nine regions, and JFA Academy coaches. On the first day we held a practical instructing session on the pitch where we went through the four themes that are covered in the “B” licence coach’s course. During the session, one participant acted out as the instructor, while another participant gave explanations to the instructions. Two instructors would review their instructing procedures and evaluate each of the participants. The session went through the four themes; offence involvement, break away, defending against crosses, and shot stopping, as the concept of getting the goalkeeper involved in the game instruction was being shared among the participants.

On day two, the goalkeeper’s warmup routines, technical training, and functional training menus of the U-12/U-14 National Training Centre was shared by Coach OHASHI Akiyoshi and Coach MAEDA Nobuhiro from the U-12 and U-14 working group. The participants were given the opportunity to discuss the objectives of the trainings, organisation, and coaching.

As for the classroom sessions, on day one, we discussed the topic of “the tasks from the past and the future assignments,” while the coaches from each category of the national team shared their point of view on where the Japanese goalkeeper locates in the world standards. The activities carried out in the nine regions and women’s football were also shared among the group, and a discussion was held to define the issues of the goalkeepers and goalkeeper coaches of the youth development categories in Japan. The participants went onto share their thoughts and discussed ways to resolve each of the issues.

The second day saw the participants going over the action plans that may help the level of the Japanese goalkeepers reach the world level. The reports of the national goalkeeper camp were shared, followed by reviewing and discussion on the lectures on goalkeeping at the “B” licence coach’s course as well as the goalkeeper “C” licence course. This workshop has allowed us to prepare ourselves ahead of the activities that will take place in 2019. It also gave the participants the opportunity to refresh their motivation to further develop the coaches and players level through their enthusiasm.