An Official Coaches Workshop (Refresher Course) was held on the same date along with the semi-final of the 38th Japan U-12 football Championship at Shizuoka Ashitaka Athletic Park in Shizuoka on 8 August.
58 coaches attended the workshop even in the mid-week, taking a 90-minute lecture and watching the first match of the semi-final.

The lecture was led by the U-12 Technical Study Group (TSG) Chief Sarusawa Shinji and a goalkeeper coach Mochizuki Kazuma. It included analysis of the matches played in the championship so far, assignments from the World Cup Brazil and from the U-12 generation, necessary techniques among the generation and tips on how to build up relationships with players.

After the lecture, they watched the first match of the semi-final together. Participants expressed that match observation after learning attacking and defending methodology helped them understand the concept better. Most of attendees stayed for the second match of the semi-final even though it was not mandatory.

Comments from instructor

SARUSAWA Shinji, Chief of National Training Centre Shikoku
I offered a lecture with a video and PowerPoint presentation out of the ongoing 8-a-side national championship, focusing on how to build relationships with players and importance of match environments. I’m happy everyone attending was eager to take the lecture. This championship introduced “Welfare Officer” for the first time. “Welfare” means happiness, comfortable life and well-being. The role of a “Welfare Officer” is to protect children’s ease and safety, which is the basic premise of enjoying football and sports.

As we aim to make the championship better with the cooperation of coaches, players and all the staff involved, the introduction of “Welfare Officer” is also declaration of our intent to work on rooting out violence.
This approach turned out to be a good opportunity to convey the importance of relationships between children and adults.

Comments from participants

Mr.NOGUCHI Naoya
I took part in the workshop last year as well. The lecture was quite easy to understand because the TSG instructors explained to us with detailed data comparing to the last year’s data. They enthusiastically taught us “the importance of observing heartily and interacting actively” as the basic part of the philosophy and interactions required in coaching the U-12 generation. It reminded me that how we need to interact with players as a coach is the same for the top-level players in the U-12 generation in terms of that positive approach.

Mr.SHIMAZAKI Kazuhito
While I’m a coach in Nagano and spend my days being aware of the difference from the national level, I realised in the workshop for the first time in four years that the level of the U-12 has been steadily improving. I was impressed that they focused on goalkeepers and spoke on transitions between offense and defence as watching videos from the ongoing championship. I feel that developing a good team and a good player at the same time is a tough task. Even so, the workshop was a valuable opportunity where I could make sure that my way of coaching and interacting with players are not wrong and going the right way.

Mr.MORIYA Mitsutaka
After watching matches that was played at a high level, I felt like learning more about coaching. The lecture had a presentation on the direction where the world football is heading and the issues that Japanese football holds in that trend. Those made me think about what issues the U-12 generation have and what coaches are required to do. Our everyday interaction with players and continuous coaching make our team stronger. That will lead to the development of Japan National Team.