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Get exposure! - Whitmore urges locals to seek coaching experience overseas
BY IAN BURNETT Sport Editor
BY IAN BURNETT Sport Editor
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
REGGAE Boyz head coach Theodore Whitmore, fresh off an ‘eye-opening’ coaching attachment in Brazil, is encouraging local coaches to seek experience overseas in an attempt to advance the sport, which he claims is well behind the developed football world.
Whitmore, the 1998 France World Cup Finals Reggae Boy star player who scored a brace in Jamaica’s 2-1 victory over Japan, recently spent three weeks with senior coaches, including former Reggae Boyz technical director Rene Simoes, at Atlético Clube Goianiense in Goiânia, Brazil, upgrading his coaching skills, gaining knowledge and experience about coaching philosophies and methodologies, as well as upgrading general management skills.
WHITMORE... Jamaican coaches need to go out there to garner experience
WHITMORE... Jamaican coaches need to go out there to garner experience
“It has helped me a far way,” Whitmore, popularly called ‘Tappa’, told the Observer in a recent exclusive interview about the attachment in Brazil.
“I can tell you this personally, as coaches in Jamaica, not only national coaches, but Premier League coaches, we need to go out there to garner experience, probably not only in Brazil, but we can go to Holland, Italy or somewhere else. But that can only do good for football in Jamaica because I think our football is way behind,” he said.
“I can tell you this personally, as coaches in Jamaica, not only national coaches, but Premier League coaches, we need to go out there to garner experience, probably not only in Brazil, but we can go to Holland, Italy or somewhere else. But that can only do good for football in Jamaica because I think our football is way behind,” he said.
He added: “The little time I spent in Brazil... was like an eye-opener to what is happening now, comparing us with what is happening in football in Brazil, and to be honest, we are way, way behind in terms of what is happening there and what is happening here.
“In terms of preparing teams, the way they are moving in terms of what they are doing, the whole set-up and everything, we’re far behind,” he reiterated without going into specifics.
Whitmore, who missed spending some time with former Brazilian national coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo at the famous Clube de Regatas do Flamengo due to that club’s participation in a final, explained that from his experience in the land of the five-time world champions, coaches there are managing football in a much more sophisticated manner than here.
“... As I have said, it can only do good for us if coaches can understand and get exposure and even come to national training sessions and see what is happening and what their players are doing and come and ask questions because that’s the only way we’re going to move football (forward) in Jamaica...
“Whether through the JFF (Jamaica Footbal Federation), the DPL (Digicel Premier League), whatever means, just to get the coaches to go out there and get exposure… (some) coaches only seem to want to go on courses to get certificates, but I’m telling them right now go out there and spend a two-week in some other country and see what is happening,” urged Whitmore, who declared that this latest attachment was far more advanced than his two previous courses with English tutors in Trinidad and Tobago.
But Whitmore is not amused with some anecdotes about his tenure as head coach of the Reggae Boyz.
“Take for instance some players… they come to the national team and at the first training session they are tired after a few minutes. That is to show you our level, so we as national coaches have to spend time dealing with the physical aspect instead of the tactical aspect,” he bemoaned.
The former national captain is also unimpressed with the standard and quality of play in the DPL, and he lays the blame squarely at the feet of the coaches, whom he said are not preparing the players for the big stage.
He noted that oftentimes the public complains of not seeing a certain type of football being played by the national team, but suggested that clubs are responsible for players and when these players are invited to the national team “three or four days before an international game we have to spend two or three days out of it getting the players up to a certain standard to go out there and play, instead of dealing with tactical work”.
“DPL is played at a pace where I can play because it allows players to do things (too much time) with the ball; at the international level you don’t allow players to do anything,” he lamented as further evidence of the sub-standard nature of the local league.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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