Originally posted by Sir X
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1. Set a vision - what is the objective of the JFF? what is it's core purpose? What are they trying to achieve in the next 25 years? Next 5? Next 1? Next month? What are it's core values? What benchmarks are we setting? How do we measure success? Who is accountable? What is the reward? What are the consequences of failure? You don't need $1 to go through that process.
2. Start with the YOUNGEST players - 4 years old; so no matter what the high-level objects are, it is a given that technical development is a baseline. Get that going asap.
3. Publish a set of baseline skills that all players are expected to master by the time they reach grade 3, 6, 3rd form, and 5th form. These are technical in nature and could be done with a youtube channel and a cheap camera.
4. Test and reward the kids. Hold skills competitions for 6 - 15-year-olds around the island. How frigging hard is that? The good news with this is that you don't need a coach to learn and develop technical skills - you can do much of it on your own but you do need access to youtube.
5. Establish minimum coaching standards. For $25, any coach can go to the US Soccer website and take the 11v11 coaching course, or any of the Grass Roots courses (which is what we need). And I will tell you - the 11v11 course is EXCELLENT. One of the featured coaches is Jené Backlawski, she was my C license instructor and now head coach of St. Kitts and Nevis women's team. Great coach with a PhD.
6. Set coaching requirements for RSPL teams. The head coach of any RSPL team should have a minimum certification. If that's a CONCACAF B, so be it, but good luck getting that going again. It is 2 years since the last one. This needs to be annual at a minimum and a longer term initiative.
6. Establish Coaching development alternatives. I am a patron and founding member of an organization called the African Coaches League. We hold coaching development courses in Africa and online. OJ etc. if you are interested, let me know. I will email the link to join. We are still working on our website. The objective of the organization is to leverage coaching to lift Africans and Africans in the diaspora out of poverty. It is free to any credentialed or active coach to join, you don't have to be black - we have nuff people of all races as members (our 1500+ members includes Tappa, Vin Blaine, and others you might know and we just started last year as a WhatsApp group). The only requirement is a commitment to our cause.
We also have "Friends of the African Coaches League" open to non-coaches who support our cause, e.g. club administrators, fund-raising experts, etc.
In August, we are putting on a Coach-the-Coaches course (1 week) in Ghana and the cost is less than $100 US for 4 days. The course will be lead by renowned African coaches who are volunteering their time to help others. We also have a 6-week course on Zoom starting in October for $70, normally $200 put on by Ray Power (look him up). Everything we are doing so far has cost us less than the JFF spends on toilet paper.
Anyway - unlike your dumbass, I'm actually doing something about it and can tell you that the hard part is the COST of getting qualified instructors to lead these courses; so unless we do it for ourselves, it ain't going to happen. I have not gone into the high school/club relationship because a) you too fool to understand it and b) it is something Jamaica isn't going to embrace without convincing a ton of people that absent a 10 month season, we are dreaming about reaching the pinnacle of football.
Anyway - enough flapping of my gums. Trust me, I know a lot more about this in my little finger than you will ever understand or know yourself.

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