| As the Football
Association consider doing it
- Jamie delivers it.
 "Clairefontaine
has been put forward as a big example of how you can structure coaching
and coach education at the different levels.
"We went to see what they've done, see what worked, what didn't,
and how that JSSi program can fit into what's in place here.
"Particularly at the grassroots level the quality of the coaching
seems very fragmented here, so we've got to try and improve it."
So what is the French coaching system like?
"They have 23 regional areas, within which there are 4 or 5
little
districts. They therefore have around 100 different areas controlled
and co-ordinated in coaching by the French FA, and the fascination
for me was that they all had to have level A coaching standard.
"Level A over here is a really high coaching qualification.
We are just so far behind that in the quality of control and co-ordination
we've got."
"They also had video and DVD resources concentrating on 6-9
year olds, 9-12 year olds, 12-15 - there were specific coaching
resources and routines and drills to work in those different age
groups.
How do we go forward now and improve the coaching in England?
"The
feedback from the academies recently is that they need some help
with what to do with 14 down to 8s - and what the F.A should be
doing with 8, 9 and 10 year olds is totally different to what we
should be doing with 12, 13 and 14s.
"At
the moment coaches don't know what they should be doing - the F.A
need to get out there and support the coaches.
"The
F.A shouldn't be doing fitness training, they should be doing
technical stuff, but what sort of stuff - we've got to give them
examples.
"There's
a huge amount to do. If we can get the participation wider and get
the quality of coaching to enthuse and excite youngsters to work
technically, when they eventually get through to the academy age,
15 or 16, the technical quality should be much better than we're
producing at the moment !!
"I'm
predominantly interested in coaching quality. Wherever we have got
something happening in coaching I want to make sure it's of a good
quality and the coaches who are getting the best positions are the
best ones."
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