Fernandes returns from Coaching Course in Jamaica

Aug 08, 2009 Sports

– Guyana could host one early next year

President of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) and Guyana’s representative on the newly established Caribbean Hockey Coaches Union (CHCU), Philip Fernandes recently returned to Guyana after co-facilitating a Level 1 coaching course in Kingston, Jamaica recently. This is the third such course that Fernandes has attended, having co-facilitated similar ones in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago over the past two years.
The initiative which has been set up to educate coaches in the region, stemmed out of a grant provided to the Caribbean region from the world governing body for development of the game at the grass roots level under the ‘Sunbrella Project’.
The three Level 1 Courses were aimed to broaden the base of coaches who could teach the game at the introductory level with the hope of increasing the players’ pool in the Caribbean.
Fernandes, Barbados national Coach Peter Chase and T&T’s national women’s and FIH Coach David Francois were selected three years ago by members of the Pan American Development Committee to train along with UK facilitators who were invited to the Region.

Philip Fernandes

It is the Development Committee’s intention to have these three coaches run Level 1 Courses within the Region to avoid the excessive cost of bringing facilitators from other parts of the world. According to the GHB Head, the Level 1 Course in Jamaica was hugely successful based on the feedback from participants and it is hoped that the next such course would be held here later this year or early in 2010.
Apart from facilitating the Course, while in Jamaica Fernandes also attended the first meeting of the newly established CHCU. The Union was formed to continue the initial ground work begun by the ‘Sunbrella Project’ and to develop coaching in the region under the guidelines of the Pan American Hockey Federation’s coaching and development committee.
The meeting discussed the production of a 4-year plan for educating and developing coaches, sharing material and resources and maximizing the use of external funds through collective efforts by the entire Caribbean hockey playing nations.
Following the meeting of the CHCU, there was a two-day workshop for facilitators to increase the initial number of three Caribbean-based facilitators to eight.
The workshop was conducted by FIH Grade 1 Coach Niall Sturrock of Scotland and Fernandes indicated that it was most beneficial to those who attended.
“There are certain common traits in the Caribbean as we discovered during the workshop which related to the way we teach. We seemed akin to the Coach-player relationship to that of teacher-student where the teacher tells or shows the students what is correct and expects them study and retain.” Fernandes pointed out. He went on to indicate that the preferred methods being adapted by the facilitators was one of guided discovery where through the use of open questions, students can be steered into finding the correct solutions themselves which they felt would assist in the long-term retention of a skill or concept.
Fernandes had earlier this year conducted a workshop with local coaches to educate and prepare them for a similar course which is earmarked for Guyana in the near future.
He added that at all times they will try to have a facilitator from overseas at the Course to complement the local one.
Fernandes extended gratitude to the Guyana Olympic Association which he stated had provided him with the opportunity to become more recognised in the Region through his attendance at various Olympic Solidarity organised Coaching Programmes in the past.

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