Panaji: Derrick Pereira has been associated with football at a high level for the last 40 years, yet he realises that there is still plenty to learn.

One of India’s more successful coaches who had a stellar playing career, Derrick recently attended the Indian Football Coaches Convention 2018 in Mumbai and returned home refreshed after the two-day convention jointly hosted by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and The Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC).

There were coaching luminaries like Ryland Morgans, former head of fitness and conditioning at Liverpool FC, Christian Diercks, head of Borussia Dortmund ’s football schools and former Liverpool Academy manager John Owens. Yet, it were the words of someone who has worked extensively at the grassroots level that Derrick loved the most.

“We all thought that grassroots (development) starts maybe when you are seven or eight years old, but the foundations are laid much before,” said Pereira, now technical director at FC Goa , the Goan franchise in the Indian Super League.

Derrick was speaking from his own experience. A successful coach for the last 18 years, he listened in rapt attention when Tom Byer took to the stage and the man who is the most admired among grassroots coaches in Asia, opened everyone’s eyes.

“The popular belief in football has been that footballers are first moulded from the age of seven. However, Tom’s philosophy, which has now become his tagline, Football Starts at Home, had the convention believing that the work needs to start much earlier and at home.

“Tom’s research which included his own children’s progression showed that a child who is given a ball from the age of three and is encouraged to use both his feet and keep it in control is a little more competitive when he crosses the line into organized football than a child who has only started attempting to master controlling the ball at the age of seven,” explained Pereira.

So when young kids are at home, or go out in the parks, they are encouraged to kick the ball. Wrong, as Derrick discovered; they must be taught to keep the ball, rather than just kick.

“For India to become a nation of sport, it’s the parents who need to take the first step. They will always be the child’s first mentor and coach. Football in India has to start at home. When football starts at home, it will soon start reflecting in the stadiums as well,” said Derrick.

Derrick also learnt that kids today are not being taught proper football techniques, before being forced into systems, tactics and formations. Like Tom – renowned for his work in Japan — explained, it’s like sending kids to study algebra and geometry without them having been taught how to add, subtract, multiply and divide!

Three hundred football coaches from 27 states had gathered in Mumbai early this week for the first ever coaching convention.

