South African renowned coach, Jomo Sono has sent a strong message to the football academies’ coaches, who have a habit of shouting when developing children on the skills of the game. Sono is known for his ability to spot and nurture talent at his famous institution, Jomo Cosmos Football Club, hence, he is worth a listen.
The Orlando Pirates legend says shouting at the young lads crushes their confidence, therefore the end-product is likely to not come out of the player. He emphasized that the coaches need to behold players as their own kids
“They’re just shouting, and if you look at the person who’s shouting, you can’t see what he was shouting for,” he told journalists at the World Football Summit Africa in Durban.
“They shout like mad people. You see these kids, the moment you shout at them you kill their confidence, they won’t play anymore, they won’t want the ball because they are scared that you will shout at them.
“They hide even when the ball comes at them, that’s why we say, some coaches need to have the humanity, the approach to the children, because when you’re coaching these kids, you’re the father, you cannot shout at all times, you’re killing their confidence.”
Sono believes that the development teams coaches are now all about enhancing their CV’s, rather than preparing the kids for the future.
“They [coaches] have to understand that they are parents, and another thing I’ve noticed is, to these coaches, it’s about winning because they want [decorated] CV’s,” he added.
“It shouldn’t be only about winning, it should be about adding value to the life of a kid. If I see this child smiling after the match, then it’s good, but to find a child crying after being shouted at by the coach isn’t right.”
Sono’s Cosmos was relegated to the third-tier ABC Motsepe League, after they finished in the relegation zone of the Motsepe Foundation Championship [MFC] last season.
Also Read: Jomo Sono Urges SAFA to act on Championship Bad Officiating
