Kumasi, July 9, GNA - A four-day basic course for soccer coaches in the Ashanti Region ended at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Friday.

It was organised by the Ashanti Regional Football Association in collaboration with National Sports Council (NSC) and facilitated by the Ashanti Regional Soccer Coaches Association.

The course which formed part of measures to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the 25 coaches selected from First and Second divisions as well as women football clubs is also to enable them perform effectively. Mr Anthony K. Adusei, a former national coach and the immediate past Ashanti Regional Sports Development Officer, in his closing remarks stressed the need for football coaches to continuously seek and upgrade their technical knowledge of the rules of the game to enable them become abreast with current trends of the game.

He bemoaned the inability of most coaches to impart the requisite knowledge to their players thereby making it difficult for them to mature properly.

Mr Adusei said since football has become more scientific, it behoved on coaches, especially in developing countries to seek higher knowledge and become more dynamic in heir approach to the game. Some of the subjects taught at the course included techniques in conditioning players before and after matches, communicating with players, different strategies to adopt in matches and the psychological aspect of the game.

The coaches would be assessed in 10 months time to find out how best they had implemented the knowledge they had acquired before commencing on an intermediate course.