Raising the bar on Jamaican football culture!!

[Dunny]

J'can style soccer will take time, says McIntosh

BY SEAN A WILLIAMS Assistant Sport Editor
Wednesday, May 23, 2012














CHAIRMAN of the JFF Technical and Development Committee, Howard McIntosh, says Jamaica is still determined to craft its own football philosophy, but in the same breath, conceded it won't happen overnight.

McIntosh, who is also one of three FIFA development officers operating in the CONCACAF zone, said the ground work for achieving this goal has already been laid with the JFF/JMMB/UTech Coaching School, which has so far graduated some 400 coaches since inception in 2009.
MCINTOSH...



"The development of any football philosophy cannot happen in a vacuum. The introduction of the coaching school was part of the strategic thrust towards this goal as this is where the foundation and principles have to commence.
"However, this will not be overnight. We have to be patient with the evolution through training and systematic implementation at the grassroots level," he said.
A football philosophy is thought to be a deliberate set of principles and ideals on how a country's football culture and practices should evolve, which ultimately will achieve the full utilisation of the strengths of its players in arriving at a particular style of play that may be unique in a sense.
Apart from the coaching school, the JFF/Digicel National Grassroots Football Programme and the establishment of the JFF Technical Centre based at the UWI Bowl are to be integrated into the overall master plan to develop this much-talked-about philosophy.
While the grassroots programme for kids aged from six to 12 years has kicked off, McIntosh said the Technical Centre lags in its development, but is confident that when completed it will be "a showpiece" of the local football landscape.
"There is so much that needs to be brought up to scratch, including the playing surface. The football centre, when completed, will be something that the country can be proud of.
"It is not yet at the stage that we can compare to the developed world. However, we are confident we are on the right track with limited finances," he said.
Though Jamaica is not viewed as an authentic football nation, its youth spend a great deal of time playing the game from street corners to cattle fields and the national programme aims to invest in harnessing this passion in a constructive way.
Jamaica, even as it has qualified four teams to different men's World Cup Finals since 1998, is deemed to lack the history and tradition that separates it from European, South American and Central American nations.
"Jamaicans are sport-loving people in general, but we are still some way from being regarded as an authentic football-playing nation in every sense. We have made steady improvement in some areas, but are not as advanced in others.
"When we have our technical and physical infrastructure up to good and consistent standards and can deliver consistently a product good for international television and which includes very good attendance at our games at international and national levels, then we can confidently state we have arrived with the big boys.
"However, we are definitely making forward strides and should feel encouraged," McIntosh concluded



Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1vgfzTpIG

[Stonigut]

Nice post Dunny.

I just cannot understand why it is even necessary to say that Jamaica is not viewed as an authentic football nation, it is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the results and we have had some good results at the world cup level at three different levels. Where we are totally missing the mark is our club level ball is still as raw as it was in the mid seventies and eighties, that is somewhat of an exaggeration as I see significant change, but not enough for one club to make any noise on a continental regional level to win the club champs in concacaf or even come reasonably close to making a run as costa rican teams have done and a few other central American clubs.

What I would love to know is has the Jff has actually developed a skills manual addressing issues of heading the ball, kicking with both feet, running off the ball, playing the different positions and basically collecting all the fundamental knowledge necessary for dissemination across the country so the youths have something to fire their imagination and start working even by themselves to master the various skills necessary to make it in the pro game.

[Karl]

Nice post, Stonigut.
You could have been in the Phy Ed dept at Mico

[Don1]

Disagree.

It is entirely relevant and true to say that Jamaica does not have an authentic culture or tradition of football... we don't. We have a hodgepodge of undeveloped elements... buttressed by a Diaspora.

We absolutely have not had overall good results in the World Cup competitions we have qualified for...apart from some laudatory moments the results have been sup par.

The core problem is NOT the club level ball. Poor club level ball is a symptom/result of the real problem. The real problem being the lack of quality coaching, quality philosophies and quality facilities & infrastructure at the 6 -18 year level. If we had that in place that system would organically produce quality players and playing systems for clubs.

The JFF does not have the resources to create such a system on its own. The JFF needs to partner with the school system and develop some mini-academies at that level with good facilities and quality coaching (St Georges is doing this). Those school based academies (say 1-2 in every parish) can be magnet/feeder institutions for the national academy and also disseminate quality throughout the system more effectively than the JFF can with one central academy. A system or network is what's needed.

That is one possible approach to improvement.

[Stonigut]

Authentic or not is actually entirely irrelevant, it is pure conjecture. The only thing that matters is results and performance on the field, some would probably say that English football is not authentic and they started the game in the form in which we play it today. What matters is creating the environment based on performance and results which leads to consistently making at least every other world cup, and doing so at the various levels, also developing our club system so that a few Jamaican clubs can consistently compete at the concacaf champs level at the very least. Developing a system that exports players to the top leagues in the world, finally as you alluded to the real development of football through the length and breadth of jamaica as I talked to in the last paragraph of the entry above.

Funnily enough after a little research I foud out that football in Jamaica has probably been played longer here than in many "authentic" football countries, so from a measurement standpoint we are probably as authentic as they come as apparently football has been played consistently in jamaica firstly at York Castle since 1883, brazil did not have their first game until 1894. The first noted game in England was in 1873. This just illustrates even more that "authenticity" is irrelevant especially when looking at it from the fundamental meaning of the word "undisputed origin"

[Don1]

This is a semantic game. Your conception of authenticity and mine appear to be different. For me age is merely one aspect of authenticity.... a necessary but not sufficient criterion.

The fact that football was played in Jamaica before Brazil is an interesting historical artifact but hardly imbues Jamaica's football with authenticity on par with or even anywhere close to Brazil..
We have not developed a competent local philosophy of ball nor facilities nor expertise nor results at the World level...ergo.. for me we are NOT authentic.... but Brazil certainly is.

England definitely has authentic football culture..it is just inadequate at the very top level because their style is dated.

As far as Jamaica's development is concerned, trying to fix club play will have diminishing returns over time absent the real grass roots development at the junior level.
Clubs will continually be spending much time on remedial technical work which should have been completed years before at the junior level.... ie they'll be going up the down escalator when our foreign counterparts are on an express elevator with polished players accustomed to quality team play

[Muadib]

Social Conciousness required..

First lesson:

"It takes cash to care"

Cyaan penetrate dat unnuh ever ah guh St. Thomas pond..

Memba mi tole yuh..

[Don1]

No

The first lesson is: It takes vision to ovastan the true nature of the problem see the correct solution

With vision & leadership the cash will flow. Without that first step all the cash in di Wirl will be of no use.... case in point...the wreckage the DayWalker made of Tivoli with the wrong vision and relatively large amounts of cash

Memba mi tole yuh

[Muadib]

Wrong vision ??

What was the wrong Vision that wrecked Tivoli ?

lol ! This should be good..

[Don1]

Wrong vision ??

What was the wrong Vision that wrecked Tivoli ?

lol ! This should be good..

Simple...The vision of partisan control.... divide and rule by violence & intimidation. Of course not from one side...it's a joint JLPNP affair

True yes...Good no

[Muadib]

And you know this was Seaga vision how ?

[Don1]

simple... by his actions & the outcomes... yuh tink ah accident? .. LOL

[Muadib]

Oh ok.. specious reasoning.. implies he predicted the 70's..

Look like another 'opinion' ting.. heavy on 'feeling'.. ala Vaz..

Di Rum talking !

[Don1]

Predicted the 70's?? LOL. The DayWalking Vampiya was half the 1970s.....dat was part of the problem

Poor DayWalker... im juss accidentally created the Tivoli Nightmare & Bangarang... in between his sterling nation-building efforts

The lengths you will go to excuse the folly of your heroes.....Amazing, but amusing...Doan tap atall

[Muadib]

Don't be a twit...

Civil/Cold War in the 70's (who yuh tink was the soldiers of that war ?) then the Garrison production campaign by the PNP clearly lead to the environment that produced the Tivoli we see today.

Vision ?

Tivoli in its current form is a result of the same 'Holocaust' that Jamaica is suffering from..

Even then it has many redeeming social constructs... relatively speaking..