AFF Referees Committee Chairman, David Brooke took part in the FIFA Referee Fitness Instructor Course last week.

The course is known as the Futuro III and is a FIFA/OFC-run course aimed at developing Futsal Instructors, Fitness Instructors and Technical Instructors in the Referee space.

Brooke’s attendance was in accordance to helping referees improve and maintain their fitness levels as well as providing a fitness outline to further aid the development for young referees coming through the ranks.

“The course was aimed at improving my knowledge around training referees the right way to help them improve or maintain their fitness levels” Brooke said.

“At the same time the goal is to take referees through a fitness program safely, so they don’t suffer injuries.”

“Referees develop through experience, technical coaching and the improvement in their fitness levels. All these things are progressive over time and there are no short cuts.”

FIFA Referee Fitness Instructors, Alejo Perez Leguizamon and Kader Touati were facilitating the course and brought with them a wealth of knowledge and experience, which enabled participants to design fitness training sessions based around the physical activity of a referee.

Brooke says the course was beneficial to providing insights on the fitness of referees and acknowledges the impact the facilitators had on the attendees of the course.

“The theoretical and practical sessions from the course have given me an increased awareness around fitness programs and how to apply them for the benefit of the referees” Brooke said.

“The goal each week is to have referees fit and ready for their next match, with the training sessions shaped around the workload of each referee whether that be at the session, the referee’s game(s) or the training they’re doing themselves during the week.”

Brooke was the only AFF candidate present at the course.

ENDS

Article added: Monday 05 November 2018