Fresh from a successful coaching course in Papua New Guinea, Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Technical director Jim Selby turned his attention to the development of Cook Island football during a seven day visit early this month.

Selby’s visit targeted the Cook Island Football Association (CIFA) U-16 training squad, CIFA Administration and technical staff and local coaches.

Selby’s course included coaching demonstrations, mentoring, match analysis and facility mapping.

Selby was in the country for several reasons. He assisted with the set-up of a talented players program for potential World Cup players at U-17 and U-20 age levels.

He also helped set up age appropriate small sided games for children aged from 6-13 on age appropriate sized fields.

Getting kids active and playing at a young age is part of an active and healthy for life program implemented by CIFA.

“If kids can be active, enjoy the game and play just for fun at an early age, then it will carry with them for the rest of their lives,” Selby said.

Selby also helped set up an education program where local instructors deliver OFC courses to the local coaches

Selby will return to the Cook Islands in July while a number of Cook Island coaches have confirmed they will attend an instructor’s course Selby will run in Fiji in June.

“The idea is to build skills in local people so they can run their own coach education and development courses. This way you don’t have to bring people in all the time, instead you have locally based people with those skills.”

PORT MORESBY - Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Technical Director Jim Selby has challenged attendees at his Coaching Instructors course to channel their enthusiasm, passion and willingness to identify the next wave of coaching talent in Papua New Guinea.

Selby recently completed a Coach Instructors course for the PNG coaches at the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) academy in Lae, PNG.

The course started 8th April and ran for seven days with Selby working alongside a group of PNG's brightest coaching talents. The theory and practical based course was conducted to give the PNG coaches a taste of professional football coaching and to use the new found contact to help improve the game at all levels.

"This was one of the best experiences I have had in coaching within Oceania. The quality of work performed by the course participants was high and their enthusiasm excellent.

It was a joy to impart the course elements to this group and I am optimistic they will take forward what they have learned to the rest of the Papua New Guinea football family," Selby told www.pngfootball.com.pg and www.oceaniafootball.com

Papua New Guinea's recent Olympic Football Tournament performances showed the country possessed a strong base of raw talent with the men's team under George Cowie turning in some exciting displays where attacking football was the order of the day.

Unfortunately for the team that commitment to attack didn't translate into a sound commitment to defence ensuring some lopsided results were earned.

The women's international team showed a huge improvement despite losing 0-2 to New Zealand in the play-off for Beijing. New Zealand defeated Papua New Guinea 7-0 in the FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying tournament in Lae in 2007.

This course is conducted in line with the Papua New Guinea Football Association aim to develop the technical areas of football in the country. These areas included refereeing, coaching and player development which are crucial to the improvement of the game particularly for the fledgling Telikom Cup National Soccer League (NSL) competition's continuing growth.