Kolkata: Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC) and Heartfulness Education Trust have officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and with that kicked-off the program, ‘The Heartful Coach — Let’s Coach with our Heart.’ This Coaches Welfare Program is intended to help Grassroots Coaches, Elite Coaches, PE teachers and all Indian football stakeholders.
Football coaches across age groups are responsible not just for inspiring their teams to achieve desired results or winning tournaments but also enabling their holistic development (mental, physical, psychological and personality).
The ‘Heartful Coach’ Program enables football coaches to connect with the infinite potential of their ‘heart’ through an experientially designed program. The program introduces them to simple Heartfulness Practices of Relaxation, Meditation & Rejuvenation, which can be seamlessly integrated in their personal life and coaching routine/practices.
The ‘Heartful Coach’ program enables coaches to imbue a heartful touch to various aspects of their coaching style that includes communication, leadership, resilience, winning trust, inspiration, empathy, compassion etc & thus evolve as joyful, positive and inspirational role models for the youngsters/players they coach.
The ‘Heartful Coach’ program is a much-required transformational program, that allows modern day coaches to focus not only towards competitive success but also towards holistic development of players/youngsters & infusing joy through playing sport.
Commenting on this initiative, Kamlesh Patel (affectionately called as Daaji), Guide of Heartfulness Institute said, “At Heartfulness, our constant strive is to attain the purest connection between the heart and the mind to empower every individual to have a clearer vision of their goals in life. Football being the finest example of moving towards the target with speed and control, I feel this journey will help the coaches of AIFC becoming an inspiring catalyst for a child’s overall development besides nurturing his/her quest for excel lence in the game. Teachers and coaches lay the foundations for the youth- be it in sport or in academics, it is therefore very important that those who inspire are equipped with the right kind of life skills. The ‘Heartful Coach’ Program will ensure that coaching takes on a very important dimension of addressing the softer but more important requirements of the sportsmen – how to effectively deal with emotional and mental challenges that the game may present. Challenges that can have a bearing on the ability of the individuals to make a difference in the field and in their lives.”
AIFC Founder & Director Mr. Dinesh Nair said, “We are happy to have this partnership as we want to further cater to the welfare of our dear Coaches. This initiative is a perfect example of empowering to help empower. We are really excited to take off with the Heartful Coach Program and believe this initiative to inculcate compassion, tolerance, empathy, humanity and to help in the holistic development, which includes mental well-being of a coach or an individual. And it’s just not only football as every sport internationally needs Heartful Coach training. AIFC intends to take this program to cover other sports than just Football and internationally too through various sports associations in its network.”
Conducted for 75 minutes per day and spread over 3 days, the ‘Heartful Coach’ Program introduces football coaches to the experiential Heartfulness Practices of Relaxation, Meditation & Rejuvenation and to appreciate how these can be meaningfully integrated in their daily lives. Regular practice of Heartfulness techniques helps practitioners perceive expansion in their own awareness & operate from a state of heart-centeredness and inner harmony. This in turn helps them exude a heartful touch to various aspects of their coaching style e.g. communication, leadership, resilience, building trust, inspiring students, managing stress & evolving as inspirational role models for their students.
The Facilitators for the Program will include:
– Dr Hester O CONNOR, a clinical psychologist with 35 years’ experience from Ireland and Heartfulness Meditation trainer, specialised in childhood trauma and losses of all kinds.
– Prashanth Vasu, Partner at McKinsey & Company
– Devinder Singh Bhusari, owning one of Gujarat’s and India’s best & largest tennis academies, Shaishya Tennis Academy.
– Francois Bouderlique, a Certified Football Coach from the French Federation of Football who has been coaching young players from the age of 6 to the state level for over 10 years & has also been a Director of board at district levels in France.
Mr. Francois Bouderlique, one of the key facilitators of the ‘Heartful Coach’ Program and trainer Heartfulness Institute said, “India is a hub that produces estimable sportsmen across all formats and football connects intimately with the hearts of millions across the world. It is in the hands of the coaches to play a vital role in inspiring and empowering the aspirants to participate in the sport with interest and joy. Thus, it our responsibility to extend our learning to the coaches and in turn empower them in enabling a holistic development of the kids including their mental, physical, psychological and personality development at a grassroots level”.
The initial session which is a 3-day program will be a closed event for AIFC Core Team members, elite coaches, coach educators etc. and thereafter the program shall be systematically rolled out for coaches across the country. Participants attending the program shall be entitled to:
– Simple Heartfulness Practices Booklet & Other Reading Resources
– Access to Free Meditation Sessions with 15,000+ Trainers across the world
– Free Heartfulness Magazine Subscription
– E-Access to all Heartfulness Webinars and YouTube Channels
About Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC): The Association of Indian Football Coaches (https://www.the-aifc.com/) is the premier association of coaches in India formed in 2017. Indian football has been growing at a rapid rate and alongside this development has come professionalism. The impact of a coach is widespread; one coach can impact an entire team. Envision the impact that the AIFC can have on the development of football in India. Coaches in India have come together to exchange ideas, working in cohesive solidarity for the welfare and assurance of coaches and the improvement of the sport. A brain-child of Ex-India Goalkeeper Dinesh Nair, who went on to rope in four other eminent personalities including Arjuna Awardee IM Vijayan, former India-U23 Coach Derrick Pereira (currently with ISL team FC Goa), celebrated coach among youth football, Thangboi Sing to (currently with ISL team Hyderabad FC) and Sanjoy Sen, a name revered in Kolkata football (currently with ATK Mohun Bagan) as the Directors of AIFC. Since the inception, we have so far reached out to more than 5000 coaches through various mediums and platforms like Coaches Conference, Workshops, Webinars, Coaches Welfare. Ongoing coaching welfare program titled ‘AIFCforCoaches’ is in progress – an initiative to help 1000 coaches & families with basic supplies who are affected because of the pandemic. The webinars conducted during the pandemic saw speakers like former French National Team Coach Raymond Domenech, South African Women’s Team Coach Desiree Ellis etc.
About Heartfulness Education Trust (HET) was conceived with the vision of re-imagining education & training of children and youth in the country by integrating the ‘Heart’ in learning, training and coaching methodologies. Our programs and initiatives run across over 20,000+ schools, universities, and educational institutions across the country. Programs offered by HET are designed to enable educational leaders & administrators, principals, teachers, coaches, and students, imbue a ‘heart-centric’ approach to training and learning. This allows for education to be more joyful, experiential, inspirational & empowering thereby offering immense possibilities for inner transformation and excellence. To know more about HET please refer our website- https://heartfulness.org/education/
