National coaches to be certified by KONI

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) will issue certificates for coaches in a bid to standardize coaching methods, KONI's officer in charge of research and development Imam Sujudi said on Wednesday.

Imam said the certificates would be needed by any coaches who wanted to train national athletes for international multisports events such as the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and Asian Games.

He said the coaches appointed by their sports organizations to coach for the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur must have certificates.

"Coaches must have certificates from KONI as a license to coach. We want to have a standardized training system," Imam said after a meeting with research and development officers from the 30 sports organizations taking part in the biennial event.

KONI will open the screening program for coaches before it begins its centralized training program for the SEA Games in January.

Imam said coaches would be graded based upon four levels: basic, muda (junior), madya (intermediate) and utama (advanced). Any coaches who had trained the national team in the past would automatically fall into the madya and utama levels.

"KONI will stage a special course for any coaches who have never received certificate from their international sports organization. The course will last about 100 hours," he said.

However, Imam admitted that he did not know how the courses would be financed.

"We may submit a request to the IOC asking for financial aid to improve the coaches' abilities. Usually we get about US$5,000 to hold a coaching course."

Regarding coaches who have been acknowledged by international sports organizations, Imam said they were obliged to get formal certification from KONI.

"International sports organizations are legal bodies and we will not argue about their legitimate status. If a coach has earned an international coaching certificate, he will only need to formalize it with KONI."

Imam also said that KONI was still discussing the possibility of setting up a body that would accredit international coaching certificates.

"We don't know which organization will give the accreditation. We used to have such an organization but it's not functioning anymore."

He also pledged that there would be no financial exploitation behind the issuing of the coaching certificates.

"Hopefully, no such practices will emerge," he said. (ivy)