(c) EFAF

The EFAF Development Coaches in conjunction with TBSF held a coaches clinic on Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31 at the Technical University of Istanbul - home of the ITU Tigers in Istanbul, Turkey.

Two American football coaches from Europe delivered a weekend clinic ran by the EFAF Education and Development Coaches.  Saturday the clinic was held in the classroom and Sunday was on the field of the ITU Tigers.

The coaches who spoke at the clinic was EFAF Director of Coaching Development Paul Vincent Miraval and Former NFLE and NFL linebacker Philippe Gardent who was the NFLE Defensive Player of the Year in 2006.

Coaches from all over Turkey attended the Istanbul Clinic. The coaches represented teams from Istanbul, Ankara, and Cyprus.

The two day Coaches Clinic covered a range of topics a workshop session on the latest drills and coaching techniques. Their visit to Istanbul was part of a European Federation of American Football (EFAF) development initiative aimed at utilizing the expertise of coaches at the high European level of the sport by making them available to developing young nations to improve and enhance their fundamental coaching development education programs.

Football started in Turkey in 2004 and developed through University system. There are about a 1,000 total players at the club team level.

The coaches’ clinic were designed to teach the coaching fundamentals of American football to the participants focusing on proper teaching techniques of equipment safety and proper use, the latest in injury prevention, coach organization skills such as team scouting and the new developments in video analyses, demonstrations of blocking, and tackling - straight from leading United States colleges and high schools teams.

The drills were done with progression with first mastering the proper techniques then moving all the way to game speed situations by the end of the clinic.

The philosophy of these in-depth clinics had the intention to be presented for all coaches to add to their team's success and improve overall standards of American football in the nation’s leagues. Each topic was designed to be of tremendous assistance, great interest and equally beneficial for every coach from the veteran head coach to the young assistant just beginning his career at any level.