Arun Kumar has worked with Great Goals since 2018. Hailing from Kotagiri in the Nilgiris, he played for his school and college teams. He has an undergraduate degree in Physical Education. He played two years in the Chennai Super Division and one year in the Puducheri Super League. He started coaching in 2016. He strongly believes in Cryuff’s philosophy “technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times…technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right time, to the correct foot of your team mate.” Arun holds an AFC C license.
| You chose to be a football coach because….? |
| I saw different coaches in my career. My First coach was Magesh sir. He gave me a platform to play football when I was 7 years old. I was one of his favourite students. He has developed many players in my hometown. I got an injury on my head and knee, and after that I was unable to continue playing. After that injury, I decided to Coach and develop the players. I learned 2 things from my college coach. As a coach we can develop the players and at the same time we can dump the players. I decided to develop the players because they believe in the coach. Suddenly my coach passed away. I started from where he left off. |
| Which is your favourite drill and why? |
| Dribbling and shooting, because I like to do challenges between the players. If they are good individuals they can easily play all positions. |
| What is your favourite moment coaching a class? |
| I suggested Madhav Vishnu to practice goalkeeping for u13 because I found that he had a good goalkeepers mentality and technique, and it worked very well in the youth league and he performed very well. |
| Who is your coaching idol and why? |
| Alexander Ferguson. He was the most successful manager in history . |
| What is your philosophy as a coach? |
| Love football, Play football, and Learn football . |
| What is your favourite thing about Great Goals? |
| Great Goals is run like a professional club. We are giving a chance to play in the youth league for our academy players. |
| What gives you joy? |
| When I am teaching Multi-sport and U-6 kids. |
| What’s your favourite tool to motivate a player? |
| Relationship with the players. |
| Great Goals is…. |
| …a good place for coaches to learn and explore coaching knowledge. |