Early Touches (Ages 7-10)
"Just as a piano player must master the scales before playing and composing their own tunes, so it is the same with soccer."
Bobby Robson
At an early age, we understand player and ball are the most important relationship in soccer, therefore all our training sessions give the players hundreds of touches on the ball, dribbling, turning, sprinting, decision making and exploring 1 vs 1 situations. As the players become more comfortable with the ball, pressure and realism are increased to develop skill/decision making on the ball. KNOW then PERFORM are the primary stages of technical development at this age.
Developing the Player (Ages 11-14)
Turning technique into skill
Our coaching philosophy understands the difference between technique and skill. Technique is how a player executes a certain aspect of the game, such as passing where skill is the decision to apply the correct technique at a given time, e.g a swerved or lofted pass when faced by a defender.
During this phase we continue to build on early touches and use nine development blocks to increase realism and game awareness.
The areas we increase our focus on are 1 vs 1's, 2 vs 2's, knowledge of triangles, positional sense, range of passing, communication verbal and non verbal, performance under pressure, patterns of play and endurance/recovery training. .
As the golden age of learning passes for most players around the age of 11, co-ordination becomes more important, therefore all training sessions incorporates speed, agility and quickness, which becomes a priority from the ages of 11-14. Core conditioning, speed endurance and recovery training are also introduced, with our specialized fitness coach.
Developing the competitor/prepare to win (Ages 14-18)
Once the players reach high school age, mental characterstics become more important and we constantly develop and evaluate each player in the six areas of professional development, each of equal importance.