The Champion FCBarcelona Coaching Clinic at Carton House Hotel on February 5th and 6th 2011
The Coach Diary and DB Sports Tour will be running lots of competitions with are Sponsors Champions Sports, are Partners Carton House and the Herald newspaper.
Stayed connected to Champions Facebook page and check out the Herald all of next week to see what we have on offer for you!!!
Athletic Development brings expert level physical training away from elite sport; presenting a practical solution for the modern coach looking to provide their athletes with the very best training possible.
Back in 2006, while studying Sports Science at Dublin City University and working as a Strength and Conditioning coach with young football players, I became increasingly aware that Coaches in Ireland didn’t have access to any well founded physical training tools or practical information.
My sporting background lies in football having played at the top level throughout my youth, picking up a few schoolboy International caps along the way (all the time hating physical training!).
Typically a lot of the Strength and Conditioning stuff out there is a bit “high-end”: very expensive, complicated and not exactly user friendly.
As a consequence young and developing players were not getting the best training possible and couldn’t hope to reach their full potential; no matter how naturally talented or tough they are. Perhaps more importantly they were at a huge risk of injury due to poor physical preparation without any prehabilitation (strengthening exercises used to prevent injury).
I dug into the scientific literature (mainly work from the states and Eastern Europe) and started putting together some easy to read mini-books dealing with all areas of foundational physical training- or what I began to call Athletic Development.
My lecturers at D.C.U liked my stuff and recommended that I try to develop it further. So I did and it took me nearly 4 years to establish Athletic Development as it is today.
I have a great team of experts with me and we are all passionate about the modest idea of Laying the Foundations of Success: allowing coaches to focus their limited time developing the quality technical and tactical exercises that Athletic Development’s tools may complement and enhance.
At Athletic Development our goal is to educate and empower Irish coaches to successfully develop Irish athletes with a scientifically proven; yet user-friendly, practical approach to physical training.
In addition to our coach education workshops we have created a series of 3 progressive training manuals, I-pod exercise video downloads and outdoor circuit training packs designed to make the coaches job easier, reduce injuries and develop athleticism.
With Athletic Development coaches can be confident in the knowledge that they are giving their players the very best training possible- trust me I’ve done the research!!!
Eddie Smith, B.Sc., C.S.C.S.,
Founder, Athletic Development.
www.AthleticDevelopment.ie
Most small side leagues will start back next weekend, you can expect more of this adult dominated sport which is supposedly meant to be for kids. Don’t get me wrong we need adults to keep this sport going.
All over the country thousand of children will be playing in organised games, with hundreds of adults watching and cheering on as parents and coaches.
There will be joy and triumph, but there will also be trouble. Some parents are busy chatting amongst themselves. Others Parents and Coaches are prowling the sidelines, almost like generals barking orders and demanding that their child/ Player excels and listens to what they are shouting. This is the reason why the wife no longer comes to games and the kid will eventually give it up for good.
This madness has to stop!!
Many adults are wonderful mentors but we also have misguided coaches who will end up causing hurt for the children who play. Such is often the case in youth sports. There is a disconnection between in what adults say versus what children want and need to hear. Most of time the time what adults want and need for football is often not what children want and need. In some cases is seems that adults and children live in different world and speak different languages.
Adults need to look at youth sports through the eyes of the children and to serve the wants and needs of those children at play. This will require a change in adult attitudes but also a change in football leagues systems at under age. The system is failing our kids and putting so much pressure on our coaches.
The kids are paying a price at the expense of what coaches and parents want and need, underage football should be about fun, learning, team development; our system often deny individual children fair opportunities to reach their full potential, we are being robbed of quality players, by not allowing them to be children and putting the added pressure on them to win at an early age we sacrifice the present and the future of the game.
I’m all for children playing hard, competing in games and winning and losing, kids should experience disappointment its part of growing up, but I believe in systems that primarily have the children’s wants and children’s needs and not those of adults in charge.
Children need to enjoy and experience children’s world and not adult world, they only get one chance at this.
Kids play sports to have fun, get exercise, be around their friends, work with teammates, show off their skills (if they’re aloud) and grow. When adults make winning the goal, their choices to often hurt some players.
So many potential gifted players have moved away from soccer and into other sports where systems are favourable toward the children’s needs and not the adults needs.
To the FAI and SFAI, I hope you’re reading this, because you are killing this beautiful game. So many people are caught up in “The Way Things Are” that they cannot see clearly to “The Way Things Should Be”
My vision of changes for the better of the game are only a league/FAI meeting away; by following through with these changes will cut to the core of the misguided structures that adults have developed for children.
The more our adult rules and adult mentality stay out of it, the better off those bouncy bundles of joy will be.
Our Goal is player development, lets us “The Coaches” get back to that and “Let The Kids play”
Sporting is a sport clubs renowned for it football department with over 100,000 members. Its Football academy in Lisbon is one of the best in the world. In May this year Sporting will open its first football school in Toronto. It plans to open Academies in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South America, US, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and in Europe.
The Coach Diary and David Berber of DB Sports tours spent 3 days in Lisbon at the u6-u13 School and Sporting’s Alcochete Academy..
Sporting world-class football training facility (Academia Sporting in Alcochete), which accommodated Portugal during the Euro 2004.
Famous for its football youth academy system which features a range of well-equipped facilities and is one of the most renowned in the world, Sporting has continuously developed many world class footballers.
Sporting spent over 8 million euros on the academy (The Academia) that houses training for all their teams from U13 to the professional side.
Opening in June of 2002, it is one of the finest faculties in Europe. There are five lighted fields exclusively for training, one artificial grass field and one small stadium with seats for over 1000. The ‘B’ team and youth teams for league games use this facility.
There is a 65 X 45 yard roofed artificial field for training in special conditions. All the modern training necessities, i.e. free kick walls, outdoor pool, portable goals (both regular and special size), pendulum balls etc. is provided for the coaching staff and set up by the managers.
The Academia has a hotel with 46 rooms, half on the youth side for players’ aged 14 and above who might live there and half for the professional players who use them between their frequent two-a-day training sessions. Player’s lounges, dinning rooms, and club official’s offices are housed here. The youth facilities are separate for the profession ones and include state of the art weight rooms and special rehab rooms. The locker rooms are kept separately and the staff members care for all the equipment each day.
Sporting Academy was the first and only sports academy in Europe to receive the ISO9001:2008 – a quality certification awarded by EIC, a Portuguese society responsible for this type of reward, which is recognised both locally and internationally.
This is a testimony to Sporting’s excellence in several different areas, such as: their ability to raise up youngsters not only athletically, but also academically; Sporting responsibility towards ethical and social aspects, as well as their struggle to maintain the club values above everything else; quality of their infrastructures/facilities; their coaching and medical staff skills.
Sporting Club De Portugal is Business
In 1996, Sporting began a new lease of life, with José Roquette and others leading Sporting into a period of modernisation. Miguel Galvão Teles, Dias da Cunha and Ernesto Ferreira da Silva played their part in approving new statutes and laid the foundations for a business group and Society of Soccer Sports (SAD) which was admitted into the Portuguese Stock Exchange in 1998. New measures were also adopted to encourage transparency in the business relationships of the Club, as well as in tax and social security matters. This ambitious process of modernisation took place long before Portuguese candidature to host Euro 2004 was organised.
The reshaping of Sporting during this period became known as the “Projecto Roquette” (“Roquette’s Project”), a program of dynamic modernisation of the club on three fronts: sports, through the rationalisation and optimisation of resources; finances, providing the club with multi-functional profitable elements; and finally the modernisation of the club’s organisation, combining dedication and professionalism in a way that dealt with the present without mortgaging the future of the club
Also in 1998, Sporting began the design and construction of a new generation stadium. The stadium was inaugurated on 6 August 2003 and is rated amongst the best in the world (it was classified by UEFA as a 5-star stadium)
Paulinho:
There is a very special story at Sporting Club De Portugal and what was once a young boy called Paulinho. He was hit by a car and lived for months in a coma. During this time his family abandoned him and he was given very little chance to survive. During his coma months the only thing that seemed to get any response from him was when the doctors would start talking about Sporting. When he eventually got better the doctors asked if he Sporting would take care of him. He has been at the club for 20 years now helping to take care of the kit of the first team. He is loved by all the players and fans and is one of the most recognizable personalities on the team. The times when he leads the team out, the biggest cheer is for Paulinho. He never pays for anything when out in Lisbon, lives by himself and the players take turns inviting him to their houses for the holidays. In 2000 FIFA recognized him with a special award at their world awards ceremonies. We had the pleasure to meet Paulinho during our visit at the Academy, he was busy organising the teams equipment for the training session that day.
Sporting methodology is proven to be one of the best in the world and they continue to produce players year after year for both Sporting’s senior team, the national team and players for the larger European market.
Our visit to Sporting Academy in Lisbon, was truly breath taking and something I will never forget; as a boy who grew up with the Green and white of Sporting plastered all over my bedroom walls, I could never have imagined that one day I would be back at the Club I have loved my entire life and to get the Hospitality we received from Diego and Renato just made this experience unforgettable.
Sporting Club de Portugal’s Academy coaches will be coming to Ireland very soon.
Obrigado Sporting, Diego & Renato
A special thanks to Rob Cassidy our photographer and videoographer who never stopped snapping!!
Going to be starting a Coach profile section on the blog, asking Coaches questions about the Grassroots game in Ireland;
if you want to get involved please email me..info@thecoachdiary.com
Cheers,
Antonio
After Tom Dunne Show on Newstalk interview tomorrow (10.20am), then straight to Champion Sports and Off to the Airport and no I’m not departing for good; just going to Lisbon with David Berber to spend 2 days at Sporting’s Puma Academy..
The next phase of the NDSL Coaches Club took place today, myself and David Berber had the pleasure to speak to the coaches on the course and thanks to Mitch Whitty for inviting us along.
NDSL academy put together a fantastic half day coaching extravaganza for all present and future members and non members of the Coaches Club.
You can join membership of the Coaches Club at a slight discount with new members only having to pay 85euros for access to all the remaining sessions for the rest of the season. The festival of coaching kicked off at 10am until late in the afternoon: The first hour focused on goalkeeping coaching run by Dave Martin the head goalkeeping coach at the NDSL Academy Number 1 Club. Everything from what to do during your club training nights, to how to warm up the goalie on match day was covered. Not knowing how to train and what to do with one of the most important players on your team, and not having that player prepared for the game will be a thing of the past.
A&D Sports Science Group
At 11am: Development in terms of strength and conditioning with A&D Sports Science Group. Eddie and Karl from A&D put on a session that highlighted the next stage in player development, and also put on a more detailed program of the physical training requirements needed by players in the future.
Shay Caffery the Sporting Fingal Physio
Future players will need to have adequate conditioning and fitness to play the new fast paced technical game that soccer is turning into. As a bonus for the day at 12noon: Shay Caffery the Sporting Fingal Physio came in to do a basic first aid course and combine it with a basic physio demonstration that every coach should have in his locker. This was to be able to identify minor injuries that players develop during games and also be able to access what course of treatment maybe required for those injured players.
Shay demonstrated what kind of training players could be doing while recovering from injuries so they don’t take longer than is necessary to get back playing football.
After Lunch John Devine and Robbie Moahan from Sporting Fingal, and with Mitch Whitty the Technical Director of the NDSL Academy put on practical coaching sessions based around what kind of training u14’s/U15’s/U16’s/and U17’s should be doing on a weekly basis.
These sessions will help coaches put together coaching programs designed for these particular age groups, and to help you as a coach access your player’s strengths and abilities.
This one of coaching bonanza is designed to highlight just how far the NDSL Academy and the NDSL Coaches Club are going in an effort to help football coaches develop the skills, and the confidence to put on practical relevant coaching sessions designed to get young players to play the modern high tempo game that soccer has become and you don’t need to have any coaching qualifications or huge coaching or football experience to get the benefits the Coaches Club, half day coaching fair will empower the new football coaches.
The Coaches Club is getting bigger every time they hold these sessions and they would love to see even more coaches come on board to learn more. You dont have to be in the NDSL leagues to join, they are for all coaches and anyone looking to get into coaching.
They want coaches who feel they have an idea they would like to share with other like minded coaches, and come forward with a view to maybe putting on a coaching session they feel would be a benefit the members and to football as a whole.
The NDSL would love to here from you or maybe even consider inviting them to come and talk to members of your club.
This is great Club and certainly a fantastic tool for Coaches, it can only enhance your Coaching education, fairplay to NDSL for having such a forward thinking vision!
If you want to get involved log on to www.ndsl.ie for more information.