020_21 Performance Academy Overview
PERFORMANCE ACADEMY FUNDAMENTALS
The “Performance academy” is a soccer program designed for players who enjoy challenges and competitions, love The Game, and place a high priority on soccer.
On the field, these are players with “field smarts”, the ones playing even when they don’t have the ball. They are thinking about how to get open for a pass. They anticipate the movement of teammates and the ball, not just react to them. When they have the ball, their play demonstrates composure much more often than panic.
These are not necessarily the players who appear to dominate on the field at the younger ages. That recognition tends to go to the biggest and/or fastest players, who are often biggest and fastest simply because they are the oldest in the age group.
These traits listed above are valuable to current effectiveness on the field, but are less reliable predictors of future success than the personal qualities of these athletes, demonstrated not just as players, but in everything they do.
These boys and girls will show determination – to get better, to learn all they can, to try things that are new, different, and challenging. They will be persistent and be the kind of athletes that will work on their game, not just in training and competitions but on their own “when no one else is watching.” They will have a competitive spirit, and perhaps a splash or two of guile. This combination of qualities (which together we call “wantitude”) is one of the primary consideration in evaluating candidates for placement in the PA.
Start with the End in Mind
Players who do not get a thorough grounding in soccer’s essential skills at the younger ages – by age 13 or 14 – are being cheated out of their futures in The Game. The Coerver CT East curriculum is designed to develop players who possess:
> A Dynamic First Touch – the skill and vision to place the ball with the first touch with either foot to a spot where it can be played again quickly and productively. This is trained in every session and is a focus of the preparation that players are asked to do between sessions.
> Accuracy and Power – the ability to use several surfaces of both feet to control, pass, and shoot the ball.
> Superior 1v1 Skills – the ability and confidence to take on and beat an opponent in a one-on-one situation, the poise to keep possession of the ball when under strong defensive pressure, and the skill when individually defending to shut down the crafty attacker. Using combinations of one-on-one activities in every session produces players of remarkable skill and confidence, when facing the individual duels that so often determine the outcome of a match.
> Mastery of the Small Group Situations (2v1, 3v1, 3v2, etc.) that are the building blocks of team play.
> Mastery of the Great Soccer Habits, the little things great players do that make a big difference on the field and form the basis for a player’s Sense of the Game (a.k.a. “game smarts”.)
> An Appreciation of the Competitive Process – learning to give maximum effort at practice and games, to make yourself better and to challenge your teammates to be at their best every session.
By the age of 14, these players will be exceptionally skilled – poised, confident, creative, and BOLD with the ball as well as making excellent use of the fundamental elements of team play. They will “see the game” and regularly anticipate the coming movements of players and the ball. They will demonstrate the ability to make good decisions about the mix of individualism (“I can beat you myself”) and team play (“or with the help of my teammates”). And they will always demonstrate the Qualities of Great Athletes on the field and in all other aspects of their lives.