The Academy Junior Way

Our Philosophies for Player Development

The vision of the Academy Junior Football Club is to develop each and every player’s skills, both technically and tactically. This will greatly increase the understanding of each player’s role on the soccer field. The program also specifically aims to equip players with vital life skills such as focus, stamina and discipline that will stand them in good stead in all other aspects of their lives.

The Academy Junior Football Club philosophy is founded on the “whole person” approach, recognizing that improving a player’s physical and technical development must go hand in hand with the advancement of each player’s maturity as well as their emotional and psychological well-being.

The Academy Junior Football Club program, therefore, encourages all players to aim high, in terms of their soccer ambitions and, at the same time, promotes the practice of sport as a means of improving each player’s mental and physical health.

To this end, all of our programs will focus on four key target areas :

•     Motor skills
•     Cognitive skills
•     Personal skills
•     Social skills

Motor Skills
This deals with each player’s technical and tactical ability focusing on elements such as kicking, dribbling, passing, heading and tackling. Speed, strength, endurance and flexibility are vital elements of these sessions.

Cognitive Skills
This aims to develop qualities such as intuition, memory, concentration, and decision making. Strategies for self expression and creativity and imagination underpin this aspect of our training.

Personal Skills
This helps players foster techniques for having control over their emotions or for regaining self control when lost. Motivation, self-esteem and a desire to be autonomous will increase in these sessions.

Social Skills
This helps players learn how to work together as a group and team. Respect for the rules and acceptance of the decisions of others will also be emphasized. Collaboration is a core part of these sessions.

Our curriculum will give our players the chance to realistically become serious players on the world stage in their adult life. It is thus important for them to become accustomed to what is normal practice at the most advanced club academies from an early age.

Academy Junior Football Club will assess all players on a regular basis. The assessment will take the form of both regular physical tests, targeting, for example, speed, agility and strength, as well as formal discussions with our players inviting self-evaluation and self-awareness of their own development.

It is our strong contention that our Academy’s training program offers players a unique opportunity to develop and mature not just into better soccer players but will also help participants develop into well rounded individuals. Our professional approach in this field will provide the ideal environment to prepare our players for the future challenges that they will inevitably face in their adult life with much greater confidence.

Academy Junior Football Club also has access to the latest technology which evaluates each athlete at each important phase of his or her physical and physiological growth. In this way each individual’s progress can be recorded and provides essential information to the coaches to customize their training sessions specifically to the needs of each participant.

Academy Junior Football Club will offer mini clinics to selected promising players at the Youth Academies in Italy to extend them even further and allow them to compare themselves with other boys of the same age. Academy Junior Football Club will also invite gifted players to participate in international tournaments. Such overseas experience for upcoming players is invaluable and helps underline the emphasis the Academy places on the importance of developing as a whole person and not just as a player.