Living in Canada provides many challenges for our young soccer players. The long winters mean that we inevitable have to move inside to maintain training programs from October-April. The climate has in the past been used as a reason behind Canada’s lack of progress on the world stage. However, with Nordic countries such as Denmark and Norway (with populations of less than 5 million) ranking 28th and 32nd respectively in FIFA’s world rankings, compared to Canada ranked 56th, climate is not the only challenges we face.
Canada will only begin to develop a regular supply of top players once there is increased emphasis on technical development and skill development versus “winning games” at the youth levels. During the last 12 months in Burlington, Ontario we have been training our young players in the “Brazilian Soccer Schools” philosophy.
Robinho (Brazil and Manchester City)
"I played Futebol de Salão for many years and it helped me to become the player I am today. There you don't have time to think, you are always tightly marked and you develop a sense for performing in small spaces."
Brazilian Soccer Schools (BSS) is aimed at children from aged 5 to 16+. -1The central aim of the schools is to encourage children to spend longer working with the ball and practicing and developing their skills. The training ethos mirrors that of Brazil in that young players are encouraged to spend as much time as possible with the ball developing their skills. Our indoor training sessions are very fast and normally incorporate the use of samba music to maintain an exciting, progressive and enjoyable atmosphere.
The BSS syllabus covers every area of soccer and while our coaching is by no means exclusively Brazilian there are 4 key aspects that have their origins in Brazil:
1)Futebol de Salão
2)Emphasis on Individual Skills
3)Increased time training
4)Physical Training
The game of Futebol de Salao has played an important role in the skills improvements achieved by our young players. Futebol de Salao (football of the hall) is a fast moving five-a-side game originated from Brazil. The game is played without rebound boards on a hard basketball court-sizes pitch using a specially designed ball.
Brazil Coach Quoted in Daniel Coyle’s Book “The Talent Code”
“No time plus no space equals better skills. Futebol de Salao (Futsal) is our national laboratory of improvisation.”.
The nature of the game and the design of the ball combine to make Futebol de Salao an exciting sport suitable for both girls and boys. This and the associated training and coaching methods, focus on developing players that are creative, skilful and confident.
The game is played with a specially designed ball. It differs from a conventional ball in a number of ways: it is smaller (size 2) than a conventional ball (size 5), heavier and is filled with foam to reduce its bounce (10%). This encourages the players to use their soccer skills and to increase the use of dribbling and short-passing throughout a game.
Following FIFA's decision to promote the game of Futsal (5-a-side played with a size 4 ball with 20-25% rebound) Futebol de Salão has virtually died out in South America and is now developed globally through the International Confederation of Futebol de Salão (ICFDS) who see the game as being the best start for children in soccer.
Academic research has confirmed that Futbol de Salao provides young soccer players with greater opportunities to perform basic individual skills such as dribbling, passing and control more successfully.
A few weeks ago, we launched our first indoor Futebol De Salao league in Burlington on Saturday mornings. The players are now demonstrating increased confidence with the ball at their feet, incorporating several of the moves that they have learned and use the bottom part of the foot frequently to retain possession when faced with tight spaces and increased pressure from the opposition.
Moving indoors during the winter months and playing Futebol de Salao can provide our young players in Canada with increased opportunities to develop their technical skills gain greater enjoyment from the game.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Canadian Players Must Spend Longer Time with the Ball
It is generally recognized that Brazil has and continues to develop the world's most skillful soccer players. Pele arrived on the world's stage at the 1958 World Cup and since then Brazil has produced great players such as Garrincha, Carlos Alberto, Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Rivelino, Romario, Ronaldo, Robinho and Kaka.
When Brazilian Soccer Schools founder Simon Clifford travelled to Brazil in 1998 to learn why Brazil constantly produced the world's greatest players, he found that Brazilian children spend up to 12-15 hours each week working on their technique with a ball. They are the best in the world because they work harder than any other country at improving their technique with a ball.
Watch Video: Learn to Play the Brazilian Way-Part One
Simon also discovered that the game of Futebol de Salao was another important factor in the development of young skilful Brazilian players. Futebol de Salao is a small-sided version of the full-game played with a smaller, size two ball. The Futebol de Salao ball is much heavier than a conventional ball. It has very little bounce. Instead of kicking the ball long distances and chasing it back and forth, Clifford noticed the Brazilian players used their superior ball handling skills to maintain control and challenge defenders.
It is our belief that young Canadian players can achieve the same results as young players in Brazil providing they are committed to daily practice and a long-term development program. It is not our philosophy to select children on current ability only, as we are confident of producing excellent soccer players, regardless of past experience.
Presently in Canada we do not believe that young children are spending enough time training, They may spend a lot of time playing matches, but generally children do not spend enough time working on their skills. The Brazilian Soccer Schools program provides a full syllabus for children from 5 years old to 16 year old whereby an increased duration of actual time is spent training and working with the ball.
The Brazilian Soccer Schools syllabus covers every aspect of soccer. Our coaching is by no means exclusively Brazilian but there are 4 key aspects that have their origins in Brazil:
o Futebol de Salao
o Emphasis on individual skills
o Increased training time
o Physical Training
We do not focus entirely on the game of Futebol de Salão, although it is an excellent game in its own right. The game is used as a development tool to develop quick feet, close dribbling and passing skills. Children at Brazilian Soccer Schools spend roughly two-thirds of their time working with the size two Futebol de Salão balls and the remaining third with a conventional ball working on areas such as longer passing, shooting, heading and of course match situations.Throughout all ages of our coaching the strongest emphasis is put on developing fully the technical skills of every child. Skills from basic to complex are broken down into easily learnable phases for children and then these moves are taught and repeated many times until the children become accomplished at performing these skills first as individuals and then gradually against other children and later in games. Repetition of all skills from passing the ball in a straight line through to some of the amazing juggling skills you see from our children is stressed throughout.At BSS we also strongly encourage the ethos that it is vitally important for children to become good people before they can become good soccer players. This might sound slightly grandiose but it is something we take very seriously and into the future we hope that people will take notice of this as much as the fantastic players that the program is developing.
An attached video provides an illustration of the type of work that we do. It is our belief if more and more young Canadian players participate in this type of training then we will begin to develop more exciting and talented players, at every level of the game
When Brazilian Soccer Schools founder Simon Clifford travelled to Brazil in 1998 to learn why Brazil constantly produced the world's greatest players, he found that Brazilian children spend up to 12-15 hours each week working on their technique with a ball. They are the best in the world because they work harder than any other country at improving their technique with a ball.
Watch Video: Learn to Play the Brazilian Way-Part One
Simon also discovered that the game of Futebol de Salao was another important factor in the development of young skilful Brazilian players. Futebol de Salao is a small-sided version of the full-game played with a smaller, size two ball. The Futebol de Salao ball is much heavier than a conventional ball. It has very little bounce. Instead of kicking the ball long distances and chasing it back and forth, Clifford noticed the Brazilian players used their superior ball handling skills to maintain control and challenge defenders.
It is our belief that young Canadian players can achieve the same results as young players in Brazil providing they are committed to daily practice and a long-term development program. It is not our philosophy to select children on current ability only, as we are confident of producing excellent soccer players, regardless of past experience.
Presently in Canada we do not believe that young children are spending enough time training, They may spend a lot of time playing matches, but generally children do not spend enough time working on their skills. The Brazilian Soccer Schools program provides a full syllabus for children from 5 years old to 16 year old whereby an increased duration of actual time is spent training and working with the ball.
The Brazilian Soccer Schools syllabus covers every aspect of soccer. Our coaching is by no means exclusively Brazilian but there are 4 key aspects that have their origins in Brazil:
o Futebol de Salao
o Emphasis on individual skills
o Increased training time
o Physical Training
We do not focus entirely on the game of Futebol de Salão, although it is an excellent game in its own right. The game is used as a development tool to develop quick feet, close dribbling and passing skills. Children at Brazilian Soccer Schools spend roughly two-thirds of their time working with the size two Futebol de Salão balls and the remaining third with a conventional ball working on areas such as longer passing, shooting, heading and of course match situations.Throughout all ages of our coaching the strongest emphasis is put on developing fully the technical skills of every child. Skills from basic to complex are broken down into easily learnable phases for children and then these moves are taught and repeated many times until the children become accomplished at performing these skills first as individuals and then gradually against other children and later in games. Repetition of all skills from passing the ball in a straight line through to some of the amazing juggling skills you see from our children is stressed throughout.At BSS we also strongly encourage the ethos that it is vitally important for children to become good people before they can become good soccer players. This might sound slightly grandiose but it is something we take very seriously and into the future we hope that people will take notice of this as much as the fantastic players that the program is developing.
An attached video provides an illustration of the type of work that we do. It is our belief if more and more young Canadian players participate in this type of training then we will begin to develop more exciting and talented players, at every level of the game
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