Introduction to my group and Brazilian Soccer Schools

Coach: Chris Brown
Brazilian Soccer Schools
Under 10/11s

This group is a male group with a mixed age of under 10s and 11s. They are generally fit for their age as a lot of the work we do is high tempo, and places strain on the anaerobic and also aerobic system. The players are working very hard in this group; they do 6 hours a week coached sessions but also go home and are working around 10 hours with the ball at home. Each player is disciplined so that they want to work hard with an FDS ball at home away from coached sessions. This can only be a good thing for the development of there all round skills.
The group contain many transferable skills that are developed within our sessions. Agility, Balance and Co-ordination being the main ones. The sessions we deliver are highly skill based with often complex movement patterns being trained. The footwork that the players develop can only benefit in other sports as they have quick foot movements.
There are many players in professional academies within this group giving them a good level of experience for their age however these players aren’t often the best players in our group. The best players in our groups are the ones that train up to 6 hours with coaches and then work very hard at home, what they lack in experience in the full sized game they gain in individual skills and ability to use the ball well on the floor with various surfaces of the body. We generally coach skills and use the game of FDS in order to bring these out in a gaming environment. Players benefit from this rather than player too many matches without first developing the skills needed to play matches. It is a pitfall in the English game.
The group are in the early stages of BSS and their personal development however in comparison to non BSS players I feel they far advance their age.
Our sessions don’t revolve around the football season we continue to develop skills and work hard week by week, month by month, year by year. This does not coincide with stereotypical teams and clubs, however, we are continuing to make good progress and it surely works for our players. The group is not a team and therefore why must we concentrate on season and off season practices. The aims of the group long term are to all progress into professional football, and as much as this seems unlikely our players will continue to work hard with us outside of their academies also. Short term goals are to continue working on various aspects of the game increasing on our scores such as juggling etc, each week. Medium term goals are to progress towards working on strength and conditioning work so by the end of the season each player will be gradually moved onto strength work and also anaerobic and aerobic endurance work.
The groups train with me Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The time they spend away from our coached sessions they will work on our core work, juggling, moves to beat players and various other areas we cover, in order to help reach their potential.

A lot of the work we do at Brazilian Soccer Schools is skill based. It focuses on a variety of technical skills that develop agility, balance, co-ordination and also speed with the ball. The ball we use is an essential tool in the development of our younger players. The ball is a futebol de Salao (pronounced salon) or FDS ball for short. It is a size 2 ball which is heavier than a stereotypical football and only has a 10% rebound. This encourages young players to play with the ball on the floor and allows more touches per player as the ball isn’t bouncing uncontrollably around the playing area. Futebol de Salao originates in Brazil, in my opinion the most successful and exciting nation in football. It is the game that the likes of Pele, Carlos Alberto, Jarzinho and many other Brazilian superstars, more recently Juninho, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, used as the foundation of their technical development. Ronaldo is very fond of FDS and fully supports it as the foundation of his success in the full sized 11 a side game: “Futebol de Salão is how I really got started. This is my love, the thing that I enjoy most.” (ICFDS.com) Our players at Brazilian Soccer Schools play this game as much as possible in our coaching sessions. It is a fast game and is good to watch with distinct movement and tempo. A recent graduate of Brazilian Soccer Schools is Micah Richards the Manchester City boy prodigy. Micah has already made steady progress in the England first team and is a product of the sort of player that can be produced using our coaching methods. There are many players now up and coming that have trained with Brazilian Soccer Schools and hopefully we can be the revolution of the future.