Part 1: Education/Discussion is everything
As the philosophy of Toronto FC continues to build and grow it has been made abundantly clear that they are following the model established by Dutch soccer club Ajax Amsterdam FC. While it begins and ends with Head Coach and Technical Director Aron Winter, the addition of new Academy Director Thomas Rongen and the inevitable addition of like minded coaches is a true sign of the clubs intent.
All of these developments have started me thinking about in what specific ways TFC Academy can follow the plan laid out by not only Ajax Amsterdam FC but also the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). In a three part series, I’ll be taking a look at the three pillars that make The Netherlands such a successful soccer nation and how both TFC Academy and the Canadian Men’s National Team can tweak it to our advantage.
The three aspects are 1. Education/Discussion, 2. Development and 3. Financial Value. All three are what make Ajax and their academy so valuable and is what ultimately makes the Dutch National Team one of the best.
When researching how the Dutch look at soccer the first thing that is clear is how serious they take education/discussion. This is a soccer nation that takes pride in analyzing, dissecting and critiquing even the minor details and generally not developing uneducated players or coaches - they go the extra mile to ensure this isn’t the case.
In the area of coaching they, like Canada and other countries around the world, use volunteer coaches in their youth clubs. However, the overwhelming difference is these coaches are constantly working the sidelines. Over the course of a week they organize over 30,000 matches for around 60,000 clubs across the country. Having coaches put that much work in helps them adapt to situations, think quickly and most importantly become immersed within the game instead of being a cheerleader.
On top of this their coaches are given further education in the classroom and online, analyzing everything from practice material and routines to group discussions on how to design training sessions to each individual player. They continue to help the volunteer youth coaches by assigning regional coaches provided by the KNVB, these coaches visit the regions to oversee and give advice when needed.
From a player perspective at a club like Ajax this is taken further with their academy nicknamed De Toekomst (The Future). They make sure their young players go to school and get good grades or they don’t take you on regardless of how talented you may be. The player has no excuses for being late to training as a bus picks them up from school, takes them to training and then takes them home every day. While at the training facility they do their homework with tutors hired by the club, then go to training, take a break to eat, go back to training and then go home, this is the same routine every day until they turn professional. This is not only designed to get the best out of the player but teach them how to become men and gives them routine, something that is lacking in most areas of the Canadian youth set up.
Canada and Toronto FC can’t just copy this approach to the letter, as the Netherlands is both a primarily soccer playing nation and is a vastly smaller country. However, there is no reason why we as a nation, or Toronto FC from the club level, can’t tweak some of these ideals to fit us. For example, hired tutors to keep the education process going. There are many educators that would jump at the chance to be a clubs private tutor; it is unfair to ask a kid to stop his education in order to continue his soccer career. Going this route will ensure that if soccer doesn’t work out then the player is still educated enough that he can get a good job elsewhere in the work force, something that North American sports as a whole owes the rest of society with the influx of early entrants etc…
In Part two we will be looking at Development Techniques, the little things done at the grassroots level in The Netherlands, what we are learning succesfully and some further tweaks that we could make.
A good resource for information on this topic is the UEFA Training Ground Grassroots initiative, visit their website for more information and videos http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/grassroots/index.html
Kamal Hylton is Owner/Freelance Soccer Writer at Hylton Sports Media,
he specializes in covering Youth Development in Canada and the
CONCACAF Region as well as European leagues such as Bundesliga, Serie A and UEFA Champions League. Follow him on Twitter to view all
his work.
|