Lichfield Soccer Academy

The only official Lichfield Soccer Academy Blog. Here you will find ideas and thoughts to get the most of your training.

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Watch the Lichfield Soccer Academy Foundation Moves, designed to develop confidence on the ball and prepare players our style of training.

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New LSA Training Tee

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How much should my son/daughter train?

Personally, I’m a big believer in there being no substitute for hard work in training, however, I also think it is naive to think that just any type of training will ensure success.

No training can ever guarantee positive results because player development depends on both intrinsic motivations (from the player) as it is extrinsic (the environment) however, with the right approach, mind set and quality, you are allowing yourself or your son/daughter the best chance.

Whenever a parent asks me how much training their son/daughter should do, I always suggest up until 14, whatever their age, that is perhaps a good amount of hours to do a week e.g. a 5 year old plays for 5 hours and an 11 year old, 11 hours a week.

This should be flexible with the player being the best indication of whether it is too much or not - As long as players rest well and maintain a well balanced diet, this amount should be just right and it is not as much as you think. I will break this down towards the end of the post.

I do think at this point that is important to remember that 11 hours of good training will reap huge benefits to the 11 year old, yet 5 hours of quality training mixed with 6 hours of poor training will probably have an adverse affect and un-do the hard work.

In recent seasons a number of players I have trained have been receiving training at School from ‘pro clubs’ and unfortunately, it has clearly affected on their development and unfortunately in a negative way. Similarly, a number of players had spent months at a time in academy ‘development squads’, which for me is nothing more than a clever way for pro clubs to create more revenue with the slight possibility of uncovering some untapped talent.

For a pro club, which is a business after all, the development squads are a genius marketing ploy, but for the players and parents blinded by the slim possibility of being spotted it is an unfortunate pipe dream that rarely comes to fruition.

I have full respect for the work of community clubs and development programs and don’t want you to think that this blog post takes away the fantastic community benefits, and increased levels of activity in children which must be considered a good thing, I am merely pointing out that no matter how the pro club dress them up, they are rarely ever intended for the purpose of developing players.

While there could be an argument to say that any training is better none - after all the more touches a player has, the more confident they will be on the ball - the danger is that players develop the wrong mindset which can restrict a player.

A good coach in my opinion, will promote freedom and creativity. They will be the coach that will push players just outside of their comfort zone while offering support. Players working with a top coach will be taught to learn and develop through various techniques and corrective exercises and should be challenged to reach higher personal targets on a consistent basis.

Players must be motivated by the challenges they are set and want to practice rather than being told they should. Players have to see the bigger picture and find out what it means to them to be excellent at their chosen sport/profession. Once they can do this, the sky really is the limit.

Based on the LSA sessions we do, I’d recommend the following training schedule for an 11 year old:

Wednesday - LSA Session (1 hour) Thursday - LSA Session (1 hour) Saturday - LSA Session (2 hours) Sunday - Match - (1 hour)

This would account for structured practice and should be seen as opportunity to seek guidance and advice along with the chance to learn to work alongside a team or group of other players.

In addition to the above, players should spend aprox. 30 mins a day on the LSA foundation moves plus work on juggling and control on the days they aren’t already doing an LSA session or match:

Monday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Tuesday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Wednesday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Thursday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Friday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Saturday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Sunday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins)

This has already got us to 10 hours of focused training which in addition to any team training that your son/daughter does, will account for 11 hours of focused practice which demonstrates both intrinsic and extrinsic qualities.

In addition, the variety of training by working in this way will not only work on a players mentality, technique, fitness and the tactical side of the game it is also a very simple, yet well rounded training programme that can easily become routine - The fact that sessions are short also increases the amount of starts and ends to sessions which is a players most productive time for taking on new ideas.

It would be great to get as many players as possible to follow the above training times, even if for just a term, to see how much you can progress with some very simple tweaks to your training times.

I would love to hear your thoughts as a player, parent or coach on the ideas in the post and am open to discussing the points above so please feel free to comment or share.

Many thanks for the support,

Lichfield Soccer Academy

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New Year, New Opportunity

With the new year upon us, along comes the opportunity to change and challenge yourself.

While in many respects it is likely to be similar to any other day, the idea of it being the first day of the first month of a brand new year presents itself with the opportunity to start a clean slate and set sail in a new direction.

I'd like to start this blog with the first challenge: each day, take one step closer to your ultimate goal.

A lot of resolutions, such as losing weight, going to the gym, eating less junk food etc. take time to become habitual so I want to introduce the idea of a gradual improvement.

Rather than trying to change your life in a day, make smaller steps - tiptoe if you have to! - but keep moving forward, not only will you find it easier to stick to your goal, you will also be amazed at the improvements you can make in a relatively short period of time.

Action Plan: Think about what you really want and write it in an envelope as if you have already achieved it e.g. I can do 100 kick up's using alternate feet.

Next, seal and date the envelope with next years date e.g. 01/01/16 and put it in a drawer.

Now try and forget about the envelope, but each day do something, anything, to ensure you are one step closer to your target. On 01/01/16, and not before, open the envelope and see how you did and you will be surprised at how much progress has been made if you haven't already surpassed your target!