WORKING CONCLUSIONS
1 (2%)
43 (67%)
Q Do you bring children you consider to move to your club for trail trainings?
Q Is efficiency of
67%, meaning a third of academies do not record progress.
Academies are primarily focused on development, even if this means losing games and trophies, in 71% of clubs. Interestingly, 96% of those have the same style of play in all categories. In parallel, 94% of clubs have a formally defined coaching methodology in place, while in 90% this methodology is likely to have been updated within the last three years. PLAYERS When it comes to individual development, 75% of academies within surveyed clubs provide a coach for individual training for various specialisations. Among them, 88% of academies have an athletics coach for individual training. Bio-banding principles are implemented in age-group composition in 66% of clubs that also test biological age (48% of all surveyed clubs).
coaches measured?
55 (86%)
Q Do you require players to train and/ or play in positions other than their recognised field position for development purposes?
64 (98%)
21 (33%)
technical, tactical, physical, psychological, sociological and pedagogical information. Almost all clubs invite children to trial sessions before signing. PLAYING STYLE A formalised football philosophy within an academy exists in 97% of clubs. The same style of play (application of footballing principles) is applied in all categories by a significant majority of 75% club academies.
9 (14%)
psychological test (74% of all clubs), and specifically an IQ test in just 5% of those which do assess by different criteria. Individual goals are formally set for coaches in 73% of academies, while ‘project coaches’ are present in 59%. So, just like with players (albeit a smaller rate), there is a clear categorisation of coaches and identification of those with more potential. TEAMS The U23 age group exists at 31% of clubs. Planning four years ahead is carried out in 48% of surveyed clubs. Seventy-eight per cent of academy representatives claim that they have a fundamental goal of strongly relying on the academy from sourcing its first-team players, which highlights the significance of the youth academy to overall club strategies in completing their squads. Keeping shadow lists by position for the various age groups and replacing departing players with scouted ones from this list is common in 72% of academies. In 73% of academies, non-coaching staff are involved in delivering team-level activities for players within their normal weekly schedule, while 81% are delivering individual-level activities, which is another
Academies have ‘project players’ in 81% of cases, starting from age groups U15-U16, and this implies that there is a tendency to identify the players with most perceived potential at an early stage, and making a differentiation between different categories of talents, or provide a more enhanced programme to those that have bigger chances of making it, according to their estimation. COACHES Besides football license courses, coaches are encouraged to get involved in further education in 67% of academies, while a coach educator is present in a very similar percentage of clubs (66%). Internal demonstration, theoretical lectures and practical trainings are commonplace in 88% of academies, so this clearly highlights that a large proportion of academies consider coach development an important area of activity. Efficiency of coaches is measured in 67% of academies, and among those measuring this KPI, 94% of academies assess coaches by different criteria (92% of all clubs), including 82% personality (75% among all clubs), 80% using a
48 (75%)
58 (91%)
Q Does the same style of play (application of principles of football, not tactical system like 4-4-2) apply to all categories?
Q Does your academy operate a code of conduct or set official behavior standards for its players?
6 (9%)
16 (25%)
Every single academy surveyed assesses their players. These assessments are more physical than cognitive, it seems, with 98% testing physical capacity, 86% technical capacity, 83% personality, and only 8% doing an IQ test. Individual development goals are formally set for players in 86% of academies, while a diary of a player’s personal development path is kept in
"AFC Ajax believe that football will become more 'tailor made', space will be tighter, creativity will be more crucial, and restarts in offensive and defensive way will be more important"
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YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
YOUTH FOOTBALL 2021-23
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