Shouting From The Sidelines

A question we get asked a lot - what separates an academy footballer from the rest?  

We've been lucky enough to watch many academy teams both in the UK and abroad.  

We've also coached players who are in or who have been progressed to a professional academy.  

Check out this episode if you're interested to know what our thoughts are on the biggest differences based on our own experiences.

Development Centres...

What are they? What should you do if your child gets asked to go to one and are they worth it?  

We discuss it all in this episode of Shouting From The Sidelines.  

Football Development Centres don't all have great reputations and some are just not worth yours or your child's time.  

Things are hopefully improving but there are still things that parents needs to be aware of.  

#If you have any questions after listening to this just drop us a message.

Do you teach them skills?

What about ball mastery?

These questions seem to be on the rise recently.

We think it is down to parents seeing more of those ‘Insta kids’ doing all kinds of flicks & tricks on social media.

They then assume that is what a good footballer looks like - most of the time they are wrong.

Ball mastery has been around for 20+ years but it has only recently started to creep more into grassroots team football.

For some, it is seen as revolutionary.

For those in the know (i.e. those who do their research 😉), it is pretty dated and there are much better things that kids can be doing to improve.

We’ve spent time at pro-academies recently who have also moved away from it.

We were big believers of individual ball mastery and very much used it at our sessions when we first started.

But then we realised there was a better way. That’s when we changed to the more street football style approach.

In this short episode we discuss:

What is ball mastery

What it good and bad about it

Why we stopped doing it

What your child should actually be doing instead

Mike Bates is an ex-Royal Marine and also worked undercover in human intelligence for the MoD where he was an ops leader.

Since leaving he has become a successful business owner after opening Gracie Barra Roundhay Leeds, a Jiu Jitsu academy which has seen amazing growth.

On top of that he is also about to start the unbelievable challenge of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean (solo) to raise funds for Leeds Children's Hospital.

Perhaps his biggest challenge is being a Dad. 

We sat down to discuss his approach to parenting, how he keeps his two boys motivated and what he's learned from being a parent with children involved in sport.

This was one of our favourite conversations with so much to takeaway.

You can find out more about Mike and his charity work by visiting: 

Website https://www.theatlanticgrappler.com/

Instagram https://instagram.com/theatlanticgrappler?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Curtis Bernard signed as a professional footballer with Barnsley when they were in the Premier League.

He went on to have a very successful career in the lower leagues and learnt a lot along the way.

He is now a parent to two girls who are both involved in different sports. In this episode he shares with us how he has adapted his approach based on what he learned from his playing days and discusses some of the issues he sees with kids' sport.

Curtis now runs a bootcamp business based in Leeds aimed at getting children and adults active and healthy.

You can find out more about his sessions by visiting https://www.championbootcamps.co.uk/

Football trials can be great experiences IF players are prepared for what to expect.  

In our latest podcast episode we give our best tips for preparing for trials and how your player can get the best out of the time they have.

Listeners of the podcast will have heard us bang on about the important of exposing children to a wide variety of sports at a young age.

We believe there are 3 things that can really help the overall athletic development of a child:

We discuss what all this means and the proven benefits.

As always, remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review.

Did you know that Germany have just completely revamped their approach to grassroots football?  

They have introduced a lot of new things including adopting a game called Funino.  

Funino is a game first developed by legendary coach, Horst Wein.  

The style of game helps to develop junior footballers but also ensures a lot of enjoyment.  

It is something, along with Horst Wein's other teachings, that we have implemented at our sessions.  

There is a change coming and we will see a return to street football style games with a focus on development over winning.  

Listen to find out more about this exciting development in youth football and how it might impact your child.

We never like to see our children quit.

Resilience and character can be built by pushing through hard-times, but there comes a point where quitting might actually be the best option.

We discuss all this in this episode of Shouting From The Sidelines plus:

Enjoy and let us know your thoughts.

What do sports superstars like Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant, Zlatan Ibrahimovic & Tom Brady all have in common?

You'd be right if you said they are all leaders in their chosen sports but...

Did you know they all credit playing a variety of sports as a child as a reason for their high level of ability in their chosen sport?

This is something we have been researching and looking into for a number of years and the info suggests that kids who are exposed to a variety of sports tend to do better both in sport generally and in their chosen sport.

Why? How? And what can you do to help your child? 

We discuss all of this in this episode.

Don't forget to review us and let us know what you think.

As always, thanks for listening.