Our emphasis is on skills development, our style is Brazilian soccer.
We have three main objectives in our program:
- Soccer skills development
- Fitness
- Sportsmanship
The team practices and plays in Ottawa's west end (fields tbc), with 2 weekly practices plus 1 match (total 3X week), as follows:
- League: EODSA U13 L5 Div 1
- Practice 1: Saturdays 9AM
- Practice 2: Mondays or Tuesdays (tbc) 6PM
- Matches: Thursdays 6PM
- Location: central/west end
- Tournaments. The team will play in about one tournament every month, 3 or 4 events in total for the season.
- Team events. We try to have monthly team bonding events, pizza days, barbecues, attending semi pro soccer matches, etc.
Soccer Skills Development: Brazilian Style
We focus on skills, skills, skills, from basic ball reception, passes, to more advanced types of plays, feints, moves, and including 11v11 tactics. Some players are naturally gifted, others need lots of practices, but they can all improve and more importantly, develop a life long passion for the game, and for being active and fit (and away from TV and video games!). Players also learn from each other, this is a reason we like to mix players of different skills.
We call it the "Brazilian Style" because we teach South American style of soccer with an emphasis on basic ball control and skills, but add moves and styles by Brazilian players. We start every practice with a warm-up, followed by practicing moves, basic dribbling using the sole of the foot (Brazilian style), step overs, scissors, etc, and progressing to more advanced moves (the Rivelino elastic, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Tostao, Maradona, Pele's cow move, etc), and every now and then we shows them new moves by famous players such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi, Cruyff, and others.
We then progress to specific drills focusing on one or two activities, shooting (placement strength, one timers), passing (inside, outside, sole, heels), air game (volleys and headers), set plays (corners, free kicks, etc.).
Goal keepers receive specific training as well. We do many fun competitions and have many prizes throughout the season, for specific accomplishments, as well as Players of the Month type of awards
After a few weeks, most of the players master these moves, and they are usually proudly showing the "Maradona" around or simply juggling the ball all over the place.
We finish practices with scrimmages. The players love playing under no pressure to win. Scrimmages also increase fitness levels, so players become fitter without realizing it. At least once a week, we also invite parents and siblings to join us in a big fun scrimmage (completely optional). These are a tremendous amount of fun, a lot of laughter and running around, and the children love it.
While in Canada in general there is a lack of practice time compared with match time, we believe younger children should be practicing and fun playing significantly more to develop skills, without the need to focus on wins. Our objectives, by the way, are in alignment with Ontario's LTPD. We wish we could practice and play 7 days a week!
Fitness
There are three components to our fitness program:
- Endurance. Our players do a lot of activities geared towards them being able to play a full match 11v11: running, jumping, uphill, running on sand.
- Speed: speed training is quite different from distance running and uses different muscles. Speed is necessary by all players, in particular strikers. Activities include many types of fun sprint races and muscle training
- Core Body Conditioning: As players get older, they will see that they are no longer made of "rubber", and need to develop their core bodies to strengthen their bodies and prevent injuries. Activities such as warm-up, stretching, cool down become essential. Core body conditioning helps prevent injuries.
Sportsmanship
We really emphasize good sportsmanship. we try the kids to be "good citizens" in many ways. These include, respect for opponents, officials, referees, never swearing or using vulgar language. We know that coaches and parents are role models to the kids, so we expect the same from them.
We also do not allow diving or faking or "professional fouls". It is against FIFA rules to dissent from a referee's decision. That should be respected.
In addition, we expect the players to focus and work hard during practices. Practices are much more important than matches.
Financial.
No child is turned away from soccer due to financial constraints. No questions asked.
Furthermore, we also raise funds for worthy charitable causes, either directly for them, or by using part of the funds we raise ourselves as several of the players do have financial constraints.
What we require and is expected from the players:
- Attendance. We ask (hope!) for attendance of 75% to practices and 80% to matches.
- Focus and Effort. We are volunteers very dedicated to teaching soccer skills. What we want is that the players focus 100% on the activity at hand and work hard during practices on both their skills and fitness
- Sportsmanship: We require that the players display good sportsmanship at all times, as outlined above
