Congratulations to the J.A Ecuador Academy for winning the first ever organized NJ summer futsal league hosted by Central Jersey Futsal.
They have qualified and earned a paid entrance to the 2021 NJ State Futsal Championships which will be held in the fall of 2021 and hosted by Central Jersey Futsal at Sportika Sports. This qualification is granted to them and it is 100% sponsored by Central Jersey Futsal, ($499 value). Well done players and coaches.
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PREPARE
Paperwork – All docs and forms needed for college and financial aid. Living arrangements Get classes in order – (They fill up quickly) Vacation – (Best time is in June or Early July Set up a training schedule. Mindset Conditioning Ball Skills Play in a summer league if possible (The higher the level the better) ARRIVE EARLY Arrive early on campus and set everything up, get situated and get familiar with facilities and processes. Learn where wellness or training center is and use it as much as possible. This is going to be your go to place when dealing with all your health/injury challenges. Learn where the cafeteria is, (if there is a nutrition program for athletes) and put in system to best feed and hydrate your body. Know where all training facilities are and how long it takes to get there from dorms or classes. You do not want to be late. Stay Healthy MEET RETURN PLAYERS. Engage, ask questions, create relationships, get to know other players like and dislikes and use that to your advantage, be of service, serve others, volunteer. BE UNCOMFORTABLE Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You will be aske to do many things you may not like. Do them and do them well. COMMUNICATION With coaching staff, with teammates, with advisors and professors. SUPPORT GROUPS You may get home sick and that is ok. Start support groups with other incoming first year players and support each other through the difficult times. STAND OUT Positive Examples You must learn to stand out in positive ways, not negative. Always be early to team activities and greet coaches. Always contribute when asked and volunteer. Be respectful, communicate, loss the elite attitude. Best ways to stand out on the field, communicate, being vocal, always work hard, do not quit. Be laser focused, when you have a bad training session let your personality, work ethic, team first attitude shine. Be confident and show it all the time without being cocky. You can be confident in yourself even when you are lacking a skill and do not know something. “You are confident that you will work hard to acquire or improve that skill.” You can not fake attitude and it will show. Negative Examples Being late Whining complaining Doing enough to just get by No participation Excluding yourself or hiding from everyone. TIME MANAGEMENT This is one of the most important aspects, not only of your college experience but life in general. As one gets older responsibilities and task increase drastically while timelines get shorter. You must learn how to maximize your time, find ways to minimize unnecessary time-wasting situations and get all your activities scheduled before doing fun entertaining activities. BTW those activities have their place in life as well and are needed to reenergize, but they must be prioritized. Reality is that depending on what college you attend you will have daily classes, daily training, daily homework, travel for games and try to manage a social life. Unless you have good management skills you will get overwhelmed cause a domino effect which could affect your on-field performance, your student life and completely derail your mind set. COUNCELING/MENTORSHIP A great way to deal with all these balls and find balance is to find a counselor or mentor. This could be simply someone who has been through it already knows how to deal with it and possibly has systems and plans on how to be successful. Simply put it could be one of the returning players who has current experience and is in the grind. Always try to model yourself after someone who has done it before and is successful. OFF SEASON PROGRAM Maintaining quality habits and systems learned through the season. Stick to a year-round conditioning program, usually given by coaching and training staff. Prepare for spring training. Create and maintain a schedule, process and system that will keep you in focus mode your round. HAVE FUN Join activities. Usually, teams organize activities and create chemistry and bonding opportunities. Finding common ground with your teammates will help in so many ways and enhance your college experience. This is a massive advantage that team student/ athletes have over individual non athlete students. If you would like and have more time available join other activities or groups on campus. Learn to go out of your way to explore and have fun. Remember that the past is the past. You may have been at the top of the mountain in the environment you came from but so were all the others on your new team. Now you are starting all over and must prove yourself all over. Nothing will be given or handed to you. Elite players find ways to always adopt and get familiar with new situations. They are comfortable with being a follower before they become leaders. A good leader must know how to follow as well. It all starts and ends with mindset, attitude, preparation. Then add managing expectations and creating a time schedule. Lastly you must show up everyday and play all out. That is sports life, student athlete life, champions life. Champion your life every single day. Most are taught from a young age to fit in. Adjust, be compliant and fit in with a crowd. But the biggest thinkers, innovators, inventors, creators who have made life changing discoveries products or services have been people who did not fit in. People that stood out and took pride in standing out. People that did not listen to others, marched to their own drum, maybe been called troublemakers but at the end of the day their standing out changed the world one way or another.
Why shouldn’t the same thing be applied in sports? Well, it does and top-level coaches like and encourage players that stand out, are creative, take initiative are free thinkers and leaders. Please do understand that there is a fine line between standing out and being a disruptive force. To society, to a team, to a coach. This is something that we feel should be taught and cultivated at a young age. In most sports at any given day, one will find coaches training players in skills, technique, and plays. Everything is choreographed and orchestrated by the coaching staff. Little is left up to the players. Most coaches are always telling, dictating to the players what to do, never asking their opinion or their thoughts. The same applies on game day when they are always shouting directions from the sidelines to accompany the instructions shouted by the parents. We realize that everyone has the players' best interests at heart, and everyone wants to help those players but the way they go about it is very wrong. By constantly spoon feeding the players we are not allowing them to be free thinkers. We are not challenging them. No one grows from having someone else figure out the solution to a problem when they are faced with adversity. By allowing players to figure out their own problems with our guidance we allow them to grow in their sport and eventually in life. Elite Player Futsal Training is More Than Just Technical Skills Training - It is mental and technical training. All top players have great technical skills but not everyone has top notch mental skills. The reason top players can execute consistently under pressure is because they have been taught to do it at the training ground over and over again, under pressure. I remember a player that was on one of my teams that always did his own thing, even when we orchestrated some activities, he would always do it his way, no matter how much we tried to direct him and help him. This player had serious physical attributes, speed work ethic and never gave up. He stood out right away. He loved playing soccer and you could see the joy in his demeanor. He was just never taught fundamentals, control, restrain or other qualities that make a good soccer player at a young age. My guess is that his previous coaches did not take the time to develop him thinking he is a handful. Well instead of trying to restrict him and confined him to everyone else we allowed him to do it his way if he was not harmful to himself or others. He would just run and sometimes be all over the place. He would put himself in situations that at times got him in trouble on the field, by losing the ball falling and tripping into other players, running out of bounce consistently and well you get the idea. Instead of trying to control him, since he would not listen, we would allow him to fail consistently and after a while he did not like it at all. I would then step in and offer him a suggestion to try it a different way and offered him the option of his way and a different one. Sooner or later, he would try it and by finding success he started to listen more and trust me more. I also would always ask him questions instead of telling him what to do. This player developed in one of the most creative, free thinker attackers I have ever coached. He became a top scorer and feared by everyone he played against. He went on to play at a remarkably high level and earn a college scholarship. The ability to stand out is an exact science. It is governed by law. The way you stand out is in the desire to do so, earning the skills to do so, the amount of work you put in, how well you perform certain skills, the ability to be irreplaceable, as well the need and the environment. A player must learn to stand out and most players do not know how to stand out. Most player think that skills will make you stand out. A standout player for me is someone that can change any situation, in the locker room, on the field anywhere. A player that makes his peers better anytime he is around them. In school, playing field, or life. A player that is not afraid to be creative, take calculated chances, help others, put other’s success over his. Sep up his teammates for success by working hard to make them look good. Not be afraid of failure rather than learn form it. Learn to view failures as steps to success. Learn to deal with success, be humble in everything he does and always look to better himself as well as others. A player who is always hungry to do better even when he achieves certain goals. A player who is always asking himself: “What’s next”. A player that is irreplaceable, a player that I can never take of the field, a player that I always want in my life on and off the field. One can do all kinds of things to be noticed and stand out, but many of them do not make a lasting impression. As parents we all want what's best for our children.
We want it so badly, and most times more than they do, that we often overlook certain things that are pretty obviously bad for them. The road to youth soccer development is not an easy one to navigate if you allow your desires to over rule your player's.
Knowing some these youth soccer development tips makes it a lot easier and cost effective. Gaining skills and modeling successful soccer players that already have been there is the best way to start your path to success.😀👍
Doing that is how you gain an unfair advantage as most try to figure it out for themselves. No one will save you, no one will do it for you >>>it is up to you to seek, do and change your future. By accepting failures, we can move forward in a positive way that leads to success. But by modeling someone who already has made those mistakes one can speed up the path to success.😎🏆 Gaining capabilities and modeling people that already have been there is the best way to an end result. No one will save you, no one will do it for you >>>it is up to you to seek, do and change your future. When you gain capabilities from people that already have been there, the nerves go away, the unknown is not scary anymore, the imposter syndrome melts away. The Street Futsal philosophy was built on the idea of unscripted, creative, fun, playground style play.
No coaching, just players using their skills, improvising, and challenging each other for king of the hill. World’s best players were created through street futsal in their neighborhood’s playgrounds. Street Futsal is the most creative game of futsal you ever played. It is a playground innovation that combines street soccer with urban football. It is a unique combination of different disciplines and skills, moving at a rapid pace and played on a hard surface, any surface. Street Futsal is marketed as a fun and rewarding way to improve ball handling, dribbling, agility, and field awareness in all levels of the game. With more than just skills development on their minds, parents and coaches can also use the innovative street futsal approach to foster essential character traits such as trust, resilience, teamwork, respect for teammates and self-confidence. For players, Street Futsal is way more than just a chance to enjoy the game. It isn’t about just having fun on the field – it’s about developing important character traits off the field that will help in life and in sports. The Street Futsal philosophy was built on this idea that players should learn important life skills, through unstructured, playground style free play. No coaching! It’s all about having fun while applying vital personally learned training concepts along with lots of creativity. Thinking about signing your child for soccer?
Think Futsal Instead. Here is why. If you’ve never played futsal, it can be hard to imagine how it’s so much different from soccer. Allow me to help you visualize the difference between playing futsal and soccer. Think of Futsal as the next generation soccer experience for children. Kids develop soccer skills playing constantly with the ball, high intensity activity to improve speed, agility vision, creativity. It's a fun way to learn real dribbling, passing, shooting, tackling and much more – all leading to immediate improvement. Futsal provides better ways to develop skills: Especially for young players ages 6-12, Futsal is a much better game for a players development. Most of a player's learning comes from playing, especially at the young starter ages of 3-6. The size of the court and speed of Futsal means 6 times more opportunities for a player to touch the ball vs soccer. It also puts players in constant situations where they need to think fast to solve problems, constantly be forced to protect the ball, work out of tight situations among other. Soccer is normally played as an outdoor game on large fields, whereas Futsal is a form of soccer that is played mostly indoors on a much smaller courts. Futsal is also played around the world in outdoor courts anywhere. The smaller field size ensures a game of Futsal is fast-paced and more intense, with more opportunity for goal scoring. Another difference is in the number of players. There are eleven players for each team in the game of Soccer, while Futsal is played with five players on the court. Less players at one time means more opportunities to touch the ball. There are three substitutions allowed in a game of Soccer, whereas there are unlimited substitutions in Futsal. Once again players can come in and out of the game as often as possible, giving them more time to play. There are many other differences between the two games in terms of tactics, positioning, and the skills required. However, the fundamentals of the two games are essentially similar, making Futsal a great option for Soccer players and vice-versa. If players become good at playing in a faster surface like a futsal surface they will immediately stand out on turf or grass. Over the years, soccer has been labeled as a "Thinking Man's Game". The term has been derived from the game's uninterrupted, steady flow of play without timeouts or many set plays, full of player engagement, creativity, situational recognition, adjustments and problem solving on the fly is what it is called a "player's game".
In soccer a player must be a thinker, problem solver and a creative machine without much help from the coach at every single minute of the game. There are unlimited options, combinations and opportunities to score goals. A player's imagination and creativity is the only limitation in the game of soccer. Because of this game setting nature players grow not only in their game but in life as well. The ability to constantly think, adopt and solve has massive benefits in everything. Well, futsal adds to the mix, a faster playing surface, restrictive smaller playing area, less time to think, react, adjust and solve game situations. The pressure is multiplied ten fold. If soccer is a "thinking man's game", then futsal is a "thinking man's game" on steroids. Futsal will absolutely, unequivocally, without any doubt grow a player's soccer game. Spring soccer season is upon us and every soccer player is returning to the big spacious soccer fields for pre season or tournaments. Do not forget that team soccer training does not mean that a player should stop its individual skill training. Let’s face it, when team training begins it is only natural that teams focus on team technical and tactical concepts and skills. Players must find a way to train their individual skills along side in order to be able to stand out. In an hour and a half team session with 14-18 players an individual player will not get as many touches on the ball as it will with a technical development specific program. Now lets add to that, training with a futsal ball in a smaller, faster, restricted training surface and your player will be shinning in soccer team training.
It has be observed that the children who train with heavier and less bouncy futsal balls make contact with the ball more often and they become more focused, which results in an enhancement in their game skills and also has a positive effect on traditional soccer game. (Read research report here) This is what supplemental futsal training along your player’s soccer team training will bring to the mix. LEARN MORE The Elite Player Futsal Spring Training Schedule has been released and it will serve as supplemental training for soccer players. It is widely known that futsal is the key development tool for soccer players. Families now understand the reason why year round futsal training is benefiting soccer players and keeping the elite players at their top playing form. This is a 100% Club Neutral Program. All players belong to their current clubs. We do not recruit or form soccer teams to compete outdoors. This program is a feeder for the Champions Cup Series and the US Futsal Regional & National Tournaments. If a player is identified he/she maybe asked to play in one of these futsal events, provided their outdoor soccer program permits it. This program offers a pathway to national and international opportunities and exposure to international coaches from all over the world. We invite you to make this training part of your weekly spring training. There is a limited number of students that we will be accepting in the program so don't be left out. LEARN MORE Futsaler Life
The Futsaler Life movement is the way of using futsal as the training basis to advance and/or maintain a player’s soccer skills as well as develop one’s futsal specific IQ as it pertains to the sport of futsal year-round. It is putting futsal first at the younger ages and making it core for soccer development. Formidable, dedicated, and bold in nature, the game of futsal personifies everything we want in life. The fast-paced play of the game keeps players honest about their strengths and exposes all the weaknesses; the small-sided, fast playing surface keeps players focused, always engaged, and the success of victory keeps them motivated. All players dream of becoming successful in soccer and/or futsal. Excellence is not something that happens by chance and it cannot be achieved by just talking about it: it is a result of taking action, going the extra mile, sacrifice, and do what others are not willing to do. One does not only find greatness in the big triumphs; One find it in every little detail of how one lives their life. Shoot for the moon, do not settle, and be persistent. Live the FUTSALER LIFE! |
AuthorNiko is someone who believes passionately that futsal should be intentionally used as a tool for developing soccer players year-round and come first in the developing process at the younger starter age groups of 3-12 years of age. He has a massive amount of experiences, observations, thoughts and ideas from being submerged in the futsal community as a player, coach and operations director waiting to be released that could truly benefit the futsal community as well as the soccer coach that is just getting into the futsal methodology as a soccer development tool as well as the futsal game itself Archives
August 2021
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