An Introduction

First of all our aim is to help make good people – players soon realise that Brazilian Soccer Schools is much more than just football: we aim to promote social skills, team work, personal goal setting, boost confidence, self esteem and much more.

Coaching Classes 

All our sessions follow a similar structure.  After a warm up and stretches we teach and practise the core skills which are the building blocks to learning the signature moves that have made many Brazilian players household names the world over.  During this period each player has a ball to themselves and works to their own standards, pushing themselves against an individual target.

The second section takes that weeks topic and breaks down a move or turn into individual segments which are demonstrated and taught again with each child having a ball to themselves. This may be progressed by working in pairs to increase the intensity of the session.

Finally we have a fun game of Futebol de Salao, giving all players a chance to try out their new skills in a match environment.  At the end of the session there is a warm down and debrief, with any appropriate directed learning discussed for the player to do at home.

Ability Age Groups

Our groups are split by age and ability.  We start with ages 5-7 where BSS is taught with a mix of fun and games as a core part of each session. Then, as the children progress, the style of coaching reflects the physiological as well as the psychological changes of growing up.  This continues until a player reaches the top ‘Elite’ status where they will be invited to join BSS Academy.  The programme is supported at every stage through the Brazilian Soccer Schools Skill Badge scheme, which is used to reward and monitor player progress.

Squads

For those that achieve the requisite skill and fitness criteria, there will be an invite to trial for our Regional and National squads.  These players may also be invited to attend our annual residential academy camp or even be invited to come on our annual overseas tour,

One to One Training

Many professional players such as Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen have benefited from our one-to-one training.  Whilst for most our weekly sessions are an ideal introduction, those that want to push on further or work to a specific level such as the National Squad level can access our one to one training.

Coaching on a one to one level is essentially the same as our other sessions but a special focus is given to the individual needs and technical abilities of the player with a focus on what is required to bridge an indentified and agreed skills gap.

Team Coaching

We deliver coaching for teams of all ages, whether this is to bring something different to a normal training session, to work on a specific skill, or to simply reward players for a great season.  Team coaching can take various forms and we will discuss and agree this in advance.

Sessions can also be offered as one off taster classes, but most benefits arise when a course of sessions can be incorporated into a team’s normal schedule.  This can be fortnightly or in parallel alongside normal match play work.

Freestyle

We include ‘keepy-ups’ as a way of building touch and confidence with our players.  It also builds a ‘practice-practice-practice’ mentality . The now commonplace round the world tricks also form part of our skills badge programme.

We can also hold specific freestyle classes.  The level of technical ability in freestyle tricks achievable can be illustrated by the record keeping from our Harrogate branch:

“At the Harrogate Brazilian Football Academy we work on kick ups as part of our training programme to improve our first touch. One of our targets is to reach 100 kick ups. I used to believe that an exceptional player could perform 100 kick ups while still at primary school (year 6). It wasn't possible to achieve it at a much younger age.  I certainly didn't believe a child in year 2 at primary school (under 7 footballer) could achieve this feat.

All the children who have performed over 100 kick ups have done so in front of the Head Coach of the Harrogate Brazilian Football Academy and other children and parents at their training session. Joel has performed over 1000 kick ups in front of the Head Coach and other players and parents at his training session.

In 2004 Joel Fireman performed 272 kick ups. He was in year 1 at primary School. In 2005 he performed 1435 kick ups (year 2 at primary school). Since then we have had 10 players achieve the feat of 100 kick ups by the end of year 2 at primary school. In fact 3 of the players achieved it in year 1 (under 6 footballer).

The ability of some of these boys attracted attention from Professional Academies. At the training sessions the boys went to at the professional clubs they were asked to perform 1 kick up and catch.”

It should be noted that like ourselves Harrogate do not pick players on ability.  As an under 7 footballer (year 2 at Primary School) Joel Fireman completed 1435 kick ups. This opened everyone’s eyes as what could be achieved, and we now have many players showing incredible ball juggling skills. These skills cannot be understated as the importance juggling plays a key role in developing a footballer's first touch, and has a considerable impact on their ability to shoot, pass and volley.  It is no surprise that our most competent jugglers are all excellent goal scorers for their teams.