October 20th we were incredibly fortunate to have Frans Hoek return to Fremont YSC for further coach education. While all the staff are committed to their further education through licensing, courses, and literature, nothing is better than learning from some of the best in the industry while in the working environment.

The day involved a refresher of the previous material learned from Day 1, covering the importance of global language throughout football, and the underlining principles of what football is.

The day was focused on game analysis, with reference to the process and specifically in relation to the guiding principles of play at the club when designing and delivering the coaching session.

Fremont YSC has a framework of playing principles, through all the age groups to ensure player development is age appropriate, and with a player pathway for individual development.

The 2007 and 2008 boys joined us for the field session to help with group task, and for demonstrating the coaching methodology for reality based learning through game scenarios and in reference to the framework principles. Our philosophy is a commitment to the long term development of the player, and throughout the education process, this always remains our aim and focus.

Frans now heads home to the Netherlands to enter preparations for the World Cup, and we wish him the best at the World Cup in Qatar. We look forward to having Frans return to the club in the new year to continue with coach education, to keep the coaches learning, and to provide the best experience for the players.

Day 6 Review – Phoebe, Kobe, Rhium, and Zayden

An incredible day. We say goodbye to London, and arrive in Liverpool for a training session with Ray Hall.

Life long Everton fan Ray Hall joined the Everton staff in 1991, serving almost over 20 years of leading and guiding young footballers to achieving their destiny at the higher level, Ray Hall has seen players from this generations Everton team grow up through the ranks including some big names of the likes of Leon Osman, Jack Rodwell and even ex Everton starlet Wayne Rooney one of those big names.

Ray Hall was glad to retire on a high as he saw his team finish top of the F.A Academy Premier League this year topping it all off for the Everton veteran.

Although Ray Hall’s time at Everton has been long and ever so sweet, ! he himself will admit he has witnessed some sad times seeing many managerial departures over the many years he has served, seeing managers such as, Mike Walker, Joe Royle, Howard Kendall (again), Walter Smith and now, David Moyes.

In this current football climate, club’s all over Europe depend on a good youth system, Ray Hall believed it had a sense of added value towards a club, he said ‘Academies gave a more professional value to youth development. It almost became an autonomous department within football clubs.’

Ray Hall will always remain in the hearts of Everton football club as a legend and an international ambassador of the club and academy, where he can reflect on the ever so nearly two decade duration he has spent at the club.

We started our 6 hour drive departure from London to Liverpool at around 9 am. On our drive, I noticed the scenery in the country area of the UK was fairly like the area of Central California but without the mass amounts of agriculture and with green scenery. Once we arrived in Liverpool, the city area compared to London seemed much more modern and clean. The city was banked right next to the River Mersey. After checking into our hotel, we went to training with legendary Coach Ray Hall. Surprisingly, our warm up was based on more motor skills warm ups. For example we played tag but when players held possession of the ball, they were not allowed to get tagged. When they did not have the ball, they were able to get tagged. This forced us to scan the field to help throw the ball to other teammates for them to not get tagged.

After our warm up, Coach Ray had us practice a simple drill that involved touching the ball a lot. We would kick the ball against the fence surrounding the field and receive it and then pass it back in different ways; trapping the ball so it rolled to the outside of our body; rolling the ball across our body; and even a move from futsal where we could stop the ball and roll it. He told us that when he played as a midfielder, he would probably touch the ball around 30 times in a game. But here in practice, we had probably touched the ball at least 30 times for each different drill. He emphasized that while in game experience was important, practice was where you truly improved your technique and it was really necessary. The next drill was in groups of 3, where each person stood at one side of a square. The person with the ball would pass it and run to the empty side of the sqaure. Coach Ray helped us play smarter by reminding us to keep our hips open to the ball even while running to the empty side of the square and looking before passing. After a few more exercises, we ended early and Coach Ray left us with some closing words.

There were 3 things he wanted us to learn (as a minimum).

1. It’s football. Not soccer
2. Play with a smile on your face
3. Play with a chuckle in your boot

Overall, this training session was very engaging and motivating, and gave us new perspectives of the game.

The following is taken from an article from a program I like to follow, ‘Changing the Game Project’. An excellent organization trying to combat the toxic nature of youth sports and provide education and engagement to coaches and parents. Firstly, please see a selection of the article below, and then the following thoughts –

I kept thinking to myself how wrong it is that we have created a system that scares players into compliance with abusive coaches, who hold so much power to determine whether they will play at the next level. And who are scared and accept abusive and demeaning behavior from coaches because of this fear. And what about the parents, much like the culture of gymnastic parents, who continued to register their children for the abusive coaching and gladly paid for it? Why do we live in a world where we think making people feel worse about themselves will make them play better? Why do we risk our children’s physical, emotional and mental well being in pursuit of a college scholarship or on field performance? When will we say “ENOUGH!”

I do not blame the children, as many of them are so young they cannot possibly know better especially when they witness adults that they trust turning a blind eye. And I completely understand the fear many parents feel that if they speak up, their child can lose a coveted place on the team. I even hear from parents who stand up, blow the whistle on such behavior and get sued for their effort. Coaches lose their job when they stand up to abusive behavior or report on colleagues or board members who are engaging in sketchy behavior, but win a lot and place players in college programs.. Do you not find it ironic that in our race to take away childhood by adultifying youth sports, we neglect to act like adults when our children need us most? 

I truly hope the Yates report is a turning point, but somehow I doubt it. This occurs in every sport, boys and girls, and the incentives still favor abusive, win at all costs coaching. But at some point we need to finally say enough is enough, I am pulling my child, to hell with the consequences. So I will get off my pedestal now, but I am interested in your thoughts. Why do we tolerate this type of coaching behavior, and what can we do to change it?

• Behaviours in coaching is something I am passionate about, and is something lacking in coach education, modern coaching focuses more on this, moving away from the old methods of shouting and scorning. However, this is still so common in coaching, as we continue with the thought process of, ‘it’s what we did growing up’, ‘it didn’t hurt me’, ‘it will teach kids to be stronger, tougher’. All of this has been debunked by scientific research, and because it’s what we used to do, it doesn’t make it right, we now have the research to back this.
• The winning culture, so dominant in US sports is adultifying the youth experience. Cutting players at 8-9 years old. Making kids run if they lose games. Shouting at kids while the ‘play’, because they can’t do something. If you refused kids into schools because of a grade, made them write lines for making a mistake, and stood over them shouting while they were in maths class, you would call this crazy and abusive, but in youth sports… somehow accepted.
• There is too much adult ego in youth sports. The coach that tells you they can take your child to a college scholarship, how only being on their team will make your child an elite player, how they play in ‘x’ league, ‘x’ bracket, and have won so many tournaments. These ego’s should not exist in coaches, it’s the kids game, we are meant to be here for the kids.
• Parent ego stems from the coaches behavior and environment created. The importance as parents we place on a childs sporting success and how it affects the perception others might have on us as parents. The ‘cooler’ talk at work, the hoodie worn at school pick up, it’s not healthy for the parents nor the players.

We need to give youth sports back to the kids, and even more than ever before as we return from lockdowns which have had an effect on kids development, and also to stop the spiral of a toxic culture that’s taking away the youth sports experience for the kids.

For more resources and information, visit – https://changingthegameproject.com/

We are excited to announce the partnership between TopTekkers and Fremont YSC.

TopTekkers is the mobile app that supports individual practice at home. The app is available to all players in the 2014 to 2011 age group (Foundation Phase) at no extra charge, as part of your membership. The app supports the individual player elements in the foundation phase, and provides direction for individual training away from the field. All players will have different levels of ambition, and those wanting to progress and push their ceiling as high as it can go, need to train outside of structured practice.

We feel this is an important application, and extension to your membership in the foundation phase, a few reasons being:

• Lack of play culture outside of organized sports. This will encourage young athletes to get outside and off the electronics.
• Competition and challenge amongst teammates will support a healthy environment of competition.
• Too much attention to tournaments and brackets, not enough on the individuals progress, this provides focus to what is important at the younger ages.
• Practice videos, and session selection will achieve a greater number of touches on the ball.
• Accountability for players, they now have the tools to do more if they have ambitions of further improving.

See what you can expect from the TopTekkers app:

• TopTekkers app walk-through: https://youtu.be/piMG37U0LTU
• Skill Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiR2Ol0NCv4

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Arunay Foundation Walkathon, your support is greatly appreciated.

This as always was incredibly difficult for the 2008 Boys, the team Arunay was playing on. We can’t praise this group highly enough, they are of huge credit to their parents. It has been a very difficult time for the boys, and those throughout the club who knew Arunay. The demonstration of support and unity is very heart warming, and we are proud of the boys for attending, and to all those who also attended and took part in the walkathon.

The Arunay Foundation is doing great things for beach safety, with a dedication to improving safety at the beach through education and greater information available on conditions, and improving equipment than can be readily available to support a rescue. Please visit their website for insight into the projects being undertaken, to sign up as a volunteer, or to leave a donation – https://www.arunayfoundation.org/

Day 5 Review – Ava, Nyan, Rohan

Tottenham Hotspurs FC Stadium Tour

The first half of the day was spent at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London. We toured the enormous stadium which had many cool features. For example, the pitch could be transformed into an American football field, there was a Skywalk where you could walk on the roof, a bungee jumping area, the stadium actually had trophies that Tottenham won, and many more fantastic areas. The tour was amazing; We had tiny tablets that told us what we were looking at and it had pre-recorded messages from the players. We saw the trophies they’ve won, sat where fans, VIP’s, players, and even where Antonio Conte (Tottenham Hotspur Head Coach) is supposed to sit. We went into the away team’s dressing room which was filled with various other team’s jerseys. In Tottenham’s changing room, we got to take pictures with the teams actual kits! There was even a changing room for NFL teams, which held the NFL jerseys & helmets of all the teams that have played at the stadium since it’s first NFL game in 2019. We saw where players and coaches do their post match interviews and some of us even got a picture with Antonio Conte edited in! To wrap up the tour, we went to the gift shop which we learned was the world’s largest retail store in a stadium. It was a great experience and unlike their actual team, the billion dollar stadium left us impressed.

Now we are on our way to see West Ham United vs Manchester City at the London Olympic Stadium, Go Irons!

We exited the coach and entered the stadium. The London Olympic stadium was a lot bigger than Selhurst park, and seated nearly double the amount of people. The game started off well for West Ham, but Man City dominated the rest of the game, giving West Ham a living nightmare. When West Ham fans cheered, the atmosphere was a lot louder than that of Crystal Palace’s. However, the stadium was unfortunately quiet from West Ham fans due to the lack of possession of the ball. The game ended as a 2-0 loss for the Irons, with Haaland scoring both. Despite lots of Man City passing around West Ham, the game was a good watch. We enjoyed our second premier league game and we can’t wait to see what this trip offers next!

Day 4 Review – Phoebe, Kobe, Rhium, and Zayden

Starting off day 4, some of us continued to explore new breakfast options that aren’t popular in America, such as Marmite on toast. Afterwards, we boarded the coach and departed for central London. Our tour director Andy kept us entertained with a game of fact or fiction, which included some cool facts such as “the nose of the north facing lion in Trafalgar square is the exact center of London” as well as some disturbing ones like “there are more rats in London than there are people in the US”. While heading to the Underground Churchill War Rooms, our tour group got the opportunity to pass by or glimpse lots of war monuments and significant buildings such as Buckingham Palace, Parliament buildings, and the clock tower housing Big Ben. The popularity and importance of this spot was made evident by the sidewalks crowded with visitors and numerous cameras monitoring the entire area.

We visited Winston Churchill’s war rooms. As we walked in we saw a video about the war rooms. We also saw many rooms such as the kitchen, the map room, the bedrooms, offices, etc. The rooms were very small and claustrophobic, especially the kitchen. The people living there during World War 2 had many jobs like cooking, contacting, and writing. The Churchill museum where they hold all the original furniture and papers of World War 2. As we went in the museum there was whole spot for Winston Churchill . He led his country through  one of the darkest hours in its history, he was a great leader. Collectively, we saw war rooms, maps, and sleeping quarters. The war rooms has a café and gift shop where you can buy souvenirs and eat food. The war rooms were a great experience as we got to see how Winston Churchill and many others survived in World War 2.

After the war rooms Rhium and Zayden mentioned, we continued our tour of central London to the London tower. We entered the old castle which was used to store the queens jewels while simultaneously holding tortured prisoners. The jewels varied from silverware to weapons but each one of them were laced with unimaginable amounts of stones. Overall our day was filled with exploring central London’s century old architecture and monuments which greatly contrasts from Fremont’s modern city.

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