THANKSGIVING FUTSAL CAMP 2020

THANKSGIVINGS FUTSAL CAMP

Amazing news that I will be leading a futsal camp for Burlingame Soccer Club using our

Bay Area Futsal Club coaching methodology.

Monday 23rd to Friday 27th November 2020

9am to 12pm

Burlingamer Sports Centre

Spots limited

http://bsc.byga.net/f/o1yezpn2

THE COACHES SOCCER SUMMIT 2020

I am attending Soccer Coaches Summit 2020 organised by America Scores and America Scores Bay Area and supported by Soccer Today.

Also, I am delivering two talks about futsal (download clicking on the titles below):

•  Futsal & Small-Sided Games: How it Benefits
•  REPLAY HERE!
•  Fitness Conditioning for Futsal Players in a National Team
•  REPLAY HERE!

More info about my presentations clicking HERE!

Share if you think others will find this helpful. For FREE registrations please following the next LINK!

BENCHMARK54 - AN AMAZING TOOL TO MONITOR INJURIES & PERFORMANCE

Few weeks after I took charge of the International Futsal Academy (IFA) as new Head of Coaching & Sports Science I had a fantastic meeting in Loughborough University with Dr Laurence Heslop, co-founder of Benchmark54. In that meeting we agreed the use of the Benchmark54 platform within the IFA teams for the season 2014-2015 at free cost (thank you very much Dr. Heslop, I still appreciate it).

Now, almost 5 years after, working for Bay Area Futsal Club in California (USA), I have decided to review this fantastic platform that has grown amazingly. 

Benchmark54 system is multi-sport and multi user. It has four main attributes which allow you to manage your team across all disciplines and improve the integration between departments. Benchmark54 provides a fully comprehensive electronic medical record system with all the tools you would expect. Also, Benchmark54 helps you with the player load management as it tracks all activities and intensity in training and matches and your own specific GPS parameters in one place. Thirdly, the system helps sports science data record and analysis. Finally, Benchmark54 has a research driven data dashboard that brings all the data together, with inbuilt calculations and powerful ways to visualise data (data visualisation and analysis).

Benchmark54 allow you to:

• Add training data, attendance, duration and intensity. Upload GPS files and automatically match data.
• Record physiological, wellbeing, fitness and screening data.
• Add all injuries and illness and indicate effect on availability.
• Link injuries & illness with other data (load and other physiological measure for example).
• Track performance, injury incidence, team and individual player stats through their automated injury analytics dashboard.
• Review the year-on-year performance against historical data & league wide comparative data.
• Be part of their growing research community. Raining the standards in team sports medicine.

In the video above for example you can observe the training load, the monotony and the strain on one specific day. Also, you can observe the acute: chronic ratio and where the players are placed (high risk zone for soft tissue injury, moderate risk zone for soft tissue injury or sweet spot).

Finally, in the picture below you can see a whole month players availability, all the training sessions and their duration, games and minutes played, if players were missing and their reason...

This is only a briefly and small example of what Benchmark54 can provide to your organisation to know more about injury analytics and the power of data to support more effective athlete monitoring and injury prevention and management. 

COACHES' ASSESSMENT & FEEDBACK TOOL

The end of the season is usually a period of time to reflect, assess and evaluate the season to make adjustments and plan the next one. Part of this process should be to assess and give feedback to the coaches that work at your organization or club. Coaches should know the criterion that are going to be assessed on since the beginning of the season. This way, everyone is on the same page.

Following Dr. Wade Gilbert (2017) "quality program evaluation requires consideration of at least four factors: (1) identifying what should be evaluated; (2) collecting evidence from multiple sources such as athletes, coaches and administrator; (3) ensuring that the evaluation system and tools are practical; and (4) deciding how to communicate and use evaluation results." 

"The primary purpose of end-of-season evaluation procedures should be to help coaches improve" (Gilbert, 2017)

Here, I would like to present a tool designed by Hemmermeister (2010) and slightly modified. It is a questionnaire that contains 7 different categories (Philosophy & Ethics, Safety & Injury Prevention, Organizational Skills, Physical Conditions, Instructional Skills, Mental Skills, and Communication Skills). Each category has 4 items to be rated between 1 to 4 (ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), therefore there are a total of 16 points per category. The total number of points that coaches can get is 112. The tool is used for the coaches to self-rate how well they modeled behaviors related to the club standards. Also, the Director of Coaching or Head of Coaching rates every coach in the organization or club. 

The first thing that the tool gives us is the total number of points (i.e. 85 points out of 112), and the breakdown for points in each category. We will obtain 2 scores, the score self-given by the coach and the score given by the Director of Coaching. Besides, a radar graph is presented to see the disparity or similarity between both scores (Coach vs. Director of Coaching). 

Once we have those two questionnaires filled in, the points per category, the total points and the radar chart, the process begins. I totally recommend a one-to-one meeting with coaches to talk about the scores. 

1) Total score: The organization or club could stablish a target for all the coaches (i.e. minimum of 80 points) to achieve at the end of the season or an even more strict one with more levels and some actions to take if the coaches are between those scores.

2) Points/category: These scores will give you and your Director of Coaching where coaches have room to improve and where are performing accordingly to the standards of the club. Again, here the club must stablish some policies such as coaches must get at least 70% of the points in each category, or no less than 50% in two categories...

It is important to clarify that there is nothing right or wrong. A coach could self-rate a number four on punctuality and the Director of Coaching rate the coach with a number one. Maybe the reason is because the coach just arrives to the session 5 minutes before the session time and the Director of Coaching expects him to be there 30 minutes earlier to set up the field properly. This disparity in opinions is the main reason why it is very important to have everyone on the same page, be honest with the questionnaires, set the club's standards since the beginning of the season and have an-end-of-season personal meeting with all the coaches to give them feedback and if needed take actions.

BAY AREA FUTSAL CLUB-COMETA CAMP (ITALY)

Very happy for this new professional experience. This time in Como (Italy) where Bay Area Futsal Club will lead a multilingual futsal camp (Spanish, English and Italian). The camp is co-organised and hosted by Cometa Associazione Sportiva. The camp will take place between Monday to Friday and is led by the international Spanish futsal coach Dr. Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno, currently coaching Bay Area Futsal Club (California, USA) and Luca Innocenti, former Italian U21 international futsal player.

Daniel and Luca have recruited an amazing group of coaches to support the camp and give the kids the best possible experience. The staff is made up (apart from Daniel and Luca) by:

• Guillermo Wallace: England Futsal International Player. He has been playing for Union Africa Ceutí, Real Betis FSN and Prato Calcio-a-5. He is also the owner of the Wallace Futsal Academy.

• Rob Morini: Founder and player for Bay Area Futsal Club (California, USA).

• Abdesslam "Alessio Dinho" Benlamrabet: Italian U21 International Futsal player and Prato Calcio-a-5 player.

• Victor Hugo Rodriguez: coach at Cometa Associazione Sportiva.

Once the camp is over, Dr. Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno will deliver during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) a Futsal Level 1 Certificate and a Futsal Level 2 Certificate. More information about this event can be found below.

THE WORLD AT THEIR FEET: A COMBINED HISTORICAL RANKING OF NATIONS COMPETING IN FOOTBALL AND FUTSAL

A lot is being talked about futsal, football and their relationship. Recently, we have published a scientific study that investigates the relationship which exits between the two sports, by providing the first ever combined historical rank of nations competing in futsal and football.

The study developed by Sheffield Hallam University (UK) and Bay Area Futsal Club (USA) researchers has been published in the American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine and can be downloaded completely free HERE.

BAY AREA FUTSAL CLUB 2017 REVIEW

HISTORY

Bay Area Futsal Club was created in July 2017 to lead the development and growth of futsal in the Bay Area community and the whole United States. Bay Area Futsal Club aims to established itself as the leading futsal organisation in the state and the country by giving players the opportunity to have life enhanced experiences through this fantastic sport.

 MISSION STATEMENT

The Bay Area Futsal Club’s mission is to boost futsal in our Bay Area community by providing players an opportunity to play futsal delivered by professional, top-level international coaches, play high level futsal and develop their full potential in a long-term plan regardless of their financial situation. Our main goal is to use futsal to educate players in values that will help them in their future as people and citizens.

PROGRAMMES

1. Youth Futsal Training Camps: Bay Area Futsal Club Training Camps are designed for players of all abilities, boys and girls, aged 7-23 years old. Bay Area Futsal Club run half day camps (9-12pm) or full day camps (9-4pm). We offer to travel to your club to deliver the Futsal Camp at your own facility. 

2. Monday Night Drop-In Clinic: Every Monday for the remainder of 2017 join us at Burlingamer Sports Center for a drop in youth clinic.Any skill level welcome on Mondays for ages 6 years - 12 years.  $10 each time you attend. 6pm-7pm - Recreational Level 7pm-8pm - Competitive level.

3. 1-on-1 Training: Our professional coaches organizer and run futsal specific training for beginning level to competitive level players. Contact our professional coaching team to set up your private training session

4. Futsal Coaching Clinic: Bay Area Futsal Club truly believe that ongoing coaching education and continuous professional development are key to develop players and citizens. One of our aims is provide top class futsal education accessible to every coach, parent, club or organization. Bay Area Futsal Club organize coaching clinics, workshops, seminars, courses, and mentoring programmes for coaches that are willing to learn more about futsal regardless their level or background. Bay Area Futsal Club organize these events all year round through the season but if your club or organization wish our services do not hesitate to contact us and we are more than happy to give you advice and a specific proposal for your organization. 

5. Bay Area Futsal Club Youth League 2018: Bay Area Futsal Club will be hosting a Winter Youth Futsal League at our partner Burlingamer Sports Center from January - March 2018. We are looking for competitive level teams (Premier/Gold level) to make this the highest level youth futsal league in the Bay Area.

Important information:

- Start date, January 6th 2018

- 8 games in season - Top 2 go into championship after 8 weeks

- Cost - $650

- Ages: Boys and Girls U8, U10, U12

- Location: Burlingamer Sports Center, Burlingame CA 94010

6. Bay Area Futsal Club Winter Clinics 2018: Bay Area Futsal Club will be hosting a series of Winter Clinics at our partner Burlingamer Sports Center from January 7th - March 4th 2018. Sessions will be on Sundays at 3pm and 4pm. Please check the flyer below for more info and resgistration options.

PARTNERS 

At Bay Area Futsal Club we are always looking for the right groups to partner with and continue our growth. We would like to thank all our partners below for getting involved and being a part of our clubs history.  

1. CP Athletic Performance: Bay Area Futsal Club and CP Athletic Development have launched a Futsal development partnership. CPAD is a Bermuda based athletic development academy with a Futsal Academy program of over 60 members aged 6 to 27. This is an exciting alliance sprouting from two years of collaboration between respective head coaches Dr. Daniel Berdejo del Fresno and Peter Rickards. Spanish national, Coach Daniel is Head of Performance Futsal and men’s team Head Coach at BAFC. He delivered his Level 1 international Futsal certificate in Bermuda in 2016 and will return to the island in the fall of 2017 for the second phase.  

 The partnership will also includes:
- Coaching & curriculum exchanges
- Membership development opportunities
- Assessment and grading strategies
- Coaches certification

 CP Athletic Development Academy is committed to the continued progression of their members. On the heels of the success of their Alevin team at the World Futsal Championships last month, this partnership meets the Academy’s strategic objectives include increased global exposure and elevated learning environments. 

2. Ginga Sport: Gingasport.com has become the exclusive official provider of equipment to Bay Area Futsal Club. Gingasport.com and Bay Area Futsal Club have agreed that Gingasport.com will be the main provider of futsal equipment to all of our members in Bay Area Futsal Club. Gingasports.com was set up in August 2006, originally to provide equipment and help develop the sport of futsal in the United Kingdom. Since then we have seen many developments in futsal, and lots of people now embrace the exciting sport. In this time Gingasports.com has grown, as futsal has become more popular, to become the leading provider of futsal equipment in the United Kingdom. 

In 2014, Gingasport.com were able to provide a range of quality futsal products at reasonable prices including futsal balls, futsal kits, futsal goals, scoreboards and futsal surfaces. Their futsal balls are age specific and therefore designed for all ages from four to sixteen to ensure that young people are able to develop their skills using the most suitable sized futsal balls. They aim to support the grassroots development of futsal and also support futsal clubs to create sport specific environments using our unique sports surfaces provided by SportsPartner International.

In 2015, Gingasport.com started to sell and deliver futsal product to the USA through Amazon where they have built strong relationships with clubs and organisations.

Gingasport.com are always on the lookout for opportunities to support and develop futsal, therefore  they have decided to support a new team, with clear ideas and bright future, Bay Area Futsal Club.

3. Wallace Futsal Academy is the leading futsal Academy in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz, south of Spain) and have more than 100 kids playing futsal aged 8 to 14. Founded by Guillermo Wallace, a professional futsal player with more than 50 caps for the England National Futsal Team and currently playing in Italy, to give something back to his hometown community where he grew up and developed the futsal skills that made him to be the player that he is today.

4. Burlingamer Sports Centre is Bay Area Futsal Club's official training center and home court. We consider ourselves very lucky to be partnering with Burlingamer Sports Center, the only true futsal facility in the Bay Area.

This will be the location of all home games and training sessions throughout the season as well as the location of our Winter youth league.

Thank you Burlingamer Sports Center, we hope to bring much success to our new home location!

2107 REVIEW 

When in July 2017 Lee Mitchell and Rob Morini explained their futsal proposal and offered me to be their Head of Performance and work with their adult team I could not reject it. Also, I could not imagine what we were going to achieve in just 6 months.

We had 3 tryouts in August where we recruited 17 players (3 goalkeepers and 14 outfields players) with an age average of 25 years old, 5 of them U23. One of our aims was to recruit young players to teach them the real futsal game as the future of futsal in this country will be on them very soon.

Bay Area Futsal Club vs. San Jose Legends Futsal at Burligamer on 16th December 2017. Last game of the year!!

Since September, when we started the training sessions Bay Area Futsal Club players have had 32 practices, 4 friendly games (Toros FC, Futsal Without Borders, San Jose Legends Futsal away and San Jose Legends Futsal home) and the Menlo College Futsal Tournament where we registered 2 teams. I have to admit that it has been difficult, some times even frustrating as some of the players never played futsal before, but now, after looking back I have to admit that I am very proud of this group of players. On Saturday night, 16th December 2017, they delivered the game plan against San Jose Legends Futsal perfectly (see picture below). Of course, we still have a long way to go, but the improvements showed on the court since we started back in July 2017 have been massive.

Pre-game plan delivered to the players in the morning of Saturday 16th December before the match against San Jose Legends Futsal.

 Now, we will enjoy a small break for Xmas where staff and players will recharge our batteries ready for the challenges awaiting for us in 2018:

- US Futsal Northwest Regional Futsal Championship, March 2018 (San Jose, USA).

- Pacific Rim International Futsal Cup, June 2018 (Hawaii, USA).

- US Futsal National Championship, July 2018 (TBC, USA).

- National League of Professional Futsal, March to August 2018 (USA).

- An International Tournament most likely in Europe or Asia.

Thank you very much Adam Chazin-Gray, Adonis Tuman (GK), Alberto Millan, Andres Palomo, Enzo Cabili, German Ariel Lopez, Hugo Conchas, Joao Felipe Costa, Joel Castro (GK), Josue Eliseo "Joey" Galvez, Lee Mitchell (C), Michael Cordoba Chaves, Miguel Moran, Pablo Perez, Rob Morini (C), Sergio Rivera and Victor Miramontes for letting me coach you. You all are doing great and if you wish we will achieve great things in futsal!

Finally, I would like to thank to our main sponsor Ocean Honda of Burlingame for their help with our Club.

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FUTSAL INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Since I started my coaching career I have been always thinking about the different perceptions that players and coaches have about their level, their expectations, their commitment... which ultimately does not help to achieve the best out of them and consequently, the team. Recently, I have been working on a visual "Futsal Individual Performance Profile" that I would like to share with you. 

Firstly, I decided the aspects that I wanted to assess on my players and that they will self-assess too. I used Google Form to collect all the information from my players. The questionaire was made up by very simple aspects that they had to value using a Likert scale between 0 to 10. Basically, all the aspects could be grouped in the fitness corner, the technical aspects and mental or psychological compartment.

Second step was to present the data in a visual way that players could see easily where they have the strong points and where the weaknesses are (dips on the graph). At this point, you already have the data provided by the players and the ones given by you as a coach to every player, therefore you can see the diversity of opinions between players and coach.

I decided to give every player their own self assessment results in a visual way so they could see them. Besides, I offered them to provide their self assessment with my assessment so they could see the differences. This was optional for the players as I know how sensitive some players could be when they are assessed. In the picture above, we can observe the player's values in blue and coach's values in red. Finally, I offered them the possibility to have 1-to-1 meetings with me to try to understand each other's opinions. For me, this is the most valuable part of the process... as you can learn a lot from your players at the same time they can learn from you. It is very interesting how some players overrate themselves and on the other hand how some players with low selfsteem are really hard with themselves. Also, I learnt that the players that really want to improve and go further in their career are given themselves low scores.

To sum up, some players would like to compare themselves to the team, therefore a third line with the team average could be something worthy to add in the future.

LA FAMIGLIA FUTSAL CLUB CLINIC & EXHIBITION GAME

Dear Families,

I am excited to share a great Futsal opportunity and family event put on by a local professional Futsal team, La Famiglia Futsal Club.

Join The Burlingamer, Esparza FC and La Famiglia FC team members (many of whom are local youth soccer coaches), as they host an event offering futsal clinics for boys and girls followed by a Professional Futsal exhibition match for the entire family. 

Clinic spaces are limited so register now! https://goo.gl/forms/c7uzpJHBQBvFgT6I3

For more details, see flyer below.

 

About La Famiglia FC:

La Famiglia Futsal Club is the culmination of a family’s lifelong dream. Their ultimate goal is to bring beautiful, professional Futsal to the Bay Area, and along the way, provide outlaying communities with the opportunity to play Futsal and grow together through the sport. La Famiglia FC is a group of family members who all grew up playing soccer and futsal together in the Bay Area. Along the way they added their close soccer friends from over the years. La Famiglia FC is truly a family of soccer and futsal players, coming together to promote something special. They all love to play the game and believe it can be a great vehicle for peace, unity, diversity, community, and positive change.  

La Famiglia played their first professional season in the Major League Futsal (MLF) as a new franchise team in 2016. They placed 1st in the Western Conference and made it into the playoffs, where they lost in the semifinals to a great opponent from Mexico (Knowens Futsal). La Famiglia also played in the 2016 Regionals and Nationals Tournaments reaching the Finals in both. In 2017 La Famiglia was runner up in the Pacific Rim International Futsal Tournament, playing against a Japanese international team (PSTC Londrina FC) in Hawaii and won their first major tournament at Regionals in San Jose beating Knowens of Mexico. The 2017 Major League Futsal season is under way and the team is growing stronger as they keep training and working hard.

LA FAMIGLIA FC FUTSAL CLINIC & EXHIBITION MATCH

 

Great futsal opportunity and family event put on by a local professional Futsal team, La Famiglia Futsal Club.

Join La Famiglia team members as they host a Fundraising Event offering futsal clinics for boys and girls (2002-2005 birth years) followed by a fun Professional Futsal exhibition game for the entire family. Clinic spaces are limited so register now!

 

When: February 17,2017 starting @4pm

Session 1: 2002-2003 4-5:10pm

Session 2: 2004-2005 5:10-6:20pm

Exhibition Match kickoff 6:30pm

 

Where: Cubberley Pavilion, 4000 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto, CA 94306

 

Costs: Clinic+Match $80 (includes training, La Famiglia tshirt, water bottle and 1 raffle ticket); Match only $5

 

Clinic Registration: https://goo.gl/forms/Lv9qTILsYJPN2b463 

 

For more information contact:

Email: lafamigliafutsal@gmail.com

Call or Text: (650) 888-7086

About La Famiglia FC:

La Famiglia Futsal Club is the culmination of a family’s lifelong dream. Their ultimate goal is to bring beautiful, professional Futsal to the Bay Area, and along the way, provide outlaying communities with the opportunity to play Futsal and grow together through the sport. La Famiglia FC is a group of family members who all grew up playing soccer and futsal together in the Bay Area. Along the way they added their close soccer friends from over the years. La Famiglia FC is truly a family of soccer and futsal players, coming together to promote something special. They all love to play the game and believe it can be a great vehicle for peace, unity, diversity, community, and positive change.  

 

La Famiglia played their first professional season in the Major League Futsal (MLF) as a new franchise team in 2016. They placed 1st in the Western Conference and made it into the playoffs, where they lost in the semifinals to a great opponent from Mexico (Knowens Futsal). La Famiglia also played in the Regionals and Nationals Tournaments reaching the Finals in both. The team is growing stronger as they train hard for the upcoming season and they are looking forward to traveling to Hawaii to participate in an international tournament with teams from all over the world. More about La Famiglia @ http://lafamigliafc.teampages.com