The 7th “Academy Refresh”, a part of training programme for certified coaches, was held in Tokinosumika, Shizuoka on 31 October and 1 November, gathering as many as 44 such coaches. The Day 1 contained observation of U-18 training, a lecture on core training and a lecture on the concept of JFA Academy. On Day 2, a practical class session was carried out including interactive discussions designed for the training not to be simply a one-way lecture.

Comment from Instructor

IJIRI Akira, Coach of JFA Academy Fukushima U-18
We offered a practical class under the theme of “possession.” The class illustrated basic drills like 3 on 1, 4 on 2, 5 on 3 and 4 on 4 with goalkeeper, all of which should be being used in their own team’s training. As the course master Nuno introduced our concept, “It’s only 4 on 2. But 4 on 2 can do a lot,” we let participants experience how our academy believes simple things do matter. We also had some of them play a role of a coach and discussed the coaching they just performed to make the class more participatory. I feel the class turned out to be very fruitful with lively exchanges of views and questions from the participants.

Even with the short two-day training, there were a lot of people coming out here from across the nation. Along with our football family, we academy staff members also will continue to make efforts to pursue, “JAPAN’S WAY,” where Japanese football is supposed to head.

Comments from Participants

Mr.NUKUI Yuta
Instructors gave participants opportunities to discuss with each other, and their answers to our questions were also clear. There was no uniform way of thinking like “it must to be like this,” but they have a broad perspective and look at football from various angles. That was a very good learning experience.

When I take part in the class like this, I find lots of coaches who tend to forget to put themselves in the position of players’ shoes, and I feel I’m one of them. Through the practical class, I spent fruitful time rethinking about how coaches should be from a perspective of players. I wanted to see more types of training under other themes.

Mr.AOKI Takahiro
Based on the key points of the training theme, all sessions were clearly interrelated to each other as friendly and open-minded instructors offered practical training to achieve the programme’s objective: to learn activities and approaches of the Academy, to understand the essence and purpose of the Academy, to improve our skills coaching through our own training and to make use of all of those for developing players.

I was impressed with instructors’ timing and time and word choices when they were coaching. If there would be any chance, I felt like spending a longer time with them and looking at the whole series of their coaching. I’ve got lots of findings out of the class.