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Following Football Development Schools (FDS) successful
Easter tour to Holland, a second tour to Brondby was arranged and it
proved to be an excellent challenge for all concerned, with many of the
boys learning massive amounts from the five day trip.
For the FDS staff the trip is split into two categories: 1) The
preparation to being successful and 2) Developing a better footballing
understanding to being better performers on the pitch. The later can
only be achieved if the former is in place. This again would be paramount
in the players learning outcomes during the tournament.
 While the teams would go to the tournament with the intention of
progressing as far as possible, the learning outcomes would come from the
defeats and bigger challenges off the pitch. During the boys stay they
would learn massive lessons in diet, rest, taking on information and sheer
determination in wanting to be the best. Ultimately the boys needed to
understand that to be the best is far harder work than settling for second
best and that there is no easy route to being an elite performer.
It was especially interesting to the coaches to see the attitude of the
players who were on their second tour. These boys were able to use their
experiences of the first tour and produce excellent performances on the
pitch along with understanding all the small things that would benefit
them off the pitch. For the tour first timers it was interesting to see
how they would cope in learning certain lessons. The phrase for the boys
was: "you can learn the easy way by being able to take on information or
learn the hard way by suffering the consequences of not listening and
acting upon information."
Regarding the footballing action the teams that faired the best over the
five days were the groups of players who were able to adapt to life off
the pitch the best. Of the two U10 sides the best performance would come
from the team, which rested and ate the most. With the food not being of a
five star standard the boys who forced themselves to eat produced the more
sustainable high levels, while the team who struggled with their diet and
rest ultimately went out in the quarter-finals with a whimper.
 For the 2nd U10 team they would lose on penalties in the semi-finals,
where having fought extremely hard to get back on level terms during
normal time, they would ultimately produce a poor performance in the shoot
out and would learn a valuable lesson in the mentality of winners at
penalties. It is not luck!
The older group had a considerable age bracket to work in and there were a
number of exceptional performances from this tour party. The boys
displayed wonderful maturity in how they conducted themselves off the
pitch, while certain individuals excelled in some really challenging games
on the pitch. A quarter final finish was marked progress for this squad.
Finally the coaches would like to thank the boys for being a pleasure to
work with over the five days. They represented FDS with great enthusiasm
and behaviour and have help FDS forge a greater reputation on the
continent. As a growing number of invitations come into FDS to take part
in future tournaments, we look forward to future tours.
"The will to win is NOT as important as the will to PREPARE to win"
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