NEWS - APRIL: A BUSY TIME

The FDS Academy, while still in its infancy regards how long it has been running, the months of April and May will not be a time for players and staff to rest on their laurels. With a full fixture programme for the U9's and 10's during this time and with matches coming up close together, the coaches hope to reinforce the high standards the programme demands of the players, and following May both the U9's and U10's boys will be going on tours to help develop their understanding of elite habits further.

Further developments have seen the U8's immerse themselves within the structure further and a u7's Gold group formed for our best performing players of this age from the Development Centres. Over the Easter period both these squads were invited to take part in matches against Histon and WBA where they played in 4V4's against their hosts.

Following the Holland tour the coaches will be looking to develop the Academies traveling culture further, and take great interest in developing a fun and enjoyable environment for the boys to travel in. The minibus trips help the coaches get to know the boys better while giving the players the opportunity to enjoy each others company and develop team cohesion. The U7's appreciation of Johnny Cash's "A boy named Sue" was just one of the many benefits of traveling to venues together.

It is also pleasing to see that a number of the boys are taking up the opportunity to come to the residential, which while predominately a Development Centre based initiative the prospect of greater contact time with certain Academy players helps the coaches develop the culture further and help reinforce the many habits which constitute an elite player.

While the coaches have been pleased with the foundations put in place during the first four months of Academy life. There is still a massive amount of work to be done in creating the best possible football education for the players in the programme, with thousands of little things to be put in place to make the programme that much better.

By the time the short summer break is upon the Academy, the coaches hope that the boys appreciate the hard work and dedication it requires to achieve elite status in sport and that thousands of little things done well will help create that elite athlete.

There is no substitute for hard work.