NEWS - JANUARY: WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM 2008?

They talk about all good teams having a good base to work from and it would be fair to say 2007 was all about strengthening the core values of Football Development Schools (FDS) to help the future growth of the business moving forward. Having set up the Academy in January 07 the initiative would need special attention to ensure it would be a success and be a programme based on solid foundations. Looking back a year on, the Academy is unrecognisable from the first few months as the programme moved forward and developed with each session.

Tours, Residentials and fixtures have all developed considerably throughout the year and the reputation of FDS with people we have come into contact is a reputation the company can be proud of. Moving into 2008 and with some good experience behind us, the coming year should be a time for the Academy to grow further. Adding age groups and looking to provide our players with the best possible football education possible remains the focus and continuing to provide this in a stable development minded programme is the core to future success.

Stability at the elite level has also helped the development centres to provide a level of stable skill acquisition for our players. Players are now able to come in and learn the FDS way of doing things, which helps them to develop at their pace rather than being fast-tracked into something that is changing. Now with the Academy firmly in place the development centre players can look forward to having further opportunities in 2008, with fixtures, tours and residentials all in the process of being organised. In growing the programme further FDS will also be starting up two new centres as we further expand into new areas.

The process of developing footballing ability in children needs to have a starting point, and the community based work FDS offers remains the source to all of our other initiatives we have. Participation while massively important should not mean the service is any less and children’s participation in football needs to be about learning and enjoying the game. The fundamentals of enjoyment in any sport is about being an active participator, so ensuring all the children that come on our course’s get loads of touches of the ball remain the cornerstone to all that we do.

FDS have excellent relationships with many schools in our different regions and the support and confidence they show in how we provide football at their schools continues to help us thrive in this area. A growing number of highly qualified and excellent coaches joining the FDS team mean the net is ever increasing and we can grow our programme further.

Curriculum based work has expanded this year and means we have a great opportunity to help share our expertise and help develop children’s core ability with the fundamentals of physical development.

Saturday morning football will continue to grow as a form of participation at the community level and FDS will be striving to help ignite people’s enthusiasm for the game of futsal, by developing upon the annual tournament. In doing this we will look to set up more tournaments in different areas.

With all that we offer, it is important that we have a vehicle to communicate all that we do and 2007 saw FDS become the 1st coaching company in the UK to use pod-casting and video pod-casting through their website. 2008 will see us further develop our use of the latest technology to help players, parents and interested parties in understanding how and why we do things at FDS.

Progress can only be maintained by having an excellent staff behind what we do and moving into 2008 FDS have an excellent quality of dedicated staff working in all three areas of the programme, and central to it all is the understanding between coach and players in developing better players in all areas of the game.