Total Football Excellence players were taken through their paces by two experienced Arminia Bielefeld coaches at their training base in Waterfall.
The aim was to provide academy players, in all divisions, with German philosophies and techniques led by Sebastian Schächter and Jörg Conrad.
Technical director of the academy, David Ribeiro, who was also in attendance on January 31, said they partnered with an international digital football assistant app based in Germany and through this partnership, they were introduced to the coaches.
Ribeiro described the training session as ‘well-structured and very technical’. “The players progressed from basic to intricate technical drills and finally into small-sided games which allowed them to use elements they had just mastered in a match-related activity. It was interesting to note how the coaches used different methods to not only improve technique but forced the players into making their own decisions and choices of when to use those different techniques,” said Ribeiro.
Ribeiro said they were fortunate enough to have the German coaches give the training sessions as well as evening coaching education classes in which each aspect of the training was dissected, explained, and the reason for each step of the training identified.
“The two methodologies work hand in hand. Our goal as a club is to ensure each and every player is technically equipped to perform on the field. The methodology used in the session was to first improve technique and then allow players to choose when to use these techniques in a match-related scenario. As a club we will definitely be implementing this transition from ball mastery to match-related activities within our training sessions,” concluded Ribeiro.
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