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Last summer, Valdas Dambrauskas, a football coach from Lithuania working in England, contacted EuroFootball.com and [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=3813"]shared his impressions[/link] from the famous "Man Utd" kids training camp. This year, the coach once again shared his thoughts about the interesting experience and offered his insights to EuroFootball.com visitors.
For the second summer in a row, I had the opportunity to work at the "Man Utd" Soccer Schools (MUSS) football camp. The small village of Denstone attracts hundreds of children from around the world every summer, eager to play football. They are provided with the best conditions here - excellent quality football fields, various football training tools, football technique testing equipment create a serious working atmosphere. Tennis courts, squash courts, basketball halls, swimming pools, and even a golf course are available for active relaxation.
This summer at MUSS was special. Special in that the geography of players expanded greatly. If last year children from 32 countries participated in the camp, this year there were children from 55 different countries. I had the opportunity to train children from exotic countries such as Kuwait, Palestine, Lebanon, Costa Rica, Mexico, teams from Singapore, and more. More and more often, children from Lithuania's neighboring countries, such as Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, could also be seen at MUSS.
The schedule for players was based on the "Man Utd" academy, where substitutes for the main team are prepared. The children train twice a day: two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. Afternoon sessions include seminars, games, and rest.
This year, besides football training, a lot of attention was focused on the psychological preparation of players. Each day was dedicated to a different football psychology theme, for example: goal setting, positive affirmations, positive thinking, visualization. All these psychological aspects widely used in professional clubs were simplified for the training sessions.
The fact that MUSS is a leading camp in the world was confirmed by the visit of Juventus' coaching director Attilo Malfatti to the MUSS camp. He spent a week as a guest, observing the work of the coaches, the organization of the camp, looking for ideas. On several occasions, we had very interesting conversations with the guest. MUSS and the Turin "Juventus" football schools are preparing to cooperate further, exchange ideas, and coaches.
While the MUSS camp was taking place, the Nike Premier Cup football tournament was held in Manchester. Each year, several hundred of the best children's football teams in the world participate in this tournament. The U-15 tournament, where the stars of tomorrow play, attracts the most attention. This year, champions from their respective countries participated, such as Milan's "Inter", "Sao Paolo", Berlin's "Hertha", "Club Brugge", "Orlando Pirates" (PAR), "Urawa Red Diamonds" (Japan), "Chivas" (Mexico), "Universidade de Cattolica" (Chile), "Ferencevaros" (Hungary), "Arsenal", "Man Utd", and more.
I had the chance to witness several matches of this tournament that left an unforgettable impression. It is simply incomprehensible how 15-year-olds can demonstrate such high-class football, which would certainly surpass our "A League" in terms of excitement. During this tournament, I had the opportunity to shake hands with the famous "Man Utd" coach, Alex Ferguson.
Such camps provide invaluable experience and are an extremely good school for all football coaches. Perhaps one day the experience gained will be useful in Lithuania as well.
