News

Youth-development curriculum

With Keith Tozer now serving as USYF's technical director and putting new emphasis on coaching education and licensing, what better time to share a player-development outline from Nacho Garrido, who lives in Murcia, Spain, and presently coaches in the first division in France.

Nacho -- his full name is Ignacio Jose Garrido Gallego -- is 42, educated as a lawyer and enjoyed a successful playing career with El Pozo Murcia and other professional futsal teams until retiring in 2006.
We've edited out the names Nacho uses for the various age groups since they might be confusing to American and Canadian coaches. If there are phrases or terms that are unfamiliar, we suggest you email Nacho and inquire. He is very responsive and will answer your questions.

We appreciate Nacho's contribution to USYF and its growth as the nation's leading futsal organization, both in player development and coaching education. You can learn more at Nacho's blog (www.nachofutsalcoach.blogspot.com) and contact him by email at nachofutsalcoach@gmail.com.

-- David Knopf, Futsal World Editor, davidknopf48@gmail.com
This article aims to provide guidance and tools to structure the programming of a futsal school in the various stages, showing in each of them the objectives of work that must be configured.
-- Nacho Garrido

6-7 years
At this stage we need to focus on psychomotor coordination, using the game as a central driver in training sessions and using exercises where varied abilities and skills have an important role and where the quick movement take special care on introducing individual technique based on familiarity with the ball, like oculus foot-ball exercises and oculus hand-ball ones, without neglecting cooperative group games and opposition and initiating certain physical practices to develop some specific conditional capacities.

Learning Objectives
- 1. Improve overall coordination capacities based on the skills and abilities that the player already has.
- 2. Using games based on learning cooperation and opposition, races, jumps, receptions, balances, turns, shoots and combinations thereof.
- 3. Initiate basic coordination futsal skills
- 4. Use exercises based on foot-ball eye coordination, hand-ball oculus: pipes ball, passes, receptions, stops, checks and shots on goal.
- 5. Compensated developing of every muscle group with exercises based on transport sets, cuadrupedias, fighting games and other age-appropriate systems for gamers and players.
- 6. Start work at the speed of reaction and gesture with and without the ball.
- 7. Start work based endurance laps and up to three minutes.
- 8. Maintain the level of flexibility based on joint mobility exercises.

Conceptual
- 9. Know the development of the game.
- 10. Know some basic rules of futsal
- 11. Know some sporting habits.

Attitudinal
12. Interpret the defeat and victory correctly.
13. Evaluate, accept and promote respect for the opponent, the referee and the public.
14. Evaluate, accept and promote the sporting habits willingly.
15. Show a positive attitude and respect for your teammates, the coach and the training proposed.

8-9 years
- Be familiar with the ball
- Short pass proficiency
- Begin to make the following technical performances: hit (skip and auction) for medium distance
- Ball control and driving
- Simple dribble
- Tackles
- Making sense of group
- Learn to accept the referee decisions
- Learn to train with own responsibility

10-11 years
- General motor speed coordination through games of persecution, relay ...
- Mastering the pass and control techniques
- Driving to protect and keep the ball
- Begin to make the following technical performances: dodge compound
- Driving speed
- Constant application of the exercises into the game, lose your marker and supports
- Learning to share the tasks within the group or team.

12-13 years
- Start with general resistance training through specific games, flexibility ... (teaching the right moves)
- Properly perform striking of the ball with toe.
- Right tactical movements: teaching game systems
- Types of marking and defense (zonal, mixed, man)
- Set plays or strategy actions
- Right occupation of the pitch and creating spaces
- Offensive and defensive team game 
- Lose the marker to help and to find the space (long)
- Be aware of the game without the ball

14-15 years
- Use with more accuracy and speed all technical performances in game situation
- Strengthen the specific technique of each position 
- Coordination among the players between the attack and defense 
- Organize team tactics in attack and defense
- Improve the game without the ball
- Knowledge of the set plays
- Big domain of the body in individual disputes
- Learn to support the rivalry

16-18 years
- Get the player ready to enter senior-age futsal competition 
- Refinement stage
- Dominate the defensive aspects of the game for the team (go back, marking, tackle, interception .. etc.) regarding to the counter-offensive opposition (game system ...)
- Dominate the 3 phases of the offensive game: beginning, progression and ending in relation to the defensive tactic of the opponent team (type marking, type of withdrawal ....)