| European Coaches Education Tour - Ajax Amsterdam |
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| on 12 Dec 2007 | |
 We woke up to some serious rain and drove to the Amsterdam Arena to to watch the 1st team of Ajax train next to the stadium.European Coaches Education Tour – 2007 – Blog #8 Ajax Amsterdam – Thursday, December 6th and Saturday, December 8th , 2007 Visit www.farpostreport.com for all the blogs of the Euro Tour 2007. We woke up to some serious rain and drove to the Amsterdam Arena to to watch the 1st team of Ajax train next to the stadium. Training Session – Ajax 1 – 2 days before the game against Willem II Warm-up with coordination coach – running/coordination Dribbling in a grid in 3’s – passing, 1-2 combinations, 3rd man runs Possession 7V7 plus 3 from each team on the outside - 3 touch - play to a katzer (bouncer) on the side and replace him - then to 2 touch - can not play the same player that gave you the ball Game in the same area as possession space 9V9 with targets Wine glass scoring exercise Crossing exercise Cooling down After the training session, we hit the Ajax Fan Shop, World Soccer for cup of coffee and then headed to De Toekomst (The Future) the home of the youth of Ajax. De Toekomst is a mini replica of The Arena and has a perfect view of the Stadium. The idea is to want to make the step from De Toekomst to the Arena. We watched several practices including the A1, A2, C1 and some individual training as well. The rain continued to come down and after the last training session was over , we headed back to the hotel. Our group returned on Saturday, December 8th to watch games and have a lecture with Jan olde Riekerink, the Head of Youth Education. Saturday, December 8th – De Toekomst We arrived at 9am to watch games all day. First the E age group (U10/11) was playing at the same time across the field. Then we watched the D2 and D3 play , followed up by the D1 coached by Frank de Boer. At 2:30 we saw a barn burner with the B2 against FC Omniworld B1 that ended 4-4. In between games we had a great lunch and a lecture with Jan olde Riekerink. Information on Ajax Amsterdam – Youth Education Jan olde Riekerink played 8 years pro, then he coached at Ajax in the U11, U12, U15 and U19 age group. After that he coached the 2nd Team of Ajax, was Assistant for the first team, coached the 2nd team again before leaving Ajax. Jan coached in the top Pro league in Belgium with Genk, then returned to coach Emmen in the Dutch 1st Division. After this he went to FC Porto as the assistant of Co Adrianse and then to Ukraine with Co at Shatkar Donestek. History - Ajax has a rich history of voetbal. Big name players who are well know world wide. 4 Champions League Cups. Many people try to copy the organization of Ajax, but have no history. The U.S. needs to build up the history. Philosophy – Ajax has a way of behaving and playing Voetbal. At Ajax, the members and fans want offensive , dominant, creative voetbal with individual skill and a possession game. Ajax has one way of thinking from the U8 until the 1st team. It is a difficult philosophy and in the last years they have not had much success. It makes it difficult to believe in it when there is not success, but they stick to it and overall it is a strength. Goal of Ajax Youth Education- 50% of the Ajax 1st Team players must be from the youth. Ajax scouts players from within 60 kilometers from ages U8-U11 and then at u12 and above, they will take players from anywhere. All the players are educated in the same way. No one can interfere with they youth department and the work of Jan and his staff. Jan is hired to guard the Philosophy of the Education of Players. Teams and Training – U9-12 train 3X per week and get gymnastics and judo U13-15 train 4X per week U16/17 train 5X per week U18/19 train 6X per week At U17 they start strength training with the kids and they get coordination training at all ages. Staff – 1 Director of Education 1 Director for U12 and below 1 coach per team Skills Coach Individual trainer for U16-19 most talented players Goalkeeper coach Running coach Multi Skills coach – judo, gymnastics 4 Medical staff School master and 14 part time teachers for ages U13 and above they attend ½ day at their own school ½ day of school at Ajax. Scouts – 3 Full time, 1 part time and 40 volunteer scouts Mental coach – not a psychologist because the players are talented and healthy Jan stated that there have been many changes since he left Ajax several years ago. The whole youth program has more teams and is more difficult to organize. Ajax has not moved forward and NEED TO HAVE THE ATTITUDE THAT THEY CAN AND MUST LEARN EVERYDAY!!!! Ajax has been acting like they are good, but are not good enough. He hopes to help changes this. It is a big job. System of Play – U8 and U9 – 7V7 U11 – 19 = 1:3:4:3 Ajax feels that is the best system for developing children because of the field coverage and balance. All teams are required to build up from the back. In the education they will lose games in order to learn the build up. Each position has certain qualities and they must educate the players. The biggest issue in his opinion is ANTICIPATION. Ajax needs players who have movement off the ball who are flowing and concentrated. Top Talent have the quality to get into the flow and remain concentrated. Finding talent - AJAX IS MORE INTERESTED IN VOETBAL THAN ANYTHING ELSE. Speed is important, but it is more important to read the game and be in the right position to be faster. Details of the GAME are more important of details of speed. Holland is a unique country. They have always been adventurous and had many colonies and when out to conquer. Holland does not wait, they go for it. Coaches and people are living and working world wide. This is reflected in the Voetbal. When Ajax beat Luxembourg 1-0 to qualify for the Euro 2008, the result was not good enough, the fans whistled and even left the stadium early. Structure of Staff – Jan olde Riekerink - Overall director and director of U16-19 – focused mor on tactics and less on technique. Use video analysis and master skills program. Marten Steelkenburg – Director of U12-15 – focused ½ on tactics and ½ on technique. They are growing and have difficulties in the time of puberty. Patrick Ladru – Director of U8-11 – teach skills an technique mainly with a small part of tactics. Questions – If anticipation is one of the most important qualities, how do you teach it? It is normal that young players are going to dream and not stay concentrated all the time. U13 is the moment in tactical way that children change. At this time, you they can handle more information tactically and then get better at anticipation. What is the most important part of your job? Guard the philosophy, manage the entire program, educate in the way to train and guard the behaviour of the coaches and players. How much are you on the field and off the field? Right now it is 20% on the field and 80% off the field, but my goal is to have it 50/50. What is the budget of the Ajax youth department? 4 million euros! Can you tell us more about the Master Skills program for talented players? Every 6 weeks 2 talented players are selected from the U16/17/18 and U19 teams and train 2 days per week with experts like Wim Jonk (former Ajax and Inter Milan player) and Frank de Boer. They focus on individual strengths and weaknesses. How important is education (school)? Education is #1. If the players do not perform in school, they are out of Ajax. Discipline is also very important and Ajax has strict rule like no ipods, hats or phones once they come in the gate. How do you educate your coaches? Each group U16-19, U12-15 and U8-11 meet once per week, and they meet 2X per month as a staff. How do you educate yourself? I learn from the other coaches especially when we have discussions. I have a lot of experience, but throughout the year have education moments. At the moment, I am learning from my job, getting educated from a new situation since many of the Ajax youth coaches are past players with big names and big experience. What are your goals at Ajax? To become MORE PROFESSIONAL and have NEW DEVELOPMENTS. It is a challenge to organize it all and I make mistakes. How do you evaluate players? Each game we give them goals, and 2X per year we do a formal evaluation based on TIPS. Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed. We give them a grade of A – talented enough for Ajax and can come back BA – in between B – have doubts about returning BC – in between C – no way they will be back The kids have little time for other hobbies. The players are talented. At Ajax they call it BORN LUCK and the kids all want to spend their time trying to make it as a voetballer. Do the kids get breaks? Yes they break from December 20-Jan 7th and get 6 weeks break in the summer. How many new players per year does Ajax bring in? In the youngers ages more, and the older ages less. About 2 per year per team. Do you have problems with T.V. , video games and computers? Yes a bit, but most players want to play Voetbal. It does effect the concentration because if is short impulses. Do the kids watch a lot of Voetbal? They all get a season ticket to Ajax and most are completely in love with the game. After the lecture and youth games, we drove to Tilburg to watch Willem II – Ajax. Ajax won 2-3 , but Willem II dominated. The goalkeeper and defense of Willem II made 2 mistakes for goals. It was an electric atmosphere. Willem II has a small stadium that was sold out. It was raining and the game was very open and fought very hard until the end. After another great day of Voetbal, we drove back to Amsterdam. |
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