Optimizing Individual Performance of Youth Players Within Academies
A Symposium in Hungary
(l-r): John Owens, Gary Ireland, Bruno Loureiro, Alberto Lampo, Peter Horvath speaking at the symposium
May 21st, 2022
The symposium 'Optimizing Individual Performance of Youth Players Within Academies’ was held at the Center for Football Education & Methodology facility located within the Puskas Academy FC facility in Felcsút, just out side of Budapest.
100+ participants attended the event on May 19th, 2022. Attendees included Directors from all Hungarian football academies and the Hungarian FA, and club directors of 10 clubs from Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Romania affiliated with Hungarian football as part of Puskas Academy Carpathian Basin Academy System.
Soccerbook Consulting Directors Gary Ireland and Carine Ireland went on a short 4 day visit to beautiful Hungary, where their long time colleague and one of Hungary’s leading coaches, specializing in long term technical development of players, Technical Director of Puskas Academy youth sector Peter Horvath, and the Puskas Center for Football Education & Methodology, invited them as special guests to the symposium.
Accompanying Gary and Carine was Soccerbook Consulting client John Owens who was invited by Gary and Carine to present his work at the symposium as a speaker. Gary and Carine’s previous visit to Hungary was in Spring 2018 as guests of Peter Horvath, where they attended the Puskás Suzuki U17 Cup, one of Europe’s top youth tournaments regularly featuring Real Madrid, Flamengo and Bayern Munich with Puskas Academy as reigning champions.
From this symposium and this visit, they learned that Puskas Academy will host similar events in the future with some of the world’s leading clinicians and greatest minds in youth development. Their impression is that Puskas Academy is not only a club and youth academy but also a learning hub, and an example for best practices nationally and internationally, and that it is focused on being a center of innovation that intends to host many similar multi-sport events with football at the forefront.
About the Puskas Academy and Hungarian Football
The facility, located just 20 minutes east of Budapest, is considered to be one of Europe’s most beautiful football facilities, and is home to the stadium know as the ‘Pancho Arena’ - Pancho being the nickname given to Ferenc Puskas as a player at Real Madrid. see video of facility.
This unique and beautiful stadium serves as the first team (3rd place Hungarian 1st Division) and youth team facility, a Ferenc Puskas museum, training fields & hotel. Described as ‘Lord of The Rings’-esque in appearance and presence by the Juventus coaches in attendance, the venue pays homage to Ferenc Puskas, one of the most famous and prolific football players in history who was the top player for one of the best teams in history.
Between 1950 and 1956 The Mighty Magyars, “The Golden Team,” set the world alight by beating England 6:3 and 7:1, Englands heaviest defeat to this day. In 2016 the BBC listed the Hungary team as the best ever team in history of football. Hungary is credited for successfully implementing an early form of "Total Football", later used effectively by the Dutch in the 1970’s. Hungary is also recognized for the introduction of new, scientific coaching and tactical innovations, which were subsequently adopted throughout the game- players were taught and encouraged to be versatile and for players to be able to play in any position. Coincidentally one of the biggest influences on Hungarian football was English coach Jimmy Hogan who placed technique as the most important facet of the game laying the foundation for ‘Total Football’, credited to the Dutch but actually inspired by the Hungarians. Hungarian football led the world in innovation.
Technical Director of Puskas Academy Peter Horvath’s presentation ‘Impact of Technique on Individual Decision Making’ focused on position specific techniques and concepts, relevant to all systems/formations and style of play and the importance of optimizing individual technique & implementation.
Simon Ireland and Gary Ireland have been working with Peter since 1992 as teammates and coaching associates and through Peters working with and for the Ireland’s in California they share many similar values and philosophies.
Gary Ireland contributed indirectly to Peter’s presentation after 25 years of collaborating with him on the philosophy and application of Peter's individual training model, specifically the IO ‘input’ & ’output’ terminology phrase Gary created which Peter used to describe how technique impacts the skill. The ‘input-output’ terminology (otherwise known as what Gary describes as ‘pre-moves’) was inspired by peoples’ fascination with ‘moves’ which Gary points out that many coaches and players didn’t understand or failed to consider the critical moments before and after the actual ‘move’. When Gary worked with Simon Ireland as Assistant to Wiel Coerver in Dubai he heard Wiel Coerver used the word ‘actions’ frequently to describe what others called ‘moves’. Actions are different to ‘moves’ because action has a broader meaning. Whereas many see ‘moves’ as the actual stand-alone movement which can often be eye catching and where a duel can be won or lost, many other things actually go into creating that magical game changing moment.
John Owens, the former coach and Manager of Liverpool FC (19 years) & former assessor of EPL & MLS Academies & Doublepass Auditor presented his 'Principles of Play-Decision Making’ which is widely used by national federations curriculums, on UEFA courses and clubs and coaches associations worldwide.
John has coached many well known players such as Robbie Fowler, England and Liverpool captain and current Aston Villa Manager Steven Gerrard, Trent Alexander Arnold, Steve McManaman, Jamie Carragher, European Player of The Year Michael Owen, Wolves Captain Conor Cody.
The emphasis of John’s presentation placed on the importance and implementation of technique and relevance to systems, tactics, formation and strategy as the area of 'subjective probability in football decision making’, which is critical to decision making. Principles of Play (POP) has featured prominently in the Croatian Football Federation's Development curriculum book.
John has also presented to the Trinidad and Tobago FA and his work has featured at the home page for 'The Coaching Manual.’ John has presented many times to USA youth clubs and leagues, some of whom use Principles of Play as the foundation of their coaching including GM & DOC of leading girls youth football club PSV Union FC. Peter Horvath has been using Principles of Play after seeing it on a Liverpool Football Academy visits. John's chart has been used by former Liverpool FC and Celtic coach and current Leicester City manager Brendan Rogers according to Modern Soccer Coach. John also presented to NorCal Premier soccer league in the USA and in 2019 John presented Principles of Play at the Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC) coaching symposium. John also delivered Principles of Play to professional clubs and their academies on behalf of Belgian company DoublePass including EPL, EFL, MLS/USA, Italy, Norway, Greece Japan J-League, India and Canada. For 19 years John Owens Principles of Play chart was displayed at the entrance of Liverpool FC Academy for visitors from every corner of the world to see including Academy players and staff coaches at Liverpool Football Club.
Former Liverpool FC Academy coach Gary Ireland contributed to John Owens presentation and he presented FAQ’s and Q&A’s from the audience on the subject of Principles of Play/Decision Making. Gary explained with John the meaning behind Principles of Play and its philosophical, cultural, educational impacts on the model and how style of play, systems of play, formation, tactics, physical training overlay with these principles.
The emphasis of John’s presentation is placed on importance of and implementation of technique and relevance to systems, tactics, formation and strategy as the area of 'subjective probability in football decision making’, which is the critical underlying foundation of player decision making.
Gary, Carine and John have been working together since 2003 after Gary’s coaching tenure at Liverpool FC Academy under John and Gary’s work as Assistant to Wiel Coerver at Al Wasl Club in Dubai (methods of training individual technique to optimize team performance) has enabled him to specialize in optimizing individual performance within systems based coaching with a focus on how professional Academies can allow creative development within a structured Academy system allowing for not only effective player performance but to develop entertaining players. With the emphasis on not only clubs seeking results but also to provide entertainment to attract and retain clubs’ fan base, club owners realize that fans are not only attracted to the match result but the aesthetic of the performance as well as the added incentive of enhancing player valuation.
Alberto Lampo and Bruno Loureiro from Italian Series A club Juventus
Alberto and Bruno discussed on the topic of individual technical and tactical development area with a special focus and attention on the single player, and the importance of demonstrating materials. They presented their ‘pre-during-post’ technical modules within practice sessions for what they call ‘golden players’ and provided excellent insight into how they approach player development and individualized training modules within their Academy structure. Their practical demonstration used wingers to illustrate their practice plan after Alberto expertly demonstrated combination movements with the Puskas youth players.
The commencement of his exercises impressed Gary and Carine due to the 'activation' movement (split feet action) which required players to mobilize and get into the ready position. This is something that isn't seen often enough when coaches are training youth players.
Of particular interest was their approach to using the game example as the learning opportunity by extracting moments of the game and identifying the action to bring the action to the training field as they believe the emotion of the game is more easily to recall by the player which in turn will accelerate learning. Also of interest was their appreciation of the benefit of uneven playing fields which offer unpredictable bounce of the ball, thereby requiring players to anticipate well in advance the delivery, flight and deviation of the ball. This was contrasted in their support of futsal as a training supplement, not a replacement. Their well rounded perspective of the game was shared by the other presenters in this matter.
Afternoon field sessions were held to demonstrate some of the theories and exercises presented.
Theoretical presentations by guest coaches were made in the morning sessions and in the afternoon Peter Horvath presented the guest clinicians practical sessions from Puskas Academy and Juventus on the field and described the exercises which were illustrated by Puskas Academy coaching staff players in front of 100 coaches.
About the Puskas Cup
On June 2-6, 2022 Puskas Academy will once again host one of Europe’s most prestigious youth professional tournaments. The 12th Puskás Suzuki U17 Cup which Puskas Academy are current champions will feature Puskás Academy, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos, Flamengo, Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon, Genk and Honved. Bayern Munich are unable to attend, however, in their place Dinamo Kiev who are-in part currently being hosted by Puskas Academia will participate.
