Our Mission

What is F4A Youth Academy?

 

We celebrate each child's differences so that they always belong.

The F4A Youth Academy is a youth development organisation for 7-16 year olds set up with the sole aim of developing the performance of young football players, regardless of ability, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference or disability.

We are independent in both ownership and status. We do not align with any football clubs and have the expressed aim of developing players for the love of the game and the benefits it brings to individuals, their communities and wider society.

We are performance orientated, which means that we treat all of our players as individuals, who regardless of ability or function can improve their playing ability, skills, technique and engagement with the game of football.

We strive for excellence in all we do, at all levels, and are in the profession of developing young people, through football and fitness.

 

 

Footballing Philosophy

​

We recognise that every child is an individual

F4A believes that  by incorporating skill, technique, understanding the game and possession are the keys to developing performance as an all round footballer.
 

These key areas drive our coaching planning and delivery, by developing existing skills, and introducing new ones, mastering techniques, reading the game, being able to position yourself in the best place to receive or give the ball, managing the game and keeping and retaining possession.

​

Our Curriculum

​

We operate on a termly basis and each term will focus and develop each young person using the four corner model based on a particular topic:

​

• Technical and tactical

• Psychological

• Physical

• Social

 

We aim to spend time progressively developing skills and techniques and putting them into practice in simulated situations.

Young people learn by doing, practicing, understanding, drilling until technique are mastered and put into practice.

Players can join the academy at any point in a term and because we focus on the individual so that the young person will master the techniques quickly and involve them in their performance development.

We generally do not play full sided games, either in our sessions or against other teams, instead skill will be practised and implemented in lots of small exercises that simulate high pressure and quick thinking with as much ball contact as possible, and at times implemented in smaller games.

 

We are a development academy, so we will either expect our players to be playing for their own teams, or we can help find them teams to join. Our services focus on development rather than team playing progression. Occasionally we may put together an invitational squad to play in a tournament or competition, but this is in addition to our development coaching.

We will also run football training camps during holiday times, or have masterclasses run by outside coaches who may specialise in particular skills, or allied subjects that enhance our players, eg) fitness, nutrition, leadership, social issues, or campaigns etc.

The concept behind our curriculum is to keep them focused, keep them progressive, keep them developing as well-rounded individuals.

Our sessions are player focused, developing skills and knowledge, whilst being fun and educational, not just footballing but in regard to active and healthy lifestyles, helping young people make positive choices about their lives and the way they want to live.

​

We believe in investing in our staff.  All of our them are FA qualified, and receive regular training by us for their own development including emergency first aid, autistic and neuro-divergent training, safeguarding and performance training.

​

​