centre of excellence

The National Centre of Excellence program has been running for the past 2 years and was recommended to all clubs at the time of its introduction.

The only club that has taken the program seriously has been Ballart City and for the past 2 years their program has gone from strength to strength.

Broken up into 4 sections, it begins with a special introductory course which runs over 5 weeks for preps and grades 1 & 2 where the basic principles of futsal and ball control are taught.

The sessions last 1 ½ hours, which is sufficient to teach children some basics, and sets the seed and desire for those who want to play futsal. With these courses repeated 6 times a year it gives children of a young age the opportunity to sharpen their skills of ball control, which is vital to the game of futsal. A lot of the program has now been adapted to music and there are major reason for this which are explained on the courses by Senior coaching staff. It is interesting to note that on many posters seen in and around FC Barcelona’s headquarters the Ronaldinho statements are quite clear, ‘I play football to the melodies in my head’.

The Junior Centre of Excellence program, which is now producing some talented young National League squad players in the Ballarat club, is a program that runs for 42 weeks of the year and is specially designed to hammer home foot control skills, passing, finishing and the basic shapes and enjoyment of playing futsal. At this age (grades 3-6) there is very little emphasis on fitness training but seeing as the session lasts for 2 hours and every player has a ball at their feet and has continuous contact with the ball, their basic fitness and endurance levels rise quite considerably.

The Intermediate Centre of Excellence program changes again and is a 2 hour session over 42 weeks
where all players, as in the younger age group, are encouraged to use a tennis ball to practise their foot skills, passing and juggling, not just in training but also at home. This age group (grades 7-10) has a greater emphasis on physical fitness and especially vision. In this age group players from the Ballarat City Centre of Excellence have been given the opportunity to play in one of the club’s top Wednesday night teams, Dodgers, as this is their introduction to serious open futsal where it can be seen whether players have the ability at the age of 14 or 15 to step up into the National body’s National League (Ballarat Stallions men’s team currently has 8 under 15 players in their squad of 12).

The same process has been applied to girls in the Ballarat club, coming through the Intermediate section they are given the opportunity to play in open competition. Likewise, Ballarat City Saints women’s National League team has the same policy as the men’s side, that only futsal players who are in their Centre of Excellence play in the National League. Seeing as the National League is where the national teams are selected from it is fantastic to see that this club uses its time carefully, training futsal players who want to reach the top of their sport.

The Elite program in the Centre of Excellence format is the National League training squad. This squad trains more often than any other part of the Centre of Excellence program, takes in all aspects of the game and players are expected to have their own physical fitness schedules.

As a result, and full credit to Ballarat City, the achievements have been phenomenal through this program. Their current National League squad, and we will focus on the junior members (15 and under), have learned their skills through the Centre of Excellence program and the program was rewarded greatly last year when Sean Keem (14) was selected into the National men’s squad which played in the European Championships in Spain and played in every game whilst there.

Michael Ferguson (14) was second reserve for the same squad and is determined to make the men’s squad, along with his friend, to play in the AMF World Cup in Argentina later this year.

The fact that Ballarat City Stallions and Ballarat City Saints won the men’s and women’s National Leagues is a testimony to the brilliance of the Centre of Excellence program.