Welcome To The Academy School
The academy was launched in 2006 and the idea is to offer children excellent working facilities in order to concentrate on speed, agility, quickness of feet, conditioning and technique. The academy works closely with professional football clubs and as at January 2011 had around 12 players in the system between Birmingham City, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion & Wolverhampton Wanderers football clubs. The academy is open to quality players and at present attracts some 40 children. The sportswear giants Errea sponsor the Academy & Development schools giving sportswear for our players, which adds to the professionalism and credibility of the academy. The coaching of the academy is taken by Jamie Bailey plus other qualified coaches such as James Cross, Robbie Desmond, Danny Partridge & George Curry. We also play in a Pro development league and fixtures are arranged on a periodic basis throughout the year in order to test the competitive side of our players and these games are often played against other professional clubs or development centres from around the region.
The Academy Centre is a further advancement from the Development Schools and aims to work on more technical aspects of the game; Players are invited based on their overall game as well as showing high levels of commitment, enthusiasm and ability. Players are coached on SAQ, movement patterns, nutrition, forward thinking and many more technical parts of the game that will be introduced for players showing the desire and willingness to learn.
The Football Development Centre currently provides two Academy groups (A and B), both of which depend on the ability and age of the player; the Academy A is a progression from Academy B and both cover the following skills and aspects of the game:
11 – 14 Academy Technical Programme
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All aspects covered at Development Level
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Specific weak foot work
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Practice play sessions
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Forward thinking sessions
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S,A,Q (Speed, agility & quickness)
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Decision making
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Attacking & defending heading
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Small sided games
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11 aside positional coaching
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Off the ball movement
All Academy players receive an ERREA training kit and tracksuit which must be worn to every session. From the Academy players may have opportunity to progress onto a professional football club provided they have reached the standard required.
