Adirondack Lynx

Adirondack Lynx Female Soccer Academy

Program Summary

The Academy will be a totally comprehensive training program that will offer upstate New York female players a place to accelerate their learning curve and take their soccer to a higher level. The Academy will provide a thorough range of programs and services that will be available to all age groups. Players with a real passion, advanced skills in their age group, and motivation, will improve by placing them into an environment where they can continue to excel further.

Through an affiliation with US Club Soccer, the academy will also form temporary teams that will travel to, and play in very select top level soccer tournaments. It is only during real games that the students will get a chance to use their training and skills under "full pressure" situations. Practice and training are great, but players must be totally immersed into live game situations at full speed, for their learned skills to be put to the test and fully developed. Therefore, high level competition is an integral part of the training process.

The Academy’s intent is NOT to compete with the current club structure that is already in place within the Capital District Youth Soccer League (CDYSL) of the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Asociation (ENYYSA), but rather to provide a place for advanced club players to grow quicker and get specific accelerated training and skill sets that they will then take back to their club teams and raise the level of play of their developing club peers.

Program Details
Scientific research suggests that it takes eight to twelve years of training for an athlete to reach elite levels. Unfortunately, too many coaches approach training with an attitude best characterized as the "win early and win often". At the Lynx Academy, our approach is a commitment to long-term athletic development, incorporating all aspects of training, development and management, which is the only proven route to elite status.

A specific and well planned training regime will ensure optimum development and control the stress recovery cycle that leads to over training, major injuries and burnout. Ultimately, success is tied to training and performing well over the long-term rather than winning in the short-term. There are no short cuts to success in athletic preparation. Rushing development always results in shortcomings in physical, technical, tactical and mental abilities. The uniqueness of the Lynx Academy’s program can be defined in its approach to the technical, tactical, mental and physical elements of training. Major emphasis is placed on adapting the program to the needs of the student. Below is a general example of what is included in the Adirondack Lynx Female Soccer Academy’s annual plan.

Technical Precision

Objective: Improve biomechanics of the technical building blocks of soccer.

~ Develop proper technique and good habits through frequent repetition. Drills are precise with low intensity.
~ Increase the range and repertoire of available techniques. Practices focus on weakness correction and are long (high volume).
~ Mental Conditioning: Review responsibilities and decision making, gain understanding of the coach-player relationship.
~ Fitness: Introduction to linear movement skills, physical development training and improved aerobic endurance.

Pressure Training

Objective: Improve technical execution under immediate pressure of opponent.

~ Maximize efficiency by playing the ball with the optimal number of touches.
~ Increase speed of play under match conditions.
~ Perfect transition in terms of technical, tactical and physical demands of the game.
~ Mental Conditioning: Review playing under pressure, rituals and routines. Focus on self-improvement, training on your EDGE.
~ Fitness: Review proper movement techniques. Continue physical and strength development.

Tactical Understanding

Objective: Fine-tune the student for competition

Individual

~ Practical applications of the principles of attack and defense that govern the game of soccer.
~ Improve and promote decision-making.
~ Develop complete understanding of technical/tactical functions for each position.

Group

~ Develop an understanding of the functional lines of the team - Defense, Midfield, Flanks, etc. Training is designed to simulate match conditions and maximize adaptations.
~ Mental Conditioning: Discuss fitting into the team concept. Understand individual roles and responsibilities.
~ Fitness: Enhance efficiency of movement skills, multi-directional speed and physical development.

Competitive Awareness

Objective: Train to win

~ Emphasize team building, the system and of play.
~ Integration of the three lines of the team.
~ Promote a better understanding of team shape and positioning on attack and defense, spatial concepts and zone defenses.
~ Improve transition in terms of the physical, technical and tactical demands of the game.
~ Cover the methods for beating an offside trap.
~ Fine-tune systems for restarts.
~ Further enhance mental preparation.
~ Integrate movement skills to soccer specific demands.
~ Mental Conditioning: Discuss how successful players simply do what unsuccessful players do not like to do. Team success = individual success.
~ Fitness: Maintenance of physical capacities.

Competitive Understanding

Objective: Preparation in terms of tournament format and possible opponents.

~ Expose a variety of playing styles and counter systems.
~ Instruction on how to play to the venue, score, timeline and significance of a particular match with a fixed point system.
~ Instruct on how to use and play against a slow retreating defense.
~ Instruct on how to use pressing as a means of quick ball recovery.
~ Instruct on how to break high pressure.
~ Instruct on how to counterattack.
~ Perfect all stationary tactics (restarts).
~ Review system of play.
~ Mental Conditioning: Team building field trip / group goal development / understanding and playing for the moment / collect and review journals.
~ Fitness: A major emphasis on speed, endurance and peaking for tournament competition.