Football Academy

CM FOOTBALL ACADEMY

CMFA is here to provide the training and educational opportunities for children to enable them to develop their skills, individual talents and abilities as players, by providing a total holistic approach with our development programs. We will achieve this by following the player development pathway set out by the FA. We will provide our players with a solid foundation for the future and growth which will benefit Football and Futsal in all areas including coaching and player development. The Academy philosophy is founded on holistic approach, recognising that improving a player’s technical development must go hand in hand with the advancement of each player’s maturity as well as their emotional and psychological well-being. Our programme’s will focus on 4 key target areas being Motor skills, Cognitive skills, Personal skills and Social skills.

PHILOSOPHY

CM Football Academy is committed to providing the highest quality football training to talented young players from the age of 5 onwards. The player pathway has been carefully constructed with the aim of enabling all our young players to develop their talent to the full.

There are three phases, which the players pass through whilst at our Academy.

FOUNDATION PHASE – (U5-12s)

CONSOLIDATION’ PHASE – (U13-16s)

PREPARATION PHASE (U17’s- 18’s)

FOUNDATION PHASE – (U5-12s)

This is the phase at which most players join us, during which we provide them with the building blocks for their playing careers. The foundation of every young player’s development at CMFA is ball mastery. Our young players are not subjected to strenuous physical exercises that do not involve a ball. Instead, early training is focused on developing key ball skills, including ball control, dribbling, running with the ball, creativity and spatial awareness exercises. In any single training session, we would expect each child to touch the ball about 2000 times.

We also place huge importance on developing decision making and tactical awareness skills. The earlier players grasp an understanding of tactics, the quicker they will be able to make decisions and play with freedom.

From the earliest age, we aim to teach our players to play in accordance with the CMFA philosophy, prioritising free-flowing, attractive, attacking football both on the training pitch and in competitive situations. By the end of this phase of player development, we would expect all of our players to have absolute confidence on the ball, a solid understanding of the game, and the tools and knowledge to beat players in a l vs l situations.

We currently maintain teams at all age and expect all those who train with us to be available to play regular competitive games in different leagues and against development centres and professional clubs.

CONSOLIDATION PHASE (U13’s – 16s)

The main aim of this phase is to reinforce everything taken from the foundation phase. The players will be going through a number of changes physically, emotionally, mentally and socially. Early teenage years are sometimes a difficult time for young people, so the environment that is provided for the players is vital. All sessions are designed to be stimulating, focusing on improving every attribute of each of our young players.

Training differs slightly from the foundation phase, with higher expectations of players technically, and much greater tempo and intensity. No individual is greater than the club, and as the players develop their own personalities, the teams character and strength will be tested and worked on.

Talks are given to the group before the start of each session, as well as at the end of each session reinforcing key coaching points. In addition, all players are talked to individually throughout the season, gauging their physical, mental and social development and setting them targets to be achieved over the short, medium and longer term.

We currently maintain all teams with an active schedule of games in different leagues across London, we also compete in the London wide cup competitions and against a range of professional teams and have high expectations in terms of performance and achievement, reflecting their impressive development since they first arrived at our Academy.

PREPARATlON PHASE (U17s-18s)

As players come to the end of their time at CMFA, our aim will be to ensure all of them are capable of playing at a sufficiently high level to pursue opportunities at professional or semi-professional 11 a side football.

Our aim is to develop our existing teams at U13 and above to help them progress to this stage – either with CMFA or with partner clubs. By this point each player should have a technique capable of playing at elite level, being able to pass, control, dribble and shoot effectively with both feet. All players should have an exceptional understanding of an area of the pitch, being comfortable to rotate between three or four positions on the pitch. The players will be expected to have developed personal fitness schedules, which they can maintain away from the training field, as well as a comprehensive and balanced approach to nutrition.

We constantly work with players to identify opportunities to develop their skills further with professional and semi-professional clubs and/or help them to develop coaching and other qualifications to support them in pursuing a range of careers within football should they choose to do so. We are proud of the high proportion of CMFA players who are invited to trial with professional clubs, and the increasing number of ex-CMFA players now pursuing careers at an elite level.

 

OUR VENUES

Development Centre

Day

Tuesdays & Thursdays
(term time only)

Times

4.30pm - 6pm

Age Groups

U6s - U11s (school year 1 - 6)

Location

Eton Manor Rugby Club,
Nutter Lane, Wanstead, E11 2JA

Academy (invitation only)

All age groups (U6s – U16s) (school year 1 – 11)

Work Rate

Discipline

Respect

Commitment