Over the last few years, sports science has become essential in providing information to plan, implement and monitor training programs in the field of football. This coming March, a brand new course will be launched in conjunction with the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Science Department and the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports that will deal with training methodologies in modern football. The course which will be a total of 60 academic hours and will meet 12 times at Kiryat Shalom. Lecturers will include Dr. Antonio Dello Iacono, Course Coordinator, the Youth Department’s Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen, Raymond Atteveld and other coaches from the department.
Registration for the course which begins on March 10th and will be held on Fridays between 09:30-14:30 is already open. In an interview with the Official Website, Dello Iacono discussed what awaits those who take part in the course.
What was the idea behind the course?
“This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s thanks to Patrick and the new work methods that have been implemented in the Youth Department which sped up the process of starting the course. We decided to not only touch on the theoretical side but also on the methodology of training along with the aspects of the professional, philosophical and tactical parts of the game.
Each class will be five academic hours and the course will be split up into three parts. The first will be in the classroom and will deal with the scientific and professional background which will include many practical examples. We will then move onto the pitch for part two where the Youth Department coaches will put what was learnt in the classroom into practice while the third part will be an open discussion, analysis of what was put into practice and a wrap up of both the theory and practical parts of the course.”
What requirements are necessary to enroll in the course?
“The criteria is that registrants must be football coaches and not a football counselor or group leader. They must have a professional background. A third year student who is a candidate for a physical education degree and has passed a test in scientific basics of physical fitness may register. A person without a background or experience may not register for the course because it will be taught at a very high professional level and we want the participants to be able to understand the course matter. Another goal further down the line is to expand the course to a year, but right now there will be 60 hours over 12 classes.”
What are the advantages of this course?
“The practical experience of the lecturers. Whether it’s a coach who was once a player, or a performance director who has managed both youth departments and first teams over the course of 15 years or one who has an academic background based on a tremendous amount of scientific research.”
