Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Youth Academy is continuing to expand its curriculum under the oversight of Robin Verheul at the northern base at Tel Aviv University and is offering the future generation of players more support as they aim to develop their skills.
Verheul has this season introduced special one-hour training sessions for under-13s and under-14s on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 7 a.m. before they head to school. He is also working individually with the youngsters.
The sessions are an addition for the players who continue their usual training at the Academy, which is managed by Patrick Van Leeuwen.
Training focuses on specific footballing skills with the aim of raising the tempo of the players as they get older.
Verheul said: “We open our training with a warm-up that involves coordination with and without the ball, each player then practices in his own position on the pitch and this is how we manage to hone their correct movement skills.
“During training we also work on technical elements, coordination, passing, ball control, tactics and completing moves in front of goal. We aim for a high work rate and players receive specific tuition to improve their own abilities in their expected positions. They also receive great guidance in their ball skills.”
Italy Rosencrantz from Boys a North and Roy Geresh from Boys B North said the additional training was helping them improve greatly.
“I arrive with huge motivation in the morning and try not to miss any sessions. These sessions feel like personal training because I get so much more time on the ball and that helps me improve my control and my confidence,” Rosencrantz said.
Geresh, from the younger team, who has been with the club for seven years said he enjoys getting up early in the morning to come to training.
“These sessions improve me as a player and it will be beneficial in the long term. We also manage to fit these session in with school so our studies are not affected.”
Watch the clip to see some of the training.
