Meeting Michel Bruyninckx
Michel Bruyninckx has caused a stir advocating his brain centered learning techniques and recently become Academy director at Standard Liege after eleven years at the Elite Football Academy Royal Belgian Federation.
I was lucky enough this summer to meet him at the incredible facilities of the Standard Liege Academy in Belgium. Here we had a chance to discuss his methods, ideas, concepts, techniques and philosophies.
I’m happy to share what I learnt with you too.
The first thing that we discussed was the extent to which all of his players are evaluated for their athletic performance.
Michel picked up a book which stipulated over 200 different evaluations that could be made on any one athlete, from a standing jump, to the length of their stride, to lung capacity.
It became very clear to me that a core select of these measurement would be worth making on young athletes in the Total Soccer Schools system.
However, to go to the extent of making all 200+ measurements is obviously very time consuming and something that is affordable by the teenagers on full time contracts from some of the largest clubs in European football at the Academy. Which incidentally has schooling and accommodation for a great deal of them, all on campus.
To give you an idea of the benefits of performance evaluations read this.
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The importance Michel put on showing me these evaluations, was highlighted by showing me a predominantly right sided player that was out of balance (seen clearly in pictures of his posture) had over the course of his coaching method been made strong enough to play both on his left and as his right, to the point that new observers could not tell whether the player was left or right footed.
The long term benefits of this, besides the obvious adaptability of a player with a well rounded technique, is a player that is less susceptible to injury due to compensations made of a body that is stronger on one side than the other.
The notes I made from this meeting and the things that have become apparent to me since have enlightened my coaching and I will be forever thankful to Michel for giving me the opportunity to visit him and his Academy on this day.
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Kaleigh
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