Every winter we get a number of questions asking why we train indoors for 3 months of the year, as opposed to outside under flood lights. So in this short blog, WMF Ealing Academy Director, Rory Mathers, goes through some of the reasoning behind this decision and the benefits of indoor football training.
Avoiding The Winter Weather!
The first and obvious benefit of indoor football training, during the winter months, is the fact we don't have to worry about light and weather conditions. When it's dark, wet and windy we could continue to train outside (as many clubs do). However we have found that, especially with our younger age groups, the quality of the sessions and the levels of player engagement drop dramatically.
We also want to ensure that every player enjoys each and every We Make Footballers session ... and standing in the cold rain has the potential to dampen this experience for any child.
Playing Surface!
Our Indoor training facility, at Brentside High School, brings a change of surface with us moving inside to a fantastic indoor sports hall. Which also comes with the bonus of being warm and dry. With the floor being hard and bouncy, a players first touch and ball control becomes even more important, to ensure they keep close control of the football. We therefore often find our players develop their ball manipulation skills faster during the months inside on this surface.
Our new venue, Trailfinders Rugby Club, has an indoor astroturf that's scheduled to be complete in November 2021, which will be the only one of its kind in Ealing. Our players will therefore be spoilt to some of the best pitches to play on in the whole of London ... especially during the wet winter months, where not many players in the country get the chance to play on a dry/warm pristine astroturf pitch.
Smaller Spaces To Develop Ball Mastery!
For us this is a key component. Indoor football training within our halls and astroturfs is set up in much smaller spaces when compared to our outdoor sessions. Less space = less time on the ball, quicker decision making, tighter ball control, more use of body and body angles to protect the ball, more repetitions, more focus required on every action and more touches of the ball!
By simply reducing the space and changing the playing surface, the list of benefits is huge - providing the drills/sessions/challenges are designed to encourage the positives, something WMF takes very seriously then player development should increase after just a few months - we've seen it first hand time and time again.
We appreciate that sometimes, with our large numbers, indoor football may look like organised chaos but that is purposely by design as we believe it truly helps aid a player's development far better than boring uniformed drills.
We like to keep our players moving, thinking, solving problems and most importantly we like to get them on the ball as often as possible.
Indoor football helps with all of that and it something we are passionate about continuing.
The WMF yearly syllabus takes into account both indoor and outdoor months. Our sessions do change according to the environment, to help ensure our players receive top quality sessions throughout the year.
If you have any questions about any of this, or the WMF syllabus as a whole, please contact Coach Rory on [email protected]
