Isaac (8) Shows Way Forward For English Soccer With Peer-Led Play
When Matrix Soccer Academy founder and Blackburn Rovers advanced skills development coach, Charlie Jackson, put one of his eight year old footballing protégés, Isaac Loftus of Preston, in charge of a recent coaching session, things developed pretty much as expected. Three-foot-nothing Isaac, who is part of the Blackburn Rovers Academy Under 9’s squad, conducted a series of Matrix-based skills drills, utilising all the children in the session so that they were actively involved and stepping in occasionally to make key coaching points and talk to his peers about refining technique. What’s more, the other boys behaved impeccably under Isaac’s supervision, demonstrating their soccer skills and showing maturity beyond their years.
Isaac is undoubtedly a gifted young player, although he is by no means unique, and other members of the Under 9’s have also taken coaching sessions, with similar results. What it demonstrates is that youngsters coaching one another, known in soccer circles as peer-led play activity, can be challenging, creative, stimulating and, above all, fun. Matrix boss Charlie Jackson also believes it’s the way forward for developing the skills needed in English football.
In this country, academy and elite players spend more time on physiological conditioning work, like warming up and stretching, and grid-based training, than on technical and skills practice. Contrast that with Brazil, where up to the age of 14, players depend largely on peer-led play activities to hone their soccer skills. Much the same applies in France and The Netherlands, where coaches focus on games adapted to smaller players and adopt a more hands-off approach. Indeed, experts here suggest that, by neglecting the skills and practices that are creative, flexible and fun, the English game is reducing its chances of success on the world stage.
So what is different about the Matrix style of coaching that Charlie advocates? Apart from an emphasis on peer-led play activity, it’s all about the ball. “Everything should be done with a ball - training, skills, running,” he says. “We’re trying to make working with a football as natural as riding a bicycle.”
In fact, a comparative study reveals that a Matrix player has an astounding 16 times more contact with the ball, than a conventionally coached academy footballer. Over a nine month season, a Matrix coached youngster will typically touch, pass, turn and move with the ball 26,000 times, whereas a conventionally taught player is likely to touch the ball only around 1,700 times.
Described as a mixture of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian footballing styles and exemplifying the ‘total football’ ethos, the Matrix system is based around 10,000 carefully-choreographed technical drills, created by Jackson using real game scenarios. Cambiasso’s wonder goal for Argentina at Germany 2006, involving 24 individual passes, is the basis for 16 drills, while Maradonna’s second goal against England in 1986 is the inspiration for others. Players learn in a sequential fashion until complex skills are mastered, working together as a team, passing, moving, creating space, executing tricks and scoring
The Matrix Soccer Academy has already produced almost twenty young players signed by English league clubs, including three for Manchester United and one for Villarreal, Charlie himself applies the same coaching system to the U9 and U13 academy players at Blackburn Rovers, and he is busy unearthing talent in relative footballing backwaters like Barnoldswick and Clitheroe, where he is also Director of Football at Moorland School. Much to the delight of co-founder Tahir Khan, Matrix is additionally nurturing young Asian soccer players, still a relatively untapped pool of talent in this country, and developing future stars of the ladies’ game, including one of Matrix’s most highly skilled exponents, now studying a college soccer scholarship in the States.
The Matrix method has been studied and admired by top coaches and players like Marcello Lippi, Roy Hodgson, Arnold Mühren and Diego Forlan, is rated as ‘the best by far’ by Sky TV soccer pundit Andy Gray, and was filmed by governing body UEFA, for screening at a FIFA/UEFA coaching symposium. Proud soccer dads, Simon Grayson, manager of Blackpool FC, Graham Alexander, Burnley and Scotland defender, and Lancashire barrister, Paul Brookwell, all of whose sons train with the Matrix Soccer Academy, are also fervent ambassadors for the Matrix system, believing it offers young players so much more than conventional coaching.
“As time went on, the drills became more complex, quicker and different skills were inserted. A small-sided game followed and my son Daniel must have touched the ball over 200 times,” enthuses Brookwell, whose eldest son Michael once trained with Manchester United.
But, despite Charlie Jackson and Matrix continuing to build impressive credentials within the game, there has been no concrete interest from English officialdom. So while youngsters like Isaac and his fellow squad members demonstrate a fresh way forward for English football, focusing on peer-led activity, skills training and fun, Charlie is hopeful that Sir Trevor Brooking and his colleagues at the FA will at least consider how the Matrix method could be factored into their future plans.
