Matrix Regional Soccer Schools To Unearth Untapped Talent
The Matrix Soccer Academy, showcased by UEFA in a recent training film and applauded by such footballing luminaries as Marchello Lippi, Roy Hodgson and Arnold Mühren, is launching a series of regional training schools, aimed at identifying and nurturing untapped soccer talent in the North West. The first six-week coaching programme starts in Barnoldswick at the end of January, with further events planned in centres like Preston, Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Manchester and Liverpool, as well as 2/3-day summer academies and the option of running similar schemes for schools and colleges.
Brainchild of Blackburn Rovers’ technical skills development trainer and UEFA-qualified coach Charlie Jackson, the Matrix concept places the focus firmly on passing, ball control, agility and effective flicks and tricks, with around 10,000 carefully-choreographed technical drills based on Dutch and Brazilian soccer masters. Indeed, a recent comparative analysis indicated that Matrix players had 16 times more contact with the ball than in conventional academies, underlining the emphasis on ball control.
Already fourteen Matrix graduates have been signed by English league and overseas clubs, including brothers Liam and Paul Grimshaw and John Kofie at Manchester United, Kamran Khan, Adam Bale and Joe Grayson at Blackburn Rovers, and Brandon Manzonelli at Villarreal. Emphasising girls’ growing interest in football, technically-gifted Rhesia Baron has also secured a college scholarship in Women’s Soccer-mad America, following in the fictional footsteps of ‘Bend It Like Beckham’.
The somewhat unlikely choice of Barnoldswick in East Lancashire as the launch pad for this soccer talent search reflects the lack of regular coaching facilities in the area, which fringes the Yorkshire Dales, and a relatively untapped pool of hundreds of youngsters, who might contribute to the domestic game at all levels.
“In addition to the kids having fun and acquiring new skills, we are looking to unearth fresh talent for the English game, which Heaven knows needs it right now,” says Charlie Jackson, who is also Director of Football at Moorland School, Clitheroe. “One of our qualified Matrix coaches, Paul McGladdery, lives in the area, so is aware of the tremendous potential, and he will be conducting the courses, with some support from myself.”
“Through this and similar initiatives across the region, we also hope to attract the attention of the FA and senior league clubs,” he continues, “so that they will come along and see how we work with young players, using a technical coaching model based on six main building blocks and thousands of training drills, all aimed at teaching ball control, passing, dribbling and shooting. We believe we have something different to offer the game and our early results prove just that.”
To be held at the well-equipped Rolls Royce centre in Skipton Road, Barnoldswick, which has floodlit all-weather pitches and indoor training facilities, the six-week Matrix programme will consist of intensive weekly hour-long evening sessions, at an affordable £5 per session, with a maximum of sixteen youngsters per course. Particularly talented players of either sex will then be invited to participate in subsequent advanced sessions, involving just 4-6 trainees, where skills will be developed to higher levels and opportunities will be sought to place especially talented youngsters with league and local clubs.
In addition to replicating this programme in other catchment areas across the North West, Matrix Soccer Academy is looking for universities, colleges, independent and state schools to host similar programmes for their own students, enhancing technical ability and helping to improve team performance. Charlie Jackson is also keen to train other coaches in the revolutionary Matrix methodology, so that skills can be transferred on a broader basis.
