The Making of Future Football Stars with Georgio Tofarides

At what age do you recommend young athletes to start with organized football training?

Every age and stage of a child’s development provides different learning opportunities and as long as they are in the right environment, learning can always occur. At the younger ages of 3-6 years old, we do not expect to see structured football where kids know where to move and stand on a pitch or have any tactical understanding of the game, and this is something we should avoid trying to coach the kids into. Instead, at these younger ages, kids begin to develop basic cognitive and social skills through organized football.

Organized football can provide the opportunity for kids to practice sharing, turn-taking, and cooperating. In these younger ages, kids begin to have empathy as they feel a strong need to be accepted by their peers, and being left out will upset them. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity to encourage the development of values such as fairness and respect for others.

Skilled coaches who can create a playful and enjoyable environment to develop the above skills, provide the best opportunity for kids to begin to love sport and set the foundations. These sessions should expose kids to multiskilled movements introducing kids bodies through different physical experiences and not rush to specialize too soon in football or any sport.

Do you notice any differences in young athletes’ movement literacy when they start football training compared to times when you were a kid?

Yes, most young athletes these days and kids in general, lack basic physical attributes such as agility, balance and coordination compared to the previous generations. Due to the limited exposure time they have to practice these skills freely on the streets and in the parks for hours and hours like we  did when we were younger. We can’t expect kids to live their every day like we did. As the world evolves, we need to accept the changes and adapt to support the new generation of kids to keep up and find creative ways to compensate for the lost hours that were available to us. Whilst we would often like our kids to practice outdoor activities like we used to, we must be very careful, as technology and evolution generally provide new and different opportunities, which we can’t deprive our kids of.

At West Ham, when does the strength and conditioning coach starts working with young athletes? Are there separate training sessions aimed at developing motor abilities (coordination, speed, agility, strength, and explosiveness), or are they integrated into regular football training sessions?

The methodology of the strength and conditioning department is to approach every age group or phase in a periodised and progressive manner. Every phase should set the foundations to prepare the players for the next phase.

Just like with football practices, even more so with the players’ physical development, the individual’s needs take priority therefore, the sessions are designed, considering that each individual may be at a different stage of their development for numerous reasons, some of which include, biological age or body type. Players who have been recruited later into the team often have a different physical development background as well, hence, the program is designed around the players’ individual needs and not primarily on their chronological age.

The strength and conditioning program for the younger age groups U9 – U11 is integrated into regular football training sessions through the coaches with the support of the S&C coaches such as races, tag games etc.

The U12-U14 have a 15-minute window before training, where the S&C will lead this part of the session, providing a combination of a warm-up and developing physical skills required for this phase on the pitch through football-related movements and a game-related approach plus an extra 1-2 30 minute sessions in the gym working on isolated motor skills through bodyweight exercises and gradually beginning to add a small amount of weights based on the individuals’ requirements.

Our U15-U16 phase then sets the layers that each player may require through a combination of on and off-the-pitch sessions, gradually increasing the levels of resistance and the same for the older age groups.

In all stages, we aim to integrate the physical development program into the football training as much as possible. Therefore, all coaches need to be highly skilled and capable of integrating the correct physical skills and loads per day in all their football practices by adjusting the pitch shapes and sizes and skillfully utilising a constraints-based approach in their practices to achieve desired physical outcomes.

At what age do you start the selection process for young football players? How is it done, and what criteria are used to determine increased potential for football?

We strongly believe in our academy program, therefore, the sooner we can identify and recruit a player and the more time they can spend with us, the better we believe we can develop them. However, our recruitment department has developed a system to identify players of all ages.

The pre-academy phase is for players from U8 and below. At this stage, players are provided with 1 or 2 training sessions a week on more of a casual basis, for us to observe and monitor their skill sets and how they learn and progress whilst simultaneously providing the kids and their families an opportunity to get an understanding of what the academy environment looks like without having any obligations to the club. At this stage, there are numerous occasions for players who train with other clubs as well. At U9s, this is the first year that the players can sign for a club, and once they do this, they are then required to commit to the club’s program.

At each stage, the attributes the recruitment and scouting department looks for may vary. For example, in the younger and first stages of the players, we are looking for good technical attributes, good movers and good learners. Whilst the players get older, psychological and physical attributes combined with a good understanding of the game become increasingly valuable attributes for a player to have.

Having a standout attribute or what we call a super strength is always something we are looking for at all stages, whether it would be in the social, psychological, technical or physical corner. We also highly value players with values, behaviours and habits that we believe are aligned with the club and can represent the badge and the club appropriately both on and off the pitch.

What are the common challenges young football players face when transitioning to West Ham Academy? How do you help them prepare and ease their adaptation?

When young football players transition into a new club, they need an adaptation period to adjust to the new environment. Every player responds differently to change, and the club prepares to try and make this process as smooth as possible for the players and their families. Being well-informed of the player’s backgrounds, family situations and, other important factors enables the club and staff to support the players to adapt. Experts, such as the psychologist, can help guide the coaches in supporting this period for the player.

Some of the most common challenges young footballers face on the pitch are the speed and intensity at which our players train and play. Other common challenges faced are social aspects and coaches try to skilfully integrate players by pairing or grouping them with players with leadership qualities in the group who we believe will support a smoother transition into the team.

Lastly, every player has an individual development plan with specific targets to try and achieve during 8-week periods. Other than technical and tactical targets, the individual development plan can include an action plan to help integrate the player into the team and club.