His reputation was growing fast and within five years he got a call from the academy manager from Mexico's biggest club, Club America, asking if he would like the opportunity to run the pre academy program for six to twelve year olds implementing his methods and philosophy.(Academy programs officially start at U13 in Mexico)
For the past 5 years he has been developing a coaching team of 28 coaches plus 3 coordinators to deliver his technical training program to around 1300 kids in Coapa. In addition he devised the coaching manual & videos that are given to all the official soccer schools, making contact with more than 4000 players each week. He is also running week long courses to develop coaches in other soccer schools which operate in the region.
Coach education in Mexico is very underdeveloped. The Mexican Football Federation has little provision for those who can’t afford their courses. There is little specialization for youth football and it is a very closed country with little focus on learning from other nations, perhaps with the exception of Spain.
Although recognising there is still a way to go, the program he has introduced is achieving great results, but he wants it to get even better!
Before his arrival at Club América roughly 35% of players in the academy came from the soccer school program and 65% from scouting at U13. Today around 60% of the academy players are from the program, almost reversing the statistics in 5 years. The U11 & U12 teams have also advanced greatly in this time, competing much more favourably in high quality international tournaments against the best in Europe.
Rob believes that Mexican players need to be more free thinking, able to problem solve and depend less on elders, something which the current coaching culture does not do!
He continues to evaluate the program, always looking to improve it further, while continuing with his own personal development. As for the future he would like to see the program and its courses develop more than 70% of future academy teams. The ultimate proof that his program is working will be if a greater number of these players come to play professional football in the Azteca Stadium for Club América or somewhere else in the world!
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